Paratrooper who left unit returns to Fort Bragg

MORRISVILLE, N.C. – A Fort Bragg paratrooper who says he left his Army barracks last summer because he was disillusioned with U.S. actions in Iraq returned to North Carolina on today to surrender to military authorities.

Sgt. Ricky Clousing, 24, had walked out on June 23, 2005, with only a few clothes and his surfboard. He said today morning that he hopes airborne soldiers at the post, where thousands are deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, will respect his reasons.

"I don't expect indoctrinated soldiers to have the capacity to understand why I'm doing what I'm doing. Anybody who has an issue with me, I will be more than glad to sit down and explain," he said as he arrived at a North Carolina airport wearing a black T-shirt with the message "Free Speech."

He was met there by Chuck Fager of Quaker House, a Fayetteville organization that counsels soldiers who want to leave the military.

Fort Bragg spokesman Tom McCollum said no details were immediately available on how officials would handle Clousing once he arrived at the post.

Clousing joined the Army in 2002 and worked as an interrogator in Iraq from December 2004 until April 2005 while a member of the 313th Military Intelligence Battalion in the 82nd Airborne Division.

During his time in Iraq, Clousing said he saw an innocent Iraqi man killed by an American soldier in Mosul. He said he tried to talk to unit leaders about the incident but they dismissed him as an inexperienced soldier.

Clousing said he was upset by "the daily physical, emotional and psychological harassment of civilians (and) the daily killing of innocent civilians."

"I learned from the Iraqis their confusion as far as our role there," he said.

Clousing said military authorities told his lawyer that there was no paperwork showing that he was AWOL, but after he turned himself in at Fort Lewis, Wash., last week, the military gave him orders to report to a unit at Fort Bragg that handles absent soldiers.

"It's been my intention to turn myself in," he said. "I really don't feel nervous. I feel totally at peace."