To whom it may concern

I am a dual citizen French and American. My husband is French, and has been a French Federal Motorcyclist Police Officer for the past 19 years. When we were married, the United States State Department interviewed him with respect to his marriage to a dual-national American. At that time, the State Department made him a tentative offer of employment training motorcyclist officers for the US State Department. They immediately had him take some English tests, which he did not pass at the time (March 2007), but told him to keep in touch.

In May, 2007, being already a dual national, I went to live with my husband in France, leaving my much–loved job with the Department of the Army, in order to be with him until such time as he could obtain a “green card.” I applied for the same for him on November 26, 2007, and he had the visa in hand by January 11, 2008. On January 31, he first entered the US to get the Social Security card processing underway. He entered through Newark, NJ. Then he and I returned to the US together on February 27, 2008. That time, we entered through Philadelphia, PA.

My husband wants to continue to be a police officer. That is all that he knows how to do. To be a police officer in the United States, however, you need to be a citizen. Between that and his desire to serve the country that gave him a second chance, he decided to investigate joining the Army.

The United States Army has done nothing but lie, mislead, and coerce my husband, in order to illegally compel him to enlist under fraudulent terms, and is now holding him prisoner against his will.

First, we went to see a recruiter in Minnesota. That recruiter told us, among other things, that my husband would be issued a computer, that he was not required to remain in the Army if not given the MOS he desired, etc.

Since my husband is not a native English speaker, and since I knew of the Defense Language Institute English Language Center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, TX, we left Minnesota for San Antonio, thinking that the recruiters there would have more familiarity with the English school, the enlistment of non-native English speakers, etc.

We were sorely mistaken.

The recruiters in San Antonio did not even know that the Department of Defense had an English school, much less that it was located in San Antonio. I, the civilian wife of a future soldier, had to tell them.

We were advised that, in order to be eligible for English school, my husband had to obtain above a 21 on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), and between a 40 and a 70 on the English Language Comprehension Test (ELCT). When we first had my husband take the ASVAB practice test, he scored a 14. As I have professional background in language assessment, I coached him intensively for ten days before he took the ASVAB. He scored a 52. At that point, recruiter SFC Val informed us that my husband would not be allowed to go to English school because he had done too well on the ASVAB to be allowed the privilege of learning to speak and understand English. While my husband can read English, he cannot carry on a conversation or understand even the simplest of television shows in English. SFC Val was nothing short of rude, disagreeable, uncooperative, unhelpful, disdainful, and a shameful representation of the United States, the United States Army, and the United States Army’s values.

SFC Ver then looked up the regulation which stipulates that any green card holder in the US for less than 1 year is REQUIRED to take the ELCT. And that, any such person scoring between 40 and 70 on the said exam is eligible to attend English school. My husband scored a 54. Right in the middle of the eligibility window.

When my husband first went to the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) at Fort Sam Houston, TX, to take his oath, he was told that he would not be allowed to be a police officer in the Army, which is what he wanted to be. He was further informed that he would not be allowed to go to English school because he scored too high on the ASVAB. My husband therefore refused to sign the contract. The head of recruiting at Fort Sam Houston, whose responsibility it apparently is to approve sending future soldiers to English school actually came down and told him that she would not allow him to go to English school because he scored too high on the ASVAB. Another recruiter then contacted the DLI in Monterey, CA, who referred them to DLI headquarters in Washington, D.C. Someone in Washington, D.C. then called that woman and told her that the rules are there to be applied to the simplest private the same as they are to the highest ranking of generals. Thus, my husband was supposedly approved to go to English school.

The next day, he went back to the San Antonio MEPS ready to sign up and take his oath. At that point, however, despite everything SFC Ver had said, he was told that he could not be an MP. Even though all of the regulations say that only a Confidential clearance is required to be a military police officer, they insisted that a Secret clearance was required, and that my husband is ineligible for a secret clearance because he is not a US citizen. Nobody could show a single regulation to that effect. In fact, every single regulation indicated that only a confidential clearance is required to be a police officer in the United States military. The only possible options they offered my husband that day were tank operator, IED taker-aparter (or whatever that is really called), or construction. My husband, who is 39 years old, and will be 40 in 3 weeks, having no experience or interest in any of these fields, again refused to sign the contract and left the MEPS facility having decided not to join the Army at all. His alternative choices to being a police officer were watercraft operator, small arms repairer, or animal technician.

