Reserve Unit Involved In Iraq Prison Scandal Returns to U.S. Soil

[kskiska]

Most Soldiers Blameless, Md. Families Say

Fort Lee, Va., Aug. 2 -- About 100 members of the 372nd Military Police Company returned to American soil Monday evening, ending a tour of duty that found it in the middle of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

While most of the Cresaptown, Md.-based reserve unit was welcomed home by family and friends in a tearful ceremony at this Army post south of Richmond, five soldiers remained in Baghdad, where they face criminal charges and courts-martial. A sixth, Pfc. Lynndie R. England, is at Fort Bragg, N.C., for a preliminary hearing that is scheduled to start Tuesday.

(snip)

The Army did everything it could to give last night's event the look and feel of a typical homecoming ceremony. Buses carrying the soldiers arrived about 8 p.m. to a throng of family members waving American flags and welcome-home signs. The troops, who had arrived at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va., at 4:20 p.m., marched in formation into the base gymnasium as children waved and spouses cried.

Army officials said the soldiers wanted a quiet welcome-home ceremony where they could reunite with their families in peace. So the media representatives who descended on the base Monday were kept at a distance and were granted no interviews.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35404-2004Aug2.html

[bluestateguy]

1. Well, let's have a parade

Let's have a parade for the mindless idiots who stood around whistling while people were being tortured, sodomized and killed.

Actually, I'd rather them be here in the US where they can do a lot less damage than if they were still in Iraq.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Another Guard unit took that watch

by the way, there is that chance that most of those troops will pay a price later in life and i do not mean the legal one

As is, I resent them trying these guys but doing NOTHING to genereals and Secretaries of Defense

[riverwalker]

3. Lock the doors in that town

how nice that rapists, torturers, child molesters and murderers will be returning to their jobs as policemen, and child care providers.
Sleep well, Cresaptown, Md.

[lebkuchen]

4. America supports torture now

with a "patriotic" vengence.

[JSJ]

5. more hometown 'heroes' come home to roost n/t