Wives speaking for soldiers who said no to convoy

By Jeremy Hudson

Patricia McCook and Jackie Butler have accepted a mission created when their husbands refused a fuel convoy order in Iraq last week.

"He can’t speak because he has to live that life in the military right now," Patricia McCook said of her husband. "I’m his voice on the outside, and there is nothing the military can do about it."

"It’s our job now," Jackie Butler said. "It’s our duty."

Their husbands - Sgts. Larry McCook and Michael Butler, both of Jackson - and 16 other members of the Rock Hill, S.C.-based 343rd Army Reserve Quartermaster Company refused an order to deliver fuel citing "deadlined" vehicles that were not armored, poor leadership and contaminated fuel, their relatives said.

Brought together by their husbands’ decision, the women have become soldiers on the homefront. They’ve been bombarded with interview requests from news agencies around the world since the story of the platoon’s refusal of orders first appeared in The Clarion-Ledger.

They want the world to know their husbands would not have refused an order unless it was a "suicide mission," they said.

Ask Jackie Butler and Patricia McCook about what kind of strain the past week has brought them. They’ll pause - look at one another and communicate without saying a word. Then Butler speaks.

"Look at these bags," Butler said, removing her glasses and pointing to the circles beneath her eyes. "I just accumulated them this week. It has been a nightmare."

Stress has come with the realization their husbands are caught in two battles in Iraq.

The women expected their husbands to face the threat of attacks from Iraqi insurgents when the Army reservists were deployed in February. But they never imagined a scenario that would have their own military holding their husbands under armed guard, or, according to the soldiers, sending them on missions with ill-equipped vehicles.

"He’s fighting a double battle," Butler said of her husband. "That’s what hurts the most."

The Army has denied the soldiers were ever held under armed guard.

Five members of the Army Reserve platoon were reassigned to different units, including Butler, 44, and McCook, 41, as the military investigates the refusal and the safety of the soldiers’ equipment.

The military has conceded the vehicles were not equipped with armor, something officials say is being addressed.

Patricia McCook had never met Jackie Butler before Saturday. In an interview with The Clarion-Ledger on Tuesday, the two women said they have forged a bond by swapping stories about their husbands, offering words of encouragement and a shoulder to lean on.

"Jackie is the only person in my world right now who knows exactly what I am going through," Patricia McCook said.

"I’m sick-feeling, constantly," Jackie Butler said. "Twenty-four hours (a day)."

Sgt. McCook has been in the Army Reserves "off and on" for about 10 years, his wife said. Sgt. Butler is a 24-year reservist. Both men knew the severity of refusing orders and were not afraid to travel down dangerous routes, their wives said.

Outside of having a crew from The New York Times follow Jackie Butler to church or Patricia McCook talking with a reporter from NBC’s Dateline while taking her children to the dentist, the women are trying to carry on routinely with their lives.

"I didn’t think it would make the national news," Patricia McCook said. "I knew it was going to be in The Clarion-Ledger because we went to you first. I sure didn’t think it was going to take on a life of its own like it has."

The women said they think the upcoming presidential election may have played a role in why the national media took to the story.

Relatives of troops, even the troops themselves, have every right to speak their minds, said Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, director of the Combined Press Information Center in Iraq.

"But from what we are hearing in the media, there has been a lot of speculation and people speaking factually when they don’t know the facts," Boylan said.

Patricia McCook and Jackie Butler said their husbands are fearful of speaking with reporters while the investigation is ongoing because their phone calls or e-mails might be monitored.

"I know how the military can cover things up," said Patricia McCook, a former Army reservist. "They are trying to say our husbands and the others were never arrested or detained. That’s a lie. But this is something we are not going to let them sweep under the rug."

Patricia McCook said she has received just one "hateful" phone call from a person in Texas who wished ill luck for her husband. Jackie Butler has received no flack, she said. People they see in Jackson, mostly strangers, offer them support, they said.

Both woman had a talk with their children and stepchildren about why reporters keep calling their home and why their fathers are on television. The McCooks have two children, 16 and 14. Jackie Butler is a stepmother to two children, ages 14 and 10.

"I just told them to be careful of what they say around people," Patricia McCook said. "I have to do that, too. But my husband and Jackie’s husband had the guts to stand up and do what they felt was right. We have to have the guts to stand up and tell the world that how they are being treated is wrong."

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041020/NEWS01/410200369/1002