Camilo Mejía

Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejía became the first U.S. soldier to publicly refuse to return to Iraq. After leading an infantry squad in Iraq for five months in 2003, he came home on leave and refused to redeploy, applying for conscientious-objector status on the grounds that he had witnessed war crimes including the use of small-arms fire as crowd control on civilians and the abuse of detainees at Al Asad airbase. The Army denied the application and court-martialed him at Fort Stewart, Georgia for desertion. He was convicted on May 21, 2004 and sentenced to one year in military prison; he served nine months at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. After his release he was elected national chairman of Iraq Veterans Against the War.