FAIRBANKS -- A group of active-duty soldiers at Fort Richardson in Anchorage and Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks is accusing commanders of forcing medically unfit soldiers to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq.

The soldiers are gathering signatures to send a petition to Congress calling for a full investigation.

Sgt. Jesse Raymo -- among those spearheading the effort -- says he sustained a sports-related shoulder injury in January 2005 just before deploying to Iraq with the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Wainwright. Raymo says he was denied access to an MRI because his supervisors thought it was too close to deployment.

He was later injured again in a roadside bomb, then he was part of a convoy that was shot at by insurgents.