Thursday, April 28, 2005

Soldier who fought assignment to Iraq gets honorable discharge, drops lawsuit

USA Today
Soldier who fought assignment to Iraq gets honorable discharge, drops lawsuit

POTSDAM, N.Y. (AP) — The Army honorably discharged an officer who had gone to court to challenge his assignment to Iraq, saying he had properly resigned more than a year earlier.

Carl Petitto, 32, dropped his lawsuit against the Army after securing his honorable discharge, which took effect Thursday.

"I feel like I have a new lease on life," said Petitto, who resigned as a 1st Lt. Reserve Commissioned Officer to run two health care centers in rural northern New York.

After serving 14 years of active and reservist duty for the Army and Navy, Petitto filed for resignation in February 2004.

His lawyer said the military failed to respond for nearly a year, then denied the application. He was to report for duty on March 24 and faced deployment to Iraq for at least a year and a half.

An Army spokeswoman said she was not familiar with details of the case and could not immediately comment.

In November, the Army canceled mobilization orders for a Hawaii man who had been called for duty in Iraq 13 years after being discharged from the Army Reserves. He was told the problem had been caused by "an internal computer discrepancy."

That same month a former Army captain won his case after challenging his assignment to Iraq. He challenged his assignment to Iraq, saying he had properly resigned after eight years of service.