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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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July 23rd, 2006 - The ‘Pendleton 8’ |
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A look at the 7 Marines and Navy corpsman charged in Hamdania incident By Teri Figueroa and Mark Walker North County Times Sunday, July 23, 2006 One is described as a
patriot. Another is said to be a bookworm and budding poet. One loves the Red
Sox; another loves animals. One helped feed the homeless
at a soup kitchen last Thanksgiving, and another had plans to leave the
service and become an architect. Until this spring, their
common bond was service as members of Kilo Company from the 3rd Battalion,
5th Marine Regiment based at Camp Pendleton. Now, each has a much
different kind of bond: They are imprisoned in the base brig for allegedly
conspiring to kidnap, bind and kill Hashim Ibrahim Awad, a 52-year-old
veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. Charging documents released
by the Marine Corps on June 21 allege that the men also stole an AK-47
assault rifle and staged the scene to make it appear that Awad was in the
midst of planting a roadside bomb when he was killed in Hamdania, Iraq. Collectively, the seven
Marines and Navy corpsman charged in Awad's April 26 death represent a
cross-section of young American men. The accusations against them
soon will be heard in what are known as Article 32 hearings in a Camp
Pendleton courtroom. Those hearings are the first step in determining whether
the charges will stand. The hearings are expected to
begin in late August or September, approximately 100 days since they were
first incarcerated at Camp Pendleton. It remained unclear last week whether
there will be eight individual hearings or some combination. If it is determined there is
sufficient cause for the charges to move forward, a court-martial will be
convened and a military jury empaneled. The men have been in the brig since
May 24. Their family members and
civilian attorneys hired to assist in their defense assert the men are
innocent. Those attorneys also have complained on several occasions that they
are not getting sufficient information from the military, such as
investigative reports they say they need to adequately prepare for the
Article 32 hearings. Last week, the lawyers also
complained the Marine Corps will not provide them with an independent defense
investigator to travel to Iraq to interview witnesses. A Marine Corps
spokesman said that doing so now would be premature, but may be done later. Here is a look at each of
the Marines and the Navy corpsman based on interviews with family members,
attorneys, service records, newspaper accounts and Web sites established to
help raise defense funds for the group dubbed by some supporters as the
"Pendleton 8." At the end of each
biographical sketch is what each is specifically accused of in Awad's death: Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III Years of hoping, and
finally. After 87 years of curses, in 2004 the Boston Red Sox won the World
Series. And Sgt. Lawrence
"Larry" Hutchins - often heard to say that "this is the
year" - was beside himself. "He was so happy when
they won," fiancee Reyna Griffin said recently. "I just received a
letter from him and he was saying that he could not wait to teach our
daughter about baseball and the Red Sox." The 22-year-old grew up in
Plymouth, Mass., about 40 miles south of Boston and his beloved Fenway Park. As a boy, Hutchins played
ball for about 10 years. He was a pitcher and he "was very good,"
Griffin said. The couple, who met on the
school bus their sophomore year of high school, have a daughter, Kylie.
Hutchins was stationed in Georgia when his little girl was born, and first
got to see her when she was 3 weeks old. "He's an all-around
good guy, great father and a dedicated Marine," Griffin said. He spent some time as a
lifeguard in Plymouth. Early in his senior year - he graduated from high
school in 2002 - Hutchins decided to join the Marines, following in the
footsteps of his father and grandfather. He enlisted on Oct. 29 of that year
and was on his first tour of Iraq when the killing took place. Hutchins, the senior
enlisted man charged in the case, is accused of filing false radio and
written reports and firing one of the shots that killed Awad. He also is
accused of directing his subordinates on several occasions between April 26
and May 10 to lie to Marine commanders about what had occurred. Cpl. Marshall Magincalda A poet whose mother says he
"devoured books like they were candy," the soft-spoken Cpl.
Marshall Magincalda - his nickname is "Magic" - was twice wounded
during prior trips to Iraq, earning two Purple Hearts. One came after he was hit in
the face with shrapnel from an explosion; the second came after he was shot
in the stomach at close range while clearing a house in Iraq. The round
sliced one of his magazines and knocked him to the ground - but his flak
jacket stopped the bullet. He dug the metal out and kept it, according to his
mother, Leanne Magincalda. The 23-year-old loves video
games, and recently took up the guitar and enjoyed jam sessions with fellow
Marines. He joined the service on Nov. 12, 2002, and was on his second tour
of duty in Iraq. While at Sierra High School,
in Manteca, he ran track, lifted weights and skipped the junk food, his mom
said. He has a special connection to the outdoors as his family owns several
seasonal members-only hunting and wildlife preserves where he learned to
shoot at about 7 years old. The corporal holds his
Christian faith very close, his mother said. "It is a major,
integral part" of his makeup, Leanne Magincalda said, adding that the
"path to his side was well-worn" by buddies in Iraq seeking his
counsel. He is spending time in the
brig memorizing the Bible, starting with the book of John, she said. The Marine Corps alleges
Magincalda participated in the abduction of Awad, took him to a hole dug at a
roadside intersection, forced him to the ground and bound his hands and feet. Cpl. Trent Thomas Born in St. Louis, as a
teenager Trent Thomas moved across the Mississippi River to Illinois, where
he graduated from high school. "He was a good
kid," his mother, Linda, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "He
loved animals and just doing normal kid things. He wasn't a troubled child or
anything." Thomas married in March
2004, and he and his wife, Erica, have a little girl who will turn 2 in
