This is a lawsuit worth watching.
A veteran of the first Persian Gulf War is suing the Army after it ordered him to report for duty 13 years after he was honorably discharged from active duty and eight years after he left the reserves.
Kauai resident David Miyasato received word of his reactivation in September, but says he believes he completed his eight-year obligation to the Army long ago.
“I was shocked,” Miyasato said Friday. “I never expected to see something like that after being out of the service for 13 years.”
His federal lawsuit, filed Friday in Honolulu, seeks a judgment declaring that he has fulfilled his military obligations.
Miyasato is 34 with a wife and 7-month-old daughter. He enlisted in the Army 17 years ago, served in the first Persian Gulf War and was discharged in 1991. He fulfilled his eight-year enlistment commitment in 1996 after five years in the reserves. But now that the Bush administration has overstretched the military beyond what was previously thought possible, Miyasato, and thousands just like him, are told that their services are needed again. And the administration literally won’t take “no” for an answer.
The military might have a specific motive when it comes to Miyasato.
Miyasato speculated that he may have been picked because his skills as a truck driver and refueler are in demand in Iraq. He told reporters he did the same work as that done by a group of Army reservists who refused to deliver fuel along a dangerous route in Iraq last month.
The troops in Iraq are refusing orders, and the troops being forced into Iraq are suing to stay home. It’s getting ugly.