Reservist says soldiers did not refuse mission out of fear

Reservist says soldiers did not

refuse mission out of fear

CNN, Friday, October 22, 2004

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (AP) -- A soldier from an Army Reserve unit whose members refused to deliver fuel along a dangerous route in Iraq says he and others did not act out of fear, as the soldier's father has said.

"We are not cowards," Spc. Major Coates told The Charlotte Observer for a report published Thursday. "The way that things come out, it makes us look like that. ... Our soldiers have run missions all over Iraq; we're never scared to go on a mission."

Coates was among 18 members of a platoon from the 343rd Quartermaster Company, based in Rock Hill, South Carolina, who last week refused to transport supplies from Tallil air base near Nasiriyah to Taji north of Baghdad.

He called the newspaper Wednesday, saying he wanted to correct statements made in interviews by his father, John Coates. The specialist said his father may have gotten details wrong because he was upset about what happened.

Relatives have said that the soldiers' trucks were broken down, that they lacked a proper armed escort and that the fuel they were to deliver was contaminated.

Army officials dispute that account and say they are investigating. The reservists could face courts-martial.

Coates said he was wearing body armor during the mission, though his father said he was not.

Coates, a water treatment specialist, also said he was properly trained to deploy to Iraq but acknowledged that when he arrived, officials "did not tell us we were infantry now," as his father had said.

And he said his father was wrong when he said soldiers banded together in refusing the order.

"We did not form a group on the decision we made," Coates said. "Everyone made their own individual decision to do what we thought best."

If soldiers acted as a group in what the military considers a mutiny, they could receive a more severe punishment than if they acted individually.

John Coates was out of town Thursday and unavailable for comment, Major Coates' stepmother, Stephanie Parks, said from their home in Mount Holly, North Carolina.

Parks said the couple believes soldiers are now getting the equipment they need to do their jobs safely.

"We're just satisfied with the way things are going," she said.

Major Coates declined to comment about whether he was mistreated by military authorities, as some relatives have alleged.

"I'm serving my time to my country because I love America," he said. "If the leaders do their part, I do my part."

Parks said her stepson was detained at gunpoint for up to 18 hours but has said nothing about further discipline. "He's still in Iraq, I guess, still working," she said. "(He's) saying it's better than it was."