Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Marine DI accused of running a clothes dryer with a Muslim recruit inside

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Marine DI accused of running a clothes dryer with a Muslim recruit inside

    everything about this article is WTF. somehow i think more than just an O-6 head should be rolling for this.

    ----

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...-marine-inside

    Marine drill instructor accused of running a clothes dryer with a Muslim recruit inside

    By Dan Lamothe September 13 at 2:22 PM

    A Muslim Marine said he was called a terrorist and ordered into an industrial clothes dryer multiple times by a drill instructor who then turned it on, burning him, according to investigative documents that provide new details about the alleged abuse of recruits at the service’s training center at Parris Island, S.C.

    “You’re going to kill us all the first chance you get aren’t you, terrorist?” the drill instructor thundered at the recruit, the new Marine later alleged, according to the documents that have not been released publicly but were reviewed by The Washington Post. “What are your plans? Aren’t you a terrorist?”

    The issue of hazing and abuse at Parris Island surfaced March 18, when a 20-year-old recruit with Pakistani roots — Raheel Siddiqui of Taylor, Mich. — died after leaping from a stairwell landing that was nearly 40 feet high while running away from the same drill instructor who used the dryer. The instructor had just slapped Siddiqui before he jumped. Siddiqui’s death drew public scrutiny to a culture of harsh punishments at Parris Island — one that Marine officials were already examining, the documents show.

    Last week, service officials announced that 20 members of Parris Island’s staff could face criminal charges or administrative discipline following the conclusion of three investigations into various abuse allegations. But the documents and an interview with a Marine official with knowledge of the investigations suggest dozens more Parris Island Marines could be implicated in the scandal.

    Marine Commandant Gen. Robert B. Neller, addressing the abuse allegations last week, said in a statement that recruit training will remain physically and mentally challenging, but that the manner in which Marines are made is as important as the final product.

    “When America’s men and women commit to becoming Marines, we make a promise to them,” he said. “We pledge to train them with firmness, fairness, dignity and compassion.”

    Some details of the abuse have previously been reported, but the investigative documents describe an environment in which one unit in particular — 3rd Recruit Training Battalion — had drill instructors who not only tested recruits’ mettle, as is expected, but abused them physically and emotionally.

    Ethnic and homophobic slurs were also used regularly, and drill instructors ordered repeated, unauthorized physical training that sometimes injured recruits. The drill instructors also sometimes were drunk on the job, bringing Fireball whiskey into work on at least one occasion, recruits told investigators.

    In one case, a senior drill instructor who had seen a photograph of a recruit’s sister made him log into his Facebook account so he could request that she call Parris Island on the telephone. When she did, the drill instructor took the phone away from the recruit, introduced himself and said that he had heard she was single and wanted to know whether they could get to know each other. The drill instructor later denied it, but the sister corroborated the recruit’s story with copies of the Facebook messages, according to the documents.

    The drill instructor involved in the dryer case, an unidentified sergeant, was allowed to continue training recruits after allegations of abuse were made, in part because Marine officials did not take the accusations seriously, one investigation found.

    The alleged incident occurred in 2015, and was reported last November by the targeted Marine and two enlisted colleagues who by then had moved on to initial aviation training in Pensacola, Fla. The new Marine said he was also accused of participating in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

    The former recruit said he was kept in the dryer long enough that his neck and arm started to burn and he began to cry, according to the documents.

    Recruits who were abused were also warned that “snitches get stitches.” Instructors also bribed recruits with protein bars and other food to keep them quiet, according to the documents.

    The allegations are highly sensitive for a service that has long prided itself on what it calls the transformative process of “making Marines.” And it has shocked drill instructors at the service’s only other enlisted training depot in San Diego.

    “The atmosphere of recruit training is much different in San Diego,” said one Marine instructor there, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. “Officers and staff continuously walk around decks to keep eyes on drill instructors and recruits, as well as to ensure our [procedures] are followed as closely as possible. Recruit abuse is absolutely not tolerated here, and I’ve seen many drill instructors being held accountable and investigated for even minor infractions.”

    Drill instructors are directed specifically to not discriminate against recruits on the basis of race or religion, and anyone who saw such discrimination should have stood up against it, a retired senior enlisted Marine said.

    “Even back in the day when they were really brutal at Parris Island, I can’t imagine that happening. That’s abuse,” the Marine said when informed of the dryer incident. “It’s beyond me. We are entrusted to take care of those recruits and train them. There was clearly a breakdown in leadership at Parris Island.”

    Parris Island’s most senior leaders have been aware of hazing problems since at least 2014, the documents show. In fact, one officer who took over 3rd Recruit Training Battalion came in with the perception that it was a major issue and removed so many Marines from their jobs that he created morale problems in his unit, the investigation found.

    The officer’s name is redacted, but Marine officials identified him as Lt. Col. Joshua Kissoon, who was removed from his job in March. The documents describe him as a “toxic leader” whose “derisive attitude toward his company grade officers, and perceived self-interest caused his officers to lose confidence in his leadership.”

