U.S. Army Sergeant Alejandro Villatoro took the unusual step of contacting two members of Congress from Illinois to prevent his unit from being deployed to Afghanistan in October before it was properly trained and equipped.
Villatoro belongs to the 656th Transportation Company, based in Hobart, Indiana. He said he went outside the Army’s chain of command to avoid a repeat of 2003, when his transportation company participated in the invasion of
Iraq using trucks from the Korean War and tactics employed during the Vietnam conflict. He also said his men lacked ammunition in Iraq.
Villatoro told the offices of Sen. Dick Durbin and Representative Luis Gutierrez that his company will be leading convoy missions even though they have not yet been trained to drive the top-heavy vehicles they will be using.
First Lieutenant Caleb Shinn, commander of Villatoro’s unit, said the company still had several more weeks of training before any decision was made to ship it overseas. He added that the sergeant never expressed his concerns to him, although Villatoro says that he tried to talk to Shinn, but was not granted a meeting.
Villatoro, a member of
Iraq Veterans Against the War, joined the Army in 2000. Six months ago, he applied for conscientious objector status, but when he learned that his unit was being sent to Afghanistan, he withdrew his application.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky