- "I don't know how asking for help qualifies as misbehaviour.
Something happens, you ask for help and they throw the book at you and
kick you to the curb."
-
- COLORADO SPRINGS,
Colorado (AP) -- An Army Special Forces interrogator has been charged with
cowardice for allegedly refusing to do his work in Iraq following what
he described as a "panic attack".
-
- Staff Sergeant Georg-Andreas Pogany, 32, is charged with
showing "cowardly conduct as a result of fear, in that he refused
to perform his duties", according to his October 14 charge sheet.
-
- If convicted at a court-martial, the soldier with the
10th Special Forces Group could face prison time and a dishonourable discharge.
His first court appearance is November 7 at Fort Carson, where he is based.
-
- Pogany said he was wrongly charged. He said he experienced
a "panic attack" after seeing the mangled body of an Iraqi man
and told his superior he was heading for a "nervous breakdown".
-
- A cowardice charge is extremely rare, military law experts
say. Army officials couldn't say yesterday the last time it had been filed,
and they refused to discuss the case.
-
- Pogany said he no longer requested to go on missions
and that he wasn't asked to go.
-
- He also said he asked for help but was denied the care
soldiers with "combat stress" are supposed to receive.
-
- Instead, Pogany said, a superior told him to "get
with the program" and suggested he was throwing his career away. He
eventually was ordered back to Colorado Springs to face a court-martial.
-
- "I don't know how asking for help qualifies as misbehaviour,"
Pogany told the Gazette of Colorado Springs. "Something happens, you
ask for help and they throw the book at you and kick you to the curb."
-
- Pogany, an intelligence soldier with the group for two
years, left for Iraq on September 26 from Fort Carson.
-
- He was attached to a team of Green Berets, and the unit
was working September 29 near Samarra, north of Baghdad, when Pogany saw
the body of an Iraqi man brought into the Army compound.
-
- Pogany said he began shaking, couldn't focus and kept
throwing up. He said he was terrified he would be killed.
-
- He said he told his team sergeant, a superior, that he
was headed for a "nervous breakdown".
-
- The sergeant told him to "go away and think about
what I was saying because I was throwing my career away", Pogany said.
-
- Eventually, he said, his superiors labelled him a suicide
risk and he was sent to another base.
-
- Pogany said he referred himself for care and was examined
by psychologist Captain Marc Houck, who wrote in a report "the soldier
reported signs and symptoms consistent with those of a normal combat stress
reaction". He recommended Pogany rest and receive stress-coping skills.
-
- Pogany said he returned to the 10th Group, was ignored
and then told he was being sent home to face charges.
-
- Copyright 2003 News Limited.
-
- http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7724351%255E1702,00.html
|
