[4 articles]
Army orders man to leave sick newborn, return to Iraq
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/iraq/2004091368_armydad25.html
December 25, 2007
By James Janega
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO In what was either a Christmas Eve gift or else the
result of a logistical snafu an Army unit in Iraq said Monday it
had decided to extend the personal leave of a Fort Lewis sergeant
whose newborn son is in neonatal intensive care in Indiana.
Sgt. Chris Williams, 24, who has five months to go on his second tour
in Iraq, now has until Friday to report for duty in the United
States, after which he will be shipped back to his unit in Iraq's
volatile Diyala province near Baghdad.
He had made sure his 18-day leave to Crown Point, Ind., coincided
with the due date of his son, Gabriel. But days after Gabriel was
born Dec. 18, the 10-pound infant got a lung infection that requires
a respirator and constant care. A spokeswoman for Munster Community
Hospital in Munster, Ind., said it is unclear when the boy will go home.
Amid the stress of a sick child, a faraway war and the holidays,
Williams and his wife, LeeAnn, have spent the last week living in a
hotel and huddled around an incubator, able to hold their newborn son
for only 20 minutes every three hours as they feed him.
As the soldier's family has been calling congressmen for help and
local newspapers to make their voice heard, some of the confusion
about the extension arose because Williams' commanding officer has
been out on combat operations, said 4th Stryker Brigade spokesman
Maj. Shawn Garcia.
When Williams' company commander returned to base and learned of the
sergeant's plight, he extended the soldier's leave, Garcia said.
"That's definitely good to hear," Williams said Monday, as he and his
wife juggled feedings, families and Christmas. "It has its good
points. I have a baby now, and I was able to spend it with him, even
though he was in the hospital."
Williams was due to return Saturday, just after his newborn's illness
appeared. His request to extend the leave was granted and then
seemingly rescinded last week, and it was unclear whether the Army
technically considered him AWOL, Williams' family said.
The only official word they had to go on was a message on Williams'
home answering machine from a platoon leader in Iraq, urging him to
return quickly.
With mounting anxiety, Williams bought a plane ticket that would get
him back to Fort Lewis on Friday the soonest he could find an open
seat, he said.
On Monday, Garcia said Williams' return date had been moved to Friday
all along.
"We take the welfare of our soldiers and their families very
seriously. The medical condition of Sgt. Williams' newborn son and
the emotional well-being of his family were definite factors in the
chain of command's decision to extend Sgt. Williams' leave," Garcia said.
If conditions do not change for the better, Williams can request
another extension, said Capt. Terassa Pearson, spokeswoman for Task
Force Iron, the unit with responsibility for the sprawling and
turbulent region north of Baghdad.
Though seemingly healthy at birth, Gabriel Douglas Williams developed
a lung infection that has had him in intensive care for days. One of
his doctors, Kongiet Thaera, said the next few days could be critical
for the child, and he advised the first-time father to remain close by.
On Monday, the child was still being given oxygen and was finishing a
course of antibiotics, hospital spokeswoman Mylinda Cane said.
With word that his Army unit Aero Troop of the Second Squadron,
First Cavalry Regiment did not consider him absent without leave,
Williams said he had begun to consider more mundane holiday matters.
He and his wife both had families nearby. They were thinking of
visiting each family in the morning. Or perhaps inviting both to
visit them briefly at the hotel.
Or perhaps most likely just staying close to their son.
Gabriel may be able to come home this week. And if all goes well,
Sgt. Williams will go back to war.
--------
Soldier's leave extension cut short
http://www.thetimesonline.com/articles/2007/12/24/news/top_news/docaa839bc703cc0454862573bb001f3970.txt
BY CHRISTINE KRALY
ckraly@nwitimes.com
219.662.5335 | Monday, December 24, 2007
MUNSTER | First-time dads face a lot of worries. They usually don't
involve being AWOL from the Army.
Army Sgt. Chris Williams' 18-day leave from duty in Iraq was timed
well for his son's birth Tuesday. Gabriel Douglas was born at a
healthy 10 pounds at The Community Hospital in Munster, Chris' first
child, and the first grandchild for both sides of the family.
But when Gabriel soon developed a lung infection that sent him to the
neonatal intensive care unit, Williams said he requested and was
granted an extension to his leave, until Jan. 3.
The Crown Point native changed his flight to Dec. 30. Relatives paid
for a room at the Hampton Inn across from the hospital for Williams
and his wife, who after she was released, began returning every
couple of hours to feed Gabriel.
But Sunday morning, Williams, who is in his second tour of duty in
Iraq, began listening to the voice mails he'd amassed the past few
days. There were several messages from superiors telling him his
extension had been rescinded.
His superiors hadn't deemed his son's condition life-threatening
enough to stay longer, Williams said. "If I wasn't on a flight by the
22nd, I was going to be AWOL." Chris had to change his flight to Friday.
"It's stressful," Williams said. "You hear about everybody being so
close and like a family. Something like this happens, where I have a
kid in the ICU ..." he said, trailing off. "I'm a soldier, I'm like a
cog in the wheel."
