This article in the Army Times begins with a disclaimer: “Some details of this story are graphic and may be disturbing.” No. Every detail of the story is disturbing, from the fact that it takes place routinely to the fact that the perpetrators got little punishment for it. First, the rape itself:
Minutes after returning to his room after a long day of training Iraqi soldiers, Spc. Jarett Wright heard the door open.
Three of his fellow soldiers entered and pushed him down on the bed. Wright struggled, but the other soldiers were too strong.
Two of them — both sergeants — held him down by the shoulders. Another grabbed his legs.
The soldiers ripped off Wright’s belt and tore off his pants and underwear.
Taking turns, the sergeants grabbed Wright’s genitals while the third soldier repeatedly shoved a finger into his anus.
The attack lasted about a minute. But Wright was not the first, nor the last, soldier in C Troop, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, to endure this kind of assault. The unit calls itself “Crazy Troop.”
Wright, who spoke to Army Times about what happened to him, said all the new guys in the troop experienced some sort of initiation. However, the initiations escalated with attacks on him and two other specialists, he said. The two other victims also described identical attacks in interviews with Army Times.
And the result:
The cases against the soldiers in 1st Squadron stem from incidents that happened during a one-year deployment in Iraq from September 2010 to August 2011. After the attacks were reported, four soldiers were charged with crimes ranging from aggravated sexual contact to hazing, maltreatment and breaking and entering. Three of the soldiers — Sgt. Josue A. Nunez-Byers, Sgt. Brian S. Cornell and Sgt. Shane M. Newitt — have already been to court-martial. A fourth trial, for Spc. Benjamin Hill, is pending.
Defense attorneys for all four soldiers declined to speak with Army Times.
One of the specialists has been moved to a different barracks on post, but Wright still lives down the hall from Hill, who is not under any pretrial confinement, the soldiers said. Cornell is already out of jail and back in the unit, soldiers said.
The victims are still assigned to the same units, and in one case in the same barracks, with their abusers. And it looks like they got little more than a slap on the wrist for it. All three of the victims are leaving the military when their service time is up, which is hardly surprising. Their sadistic attackers will probably stay in and go on abusing others.
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doktorzoom
May 4, 2012 at 11:55 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This is undoubtedly Obama’s fault.
Who Knows?
May 4, 2012 at 12:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Where have these weird hazing rituals come from? In a small town near where I live, the wrestling team at the high school had some ritual where they sexually assaulted the new kids. Apparently this involved anal penetration, pissing and tea-bagging. One of the victims decided being on the wrestling team wasn’t worth it, so he reported it to the police.
Seems to me, when I was in high school if anyone suggested such bullshit they would have gotten their ass kicked.
Stevarious
May 4, 2012 at 12:24 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
When I joined the track and field team in high school, hazing consisted of being picked up and chucked into a dumpster. I had never heard of hazing and had no idea what was going on, it was easily one of the most confusing moments of high school. I would have assumed I was being target for some reason, except the other two new guys got the same treatment.
peicurmudgeon
May 4, 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s not Obama’s fault. It is happening because of the gay agenda.
laurentweppe
May 4, 2012 at 12:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wait a minute: You’ve got
1. Rape as custom
2. Guilty party virtually unpunished
3. Victims trained to use and with acces to lots of guns
Are the US military authorities completely stupid or just waiting for one of the rape victim to snap and start a killing spree?
d cwilson
May 4, 2012 at 12:37 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I often wonder about that too. I mean, I get that abuse victims often themselves become abusers in order to regain the sense of power they lost, but how does the cycle of abuse begin in the first place?
Who was the first guy who said, “Hey, you want would be fun? If we held the new recruit down and took turns sticking our fingers up his ass.”?
I guess it’s a combination of sadism and an ability to manipulate others.
D. C. Sessions
May 4, 2012 at 12:50 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
They are taking precautions against that by giving the victims psych discharges.
Marcus Ranum
May 4, 2012 at 2:07 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Apparently the army’s been taking lessons in how to handle rape from the catholic church. Why is it an internal disciplinary matter, and not a matter for the police?
Doug Little
May 4, 2012 at 3:09 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
WTF?
jnorris
May 4, 2012 at 4:03 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I don’t understand how the abusers can depend on their victims in a firefight. All it takes is one stray round or a delay in response and someone buys the farm.
Rick Pikul
May 7, 2012 at 12:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
One thing that leads to the extreme hazing rituals is that there is a restriction on how it drifts. People are quite willing to do a little bit more than they had to endure, they aren’t so willing to do a little bit less.
The drift is also helped by the occasional person who takes advantage of the situation. If the hazing involves something that is almost a grope, there are those who are more than willing to pretend that the groping they just did is part of the ritual, (and three years later you have someone in charge of the hazing that ‘knows’ the full-on grope is part of it).