Catch-22 Keeps Willing Army Officer Out of Iraq New Schooling Requirement Ends Career as Military Faces Manpower Shortage
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"Capitalist Pig" cochon-capitali...@hotmail.com
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL By YOCHI J. DREAZEN April 5, 2007; Page A6 TIKRIT, Iraq -- As U.S. Navy Capt. Leonard Hatton pinned a Bronze Star to the lapel of Army Lt. Fred Nicholson, who spent the past year serving alongside him in one of Iraq's most dangerous cities, he said, "You know this means you're always welcome in the Navy." "Good -- the Army doesn't want me anymore," Lt. Nicholson replied.
Indeed, the 45-year-old's return to the U.S. is triggering a forced discharge from the Army, ending his military career -- and preventing him from receiving a much-needed military pension.
QUESTION OF THE DAY Should the Army require officers to be college graduates, as it does currently?The reason isn't Lt. Nicholson's performance, which by all accounts has been stellar. It is the Army's shifting educational requirements, and its unwillingness to bend them in his case.
When Lt. Nicholson was commissioned as an officer in 1992, the Army required just two years of completed college course work. That is what he has. Today, the military requires all officers to be college graduates -- and the military says the rule change leaves them no choice but to expel Lt. Nicholson, who never finished his degree.
"If the speed limit changes, you can't fight a ticket by saying that the law used to let you drive faster," Army Lt. Col. Eve Seibel, a reservist who handled the Nicholson case for the Army during her own recent year in Iraq, said in an interview. "The educational requirements are set in stone." Lt. Fred Nicholson, member of an Army reconstruction team, re-enlisted when told education rules could be waived to restore his commission.
No waiver was granted; he was sent to Iraq anyway before being discharged.
The Nicholson case is at odds with the military's current trend toward looser personnel standards, though. The manpower strains caused by the prolonged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have led the military to break with longstanding policies by recruiting soldiers who lack high school degrees, have criminal records or are so overweight they would once have run afoul of military physical-fitness requirements. Lt.
Nicholson is in many ways precisely the type of officer the military is desperate to retain, but the Army is nevertheless insisting on discharging him.
Lt. Nicholson is trapped in a Catch-22. "I've put my life on the line.
But when I get back, the Army will say, 'You're out. We're through with you,'" he said.
Lt. Nicholson joined the military in 1986 at age 24 to escape what he describes as a "dead-end life" in his small Colorado hometown. He excelled, and was allowed into a prestigious program that gives enlisted soldiers a chance to become commissioned officers. Of the 43 soldiers who began the course with Lt. Nicholson, fewer than a dozen others made it through.
He was soon promoted to first lieutenant, his current rank. At the time, young reserve officers like Lt. Nicholson didn't need college degrees. He had finished two years of course work and was taking evening cl***es toward a planned degree in architectural engineering.
In 2000, the Army sent him to Germany for several months for a war-
game exercise. By the time he returned to the U.S., he had lost his spot in the university and didn't have the money to resume his cl***es.
In the meantime, Congress approved the Reserve Officers Professional Management Act, which put in place a new requirement that all officers have college degrees, part of a peacetime effort to raise the overall educational level of the military.
The shift meant Lt. Nicholson was on borrowed time: The Army discharges anyone who twice fails to win a promotion, and without a degree Lt. Nicholson couldn't be elevated to captain. In the summer of 2000, he received formal notice that he was being discharged because he lacked a college degree.
Lt. Nicholson returned to Colorado and opened a small construction company.
Then came the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which dragged on far longer than expected, triggering widespread manpower shortages that forced the Pentagon to look for ways of bringing old soldiers back to active duty.
In the summer of 2005, an Army human-resources officer in St. Louis called Lt. Nicholson and told him he would be promoted to captain --
potentially salvaging his military pension, for which he needed five more years of service -- if he agreed to a yearlong stint in Iraq, Lt.
Nicholson says. Army officials, at the time desperately short of officers for Iraq, weren't being rigid about the educational requirement.
At the officer's direction, Lt. Nicholson sent a written request for a waiver of the educational requirements and made his way to Fort Jackson in South Carolina.
In February 2006, two months before he was slated to deploy to Iraq, the Army sent a letter telling Lt. Nicholson the education waiver had been denied. The personnel officer told Lt. Nicholson that he "must be discharged" no later than Aug. 1.
