Posted on 02/06/2005 6:45:18 AM PST by presidio9
In front of a cheering male audience, two young women wearing only bras and panties throw themselves into a mud-filled plastic kiddie pool and roll around in a wild wrestling match.
At one point a man in the audience raises a water bottle and douses the entwined pair.
At another, a "referee" moves in to break up the scantily clad grapplers.
A young blond lifts her T-shirt to expose her breasts. A brunette turns her back to the camera and exposes her thong undies.
These scenes, taken from 30 photos leaked to the Daily News, could have been snapped at an out-of-control frat party.
But this happened a world away from any American college.
The photos were taken in Camp Bucca, the military prison at Umm Qasr in the hot sands of southern Iraq near the Kuwaiti border.
The women are not coeds but military policewomen who had left their uniforms in a pile not far off.
The men are soldiers, too. Most of them wore T-shirts emblazoned with Army logos, but at least one was still wearing his uniform.
Some were sergeants, including the referee, and some allegedly were drunk.
The photos were taken last Oct. 30, in the same period when enemy detainees were being transferred to Camp Bucca from Abu Ghraib, the prison made notorious by photos of Americans torturing naked Iraqis.
The Camp Bucca pictures document no such abuses.
But they do show what experts called a disconcerting lapse in discipline at a time when Army brass was touting the camp as a model of reform.
"It was basically a goodbye party for those of us who were leaving and a welcome party for those coming in," the alleged referee, Sgt. Emil Ganim of the 160th Military Police Battalion, told The News. "It was a chance for people to blow off some steam before coming home after spending a year in a combat zone."
But one participant described less-benign behavior.
Two sergeants, she said, told her "they had been lending out their room for soldiers to have sex" - a serious infraction of military regulations.
One female soldier, a prison guard with the 160th Military Police Battalion, was photographed baring her breast and showing off her thong panties.
The picture apparently was taken in the room of one of those sergeants, an investigator reported.
The witness told investigators that two high-ranking noncommissioned officers, a first sergeant and a master sergeant, were present. She "noted that these NCOs had been drinking and were noticeably drunk," the report said.
Ganim said American civilians at the camp also participated in the party, and "if anybody had liquor, it was them."
Ganim has since returned to his civilian job as a deputy sheriff in Leon County, Fla.
"It appears that this event was allegedly coordinated by NCOs [sergeants] of the 160th," according to the initial investigation.
One of the soldiers told investigators the mud-wrestling match was underway when she arrived.
"She took off her uniform and joined the other female soldiers that were wrestling," the report says. But "once soldiers started asking for the females to expose themselves [she and two of the other wrestlers] put their uniforms back on and left the area."
But at least one woman was not deterred.
Deanna Allen, a 19-year-old prison guard with the 105th MP Battalion, smiled and lifted her T-shirt. Photos show a man standing close to her and leering at her breasts while another G.I. snaps pictures.
"From what I understand they dared her to do it," said Allen's grandmother, Luci Tomlin, in Black Mountain, N.C. "It was a loose moment. She is a strong-headed young lady. Sometimes she can be a little irrational."
Allen, who is still stationed in Iraq, did not respond to E-mailed questions from The News. She was demoted in rank to private first class.
"A sex party with alcohol that is prohibited would suggest a serious breakdown of military discipline," said Washington-based lawyer Eugene Fidell, a military-justice expert. "Just how it would be handled would be determined by the commander, who has very broad discretion in situations like this.
Fidell said punishments could range from "a good chewing out to loss of rank" for enlisted personnel and "a letter or career-killing transfer" for officers who allowed it to happen.
…women and men can serve side by side in combat zones without problems ....
What a bunch of whores. Better looking Lyndie Englands. Doesn't reflect well on our troops.
And who exactly appointed you Defender of the Faith to decide how soliders 3,000 miles away should act and react?
Jeeze you people are moralistic!
When is the last time you were in the CENTCOM AOR? Or the military for that matter?
I'm strange? We must have defined deviancy down to the point where sex orgies in the military and human pyramids of naked prisoners is just as normal as apple pie and coffee but anyone who objects to sexual debauchery is strange.
I don't see how anyone can defend this sort of behavior by our armed forces. I find their behavior disgusting and think all those involved should be dishonorably discharged immediately.
Soldiers (generic for all serviceman) will do stupid things whenever alcohol is involved. And a NCO's job is to prevent subordinates from making stupid moves both on and off duty. Call it "looking out for Shipmates."
When troops behave badly, i.e., female US Soldiers coaxed to bear their breasts in public; is when the NCO's ought to "roger up" and immediately shut the show down.
When I was in they didn't mix the genders, IMHO a good thing.
Blowing off steam? Our military are ambassadors for our country! How easy would it be for the Arab media to explain to the people that the occupiers want to impose this lifestyle on them? Coca cola, hot dogs, whores and unchivalrous men. I used to live in a military town, and I am not of the opinion that they are of the same class my grandparents werew when they were young.
LOL! You probably felt the media was telling the truth with Rodney King, too.
Yeah. And what's wrong with morals?
Dont join the Army Reserves if this bugs you so much.
I would be willing to bet you are for gay marriage.
The issue is not making these ladies representatives of America. (Of course when you are in uniform you are in fact a representative of the Nation and the service...of course if they were IN uniform, this wouldn't be an issue!)
The idea is that you can't have women doing this amongst their collegues and people they have to police. Damages unit cohesion.
Why are you not in Church this Sunday morning?
A dangerous, ridiculous assumption by one who has likely never been there.
Exactly! Well put OneLoyalAmerican.
Thank you for making my point. When you're in combat, you're never off duty. So if stuff like this went down while Mike was asleep in his cot/bag, it happened on his watch. Shall we then destroy his career over it?
Here's my issue with this - what was the duty status of those involved? If they were off duty, even in a war zone, their time is their own and military folks, just like liberals, like to have fun.
IMO, this is just more MSM attack on the military, trying to undermine them. The more scandalous the MSM can make something against the military appear, the more willing they are to print it. I notice that the MSM has studiously ignored the number of pregnant WAVES who get oof a ship after every cruise, ever since the Navy was forced to station women aboard ships.
What's the matter? Doesn't that story meet the criteria that the MSM requires to bash the military? Or, are they afraid of making the femi-nazis mad at them?
Notice he did not reply to when he had been in the AOR> ;}
By your nonsensical standards, we've never had a military able to function.
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