Marine is denied leave to bury his father's ashes

[icymist]

Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.

Marine is denied leave to bury his father's ashes

By Ray Rivera
Seattle Times staff reporter

James Anthony Rollins Jr. spent his life on the street, in and out of jail, and when he died homeless at Harborview Medical Center last winter, it took months for the news to reach his son, a U.S. Marine in Iraq.
Now, Cpl. Artist Marshall, 23, wants to come home to bury his father's ashes, and to grieve. But he says his commanders are denying him an emergency leave typically granted troops who lose an immediate family member.

"They said it's because he's been dead almost a year," Marshall said in a telephone interview from an undisclosed location in Iraq. "But what they failed to realize is, I just found out about it."

(snip)

The Seattle hospital and the King County Medical Examiner's Office, which later cremated Rollins' body, never notified the next of kin, for reasons that still perplex the family. They finally learned about Rollins' death from his parole officer on Aug. 26, eight months to the day after he died.

By then, Marshall had deployed to Iraq, and his mother didn't want to worry him with the news. "I was trying to protect him so he wouldn't be distracted," said Laura Marshall.

(more)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002092907_marine17m.html

[Politicub]

1. Sucks to be him

More Iraqis need to be killed I guess

[Maat]

2. My prayers go out to him.

Hopefully, he'll get through this 'liberation,' and be able to come home and address his issues - soon.

[asjr]

4. I get the feeling at times that our military are being

treated as if they do not really matter to this administration. This soldier is nothing but a lackey to them. But we are all going to be treated that way. Next time we will have to pledge allegiance to the President of the United States instead of the flag.

[TahitiNut]

11. To the Reich, people are a means, not an end in themselves.

It's a basic failure of the (so-called) morality of the 'right' - commoditized humanity.

[MADem]

3. What incredible assholes

Of course, this story tells us everything we really need to know about how "well" things are going in the sandbox.

It's like reading Pravda...what is really happening is found between the lines.

[devilgrrl]

5. Tough Shit. 70% of the Military voted for Bush. You get what you vote for.

I couldn't care less.

[fudge stripe cookays]

6. I'd give him the benefit of the doubt

as being one of the 30% before judging him so harshly. There for the grace of God and all...

They said nothing about the guy's sympathies.

I mean, come on.
FSC

[klook]

7. Nobody should be denied the chance to pay last respects

to his father, no matter how (or whether) he voted.

[LynnTheDem]

15. Got a link to that "70%"?

because only 1/3 of enlisted soldiers, who make up 85% of the US military, are republicans. I highly doubt bush got 70% or anywhere near that much of the military vote.

[Voltaire99]

8. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust...

...Come to Iraq, where it's oil or bust!

[Spinzonner]

9. The military had no choice

Let him go and soon everyone will be committing patricide to have an excuse to go home ...

[Brand New Tico]

10. If he was a moral man, he would desert

I have no sympathy for Military personnel who remain in Iraq obeying illegal orders to murder Iraqi citizens. This Marine should refuse the illegal orders he receives each day and have the courage to serve the jail time this illegitimate government imposes on him. Until this happens in mass numbers, nothing will change.

It happened in the old Soviet Union, and their illegitimate and illegal military efforts collapsed like a house of cards.

Evil men are triumphing because good men are doing what they are told.

Until they stand up and say "NO" more innocents will continue to die - and our military will continue committing crimes.

[TahitiNut]

12. The obligation is ours, not theirs.

When people call for military disobedience, it's usually because they're not willing to engage in the level of civil disobedience needed to overturn a criminal regime.

The military are at the lowest level of the 'legitimate authority' totem pole, which places "We the People" at the top, "Government Of, By, and For the People" in the middle, and the military at the bottom. It's a moral abdication of responsibility to shift the blame to the troops - especially those in the enlisted ranks: having the least authority of all.

[Brand New Tico]

13. We've lost Iraq. It's over. Morality is all that's left.

The "war" is over. We lost. We have to get used to it. Like Vietnam, we the "people" went in huge numbers to involve ourselves and kill people in a place where we had no business. Removing Saddam Hussein and his mythical "weapons" was never the goal. It was a commercial venture involving naked military aggresssion that has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians.

True morality is all that is left. As it was in Vietnam, our soldiers are the only ones who can resist now.

It's up to them. If they die, they die for absolutely nothing. They died only for the whim of some hateful greedhead in Washington, DC.

[GarySeven]

14. Let the dead bury the dead ...

take up thy cross and follow Bush.

[icymist]

16. Marine gets leave for father's burial (Update)

Thursday, November 18, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.

Marine gets leave for father's burial

By Ray Rivera
Seattle Times staff reporter

A Seattle Marine in Iraq who was initially told he couldn't come home to bury his father's ashes has been granted an emergency leave.

Cpl. Artist Marshall's father died homeless nearly a year ago at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, but it took eight months before his family learned the news. By then, the 23-year-old Marine had deployed to Iraq, and his mother chose not to tell him because she didn't want him to worry while he was in the middle of a war zone. Marshall finally found out this month through a friend of the family.

His unit in Iraq initially denied him an emergency leave typically granted to troops who lose an immediate family member. The reason, he said, was because his father had died so long ago.

After a Seattle Times article yesterday detailing the unusual circumstances, his unit approved his leave.

(More)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002094199_marine18m.html