Over that weekend, I spoke with SFC Ver on several occasions, and my husband and I went to see him in person that following Monday. He said he could arrange to have my husband enlist for three years, go to English school, Basic training, and then to school at Fort Lee, VA, to be a cook. This proposal included a $ enlistment bonus. But was for three years and 43 weeks, not the 2 or 3 years he had initially been promised. Nevertheless, my husband agreed, in order to have a job, signed his preliminary contract, and took his oath the next day, Tuesday, April 15, 2008, with the provision that he would not ship out until after he was able to move me back to California.

At no time did anybody inform us of the fact that the contract signed on April 15 was non-binding. We thought that it was. Between April 15 and May 1, my husband changed his mind about enlisting, and we informed a number of Army recruitment officers of that fact. This was done because SFC Val not only had the audacity to criticize and disrespect me and call me names, but also relayed his disdain for me to SFC Ver’s replacement, SFC Or, who wrote the same in an email to the recruiters in Belmont, Ca. SFC Val had the further stupidity of emailing me a copy of that email. Our response was to inform all of the involved members of the US Army recruiting command that my husband was no longer interested in enlisting. A copy of the email exchange is attached hereto as Exhibit A. Even after explicitly stating that he no longer wished to join the Army, nobody bothered to tell him that the contract he had signed was not binding, and that he was not actually legally obligated to ship out as was scheduled on April 30.

Further, my husband was concerned that I be taken care of. He was assured we would receive a Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) from the date of his enlistment, and that he could apply for emergency assistance once he got to Fort Sill. This was all another lie, this time on the parts of SFCs Ver and Or. My husband is currently in Fort Sill where he was told that he will not receive any BAH for months to come, and that they don’t care if I am on the street or not. Had SFCs Ver and Or not lied to us about the financial “benefits” available upon enlistment, I would NEVER have signed the statement saying that this enlistment is not a financial hardship. In fact, it is an extreme financial hardship. I am living in a *. I am waiting to hear if I will receive unemployment or not. We have absolutely no income until who knows when. The Army forced my husband to spend half of his “advance” of $250 on shoes, even though he had just purchased a pair, and towels, which we had at home, and could not afford. I have paid for the motel through Saturday, May 10, but after that I have no place to go and nobody to turn to for help. The promised emergency family relief was another lie.

Further, SFC Or told me to lie on the financial statement, and SFC Ver told me to lie and say that we didn't have Fabrice's divorce decree on time to initially file the application.

Isn’t it immoral, illegal, and against the Army’s supposed values to repeatedly and brazenly lie to future soldiers and their spouses? If it isn’t, it should be.

Between the time that we provided all original documentation of my husband’s educational, physical and professional life, as well as translations thereof, and our arrival in San Francisco, SFC Ver somehow lost my husband’s file. Despite our reticence, since we were misled into believing that it would be a crime for my husband not to join the Army at this point, we provided all new copies and new translations of the said documents. Nevertheless, the Army did not do what they said they were going to, and so were not ready to ship my husband out on April 30, as planned.

Still, nobody told us that he did not have to join the Army, that he was not legally bound to do so, or that he would not be committing a crime otherwise.

On May 1, 2008, at 4:50 AM, someone came to pick my husband up and take him to the MEPS in San Jose, CA. At that time, to his surprise, he was asked to sign another contract as well as several other documents. My husband did not understand any of what he was signing. My husband asked for someone to translate the documents. His request was denied. My husband asked to be allowed to call me so that I could explain what he was signing. His request was denied. Not only was my husband coerced and forced into signing documents he did not understand and does not have the English capacity to understand, not only was he ridiculed for requesting assistance, which requests were denied, but the contractual terms of his obligation were changed between the time that he signed the non-binding contract in San Antonio and the time he signed the binding contract at Fort Sill. Had anyone bothered to tell us even the slightest modicum of truth, he would not have followed through with his intent to enlist.

The story does not end there!

