Posted on 08/04/2004 6:54:06 AM PDT by edweena
Ex-Army commander gets jail time Court-martialed on larceny counts
By Shawn Ankrom
Cox News Service
The former commander of the U.S. Army Reserve 656th Transportation Company in Springfield has been sentenced to six months in military jail and will be dishonorably discharged.
Maj. Catherine Kaus of Dayton, sentenced Saturday in Iraq at a court-martial, also was fined $5,000 and reprimanded, according to an Army public relations officer in the country.
Charges stem from soldiers in the 656th taking parts from one or more military vehicles and using those parts to keep other vehicles running.
Kaus, an information technology manager for a Dayton company before she was sent to Iraq, was charged with conspiracy to commit larceny, abandonment and destruction of government vehicles and the actual larceny, abandonment and destruction of government vehicles.
She originally faced up to 50 years in prison.
Dismissal for an officer is equivalent to a dishonorable discharge.
Two soldiers under her command also were sentenced last week after trial.
Staff Sgt. Michael Summers of Springfield and Sgt. Robert Chalmers were charged with conspiracy to commit larceny, abandonment and destruction of government vehicles and the actual larceny, abandonment and destruction of government vehicles.
Summers was sentenced to 30 days hard labor without confinement, fined $500 a month for six months, reduced in rank to private first class and reprimanded.
Chalmers was reduced one rank to specialist, sentenced to 14 days hard labor without confinement, forfeiture of $500 per month for six months and given a reprimand.
Hard labor without confinement, according to the Army, is manual labor at a commander's discretion after the completion of normal duties for the day.
The main group of the company returned home in April after being activated to the regular Army in January 2003 and serving in Iraq.
In May, Chief Warrant Officer Darrel Birt pleaded guilty to all charges relating to the conspiracy to commit larceny, abandonment and destruction of government vehicles and the actual larceny, abandonment and destruction of government vehicles.
He was found guilty on all, sentenced to six months confinement and dismissed from the Army.
Sgt. 1st Class Gary Simerson pleaded guilty to the same charges and was found guilty on all — except the conspiracy to destroy and the actual destruction of vehicles. He was sentenced to three months confinement and reduced in rank to private first class.
Sgt. Charles Neeley pleaded guilty to the same charges and was found guilty of conspiracy to destroy and the actual destruction of vehicles. He was reduced in rank to a private.
Eight soldiers from the 656th received military discipline — not a criminal punishment — that included loss of rank and pay. Some were held in Iraq as possible witnesses for the military trials.
Vickie Hiltibran, mother of Pfc. Jonathan D. Eaton of St. Paris, is glad the trials are over and expects her son home soon. He was demoted a rank as part of the investigation.
She said he wants to be back in time for the Champaign County Fair, which begins Friday.
"He says he plans on being there every day," she said.
Wonder if any of the equipment were ERC A or pacing items? That may explain the more serious charges. Normally, ERC B equipment is used to keep the A and pacing items FMC.
"cross-levelling is sometimes the only way to keep things going."
That's how we kept things running in Baghdad. Especially those first 3-4 months when there were NO new part coming in and we were going through track and track pads like crazy.
As well as having all the Class I/III/V it can hold, as well.
Any unit should ALWAYS be near or at 100% on the PLL; I now that 100% all the time is a dream, but you can aspire to greatness...
Something smells here; this is the kind of thing they prosecuted Richard Marcinko for - but only because they were p!ssed at him for making other officers "look bad."
These were the official charges, but you've got to wonder who this woman offended; did she refuse some general's advances, perhaps?
mighty hasty jump from her being charged under UCMJ to it having to do with refusing a general officer's unwanted advance no? While I agree that there must be more to the story, your backhanded swipe at the moral integrity of the entire general officer corps seems a bit of a leap and smacks of immaturity.
I sent the link to a friend who just graduated law school and served as an MP officer for five years prior to that.
There is more to the story.
http://www.aiada.org/article.asp?id=17373
http://www.bringdarrellhome.com/
Another thing that happened - although technically improper - was the hoarding of parts. My Tsgt and Msgt supervisors had any number of parts in their on-site autos. This was done for major inspections where we needed to have as many AC in the air (I worked SAC - KI Sawyer AFB, MI)
This is THE single most assinine thing I have ever heard of. That practice is SOP in most units if you cannot get parts to get your vehicles off of deadline.
Whoever charged these people with larceny should be questioned for their ability to lead.
Ok, maybe I'm not getting it, but I would think she'd be given a medal for ingenuity! What am I missing???
" According to one soldier from the 656th - Pfc. Jon Eaton of St. Paris in Clark County - fellow soldiers of the 656th acquired a 5- ton, semi-tractor/trailer and used it as a parts truck to keep about 30 other trucks in the unit operating from their assigned base in Iraq. The 5-ton truck - a U.S. military vehicle - was not the unit's to work with, which led to the charges against unit members for their part in the use of the truck. Other vehicles were acquired similarly, according to Eaton, 28, and all were disposed of so as not to be linked to the unit. How the unit acquired the truck and other vehicles is not clear."
The 656th hauled fuel for armored, aviation and transportation units with its fleet of 60 tanker trucks, each carrying 5,000 gallons.
"If we didn't have that truck, we didn't have the parts," Eaton said. Supervisors told troops to take the parts, he said.
"Was it wrong? Legally, yes," Eaton said. "To keep that amount of fuel rolling to support the rest of the troops, yeah, it might have been breaking the rules, but it was well justified."
No parts were sold on any "black market" or used for personal gain, he said, and the 5-ton truck wasn't purchased from anyone.
"Everything was for the unit," Eaton said. "It was nothing but to make our trucks run to do the mission and to haul fuel to the front line, to the people that were fighting and make sure we get the fuel there on time."
Darrell Birt, Chief Warrant Officer, with the 656th Transportation Company, Springfield, Ohio. landed in Kuwait on March 28, 2003. His unit was involved in the initial phases of the battle for Baghdad that followed.Task Force Iron Horse required "extraordinary means" "to move an extraordinary quantity of equipment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom".
He was stateside for three months following an injury incurred while in Iraq in July 2003. After his surgical recovery, Darrell returned to Iraq and rejoined his company in October 2003.
Their tour of duty ended March 31, 2004.
Darrell learned that he and 21 men were being retained as witnesses to a military investigation of Darrell's Commanding Officer, MAJ Catherine Kaus.
The investigation concerned vehicles that were appropriated, unused from other units or had been abandoned or not-running, used to keep the 656th mission with the 544th Maintenance Battalion running and not deadlined."
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