Chaplain James Yee:
Given Chapter Award in 2006

James Yee, a native of New Jersey, is a third generation Chinese American and a graduate of West Point. He served in the US Army for 14 years and toured Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the first Gulf War. He studied in Syria for four years, which led to his conversion to Islam in 1991

In 2001, Captain James "Yusuf" Yee was commissioned as one of the first Muslim chaplains in the US Army. He became a frequent spokesman for the government after the attacks of September 11, 2001. He helped educate the Army about Islam. Yee was selected to serve as the Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where nearly 700 detainees captured in the war on terror were imprisoned under charges of "unlawful combatants."

By all accounts, Yee performed honorably as a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo. Nevertheless, his faith, advocacy for fair and humane treatment, and his ethnicity made him a target for overzealous military investigators. In September 2003, a stunned Chaplain Yee was secretly arrested on his way to meet his wife and daughter for a two-week leave. Chaplain Yee spent 76 days in solitary confinement, wrongly accused of treason and aiding the Taliban and Al Qaeda. He was threaten with the death penalty and charged with other violations.

After the military determined they had made a grave mistake in charging Yee, all the charges against him were dropped, and his record wiped clean. Yee's reputation, however, was tainted and his promising military career was left in ruins. He resigned from the Army early 2005.

James Yee is now an author who travels the country talking about his book, "For God and Country." It's a story that depicts a journey of Yee's faith and service. It's a story of an Army officer who became a victim of the government's paranoia over terrorism. It is also a story of Yee's courage, dogged perseverance and staunch defense of civil liberties.

Chaplain James Yee (U.S. Army retired) received special recognition by OCA-Greater Seattle for his courage, perseverance, and defense of civil liberties in 2006.

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