Georgetown, Ky. ? Shortly after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, Sean Baker re-enlisted in the Kentucky National Guard. He considered himself a patriot, he says, and felt a strong call to serve his country.

Baker, 37, a Persian Gulf War veteran, was disappointed when his unit was not activated. So he volunteered for another Kentucky Guard unit assigned to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where as a military policeman he guarded accused al-Qaida and Taliban detainees.

There, in the predawn hours of Jan. 24, 2003, Spc. Baker says, he was choked and beaten by fellow MPs on the steel floor of a small prison cell during a botched training exercise. Since then, he claims, the military has abandoned him.

Baker says he volunteered to put on an orange prison jumpsuit and portray an uncooperative detainee in a training drill. But the five-man MP force sent in to extract him was not told of the exercise.

Four MPs slammed Baker to the floor, he says, then choked him and pounded his head at least three times against the floor. Gasping for breath, he managed to spit out a code word — “red” — and to croak: “I’m a U.S. soldier!”

But the beating continued, according to Baker, until the jumpsuit was yanked down during the struggle to reveal his military uniform. Only then did the MPs realize they had been beating an American soldier, causing a traumatic brain injury, Baker alleges.

“What happened to me is something that should never have happened to any American soldier,” Baker wrote in an e-mail response to questions from the Los Angeles Times.

Honorably discharged with a medical retirement in April, Baker now lives in a nondescript duplex, unable to work because of what he says are seizures caused by the beating.

He has yet to receive disability payments promised by the military.

Military changes stories

“The way the military treated Sean is unconscionable, and the way they continue to treat him is even worse,” said attorney Bruce Simpson, himself an Army veteran.

The U.S. military at first said Baker’s medical discharge was not related to the beating at Guantanamo. Last week, the military reversed itself, saying the incident was partly responsible for his discharge.

Lt. Col. Jim Marshall, a spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command, said that an internal investigation completed in February 2003 concluded that no one was liable for Baker’s injuries and there was no need for a criminal investigation.

Still, Marshall said, procedures have been reviewed to prevent future injuries. “While it is unfortunate that Spc. Baker was injured, the standards of professionalism we expect of our soldiers mandate that our training be as a realistic as possible,” he said.

Waiting for assistance

Simpson said the Pentagon has not responded to his requests for Baker’s military and medical records. But after the lawyer and Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Ky., complained about Baker’s failure to receive disability payments, they were told by the military Monday that he would receive his first check within 10 days.

Simpson said he was contacted last week by Criminal Investigation Division investigators from Fort Knox, who said they were told to investigate the incident because of media coverage.

Their interview with Baker is planned for today.