Two Iraq war veterans who claim police forced them to lick what was believed to be human urine off the ground have filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the officers.

Wisconsin National Guardsmen Sgt. Anthony R. Anderson and Specialist Robert C. Schiman were in the town of Wisconsin Dells on June 1 for weekend training when two police officers accused them of urinating in an alley, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

The soldiers denied relieving themselves in public.

Officers Wayne W. Thomas, 19, and Collin H. Jacobson, 20, instructed the two-time war veterans to lick the ground and scrape up mud and lick it to prove the substance was not urine – or they would receive citations.

According to the lawsuit, the officers also made Schiman eat a plant soaked in the liquid.

When both men had licked the ground, one of the officers said he hadn’t seen it. He instructed Anderson to do it once more, according to the lawsuit.

“That’s not good enough,” the officer said. “Do you want a ticket?”

Officer Jacobson then told a third officer, Scott Albrecht, “I can’t stop laughing. Wayne just made those two guys lick their own piss off the ground.”

When the men told Albrecht what they had been forced to do, he simply stood by while the other police officers threatened to file burglary charges against the soldiers and inform their commanding officer if they complained.

The police officers said no one would believe the veterans, according to the complaint.

The soldiers filed the lawsuit against the city of Wisconsin Dells, its police chief and the three officers Monday in U.S. District Court in Madison, alleging infliction of emotional distress; negligent hiring, training and supervision of the two officers; false imprisonment and violation of their constitutional and civil rights. The guardsmen are each seeking $600,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.

Officer Thomas was fired in June while Jacobson was suspended for two weeks without pay.