Fired Reservist Refuses Apology : Job dispute: An officer who spent months in the Gulf says he’ll pursue his wrongful termination suit against Loral and will seek work elsewhere.

MISSION VIEJO —  An Army reservist said Friday that he rejects an apology from an aerospace company that fired him when he left his job to serve in the Persian Gulf War and intends to pursue a lawsuit he has filed against his former employer.

Maj. Stephen McConnell returned home earlier this month with a Bronze Star after serving nearly nine months in Saudi Arabia. He was away on vacation with his family when the New York headquarters of Loral Corp. on June 19 issued its apology and promised to reinstate him with back pay and full medical benefits.

Loral, a major aerospace company with manufacturing plants around the nation, said, “We made a mistake” when a letter was sent to McConnell’s home on Oct. 17--a month after he had shipped out for the Gulf--to inform him that he had lost his $50,000-a-year job as a senior subcontract administrator.

McConnell, 38, held a press conference at his home Friday, with his wife, two children and lawyers standing by, to say that he won’t be returning to Loral Aeronutronic in Newport Beach because he has lost confidence in the organization for which he had worked for nearly five years.

In a prepared statement, McConnell told his former employer, “I do not believe you made a mere ‘mistake’ and instead believe you demonstrated reckless disregard for my legal rights as a member of the United States military.”

McConnell added that he intends to pursue a wrongful-termination lawsuit that he filed June 17 in Orange County Superior Court against Ford Aerospace Corp. and Loral, which on Oct. 24 acquired the Ford Motor Co. subsidiary. Also named in the suit are two employees of Ford and Loral who allegedly were responsible for applying “unlawful company policies” leading to the termination.

“Mistake or ignorance of the law isn’t really an excuse,” said James G. Harker, one of McConnell’s lawyers, noting that since 1905 in California, it has been a misdemeanor crime to deprive a member of the military employment because of required military service.

Loral spokeswoman Elizabeth Allen insisted Friday that both Ford and Loral had complied “with the letter and the spirit of the law.” She said under the law, an employee may be terminated for exceeding a corporation’s permitted military leave, which for Ford was 30 days. But she said the law requires that employees thus terminated must be rehired if they reapply for their jobs after they are relieved from active duty.

Allen said, moreover, that when Loral acquired Ford Aeronutronic, it also began to provide to reservists who worked there extended medical benefits and a pay differential to make up the difference between their civilian and military salaries. However, Loral has admitted that McConnell did not receive a pay differential or medical coverage for his family after his termination.

Allen said Loral’s “mistake” was “not in our policies or in violating the law, but in not making it clear to his family what the policies were.”

She said about 30 Loral employees were reservists who served in Operation Desert Storm and “every single one of them upon his discharge (from active duty) has been rehired.” She said that includes two other reservists who worked at the Newport Beach plant.

“They got the medical benefits, pay differential and are back working at their old jobs,” she said. “There were no glitches or misunderstandings.”

But McConnell, who insists that neither Ford nor Loral did anything for months to tell him that “the termination was not actually a termination,” is seeking unspecified punitive and compensatory damages in his civil suit for losses, including earnings and the cost of seeking other employment.

Allen declined comment on the suit.

“I am pursuing this case not only for myself, but to be certain that no soldier, sailor, airman, Marine or Coast Guardsman ever suffers the rejection and pain of a wrongful termination . . . “ said McConnell, adding that he and his lawyers pledge to contribute half of all money that may be recovered in the lawsuit to several military-affiliated charities.

McConnell said he will return Sunday to Ft. Ord in Northern California to go through the process of being released from active duty. After that, he said, he will put in his annual two-week stint of military training, while pressing his hunt for new employment.