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Articles: Military Service: Women

Female Soldier Refuses to Deploy

Associated Press

June 13, 2006

EUGENE, Oregon - A 21-year-old woman who refused to deploy with her Army unit to Iraq for a second tour has been arrested and will be returned to Fort Lewis, Wash., Eugene police said Monday.

Eugene Police spokesman Sgt. Rich Stronach said Spec. Suzanne Swift, 21, told officers she did not want to go back to Iraq. She was picked up Sunday night at the request of the Army.

Stronach said Swift at first did not say who she was but was identified by tattoos described in the warrant and was arrested at her family's home without incident.

She was listed as AWOL late last year and her unit left for Iraq without her. She served her first tour in Iraq with a military police unit in 2004, her mother, Sarah Rich, told Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Rich said her daughter broke down and said she could not return because of the war and the way she was treated. She said her daughter was belittled, called names, and frequently propositioned.

Swift is expected to be returned to Fort Lewis on Tuesday.

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