By Krisy Gashler • kgashler@gannett.com • December 30, 2008
The AWOL Fort Drum soldier who asked for Common Council’s help earlier this month appears to be headed for an administrative discharge, his lawyer said.
Go to article and story chat on theithacajournal.com
U.S. Army Specialist Stephen Trevor Loope petitioned Ithaca’s Common Council at their Dec. 3 meeting to write letters on his behalf as he returned to Fort Drum after more than a year absent without leave.
Loope contended that he received delayed physical and no mental health treatment during his 15-month tour of duty in Afghanistan and later at Fort Drum.
“Good news from Ft Drum,” Loope’s attorney, Tod Ensign of New York City-based Citizen Soldier, said by e-mail. “Trevor reports that they have begun the administrative discharge process which should lead to a medical discharge for him. There has been no harassment and he is working on base. His discharge has not yet happened but he feels that it will. … I never make assumptions about what the military will do until it actually happens.”
Fort Drum spokeswoman Julie Cupernall did not return calls requesting comment on Loope’s status Monday.
Loope’s unit is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan with the 3rd Combat Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division in January. Loope left Fort Drum in November 2007 after what he described as mental abuse and intimidation by his peers and superiors.
At home in Texas, Loope sought out a trauma specialist and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression, he said.
Loope is the fifth AWOL Fort Drum soldier represented by Ensign through the not-for-profit Citizen Soldier, he said.
All five saw combat, faced mental health problems upon their return, and went AWOL he said. All eventually returned to Fort Drum and none of them were prosecuted or served jail time, Ensign said.
“In all cases but one, there were no court martial charges filed. In one case they did file court martial charges but after more of a campaign of support, they eventually, just before the trial, they decided to drop the charges,” he said.
Loope came to Ithaca before returning to Fort Drum because of the “Community of Sanctuary” resolution passed by Common Council in October. The resolution asserts Ithaca’s commitment to protecting the rights of veterans legally protesting the “immoral wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Almost all members of Common Council offered to write letters of support on Loope’s behalf.
Ensign said most of his work has focused on Fort Drum but that he gets calls from all over the country, including a recent call from someone in California about a relative being deployed in Pennsylvania.
“It’s not just Trevor,” Ensign said. “Trevor exemplifies the problem, but there are many other kids like him. I know there are hundreds of them. What are we gonna do? Are we gonna spend the money and resources to care for them or are we gonna let them drift into the streets?”
.png)
click
here
download a petition here
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
Leave a Comment