October. He was on his second tour in
Iraq, his wife said. He was in the Middle East when his daughter was born,
and didn't see daughter Kayla until she was 6 months old. A Purple Heart recipient,
Thomas was on his second tour when he saw his best friend shot and killed in
a firefight, his wife said. Before the accusations came
up, Thomas, 24, was planning to re-enlist for four more years rather than
leave the Marine Corps in November. He is accused of helping to
abduct Awad, taking him to where he was killed and helping bind his hands and
feet. Thomas also is charged with firing his M-16 rifle at Awad. Hospitalman 3rd Class Melson Bacos A native of the Milwaukee
area, Melson Bacos is married to another Navy corpsman and has a daughter,
born in April 2005. On a Web site established by
his wife to help raise money for his defense, she wrote that her husband was
on his second deployment to Iraq when the incident in Hamdania took place. During his first tour in
Iraq, 19 Marines from his battalion lost their lives, including nine from his
company, two of whom died in his arms, she writes. The son of Filipino
immigrants, Bacos joined the Navy right after graduating from high school. He
was a member of the varsity wrestling team each of his four years at Franklin
High School in Franklin, Wis. On a Myspace.com Web site
listing under his name, Bacos wrote: "I've seen it all in combat and now
I'm at it again. I live for my family and their future." Bacos is accused of stealing
an AK-47 assault rifle and a shovel, helping abduct Awad and later firing
rounds from the assault rifle in an alleged attempt to stage the scene to
make it appear that Awad was planting a roadside bomb. Lance Cpl. Tyler Jackson When Tyler Jackson was 15,
he spent two weeks at Camp Pendleton in the Devil Pups, a program started by
a former Marine in the 1950s that brings teenagers to Camp Pendleton in July
and August for 10 days of training and instruction in citizenship and physical
development. Six years later, after
spending some time as the assistant manager at a movie theater in his
hometown of Tracy, he decided the time had come for him to enlist in the
Marine Corps. "Joining was not a rash
decision," his father, Phil Jackson, has said. "It was something he
was deliberately considering." Last year, while home on a
short leave from Camp Pendleton, Jackson impressed his mother by taking a few
hours to go to a soup kitchen to feed the homeless on Thanksgiving. Jackson, 22, went to Iraq
for the first time in January, nine months after he enlisted. A week before
he left, the infantryman was promoted to his current rank of lance corporal. His father said that while
Jackson was on patrol in Iraq, a pickup with a mounted machine gun pulled up
behind him and began shooting. Jackson and another Marine escaped the ambush
by running and diving into a ditch, Phil Jackson said. Tyler Jackson is accused of
stealing an AK-47 assault rifle allegedly planted near Awad's body, helping
bind his hands and feet, and firing one of the shots that killed the Iraqi. Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington Robert Pennington joined the
Marine Corps as a skinny, 6-foot, 145-pound teenager before graduating high
school in 2002 in the Seattle area. "He was patriotic and
cared about what happened on 9/11," his mother, Deanna, said. "He
wanted to give something back to his country. He had other choices, and he
could have gone to college." She said her son took
college classes, such as calculus and physics, in high school and planned to
attend college in California to become an architect after completing his
service in October. Pennington, who turned 22 in
the brig on July 3, still laughs out loud when watching cartoons. He also
loves the Dave Matthews Band and playing video games, his mom said. The infantryman was on his
third tour in Iraq after joining the Marines on Oct. 15, 2002. During a push to gain
control of Fallujah, the lance corporal saw his best friend and roommate from
Camp Pendleton killed a day after his 21st birthday, Deanna Pennington said. He is accused of helping to
take Awad to the site where he died, binding the man's hands and feet and
wiping squad members' fingerprints from the AK-47. He is also accused of
placing the gun and a shovel in Awad's hands. Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate A native of the small
western Washington town of Matlock, 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate was
always someone who came to the defense of the weaker kids he knew at school,
his mother, Diann Shumate, said. While in high school, he got
into a confrontation with another boy over a girl, his mother told her
hometown newspaper, The Daily World of Aberdeen. Rather than fight the boy,
she said he simply sat on him until help arrived. "He didn't want to hurt
him," she told the newspaper. Shumate joined the Marines
shortly after graduating from high school. On her personal MySpace.com
Web site, his older sister, Amanda, writes that her family considers the
young Marine a "real life hero" destined to do great things. "At home, we have begun
to fight the battle of our lives," she writes, adding that a U.S. flag
at the family home is being flown at half-staff until her brother is
exonerated. Shumate is accused of firing
one of the numerous shots that struck Awad. Pfc. John Jodka III John Jodka III is an
Encinitas native. He attended elementary and middle school at St. James
Academy, a Catholic school in Solana Beach, and graduated from San Dieguito
Academy in 2004. He then headed off to attend UC Riverside. But, after a quarter in
college, the pull was just too strong. He wanted to be a Marine. So, in May 2005, he shipped
off to boot camp. By January, he had landed on the sands of Iraq. He was
there when he turned 20 in April. Before he left, he gave his
dad, John Jodka Jr., a copy of his dog tags - and his dad wears them around
his neck. The young Marine has a
17-year-old brother, a 15-year-old sister, and two older stepbrothers, one of
whom is a deputy sheriff in North County. Jodka's father said his son
is one of those people who sees the bigger picture and the deeper meanings,
one of those well-read, well-spoken, mature-for-his-age kind of kids. He's also
"hilarious," dad said. And a big fan of Star Wars. Jodka is accused of firing
his M-249 automatic machine gun at Awad and helping cause the fatal wounds.
He is also accused of lying to investigators. External link:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/07/23/news/top_stories/21_08_547_22_06.txt |