The terms of my husband’s contract have not only been changed from his going to English school, followed by Basic Training, followed by cook school. Now he has been put into the infantry, without being given any choice whatsoever. HE would NEVER have enlisted into the infantry, and it is far too easy to change documents for foreigners who don’t understand what they are signing, change the contents of their contracts, and ship them off to be killed in the defense of a country they haven’t even lived in for more than two months!!

To add insult to injury, the “people” at Fort Sill are refusing to send my husband to English school, claiming that, according to them, no matter the regulations, his English is good enough for their purposes, that they are sending him through Basic and infantry training, and shipping him to Iraq or Afghanistan. They have already provided him with the cultural packets given to all deployed soldiers in the Middle East, although they have not issued him the necessary clothing.

When my husband has tried to indicate that this is not what he signed up for, the “people” at Fort Sill have literally laughed in his face, said that they don’t need cooks, and that they have the right to make him serve in the infantry if they want to.

All this because this poor guy wanted to be a police officer, thereby serving the country which gave him a “second chance.”

What a joke! At this point, I would sell my US citizenship if it were worth the paper my birth certificate is printed on!!! I cannot believe that the United States Army would be allowed to lie, manipulate, coerce, and take foreign nationals prisoner, under false pretenses like this.

The United States Army and its recruiters and other representatives have repeatedly lied, misled, and otherwise deceived my husband into enlisting.

Sgt. Val’s behavior, in particular, has been abhorrent.

And so, therefore, my husband was allowed to call me yesterday to let me know that he was leaving the Army because of their breach of oral and written promises and contracts. He said they would be sending him back home to California tomorrow. I hoped to God that that was not another lie.

Unfortunately, it was. Today, he called again, to say they are keeping him in Fort Sill, with one change of clothes, one pair of underwear, one pair of socks, etc., supposedly to last him a week. After that week, they will decide where they are sending him prior to deploying him to a war zone.

So I have been forced to take even more drastic action to defend what is good and right about this country, not to mention my husband’s best interests. I cannot believe that a man who wanted to serve this country is being lied to, manipulated, coerced, and treated worse than the lowliest of prisoners.

For the first time in my life, I am ashamed to be an American citizen.

We want to file a formal complaint throughout the US Army recruiting chain of command, the Department of Defense, the French Embassy in the United States, and, if necessary, a legal civil or criminal complaint, in addition to contacting the local and national media in the United States as well as in France.

The people at the San Jose MEPS, the personnel at Fort Sill, and the members of the recruiting team in San Antonio are a disgrace to the uniforms they wear, a shameful representation of the United States military, liars and cheaters who not only do not live the mission, vision, or values of the United States Army, but who will stoop lower than low to coerce a non-native English speaker into signing his life away and then changing the rules on him in order to send him straight into combat without even the promised training.

The only person who has shown compassion, kindness, understanding, and a genuine interest in helping us is SFC M V, who is to be commended for her conduct and care; and, to an extent SFC Ver, although he did lie to us, too.

I am ashamed to have people like this representing our country.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

EXHIBIT A

Could somebody please answer this email? Thank you.

Also, Sgt F still needs to return all of our documents to us.

Finally, Sgts. Or and Val were stupid enough to send me a copy of an email in which he said this about me:

"HE CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH VERY WELL,,HE'S FRENCH,,SO YOU'LL BE TALKING TO HIS WIFE, SHE TRANSLATES EVERYTHING (I DON'T KNOW WHY, BUT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE ABOUT HER) PAIN IN THE ASS, BUT WE JUST NEED HIM TO SHIP,,,KNOW WHAT I MEAN."

First of all, NOT everything has to be about me. Second, I translate for my husband because he doesn't understand. Mr. Or is completely unprofessional, out of line, disrespectful, and a poor representation of Army values. I intend to contact the recruiting command to file a formal complaint against him. Not only is he completely inept but he has the nerve to speak ill of a future soldier's spouse in such a manner? YOU PEOPLE lost Fabrice's information, NOT me. Yet, I did everything I could to fix the problem that you caused, SGTs Or is a disgrace to the Army. His behavior needs to be addressed NOW.

I am absolutely livid. Fabrice does not want to join the Army anymore if it means that he is to be associated with people of Mr. Val's ilk. I know a lot more about what is going on than his sorry ass, and you people need to do something to fix the problem that Sgt Val is. He is disrespectful, rude, and entirely out of line.