    Kissoon’s boss, Col. Paul D. Cucinotta, and his senior enlisted adviser, Sgt. Maj. Nicholas Deabreu, were removed from their positions leading the Recruit Training Regiment at Parris Island in June after an investigation found that they had not done enough to stop the mistreatment of recruits.

    Cucinotta, Kissoon and Deabreu did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

    The Marine official with knowledge of the investigations said it is likely that the service will move forward with criminal proceedings against some Marines involved, beginning this fall.

    Thomas Gibbons-Neff contributed to this report.
    There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

  • #2
    a few CLM's coming down the beltway at high speed for sure......

    and if the IW decides to take it further via common law as a criminal case then its going to become expensive for the USMC

    unsure about the US, but as a breach of OHS/WHS obligations, under Australian law the DI would be pursued (5 figure monetary fine), then his section head (6 figure monetary fine)- then the organisation (7 figure monetary fine) - and all would be followed through concurrently + you'd then add in common law pursuit as lawyers would be doing it pro bono as its a sure win.....

    what a cluster
    Linkeden:
    http://au.linkedin.com/pub/gary-fairlie/1/28a/2a2
    http://cofda.wordpress.com/

    Comment


    • #3
      This should be a court martial for at least second degree murder for the DI with accessory charges to his fellow platoon DIs, First Sergeant and Company Commander. Battalion, Regimental and Camp Commanders relieved for gross negligence.

      SECNAV & Commandant need to come down HARD on this kind of shit.

      And then the USMC has to do a deep look at how it chooses its drill instructors...and it would behoove the other services to do the same review.
      “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
      Mark Twain

      Comment


      • #4
        this was the part that utterly floored me:

        Parris Island’s most senior leaders have been aware of hazing problems since at least 2014, the documents show. In fact, one officer who took over 3rd Recruit Training Battalion came in with the perception that it was a major issue and removed so many Marines from their jobs that he created morale problems in his unit, the investigation found.

        The officer’s name is redacted, but Marine officials identified him as Lt. Col. Joshua Kissoon, who was removed from his job in March. The documents describe him as a “toxic leader” whose “derisive attitude toward his company grade officers, and perceived self-interest caused his officers to lose confidence in his leadership.”

        Kissoon’s boss, Col. Paul D. Cucinotta, and his senior enlisted adviser, Sgt. Maj. Nicholas Deabreu, were removed from their positions leading the Recruit Training Regiment at Parris Island in June after an investigation found that they had not done enough to stop the mistreatment of recruits.
        so senior leadership at Parris knew there were problems for at least two years. which means the problem itself had to be festering for considerably longer than that.

        a leader whom saw the problem apparently tried to fix it in such a way that he made a name for himself as a toxic leader.

        and all of this happened last year...so over a year after senior leadership knew.

        this is so messed up beyond words. geezus christ, this is a replay of what was going on at Lackland AFB, and that was 2011-2013. so this crap was going on probably around the same time period and it's only worth a statement now?
        There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

        Comment


        • #5
          I've been following this for the last several days and its very dismaying to hear the reports come out and the list of abuses grow. I had the pleasure to serve at MCRD San Diego many many moons ago, and oversight came not only from each training company's officers, but also its senior SNCOs: the Company 1stSgt, Chief DI (sort of a cross between a company Gy and trainer), as well as each platoon's senior drill instructor. Any allegation of abuse was taken seriously, most launching a preliminary investigation. It's surprising that the BnCdr relieved so many drill instructors that he himself was removed, yet the behavior persisted. You'd think that the example of a few hats being relieved would have changed everyone else's behavior, the rot must have been deep indeed.

          Comment


          • #6
            Completely disgusting.

            "Raheel Siddiqui of Taylor, Mich. — died after leaping from a stairwell landing that was nearly 40 feet high while running away from the same drill instructor who used the dryer."

            I see the officers were removed. I pray that's only the beginning of their nightmare. O-5/O-6 types are too often allowed to "retire" with full benefits. Horse-sh!t. Those men are culpable of gross negligence and, minimally, need to be dismissed from the service without benefit.
            "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
            "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

            Comment


            • #7
              So, will the Commandants Office be in contact with the family regarding an apology - possibly even face to face. Also is a recruit who dies during training entitled to a burial with full military honors? Just asking because (one would hope this type) this scenario is so rare there's no official policy covering the circumstances. Seems to me on face value the facts, as stated are a slap in the face to every serving Senior NCO and Officer in the Corps. Or am I over judging this - I'm just trying to base my reaction on how my own organization would react.
              If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

              Comment


              • #8
                ‘They put us through hell’: A Marine abused at boot camp explains why he spoke out
                Some excerpts from the article:

                Former Pvt. Thomas Jacob Weaver was in bed late one night, near the end of his three months at Marine Corps boot camp, when several drill instructors burst into his platoon’s room. Many of them smelled like they had been drinking whiskey, he said, and they ordered the recruits to crawl over cement floors covered in laundry detergent.

