See other National News Articles
Title: Soldiers in Colorado slayings tell of Iraq horrors
Source:
[None]
URL Source: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99MCGNG0&show_article=1
Published: Jul 26, 2009
Author: AP
Post Date: 2009-07-26 20:30:44 by christine
Keywords: None
Views: 196
Comments: 12
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - 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.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: christine (#0)
General Odierno was the Division Commander (two-star) of the 4th ID. They had a reputation of being overly aggressive in Iraq a few years ago.
WOW. I believe this is a truncated version of the front page story in the Springs Gazette this Sunday. It was pretty much the first attempt of the Gazette to do hard responsible war reporting in years. After years of them being a mouthpiece of Fort Carson's PR department. The whole story was brutal, as it must be, of the resultants of the wrongfull and ill considered war in Iraq. And now, the tramatised soldiers from Iraq, abused by the army and insurgents, are being let loose in Colorado Springs. With deamons in their heads and weapons in there hands.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" I read that half of all wounded soldiers also had serious Brain Trauma. I have also read that Depleted Uranium does affect the brain and nervous system. These kiinds of incidents happen at other bases with other units.
The Truth of 911 Shall Set You Free From The Lie
yes, i've read the same.
Locally, the military is out sourcing care of young distressed soldiers to local mental health/behavioral clinics. The places are pretty full up. A friend of mine worked there last year.
do you have any idea what's going on with FU? all pages are blank except for the homepage.
No I don't. It has been that way for a week or more. I expected something to be posted here about it, but I didn't search. You should let jhoffa_ back here, in case he wore out his welcome...I don't remember. I don't even get the homepage. I suppose a telephone call would solve the riddle. That is not my schtick...but it might be after another week.
hoffa has an open account here.
This is why officialdom wants to take the guns out of the hands of vets. Sooner or later, one of these walking timebombs is going to hurt someone high up in the chain. I predict large and nasty headlines in the not-to-distant future.
Join 2x4 Tuesdays & protect your RKBA. i hope. i know. i'm going to hell for that.
I'm sure a good number of these guys would have no problem shooting civilians who refused to disarm or comply with "orders". That's part of the grand plan I think, and one of the reasons we went to war in the Middle East in the first place.
You'll have lots of company if you do. Lots and lots.
The soldiers describing those experiences were part of the 3,500-soldier unit now called the 4th Infantry Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team.
#2. To: christine (#0)
#3. To: christine (#0)
#4. To: Horse (#3)
#5. To: Horse (#3)
#6. To: Fred Mertz (#5)
#7. To: christine (#6)
(Edited)
#8. To: Fred Mertz (#7)
#9. To: christine (#0)
www.righttokeepandbeararms.com
#10. To: randge (#9)
Sooner or later, one of these walking timebombs is going to hurt someone high up in the chain.
#11. To: christine (#0)
"The real deal is this: the ‘royalty’ controlling the court, the ones with the power, the ones with the ability to make a difference, with the ability to change our course, the ones who will live in infamy if we pass the tipping points, are the captains of industry, CEOs in fossil fuel companies such as EXXON/Mobil, automobile manufacturers, utilities, all of the leaders who have placed short-term profit above the fate of the planet and the well-being of our children." - James Hansen
#12. To: christine (#10)
i hope. i know. i'm going to hell for that.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest