Marine Corps Takes Some Blame in Tampa DUI Death, Trouble Began in Iraq

I have to admit I am stunned by this. Not that a hero ended up in jail waiting trial for manslaughter, but that the Marine Corp has taken responsibility for this. It shows we've come a very long way since the beginning of this battle to save their lives after combat. That is what this is really all about.

If you know nothing about the military, the first thing you need to know is that they are not like you, or me for that matter. They have something tugging at them to serve and they know following it comes with a very high price to pay. They don't do it to "kill" but they do it to save someone else. They know the hardships they will head into just as much as they know the burden they will put on their families, but to them, it would be worse to not go where they are being called to go. It is already in their soul. These are not selfish/self-centered people. They do not take a casual view of life anymore than they take this country lightly. For them to come home after living a lifetime wanting to serve and commit crimes against others, we need to understand something terrible is happening inside of them to cause it.

Scott Sciple was a hero during war and saved lives. What happened back home is another story that didn't need to happen.

Marine Corps Takes Some Blame in Tampa DUI Death, Trouble Began in Iraq

Untreated spiral began in Iraq, led to Tampa death, report concedes.

"Had Capt. Sciple been referred and treated in a timely manner," the report said, "it would have broken the chain of events leading up to his accident and his arrest for DUI manslaughter."

By JOHN BARRY
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
Published: Friday, September 2, 2011 at 10:35 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, September 2, 2011 at 10:35 p.m.
TAMPA | The Marines made Scott Sciple a combat officer and war hero. Did they also help make him an inmate of a jail psychiatric ward, awaiting trial for drunken-driving manslaughter?


The Marine Corps takes the blame for standing by and letting it all happen.

The 38-year-old captain had survived four combat tours since 2003. One of several close-range explosions had blown a hole in his right arm and caused him to almost bleed to death. He wore three Purple Hearts for wounds and a Bronze Star for valor. A Marine Corps summary of his heroic acts under fire is 19 pages long.

He had acted strangely for months. He was in pain from his arm wound and plagued by flashbacks and memory loss. He ducked company, drank alone, often walked in his sleep. He went out to buy sunglasses in San Diego and found himself in Mexico.

Still, the Marines declared him neurologically sound, fit for full duty and ordered him to report in April 2010 to MacDill Air Force Base for a classified office assignment. Soon after landing in Tampa, Sciple drove drunk and killed someone. He could face years in prison.

Excerpts
Excerpts from a summary of findings and recommendations signed by Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander of Marine Corps Forces Central Command:

The Investigating Officer has established by a preponderance of the evidence that Captain Sciple was incapable of making fully informed cognitive decisions; i.e., he was and is mentally incapacitated to some extent. There is substantial evidence that Captain Sciple has been suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, and the compounded effects of his medication, with and without alcohol consumption, from which he experienced multiple disassociate episodes (memory loss, sleep walking, blackouts) as documented in his medical records and witness statements.

Navy health care providers and Captain Sciple's chain of command reasonably should have known the substantial risks associated with deferring to the patient's desire to return to the fight while disregarding the clear evidence of repeated trauma and compounded wounds Captain Sciple sustained. As apparent in this case, a screening system dependent on full disclosure by the patient is a flawed system.

This investigation is forwarded for further review by Marine Corps leadership and Navy medical experts and administrators to examine the issues the Investigating Officer has noted. . . . This may include the effectiveness of screening, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment for PTSD, Traumatic Brain Disorder, alcohol dependence, and other "invisible injuries" by Navy medicine and the Marine Corps.

I also direct the Marine Corps Forces Central Command Chief of Staff (to) confirm and/or implement sufficient screening measures and effective support resources for "at risk" Marines attached to MARCENT, with careful attention to Marines with documented exposure to traumatic experiences being processed for deployment.

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