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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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July 26th,
2009 - Soldiers in Colorado Slayings Tell of Iraq Horrors News article from the Associated
Press Summary
of the Fort Carson 2nd/4th Brigade Combat Team Killings |
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Soldiers in
Colorado Slayings Tell of Iraq Horrors From the Associated Press July 26, 2009 Colorado Springs, Colo. -
Soldiers from an Army unit that had 10 infantrymen accused of murder,
attempted murder or manslaughter after returning to civilian life described a
breakdown in discipline during their Iraq deployment in which troops murdered
civilians, a newspaper reported Sunday. Some Fort Carson,
Colo.-based soldiers have had trouble adjusting to life back in the United
States, saying they refused to seek help, or were belittled or punished for
seeking help. Others say they were ignored by their commanders, or coped
through drug and alcohol abuse before they allegedly committed crimes, The
Gazette of Colorado Springs said. The Gazette based its report
on months of interviews with soldiers and their families, medical and
military records, court documents and photographs. Several soldiers said unit
discipline deteriorated while in Iraq. "Toward the end, we
were so mad and tired and frustrated," said Daniel Freeman. "You
came too close, we lit you up. You didn't stop, we ran your car over with the
Bradley," an armored fighting vehicle. With each roadside bombing,
soldiers would fire in all directions "and just light the whole area
up," said Anthony Marquez, a friend of Freeman in the 1st Battalion, 9th
Infantry Regiment. "If anyone was around, that was their fault. We
smoked 'em." Taxi drivers got shot for no
reason, and others were dropped off bridges after interrogations, said Marcus
Mifflin, who was eventually discharged with post traumatic stress syndrome. "You didn't get blamed
unless someone could be absolutely sure you did something wrong," he
said Soldiers interviewed by The
Gazette cited lengthy deployments, being sent back into battle after
surviving war injuries that would have been fatal in previous conflicts, and
engaging in some of the bloodiest combat in Iraq. The soldiers describing
those experiences were part of the 3,500-soldier unit now called the 4th
Infantry Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team. Since 2005, some brigade
soldiers also have been involved in brawls, beatings, rapes, DUIs, drug
deals, domestic violence, shootings, stabbings, kidnapping and suicides. The unit was deployed for a
year to Iraq's Sunni Triangle in September 2004. Sixty-four unit soldiers
were killed and more than 400 wounded - about double the average for Army
brigades in Iraq, according to Fort Carson. In 2007, the unit served a bloody
15-month mission in Baghdad. It's currently deployed to the Khyber Pass
region in Afghanistan. Marquez was the first in his
brigade to kill someone after an Iraq tour. In 2006, he used a stun gun to
shock a drug dealer in Widefield, Colo., in a dispute over a marijuana sale,
then shot and killed him. Marquez's mother, Teresa
Hernandez, warned Marquez's sergeant at Fort Carson her son was showing signs
of violent behavior, abusing alcohol and pain pills and carrying a gun.
"I told them he was a walking time bomb," she said. Hernandez said the sergeant
later taunted Marquez about her phone call. "If I was just a guy
off the street, I might have hesitated to shoot," Marquez told The
Gazette in the Bent County Correctional Facility, where he is serving a
30-year prison term. "But after Iraq, it was just natural." The Army trains soldiers to
be that way, said Kenneth Eastridge, an infantry specialist serving 10 years
for accessory to murder. "The Army pounds it
into your head until it is instinct: Kill everybody, kill everybody," he
said. "And you do. Then they just think you can just come home and turn
it off." Both soldiers were wounded,
sent back into action and saw friends and officers killed in their first
deployment. On numerous occasions, explosions shredded the bodies of
civilians, others were slain in sectarian violence - and the unit had to bag
the bodies. "Guys with drill bits
in their eyes," Eastridge said. "Guys with nails in their
heads." Last week, the Army released
a study of soldiers at Fort Carson that found that the trauma of fierce
combat and soldier refusals or obstacles to seeking mental health care may
have helped drive some to violence at home. It said more study is needed. While most unit soldiers
coped post-deployment, a handful went on to kill back home in Colorado. Many returning soldiers did
seek counseling. "We're used to seeing
people who are depressed and want to hurt themselves. We're trained to deal
with that," said Davida Hoffman, director of the privately operated
First Choice Counseling Center in Colorado Springs. "But these soldiers
were depressed and saying, 'I've got this anger, I want to hurt somebody.' We
weren't accustomed to that." At Fort Carson, Eastridge
and other soldiers said they lied during an army screening about their
deployment that was designed to detect potential behavioral problems. Sergeants sometimes refused to
let soldiers get PTSD help or taunted them, said Andrew Pogany, a former Fort
Carson special forces sergeant who investigates complaints for the advocacy
group Veterans for America. Soldier John Needham
described a number of alleged crimes in a December 2007 letter to the
Inspector General's Office of Fort Carson. In the letter, obtained by The
Gazette, Needham said that a sergeant shot a boy riding a bicycle down the
street for no reason. Another sergeant shot a man
in the head while questioning him, lashed the man's body to his Humvee and
drove around the neighborhood. Needham also claimed sergeants removed
victims' brains. The Army's criminal
investigation division interviewed unit soldiers and said it couldn't
substantiate the allegations. The Army has declared
soldiers' mental health a top priority. "When we see a problem,
we try to identify it and really learn what we can do about it. That is what
we are trying to do here," said Maj. Gen. Mark Graham, Fort Carson's
commander. "There is a culture and a stigma that needs to change." Fort Carson officers are
trained to help troops showing stress signs, and the base has doubled its
number of behavioral-health counselors. Soldiers seeing an Army doctor for
any reason undergo a mental health evaluation. Copyright © 2009 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h_xI7LfbSV47Z5pzZq8NLfHx9nWQD99MCGNG0 |