When I think of REAL journalists, I think of guys like Ernie Pyle.
Posted on 07/13/2008 7:40:01 AM PDT by Renfield
Before Army Sgt. 1st Class Randal Ruby was accused in Iraq of beating prisoners and of conspiring to plant rifles on dead civilians, he amassed a 10-year criminal record documenting assaults on his wife in Colorado and Washington state and a drunken high-speed police chase in Maine for which he remains wanted. Before Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes stabbed an Iraqi private to death with a bayonet, he was hospitalized after threatening suicide in high school, was accused of assault, disorderly conduct and trespassing, and, in the months leading up to deployment, was twice linked to drug use. Before Army Spec. Shane Carl Gonyon was convicted of stealing a pistol at Abu Ghraib prison, he was convicted twice on felony charges and arrested four times, once for allegedly giving a 13-year-old girl marijuana in exchange for oral sex. He enlisted weeks after his release from a federal prison in Oregon.
During a yearlong examination, The Sacramento Bee studied the civilian and military backgrounds of hundreds of troops identified from recruiting documents and other military records, focusing on those who entered the services since the Iraq war began and those linked to in-service problems.
Though not a representative sample, the 250 military personnel analyzed most closely for ”Suspect Soldiers“ included 120 with questionable backgrounds, including felonies and serious drug, alcohol or mental health problems.
Ruby, Holmes and Gonyon were among 70 with troubled pasts linked by The Bee to incidents in Iraq.
Those identified by The Bee are among the tens of thousands of military personnel recruited or retained as the armed services — entering the sixth year of the Iraq war — lowered educational, age and moral standards and granted a growing number of waivers to applicants whose backgrounds would otherwise have barred them from serving.
The percentage of Army recruits receiving so-called ”moral conduct“ waivers more than doubled, from 4.6 percent in 2003 to 11.2 percent in 2007.
"Serious consequences'
A 1996 Pentagon study of more than 100,000 California recruits found that those with arrest records left the service at a rate 70 percent higher than those without such histories. A 2003 study warned that destructive behavior by troops with criminal histories or troubling backgrounds ”could have the most serious consequences.“
An October 2007 Army study shows that, although recruits requiring conduct waivers re-enlisted at a higher rate, were promoted to sergeant faster and received more awards, they had a higher rate of desertion, misconduct and failure to complete alcohol rehabilitation.
In December, the National Guard quit granting felony waivers.
Of the more than 120 soldiers and Marines with questionable pasts examined by The Bee, at least 18 had felony arrests or convictions or histories of mental illness. At least eight of the 18 later were connected to incidents in Iraq, and a ninth fatally shot himself while on guard duty in Kuwait.
The Bee also found that waivers were not required of all convicted felons.
Eli C. Gregory was a convicted felon from Alabama and was prohibited from possessing a firearm but he was allowed to join without a waiver because he was convicted of stealing less than $500.
Gonyon had four felony arrests and two convictions, but to avoid rejection, all he had to do was lie.
Troubled soldiers
Other soldiers and Marines linked by The Bee to incidents in Iraq had questionable histories — obtained not as civilians, but as members of the armed services.
Three years after Randal Ruby joined the Army in 1985, civilian police near his post at Fort Lewis, Wash., arrested him on a charge of assault after Tacoma police officers took a call to his home and reported that the left side of his wife's face was swollen.
Six months later, Ruby's wife again called officers, who found her scalp and forehead red from an apparent attack. In 1991, she got a restraining order after alleging Ruby ”struck me several times.“
Ruby was transferred to Fort Carson, Colo., and civilian police were called to the couple's home after his wife accused him of choking her.
In1997 he led three police officers in Maine on a high-speed chase that ended when he crashed.
Ruby was indicted in that case on charges of eluding an officer, drunken driving, speeding 30-plus mph over the limit and driving without a license.
A warrant remained outstanding when he deployed to Iraq, where he was accused in 2006 of ”drop kicking“ one detainee and allowing a translator to beat another with a Kevlar vest.
”What was Sergeant Ruby doing when he (the detainee) started crying after he beat him in the head with a Kevlar?“ a defense attorney asked Sgt. Justin Stubblefield during a military proceeding in 2007.
”He was laughing,“ the soldier responded.
Soldiers, including Ruby's driver, testified that the unit kept AK-47 rifles, known as ”packages,“ in Humvees to plant on civilians killed by mistake. Once, Pfc. Nathan Huhn testified, Ruby ordered a ”package“ after telling his men to open fire and calling in an airstrike on an area populated by civilians.
Once the firing started, Huhn testified, ”We maneuvered up there and still didn't see nobody ... a crowd of women, children and men, but nobody with weapons or like that. Sergeant Ruby told Staff Sergeant (Armando) Cardona (Jr.) to go ahead and send the package.“
Ruby, who said in an interview that he ordered his men to stop firing as soon as he realized civilians were in the area, was charged with nine offenses but found guilty of only one: disrespecting a superior.
That superior, Lt. Neale Shank, was found dead in a suspected suicide weeks before Ruby's court-martial.
