zimv20
Nov 1, 2003, 07:00 PM
link (http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,7735454%5E663,00.html)
Army attacks Iraq wedding
By BILL KACZOR
02nov03
TWO US soldiers who marched down the aisle with Iraqi brides are to face a court martial.
"They've been formally charged with disobeying an order - no fraternising with the Iraqi people," said Vicki McKee, mother of one of the soldiers.
Her son, Sergeant Sean Blackwell, 27, married a English-speaking Iraqi physician, 25, in August.
They exchanged vows during a double ceremony with Blackwell's friend Corporal Brett Dagen, 37, and another Iraqi doctor in her mid 20s.
Both women had been working with US troops.
"How could they go to Iraq and not be friendly and fraternise?" Mrs McKee told the New York Post.
Mrs McKee said her main priority was to get her daughter-in-law to the US.
"She's in danger," Mrs McKee said. "News of their marriage is all over Arabic TV, and they've shown her photo. I'm so scared for her and my son."
Blackwell and Dagen, members of the Florida National Guard, converted to Islam a week before the wedding.
The men had expected to return to Florida last month, but a new Army policy that requires troops to remain in Iraq for 12 months will keep them there until April.
Mrs McKee, who said the Army was trying to prevent the women from going to the US, has delivered letters from her son and his wife to Florida Representative Jeff Miller.
Dan McFaul, a spokesman for Mr Miller, said the congressman could do nothing until the women requested visas.
Blackwell's wife, now working as an interpreter for a US firm in Baghdad, wrote that the Army had prevented him from contacting her since the wedding.
"Is this freedom in US?" she wrote. "Where is the human right? Where is justice?"
Dagen's mother, Lav erne Warren, said her son was also not permitted to contact his Iraqi wife.
An Army spokesman at the Pentagon referred questions to officials in Iraq, who refused to comment.
Lieutenant Colonel Ron Tittle, spokesman for the Florida National Guard, said the soldiers' commander, Lt-Col. Thad Hill, was worried the marriages might distract his troops from their mission and compromise their safety.
In his letter to Mr Miller, Blackwell said the Army Inspector General's office had told him he could not be punished for marrying, but he could be disciplined for disobeying an order.
Blackwell added that a sergeant major who opposed the marriage told him "Muslims and Christians just don't jive together".
HOME-LEAVE TROOPS FLEE
MORE than 30 US soldiers are missing after being given a two-week break from combat in Iraq.
The troops were among 1300 in the first large-scale home-leave program since the Vietnam War.
Some are thought to have genuine reasons for not catching flights back to Iraq from the US.
Military officials would not say how many were missing, but one, a National Guardsman from Florida, said he would do all he could to avoid returning.
"I definitely don't want to go back there," he told CBS News. "I think most people - if not all people who are there - don't want to be there."
Army attacks Iraq wedding
By BILL KACZOR
02nov03
TWO US soldiers who marched down the aisle with Iraqi brides are to face a court martial.
"They've been formally charged with disobeying an order - no fraternising with the Iraqi people," said Vicki McKee, mother of one of the soldiers.
Her son, Sergeant Sean Blackwell, 27, married a English-speaking Iraqi physician, 25, in August.
They exchanged vows during a double ceremony with Blackwell's friend Corporal Brett Dagen, 37, and another Iraqi doctor in her mid 20s.
Both women had been working with US troops.
"How could they go to Iraq and not be friendly and fraternise?" Mrs McKee told the New York Post.
Mrs McKee said her main priority was to get her daughter-in-law to the US.
"She's in danger," Mrs McKee said. "News of their marriage is all over Arabic TV, and they've shown her photo. I'm so scared for her and my son."
Blackwell and Dagen, members of the Florida National Guard, converted to Islam a week before the wedding.
The men had expected to return to Florida last month, but a new Army policy that requires troops to remain in Iraq for 12 months will keep them there until April.
Mrs McKee, who said the Army was trying to prevent the women from going to the US, has delivered letters from her son and his wife to Florida Representative Jeff Miller.
Dan McFaul, a spokesman for Mr Miller, said the congressman could do nothing until the women requested visas.
Blackwell's wife, now working as an interpreter for a US firm in Baghdad, wrote that the Army had prevented him from contacting her since the wedding.
"Is this freedom in US?" she wrote. "Where is the human right? Where is justice?"
Dagen's mother, Lav erne Warren, said her son was also not permitted to contact his Iraqi wife.
An Army spokesman at the Pentagon referred questions to officials in Iraq, who refused to comment.
Lieutenant Colonel Ron Tittle, spokesman for the Florida National Guard, said the soldiers' commander, Lt-Col. Thad Hill, was worried the marriages might distract his troops from their mission and compromise their safety.
In his letter to Mr Miller, Blackwell said the Army Inspector General's office had told him he could not be punished for marrying, but he could be disciplined for disobeying an order.
Blackwell added that a sergeant major who opposed the marriage told him "Muslims and Christians just don't jive together".
HOME-LEAVE TROOPS FLEE
MORE than 30 US soldiers are missing after being given a two-week break from combat in Iraq.
The troops were among 1300 in the first large-scale home-leave program since the Vietnam War.
Some are thought to have genuine reasons for not catching flights back to Iraq from the US.
Military officials would not say how many were missing, but one, a National Guardsman from Florida, said he would do all he could to avoid returning.
"I definitely don't want to go back there," he told CBS News. "I think most people - if not all people who are there - don't want to be there."
