Support the troops: Soldier decries AWOL arrest at hospital

[BuyingThyme]

Soldier decries AWOL arrest at hospital
By JEFFREY McMURRAY
Associated Press Writer


LEXINGTON, Ky. --
A soldier facing his second tour of duty in Iraq said in a jailhouse interview Monday that he was at a hospital seeking mental help when he was arrested in the middle of the night for allegedly being absent without leave.

Spc. Justin Faulkner insists his superior officers at Fort Campbell knew about his mental problems but refused to provide adequate treatment.

On Thursday, Faulkner checked into a Lexington VA hospital, where doctors told him they wanted to keep him until Monday for observation. Police showed up at the hospital shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday to take him to jail.

"It's humiliating, degrading," Faulkner, 22, of Stanton, said in an interview with The Associated Press minutes before his release from the Fayette County Detention Center. "It's made me lose respect for the military. To come and arrest me at the VA, it wasn't like I was trying to hide, trying to run. I was getting help. I am being punished for getting help."

http://www.charlotte.com/nation/story/370349.html

[neuvocat]

1. The Army doesn't want to pay the benefits.

He gets help for severe mental trauma and then the Army would have to pay out all sorts of cash for that. And Bushco wants that money for itself.

[BuyingThyme]

2. I think they see servicepeople the same way they see immigrants.

It's simply another opportunity for them to create a lower class of people.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

3. Support, hmm. I thought it meant to assist or lend aid.

Guess my version and the Repug version are dissimilar.

K & R