Ruby was sentenced to a reprimand, in which a general wrote: ”Your behavior is a disgrace to the Army.“
Now retired and living in Kentucky, Ruby said he never planted any weapons, and said his soldiers were pressured to testify against him, especially after Shank's death. He also maintained that his civilian charges happened a long time ago and ”have nothing to do with Iraq.“
”I never robbed a bank or a 7-Eleven or smoked dope or any of that stuff that they're letting kids in the military for today because there's no draft,“ Ruby said. ”I served my country honorably.“
A complete non-story. A million or more have served in Iraq, they looked at 250 of the worst and come up with 18 that are "connected" to events in Iraq.
In VN I heard the shots where two bros` shot and killed a
Maj that caught em smoking weed.
Heard a explosion at lunch in the mess-hall where a
bro fragged himself trying to booby trap a door.
There were people back then given the choice of jail
or the Army,great idea/sarc
“Wanted ... Warriors ... For foreign military service ... Second chance screening available”
What better way is there to rehabilitate problem people?
When I think of REAL journalists, I think of guys like Ernie Pyle.
Of all of the absurd notions, this article must assume that wars are fought primarily be choir boys who have taken time off to go kill enemies of the US, and then return to light votive candles...
Point being, the Military, any branch of the military, does not condone nor encourage those behavours, quite the opposite, but when men go into harms way, it devolves into “He has my back, I have his back” irregradless...
So I’m guessing there are a number of Freepers who have no problem giving weed to a 13-year old in exchange for oral sex?
Wonder if this “journalist” is going to do a similar story re: gubmin’t school teachers?/sarc.
This writer, Russell Carollo, might want to help solve the problem of lowlife soldiers (sarc) by taking his high morals and joining the military to defend this country, since newspapers are on a fast skid downward. He may be looking for a job soon.
What a hit piece!!!!
I guess his next article will be comparing the number gang members and lowlifes in society in general to the number of military men and women who go on to be law abiding, upstanding and producing citizens. Ya think?
I don’t write ‘em, I just post ‘em.
This was from McClatchy Newspapers, so this is about the best we can expect from them.
Delano Holmes mentioned. There are two more military women murdered in NC, one was estranged from a Marine at Lejeune.
Lauterbach was included in the news reports.
Ping.
Yep! It's the front page story this morning in The Modesto Bee... and it's part one of a 4 part series.
Wonder when the'll do a hit piece on the NEA's Criminal Teachers of America, or an exposure of the criminal element in Congress?!?
This writer, supposed journalist, should be embedded with a Marine unit in Afghanistan for the duration and then let him write a piece about the character of our military men and and women. It may also change his outlook on the Sacramento Bee who support the libtard antiwar movement.
We should disband our entire military immediately in attonement.
In the PC world of America 2000 +, homosexuals, thieves, sexual predators, drunkards, con artist and on and on are allowed into the military.
This began with the lower of physical standards many years before to allow women in more fields in the military.
Once you begin lower any standard the rest will follow.
Heck Clinton didn’t even have weed.
Tobacco comes in a close second
“The Sacramento Bee studied the civilian and military backgrounds of hundreds of troops...”.
I stopped reading right there. They are like a bee who gathers pollen but doesn’t know how to make the honey so it starves to death.
The “SacBee” conducted a study, but slanted the results to support their liberal agenda. Like the bee above, they are starving to death because their honey supply (readership) is continuing to decline.
“Wonder if this “journalist” is going to do a similar story re: gubmin’t school teachers?/sarc.”
Wonder if this “journalist” is going to do a similar story re: Catholic priest pedopiles/sarc.
Wonder if this “journalist” is going to do a similar story re: demoratic politician perverts/sarc.
Hope you don’t mind my modifications of you posting.
Gangs in the Military:
“Gang activity in the military is increasing, and the number of gang-related crimes involving soldiers and their families nearly tripled from fiscal 2005 to fiscal 2006, according to a pair of new reports.
Both studies note that gang members represent only a small fraction of the total force, but say that gangs have become a bigger presence — and a bigger concern — in just the last few years.
“Gang-related activity in the military is increasing and poses a threat to law enforcement officials and national security,” according to the FBI’s National Gang Intelligence Center report, released in January.”
A 1st Armored Division soldier in Germany flashing a gang sign while on guard duty.
Gangster Disciples graffiti scrawled near the helipad on Leighton Barracks in Würzburg, Germany.
Wine glasses decorated with Gangster Disciples symbols that soldiers had made at a German-American festival.
http://www.stripes.com/07/feb07/gangs/gangs1.html
I know, that’s why I put “sarc.”
Hope you didn’t think my remarks were aimed at you.
Just remarking on how ridiclous this article is.
Could I interest you in a cigarette?
Put your butt out.
NOW, lets see a similar investigation of the past and present criminal or antisocial activity of ALL those bastards holding political offices.
Starting with Ted Kennedy.
If there have been LOWER STANDARDS — one need look no further than those holding political office and the CURRENT DNC candidate for President!
I have FAR more concern over the lowered standards for politicians who hold the REAL power in the U.S. and are grossly over compensated for being incompetent and are not asked to lay their lives on the line.
This article is time wasted by a dumb ass journalist — when REAL journalism is required to clean up the CONGRESS.
I didn’t phrase my ping well, at all. The two women I mentioned are not a part of this article. Those situations are waiting in the wings of the MSM’s current production of BABYKILLERS.
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