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Iraq war vet wrongly arrested for being AWOL

By Jack Penning / KGW-TV

A military mix-up landed a decorated Iraq War veteran in jail, while his mother fought the US Army to get him out.

The Army issued a Federal Warrant saying Joe Wolters had gone "AWOL," or absent without leave. So Gladstone Police showed-up at Joe's house Wednesday morning, and took him to jail. Problem is, Joe had served his time and was honorably discharged from the Army more than two years ago.

Joe's mother, Eileen Wolters, immediately began fighting through the bureaucracy. She spent the day calling Army bases from Washington to Colorado to get the Warrant rescinded. No matter who she talked to, she couldn't convince them that her son had been wrongly imprisoned. On the phone she told one Army officer, "The drama is continuing. You thought you got rid of me. Well, guess what, I'm back. My son is sitting in jail."

The Army's own paperwork showed Joe was honorably discharged in February of 2005, after serving a year in Iraq.

"He was a tanker. He drove the military tanks. He was over in combat," Eileen explained.

The same paperwork showed Joe was honored with dozens of medals before his discharge, and was one of the more decorated soldiers in his unit.

Finally, Eileen talked to a sergeant at Fort Carson, in Colorado, who was able to verify that Joe was unjustly imprisoned.

About 30 minutes later, by 6pm on Wednesday, he was released from the Clackamas County Jail. Joe served a total of seven hours in jail, apparently because of an Army mistake. And he said he's frustrated with the error, and with how it was handled,

"I did everything I was supposed to do to get out. They just don't care about the soldiers. That's all it is."

The Wolters family left the jail relieved that Joe got out without having to spend the night.

Army representatives wouldn't comment about how the mistake was made, or how common mistakes like this are.

Joe had been thinking about re-enlisting, but he said after this, he won't go back.