Sailor Loses Rank for Protest Against War
A 23-year-old sailor who refused to deploy with his ship to the Persian Gulf as a protest against the Iraq war has been reduced in rank and ordered to do extra duty for three months.
Pablo Paredes could have faced a year in the brig and a bad-conduct discharge after being found guilty last week by a military judge of missing a troop movement. Paredes refused to board the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard on Dec. 6 when its task force left San Diego.
His application for conscientious-objector status has been rejected. He has more than a year left in his enlistment.
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