U.S. News and World Report has posted a revealing story by Edward Pound on the bizarre and unfair world that passes for a military justice system.
I've had my own experiences in being investigated for a long period of time for a crime I never committed. Unlike some of the cases cited in Pound's story, I wasn't arrested. Fortunately. The military justice system is tragically flawed and no, I don't know how to fix it. I will tell you this, I have no problem believing that there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of former servicemen and women in federal institutions for imaginary crimes or ones they never committed.
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
2nd-term Republican from Arizona.
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All messages are published with permission of the sender. The general topic of this message is Health:
Subject:
update on my husband
To:
Sen. Jon Kyl
March 1, 2003
I am aware that your office needed the privacy act release form by a certain date and my husbands chain of command held this form til the last possible minute and therefore it did not make it in time…please reconsider and contact me…My husband is not being treated fairly…today he was placed in pre trial confinment again because the commander feared he would leave the base seeing that our daughter is in the hospital unable to breathe on her own and i have two other children to take care of…please read the following and contact me as soon as possible thank you !
Hi there!
I do not even know why i am writing to you but maybe it is in hopes that someone somewhere can help my Husband…My husband Stephen B Scyrkels is a Spec with the US Army stationed on Ft Huachuca…He was to deploy on january 21st but due to Mental illness and a evaluation at the Sierra Vista Hospital that concluded that he is depressed and suffers from poor impulse control and that he is found to be a danger to himself and possibly others the evaluator suggested that he needed follow up help at Mental health on post …when the mental health specialist called my husbands commander to inform him of this the commander denied my husband mental health which caused my husband to miss deployment and to be Awol for 7 days…. My husband was then charged with missed movement amoung other charges and placed in pre trial confinment in the cochise county jail in Bisbee…72 hours later he had a evaluation hearing at the jag office on base and at that point the magistrate found it unnessissary to keep him in confinment at which point the commander ordered him restricted to post….this was the beginning of febuary and my husband had complied with all of his orders such as to check in in person with staff duty every hour in which he was not working…my husband did all that they asked and unfortunatly on wed feb 26th our daughter quit breathing and i took her to the Sierra Vista Hospital and called my Husband from there to inform him of what was going on…He was very upset and against better judgement i admit decided to leave the post and come to the hospital to check on our daughters condition…Our daughter is only 5 and remains in the hospital due to her oxygen level being only 68% and shcannot breath on her own….we have 2 other children ages 14 and 11 that need someone to care for them also..my husband notified his unit of the emergency situation on wed morning and was told that he needed to get back on base asap….his chain of command sent someone to take him back on base…at that point when they found out why he had left base they told him that after the work day was over that they might let him go back to the off base residence to care for our boys since the only family we have here is my mother and she is in the nursing home due to her kidneys failing and being placed on dyalisis and on january 13th she had a leg amputated….other than her we have no family here and no one to care for the other two children while i was to be as hospital policy at the hospital with our daughter ……when i called the commander to find out if anyone could help me in my situation seeing that my husband was confined to post and i could not possibly be in two places at once i was told….it is not our problem …your the mother deal with it…so i could either be at the hospital with my scared little 5 yr old or at home with my other two boys ….so finally today the 1st of march the chain of command decided that my husband was a flight risk and they feared he would come off post to help with our children the commander decided it would be best to put my husband in confinment in the cochise county jail…tonight the hospital supervisor allowed my 14 yr old to stay over night with my daughter at the sierra vista community hospital as it is their policy that the child not be left unattended….The way i was informed of my husbands confinment was by the commander when the commander called and said…”I have your husband shackled from head to toe and he is going to the big house where he belongs” another message was left with my 11 yr old son that said ”
Hope your mom makes it home to take care of you because other wise i will make sure you are taken away from her”…I always thought that the military took good care of its people but personally going thru this i do not find it to be true…My husband has a hearing on monday at a undetermined time to see if he is to remain in confinment but the commander has already told me he is going to push to see that it is a “cold day in hell before my husband see’s the light of day” please note that these are not my husbands biological children but he gained them when he married me…to this day he has not be allowed time to enroll them in tri care so my daughter is a cash patient at the hospital….like i said i do not know why i contacted you but i am desperate…if you cannot help me please forward my letter to somone you think may help me…I do have documentation of all of my claims and there is much much more than i am able to write to you here….I do have documentation as to my husband being evaluated for mental health and the recommendation that he recieve follow up care up on base…my husband was denied mental health care by his chain of command and i do have documentation of this from the behavioral health specialist…
sincerly,
DONNA H SCYRKELS
520-459-0077
I CAN ALSO BE REACHED AT 520-458-4641 IN RM 121 AT TH4E SIERRA VISTA HOSPITAL…………..ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ MY LETTER.
Please note that my husbands parents are on thier way here from New Mexico to make the hearing on monday which the chain of command will not give us the time that is it at and they are coming in hopes of seeing thier son for what very well may be the last time in a long time seeing that the commander has vowed to have my husband transferred to yuma and to keep pushing my husbands court date back to keep him from his family…i have never been treated with such disrespect and total disreguard to the needs and feelings of my family…this action is felt by Me,My Children,My mother and My Mother and Father in law…please if you cannot help me let me know either way…I do have power of attorney now if that will help in my quest for justice for my husband…because i do feel he is not being treated fairly, once again thank you for your time and patience and help i really do appreciate it!
Sierra Vista , AZ