Some may be thinking back to the days during Vietnam and reports like this came out. Back then no one was really thinking beyond the story itself, thinking of how a few out of so many managed to reflect on the whole or even how they could go from being willing to die for the country to becoming murderers, but the media being the media never seem to want to look deeper into anything at all. Since they are the ones letting the rest of us know what is going on, we usually leave the thinking up to them.
So let's look at this story and wonder what was not reported.
The men and women serving today are all volunteers. They wanted to join unlike Vietnam or the previous wars, no one was drafted. That takes a special person. They know that they very well could die doing their jobs or being wounded. They know there would be deployments taking them away from their families and friends. They knew there would be harsh conditions to live with. With all they knew, they still wanted to serve. So how does a man go from having that much devotion to being accused of doing what these men did?
With thousands of other troops in Afghanistan, how is it that these 12 did what they did while the rest are dying for the sake of the Afghans? What made them so different? Were they like this before they deployed? How many times have they been deployed into combat? One of them talked about being Iraq and "what he got away with" but this report does not say what he was like there, what he went through or what he was like as a civilian.
Allegations swirl around Lewis-McChord platoon
5 soldiers are accused of killing Afghan civilians, and 7 are charged with assault, drug use and more; most were members of 3rd Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment
By Jon R. Anderson - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Sep 11, 2010 15:41:48 EDT
JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. — At Forward Operating Base Ramrod, Afghanistan, some members of 3rd Platoon spent their downtime partying, smoking hash and drinking bootleg liquor.
When Staff Sgt. Calvin R. Gibbs arrived in November 2009, he joined the fun, regaling his new buddies with stories about the things he’d gotten away with in Iraq, one soldier would later tell agents from the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command.
And soon, Gibbs, of Billings, Mont., was joking about how easy it would be to “toss a grenade at someone and kill them.” He proposed organizing a “kill team” to do it, according to court documents.
By around Christmas 2009, officials now believe, Gibbs had hatched a plan with Spc. Jeremy Morlock, of Wasilla, Alaska, and three other soldiers to do just that.
By May, three Afghan civilians were dead and at least one platoon member kept fingers as trophies. And several knowledgeable people say there are “gruesome” photographs of the soldiers posing with the dead.
It all came to a halt, however, when one young soldier decided to speak up. Accused of being a snitch, the soldier was beaten by Gibbs and his crew, court documents say.
Now, 12 soldiers at this Army post stand accused of more than 70 charges including premeditated murder, illegal drug use and assaulting a fellow soldier.
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Allegations swirl around Lewis McChord platoon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOB_Ramrod_kill_team
ReplyDelete1980 usa army recruited troops from puerto rico.they ganged up on base as g27.
ReplyDeleteone day after i ate lunch,was walking back to base,a gang of 7 beat me with chunk of sidewalk and stabbed me with a switch blade knife,because i`m white.
i`ve suffered ever since that day.they ruined my life.
VA will not help me.they expect my 74 year old mother to take care of me.
army should not except criminals,but they do.they are nothing but trouble.its our government saving money by reducing prison population.death sentence is a better way to go.