                Soon after, the instructors left the room and then abruptly returned. One of them demanded to know where he could find “the terrorist.” Weaver knew immediately who he was talking about: a fellow Marine recruit who was Muslim.

                “We heard the door slam, and then we heard screaming, and then we heard loud noises, and then they left,” Weaver said. “And then I saw [the recruit] come back half-naked, and some of us ran over to check on him. And he told us that they had stuck him in the dryer for a couple of minutes and let him spin.”

                Among Weaver’s allegations in addition to the dryer incident: Drill instructors took one recruit into the woods and beat him after a mistake on a rifle range, repeatedly slammed Weaver’s head into a door frame another day and forced recruits to lay down so drill instructors could walk on them.

                The Marine Corps’ drill instructors learn in 12-week programs that they must never physically abuse recruits. Instead, a variety of “incentive training” exercises with time limits are authorized, including pushups, crunches and running in place.

                But a culture of hazing and bullying recruits remains, and not just at Parris Island, according to former drill instructors.

                Sean Legaard, who served as a drill instructor in San Diego from 2010 to early 2014, said that none of his colleagues wanted to be labeled a “recruit lover,” and those who were faced retribution from peers. A drill instructor who pushes a recruit to “tap” — to either quit or confess thoughts of suicide — is well regarded, and may bend or break rules to get there, he said.

                Legaard, 30, said that he once considered making a career of the Marine Corps, but left the service disenchanted after facing and dishing out what is known as “hat hazing,” in which drill instructors harass one another.

                Hat hazing, named after the distinctive wide-brimmed hats worn by the instructors, has been prohibited for years. But Legaard recalled complying with an order to lock a fellow drill instructor out of their shared sleeping quarters at the recruit depot, forcing a colleague to instead sleep in his vehicle.

                “It was like, ‘Do I really have to do this to be welcome here and successful?'” Legaard said. “You don’t want to be called a recruit lover and you want to slay yourself just so that you’re accepted. It’s all alpha-male stuff.”
                “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                Comment


                • #9
                  Kind of like Wells Fargo. The lower level employees get fired but no one higher up pays the price. Let's see what higher ups pay the price here and I am confident that some will unlike private industry.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    From the news article above, they relieved the Regimental Commander and his Sergeant Major on down. That's 4 levels up and a guy with 22+ years of service, so they did reach fairly high. Will a General Officer get relieved, probably not. Does he/she deserve it, it'd be interesting to find out what they knew when.

                    We were always very quick to jump on any allegations. I had to interview each and every recruit in my Series and one of the mandatory questions was whether they had been abused or seen/heard another recruit being abused.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      The only thing I can type and still remain somewhat civil is

                      What a disgusting group of pigs. All disgrace to the Corps. The only saving grace was the Officer that was relieved for trying to weed the bad out. Get rid of his bad fitrep, promote him immediately and make him the MCRD Commander.

                      The part about DIs trying to get recruits to quit disturbed me almost as much as the physical abuse. Back 35 years ago the DIs inspired recruits to dig deep and graduate. They saw a recruit dropping out, not as a failure of the individual but a failure of the DIs to do their job. The goal was to get as many to become Marines, knowing some will fail. It was never to see if they could intentionally try to get a recruit to give up.

                      And back in the day hazing, being drunk around recruits and putting hands on recruits was never tolerated. DIs turned bad apples in. They policed their own ranks

                      What has happened to my Corps?

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Gun Grape View Post

                        The part about DIs trying to get recruits to quit disturbed me almost as much as the physical abuse. Back 35 years ago the DIs inspired recruits to dig deep and graduate. They saw a recruit dropping out, not as a failure of the individual but a failure of the DIs to do their job. The goal was to get as many to become Marines, knowing some will fail. It was never to see if they could intentionally try to get a recruit to give up.
                        To me a DI is like a coach. Their job is to build up, instill confidence, and help will you to succeed. From that you build esprit de corps/team. They are not there to tear you down and see you fail while making those left and watching less cohesive.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Every army has them , unfortunately , reminds me of the film , code red , wankers deserve all thats coming their way .

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Gun Grape View Post
                            Back 35 years ago the DIs inspired recruits to dig deep and graduate.
                            37 years ago Gustav Hasford wrote a book that was turned into the movie Full Metal Jacket by Stanley Kubrick a couple years later. The original book was semi-autobiographical, and Kubrick reproduced the DI scenes rather faithfully from it (unlike other parts).

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              kato,

                              That semi-autobiographical portrait was Parris Island, 1966-70. Gunny went through about 1980. Plenty of abuse during Vietnam. Almost institutional. It was severely dealt with in the 70s. It appears to need re-dressing again but let's not conflate the past.
                              "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski
                              "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." Lester Bangs

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X