Court Martial Attorney – Fairbanks Stryker brigade gives status update

Court Martial Attorney – Fairbanks Stryker brigade gives status update

By Chris Freiberg

FAIRBANKS — The commander of 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry updated reporters Monday about the brigade’s progress and said Fort Wainwright soldiers are eager to return home in about four months.

While combat operations continue in the Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad, Col. Burt Thompson emphasized the importance of restoring basic services such as clean water, electricity and roads for the Iraqi people.

Diyala was the site of much violence as late as 2007, though conditions began to improve before the 1-25th arrived last September.

“Each city is different,” he said. “We are not the last brigade combat team to be in Diyala.”

Thompson said a similar unit likely will come in after this Stryker brigade, followed by an “advise and assist” brigade in another year or so.

While no soldiers from the 1-25th were killed last week at a clinic near Baghdad when a soldier grabbed a weapon and killed five fellow troops, Thompson said many of the troops under his command were affected by the tragedy since two of those killed were in an armored unit attached to the brigade.

“I talked to a lot of soldiers, and at first it was just that how a bad thing could happen to soldiers in the right place to get help,” he said.

Thompson told reporters that from the top down, the brigade is aware of the importance of mental health issues, especially suicide prevention. Suicides have been especially problematic for an Army involved in two lengthy wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It starts with the individual soldiers with battle buddies holding each other accountable and picking up signs at the lowest level of leadership,” said Thompson, who also recently appeared in a suicide prevention video distributed to soldiers stationed in Iraq.

Thompson also denied the recent accusations of injured 1-25th soldiers who claimed they told to either deploy despite nagging injuries or face court martial. One man was sentenced to six months in military prison after being convicted at a court-martial last month.

The group of dissatisfied soldiers is circulating signatures to send a petition to Congress to look into their claims, which have sparked an Army investigation.

“Obviously I’m very attuned to that because it implies is that all we want is the numbers,” Thompson said. “I ask somebody to look at our records and get beyond the nuances and hidden agendas.”

He criticized the soldiers for not taking advantage of his open-door policy and extending him the “professional courtesy” of coming to him with their issues.

“This brigade does stand for taking care of soldiers,” he said.

Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.