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.
How well do you think stories like this go over in the Muslim world when they see American female soldiers are behaving like this while "occupying" a fellow Muslim country? Besides winning the physical battles, America must win the battle of minds in the Middle East. Our soldiers are fighting in part of the world where Americans are seen as debauched and immoral. Stories like this can only add more fuel to the anti-American propoganda machine. These soldiers are the representative of America overseas. This was not the best way to blow off steam, IMO.
LOL!!
I don't see how anybody could walk around with a stick so far up... well, never mind.
I think you need a snack and maybe a nap to help you put things into perspective here.
Dishonorably discharged? For getting drunk?!? You gotta be kidding me...
I'm saving that one.
I guess we'll agree to disagree on this issue. I would not want any NCO that reported to me, nor that I reported to, to conduct themselves in this manner. It's a disgrace to the NCO corps and demeans the authority/respect which is required to lead - and be led.
Probably.
Tensions flared up, and then everyone was kung fu fighting.
Morale officer gets fired, and the rec room vids never get changed.
Like our reply to the hippies of the sixeties when they shouted "Make Love Not War!" We replied with "Make Love and War! Ya Get More!"
Did you even serve in the military?
In garrison you have the luxury of officer clubs, NCO clubs and enlisted clubs - sometimes. But there are also quite a few all-rank clubs. Should we punish everyone who has had a drink at those establishments?
Needless to say, there's no such luxury in the middle of a sandbox. Find something more important to worry about.
Are you off your meds, or are you always a prig?
SO9
Interesting observation. I survived Operation Desert Storm with nary a scratch, and none of my male commrades asked me to strip to bra and panties and roll around in the mud. Neither did my female commrades. Neither did my Commanding Officer, and the (all male) subordinates in my charge certainly didn't act like this, on duty or off.
Just a bunch of bad apples who will be dealt with by the proper authorities. What is it with these MP-types? I though military pilots were the hard partiers? ;)
Then why are you buying into it?
Disgusting with NO excuse.
In what manner? Standing there having a drink while soldiers blew off steam? You don't even know if they witnessed any of the disrobing.
Oh I see a trend all right and it's not one that the NAGs are going to like. The return of the W.A.C., W.A.V.E., W.A.F., and W.A.M. and all the old rules of separation. All of 'em!
Soldiers kicking back a few drinks, partying, dancing, joking arond,; that's all good. But why is it so hard to distinguish between having fun and acting innapropriately? I don't think these soldiers should be discharged, but they should be reprimanded. These actions were not done in the best judgement.
If they were watching two women box, that's one thing. Two women wrestling in the mud, revealing their bodies to their fellow comrades is another. These soldiers are the repreentatives of all that is right with America; they should act accordingly.
They can have interaction in an appropriate setting. I'm talking about a party where female soliders were exposing themselves, while NCOs were present and did not excuse themselves from the party.
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