Father says he's concerned about Army probe into training issues

MADISON, Wis. - The father of a Wisconsin National Guard soldier killed in Iraq said Thursday he's concerned the Army is trying to block an investigation into the training received by members of his son's unit before it deployed.

Stephen Castner of Cedarburg said Army leaders blocked a plan by Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, the nation's top National Guard general, to send a team of Guard investigators to Iraq for the probe. Instead, Castner said Blum told him this week Army officials in Iraq have taken over the investigation.

"I'm extremely disappointed because it appears to have been a power play," Castner said. "It appears to have been a move by the Army to suppress information... We're concerned that there are elements in the Army who would like to see us go away. We're not going to do that."

Castner spoke the day before he and his wife were scheduled to meet with Blum in Milwaukee to receive an update on the investigation. His son, Stephen W. Castner, a member of the Guard's First Battalion, 121st Field Artillery Regiment based in Milwaukee, was killed by a roadside bomb July 24 days after arriving in Iraq.

Read the rest at the Duluth News Tribune

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