- A decorated Army captain asked a judge yesterday to bar
the military from sweeping him up in a "back-door draft" and
shipping him off to Iraq on Monday.
-
- Jay Ferriola, a 31-year-old Manhattan resident, handed
in his resignation in June after eight years of active and reserve duty,
according to the suit filed in Manhattan Federal Court.
-
- But even though his commanding officer recommended that
he be granted a discharge, the military never sent out the paperwork, the
suit says, and on Tuesday, Ferriola got orders dated Oct. 8 sending him
to war.
-
- Ferriola's suit says the order in unconsitutional and
amounts to "involuntary servitude." "I complied with my
obligation," he said. "I never intended to make a career of the
Army. I want to pursue other careers in civilian life."
-
- Attorney Barry Slotnick said Ferriola, a registered Republican,
is not motivated by fear or opposition to the war but wants the Army to
uphold the contract it signed with him in 1993. "He has served his
country heroically and patriotically," Slotnick said.
-
- Judge Robert Sweet granted him an emergency hearing tomorrow.
-
- The U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on Ferriola's
lawsuit but will represent the government at the hearing.
-
- A 1995 graduate of the officer training program at the
Virginia Military Institute, Ferriola served as an officer in South Korea's
demilitarized zone and in Germany. He won three commendations for meritorious
service.
-
- In February 2003, he was called to active duty in Iraq
but never deployed. He spent five months with his military police unit
at Fort Dix, N.J., and then was released to the reserves. He resigned a
year later on June 17, 2004.
-
- On Tuesday he received orders telling him to report for
active duty with the 306th Military Police Battalion in Uniondale, L.I.,
for 18 months of service in Iraq. It's unclear why Ferriola was never formally
discharged.
-
- The Army has issued "stop loss" orders that
prevent soldiers from leaving the military when their service is up, but
Ferriola's suit says neither he nor his unit received such orders.
-
- "At no time prior to his resignation or during the
pendency of his resignation was Mr. Ferriola ever informed that he or his
unit were on alert or placed under stop-loss," the suit says. "He
was asked to turn in his issue equipment and was told that he was no longer
required to report for monthly drills."
-
- Ferriola was greeted by a phalanx of reporters outside
the Manhattan Federal Courthouse yesterday, but the athletically built
soldier charged passed television camera operators and did not comment
as he returned to a waiting car.
-
- All contents © 2004 Daily News, L.P. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/245275p-210124c.html
|