His father, Douglas Williams, said he was "stunned" when he heard
what was happening to his son. Incensed, he contacted U.S. Sens.
Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and U.S. Rep. Pete
Visclosky, D-Ind., on Sunday, chronicling his son's experience.
The treatment is especially egregious, Douglas Williams said,
considering the good his son has done for not only the military, but
his community.
Two years ago, a then-22-year-old Williams walked into an attempted
robbery of a woman who had taken money collected for her church to
the Bank Calumet branch inside the Meijer store in Merrillville.
The 2001 Merrillville High School graduate said at the time, "I heard
a lady yell, 'Help, I'm being robbed. He's taking the church money.'"
A bank executive praised Williams and another bank customer in the
days following the incident, saying: "Many times the word 'hero' is
used too loosely, but here's one case where two strangers responded.
In my book, they showed heroism."
Now, a wooden cradle made by Douglas Williams waits for little
Gabriel to get well and come home. So does a baptismal dress, made
from his mother's wedding dress.
Chris Williams is just praying he'll be home long enough to see
Gabriel leave the hospital, let alone be baptized. Douglas Williams
said Gabriel stopped breathing a couple of times Sunday, but seemed
to get better throughout the day. He is on oxygen and antibiotics,
his father said.
The situation has warped Chris Williams' previous ideas of a lifelong
career in the military.
"It's hard to look at the overall, when that's how you know you're
being treated at the time," he said. "It's scary that at the drop of
a hat, this is how they can treat you."
-------
With son in hospital, soldier is denied leave
http://hamptonroads.com/2007/12/son-hospital,-soldier-denied-leave
December 24, 2007
By Jeff Long and Sara Olkon, Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO
During his two tours in Iraq, Army Sgt. Chris Williams has been in
many firefights, but he says a battle with military brass over a
leave extension as his newborn son clings to life has been the scariest.
"It's a lot more stressful," he said Sunday afternoon during an
interview at Munster Community Hospital in Indiana, where his son,
Gabriel, is in intensive care.
"I'm an adult, I'm in the Army," said Williams, 24, of Crown Point,
Ind. "If something happens to me, I can deal with it. But when it's
your kid, it's a lot scarier than anything I've ever been in before."
The Army says Williams' country needs him more than his family does.
"They are fighting a war," said Catherine Caruso, a spokeswoman at
Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Wash., where Williams' unit is based. "Even
one person missing does have an impact. Sometimes, hard decisions get made."
Gabriel Douglas Williams was born healthy Tuesday, but he developed a
lung infection that put him in intensive care.
One of his doctors, Kongiet Thaera, said the next few days could be
critical - and that the first-time father should remain close.
Initially told by officials at Fort Lewis that he had been granted an
extension to his leave until Jan. 3, Williams learned Sunday morning
that final approval had been denied. Williams said his commander in
Iraq left him a voice mail message saying that he would be "making it
harder on himself" if he did not get on the first available plane.
Williams has booked a flight for Friday, the first he could find, but
says he can't understand why the original extension was canceled. The
Army says it was never officially approved.
"It's like they just write you off and you are a horrible soldier,"
Williams said. "I used to love what I was doing. I have a lot of
military in my family. It was always a good experience. You come
home, and people are thankful for what you are doing."
Now he's rethinking a career in the military.
His father, Douglas Williams, called it flabbergasting that the
military can think it's a good idea for his son to lead troops
overseas when his mind is obviously on his wife, LeeAnn, and their ailing son.
"He's leading people," Douglas Williams said. "His mind has to be on
what he's doing."
He added, "I'm very proud of him," referring to his son's two tours
in Iraq. "But I'm also proud of the fact that he's looking out for
his family. The military should look at it like: 'This is a kid we
want to keep.' "
"Sometimes it's up to the judgment of the commander," said Caruso,
the Army spokeswoman.
She said soldiers often time their 18-day "rest and relaxation leave"
around pending births, as Williams did. In order to extend a leave, a
soldier would need a request for emergency leave approved by the
commanding officer, Caruso said.
"The final decision is really up to his commanding officer," Caruso
said. "At the end of the day, sometimes mission requirements come
into play. It's really his unit's decision."
Caruso said she spoke to Capt. Bruce Wells, the rear detachment
commander to the 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry regiment, at Fort Lewis.
"When (Wells) talked to the soldier and found out his situation, he
told him to put together a Red Cross message to process an emergency
leave," Caruso said. "As the end of his R&R leave was approaching,
Capt. Wells told him he would grant a 10-day extension, contingent on
the CO's (commanding officer's) decision."
The final decision to deny the request was made by Williams' first
sergeant, after consulting with the executive officer of the unit.
"The two decided (it) didn't rise to the level of emergency leave,"
Caruso said.
Caruso said it's unlikely Williams would be considered AWOL immediately.
"I don't think so. He wasn't listed that way to my knowledge," she
said. "As long as he is making reasonable efforts to return to his
unit in Iraq."