Lt. Nicholson says his only solace was that his scheduled discharge date was a few months after he was supposed to be sent to Iraq. He doubted the Army would send him to Iraq in April and bring him home in August.
The Army had a different solution: Officials told Lt. Nicholson they would delay his discharge until his unit returned from Iraq.
He arrived in Iraq in April 2006, and was ***igned to a reconstruction team in Salahaddin Province. He made regular trips into Samarrah, one of Iraq's deadliest cities, and was awarded a Bronze Star for chasing down gunmen who ambushed him one afternoon in the nearby city of Bayji.
The Army's decision to discharge Lt. Nicholson has infuriated some high-ranking officers here, several of whom have written senior Army officials asking that he be given time to complete his degree and resume his career.
"There is very strong feeling on this side of the world that being told on one hand that you can die for your country but on the other that you are being kicked out for lack of a college degree is a travesty," retired Maj. Gen. Eric Olson wrote.
Capt. Hatton, Lt. Nicholson's commanding officer in Tikrit, wrote the Army last fall that Lt. Nicholson "served his country only to be used and thrown out on the back end of his mobilization," a situation he called "appalling." "He gets a medal and a shove out the door," Capt. Hatton said in an interview.
Senior military commanders say Lt. Nicholson's case represents an extreme example of a broader problem: Soldiers and officers who confront shifting rules about how often they can be deployed to war zones and how long they have to spend in the military before resuming civilian lives.
For the moment, the military's decision stands. Col. Ken Sanchez of the Colorado National Guard, Lt. Nicholson's former unit, said the education rule can't be waived. "Each of us has individual requirements placed upon us to remain in service," he said in an email interview.
Lt. Nicholson plans to drive to the military human-resources center in St. Louis to make a final attempt to press his cause in person. A retired marine general has promised to help him in any potential litigation.
To Lt. Nicholson, it is a matter of economic necessity. He wasn't able to save much money when he ran his construction company, so his ability to retire one day depends on receiving a military pension that would be approximately $2,000 a month.
"We're not talking about a lot of money, but it's an issue of survival for me," he says. "And it's an issue of fairness
"David R KE" ho...@yahoo.net
if you're depending on any republicon, conservative organization to treat you decent, then just bend over and drop your pants this is the type of treatment the ignorant hillbillies are risking their lives for ???????
oops, I'm sorry, did you think they, bush and his criminals band of merry drunken boobs, were just going to treat Kerry, Murtha and Democrats like shit, fooled yall didn't they, just admit it, you're all stupid,
"Billzz" billzzstr...@starband.net
I am sure that the person of "Capitalist Pig" <cochon-capitali...@hotmail.com> has everyone's best interests at heart when he copied this story.
So what do I know. I enlisted in the army, as a private, went to Officer Candidate School, and the army sent me to get my bachelor's and master's degrees.
Along the way I met other "mustangs." We knew each other by the faded uniforms, with the darkened spots where the old enlisted rank had been.
Very popular people in war. Very not needed in peace.
Olson. Enlisted for Korea. One of the last standing as his artillery battery was overrun. Battlefield commission. As a captain he was my battery commander. When the Korean war was over he was riffed, but given a warrant officer position, and we met again, in Korea, I, a lieutenant, he a warrant officer.
Zurowski. An enlisted seaman on the sinking USS Bunker Hill, led a group of sailors up through the air shafts to safety. He went to the army, went all the way to major, and was riffed after Vietnam, but kept on as a sergeant-major. My friend, who's funeral I attended, and his wife came home with us.
I have known a lot of men, enlisted to officer, and back again.
Of course, there is something wrong with the story of Lt. Nicholson. The army would never let a person of worth leave. They would alway find him a place. If I could read his Officer Evaluation Reports, and you can read "between the lines" even in this story - he just did not get "picked up."
"Capitalist Pig" cochon-capitali...@hotmail.com
America would be a poorer place if soldiers like Fred Nicholson, who took risks and made sacrifices because he loved his country, was indeed tossed aside by the US Army like a used boot. With the exception of a handful of US publications like the WSJ, the American press ignores those who serve the country they love. The American press despises real heros, instead they laud lying cowards and failed leaders like Bill Clinton, then American press is incredulous and scornful when decent Americans retch. Well we live in France now; the French may be guilty of a lot of sins, but one thing we have that Americans have lost is dignit?© and honneur, pride and self-respect.