Williams is waiting to learn if he'll receive the Purple Heart for an
incident in August when the Army truck he was in was hit by a
roadside bomb. All five men inside suffered concussions in the blast,
Williams said.
--------
'AWOL' over sick baby
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/344830_soldier25.html
Soldier called back to Iraq as infant struggles for life
December 24, 2007
By MIKE BARBER
P-I REPORTER
An inspiring quote in a key Army manual for commanders of rear
detachments says soldiers have "two supreme loyalties," to country and family.
But "even the bonds of patriotism, discipline and comradeship are
loosened when the family itself is threatened."
Sgt. Chris Williams, 24, a Fort Lewis 4th Stryker Brigade soldier
home from his second deployment to Iraq, never wanted to test the
idea's validity when he came home to Indiana on leave for the birth
of his first-born in early December.
As he spends Christmas with his newborn son, who is battling for his
life in critical care while his wife remains stressed out from a
difficult delivery, the battle-tested soldier has been told his
extended leave is canceled and to hurry back to Iraq or be declared
AWOL, the soldier's family said Monday.
"My kid and his wife don't need this right now," the soldier's
father, Doug Williams, said.
If ever there was a hardship, this is one, he said.
"This is a career soldier -- or was -- who has been hit with IEDs and
been there for the Army. Before all this, he could have come home
from Iraq for knee surgery but didn't feel right leaving Iraq and all
the guys there. And now with his son in critical care, this is the
response he gets from the military?" Williams said.
Chris Williams serves with the 4,000-member 4th Stryker Brigade,
which left Fort Lewis in April for a 15-month tour of duty. He
returned home for his 15-day leave on Dec. 4 but requested an
extension when his son's condition suddenly worsened hours after the
baby's difficult birth Dec. 18.
Catherine Caruso, a Fort Lewis spokeswoman, said Williams appealed
for emergency leave through the American Red Cross to the 4th Stryker
Brigade's rear detachment. The rear detachment allowed Williams'
leave to be extended after he was unable to get a response from
Williams' chain of command in Iraq, she confirmed.
The rear detachment commander, however, is not in Williams' chain of
command, which is in Iraq, she noted. The rear detachment commander
at Fort Lewis "has no authority to grant leave but is in a position
of some trust and took it upon himself to say (Williams) needed to
stay home," Caruso said.
The decision was based upon information from the American Red Cross,
which handles military requests for emergency leave, she said.
Chris Williams was at Munster Community Hospital in Indiana Monday
and could not be reached for comment.
His family says he followed orders to return and booked the first
flight he could find, slated to leave Friday.
But they and he can't understand the sudden reversal that has added
so much distress to their lives.
On Sunday, Williams' son's condition was downgraded to critical at
almost the same time Williams received the message to return to Iraq,
the soldier's father said.
"The baby's condition worsened 12 hours after he was born," Doug
Williams said. "Sunday morning he stopped breathing twice and had to
be resuscitated. He was sent back to neonatal intensive care, and has
undergone spinal taps."
Williams' family, which includes numerous military retirees
"disgusted" by the turn of events, are outraged, Doug Williams said,
while Illinois public officials are demanding answers from the Army
on their behalf.
Over the weekend, Doug Williams said, an adjutant general said flatly
that Sgt. Williams' extended leave had never been granted.
Yet, he notes, "I have copies of voice mails from a sergeant and
captain at Fort Lewis rear detachment who told him that because we
were running out of time and they had not heard from (commanders in)
Iraq, they were extending his leave to Jan. 3."
There's also the voice mail from his son's commander in Iraq, a
captain, that Williams has retained.
"He told Chris to ignore the previous messages from the rear
detachment and the extension was revoked, that it was not deemed of
any immediate emergency and that he had to be on the first plane back
to Iraq or he would be AWOL," Doug Williams said.
On Monday, Williams said he learned from an Army officer that an
executive officer in Iraq had made the initial decision to rescind leave.
"He didn't ask for the Red Cross to check, like he should have. He
called the hospital from Iraq, asked for the nursery and was told the
baby was discharged from the nursery. Of course he was discharged
from the nursery. He was sent to neonatal intensive care," Williams'
father said, fuming.
Williams said the Army should put more faith in his son's integrity.
"I'll tell you the kind of man Chris is. He joined the Army for six
years instead of the usual four after 9/11," Doug Williams said.
When his son returned to Iraq with Fort Lewis' 4th Stryker Brigade
last spring, Williams said, he had scheduled other soldiers to take
their leaves around Christmastime instead of him. When Chris Williams
learned his wife was pregnant, however, his commanders suggested he
take leave for the December delivery instead.
Williams said his son has been in two Stryker vehicles damaged by
improvised roadway bombs.
He suffered a severe concussion in the first explosion but was back
on patrol two days later when the second hit.
"I was never in the military," the soldier's father said, "but in my
opinion, these are the types of men and women the military wants to
keep, not to chase off."
---
P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or
mikebarber@seattlepi.com.
,