"Hertz_Donut" no...@nowhere.com
Well, the republicans have treated you and your family right...what with all of you sucking off the economy on welfare....
Isn't that what you say to your momma every day when you come home from school?
No, and since you are an ignorant turd, you wouldn't know what it meas to be patrriotic and want to serve your country.
No, Murtha, Kerry et al are treated like shit because they deserve to be treated like shit.
No, they fooled you, because you are a gullible little turd....
Okay, I'll admit that as far as your family goes, you're all stupid!
Honu
"Billzz" billzzstr...@starband.net
Lt. Nicholson, like Lt. Kerry, has an audit trail of OERs that led to his current state. You seemed to have cut my remarks that, if he was qualified, not only would they waive the college requirement, they would send him to college, paid for by the army. They sent me, and thousands of others, for paid bachelor's and master's degrees. There is a reason, which we are not shown, but which I can discern, from the gaps in the story, as to why he is essentially being "boarded out."
"Capitalist Pig" cochon-capitali...@hotmail.com
I don't think that the WSJ wrote the story based solely on the word of Lt. Nicholson, they cite by name a lot other sources. There will be a follow up I'm sure in the letters to the editor's column. I'll keep a lookout .Kerry is a 24 karat phoney why obviously figured out a way to jigger his OER. But what are your suspicions about lt Nicholson?
"David R KE" ho...@yahoo.net
good response gomer, let the world see how ignorant you losing failures are, this is the type of losing,failing, ignorant faggot hillbilly "defending" out "freedom" ????, protecting us from "terrorism" Jesus Christ, what happened to the barrel scrapings, they had to dig under the barrel to get this low life, uneducated ****er keep posting "dude" Americans need a good, hard dose of reality, some still think hillbillies are human beings, and a few think the war can still be won with losing, failing, ignorant, ****ups like you ...
Jean Smith goterm...@yahoo.com
I lean toward the difference between a statutory vs. a regulatory requirement explaining the problem rather than throwing mud where his CO is obviously on his side. He needs to talk to his senators or representative.
Not to be mean but 45 is damn old for a lieutenant. But they are taking recruits that old now.
"Billzz" billzzstr...@starband.net
Okay, I enlisted as a private and retired as a colonel. Along the way I commanded two artillery batteries, and a battalion. I had to relieve two commanders for sub-standard performance. I've been on many boards. I can only guess that Lt. Nicholson has a number of sub-standard OERs. He may be the nicest guy in the world, but may not be the sort of person that you would want to serve with in combat. Many people have observed his performance, and his commander's reports have been endorsed by the superior commander. There is no *one* thing that causes this. Everyone gets one mistake (even Nimitz ran a ship aground - but only once.) No, there is a pattern, which we do not know. I'm sure he would not want his OERs released. There is an appeals board, and he can get a fair hearing, but the bottom line rests on his past performance.
As an aside, I was an elderly major, operations officer for Kien Phong Province in the Mekong Delta, when we introduced MACV teams to replace Special Forces. I learned, quickly, that I had to accompany every single new captain, on initial operations. And, being former enlisted, the men would tell me how they felt about their new team leader. Some made the grade. Some did not. And those I replaced. At the end of my year I had not lost a single soldier, KIA, WIA, or MIA. I've had several board inquiries as to why I "relieved" officers. My rationale has always stood the test. The test was the person's own performance. I do not have any misgivings because I did not have to write *the letter* to the parents.
Lt. Nicholson may be in the wrong line of work. He may not have the "right stuff." I do not know. But enough of his contemporaries, and superiors have said something. Like I said, a college degree is not the reason. If they wanted him, they would have sent him to get the degree, all expenses paid. They sent me, and paid, for both my bachelor's and master's degrees.
"Capitalist Pig" cochon-capitali...@hotmail.com
I'll defer to your military experience. My personal military history was limited to AFROTC; ROTC was required when I was a college student.
I was drafted in '69 but I never got past the induction physical .
They told me I showed evidence of a stroke and asked me why had I not put that on my induction medical form. This was news to me! I just shrugged; they showed me the door and sent me a 4F in the mail.
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