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Reported rape stuns Stryker unit
Trib Net ^ | November 30th, 2003 | MICHAEL GILBERT

Posted on 11/30/2003 8:25:54 PM PST by joesnuffy

Reported rape stuns Stryker unit

MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait - A female Stryker brigade soldier reported she was raped, brigade officials said Saturday.

The sexual assault apparently occurred late Friday or early Saturday outside a women's shower trailer in one of the tent cities where brigade soldiers are living before they move up to Iraq.

Detectives from the Army's Criminal Investigation Division on Saturday taped off an area around a cargo container next to the shower trailer. The CID agents from Camp Arifjan, another Army post near Kuwait City, are handling the investigation.

The brigade's public affairs officer, Lt. Col. Joseph Piek, issued a two-paragraph statement:

"A 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division female soldier has allegedly been sexually assaulted at Camp Udairi. The soldier is being provided with medical care and emotional support," it said.

"The incident is under investigation. No other details will be released at this time to protect the soldier's identity, and to safeguard the investigation process."

Soldiers reacted with dismay and anger as word of the incident spread quickly through the camp. Some said whoever is responsible will be better off if the MPs catch him before the troops do.

"I guarantee you, if they find out who did it, they'll drag that guy out over the berm and that'll be it," one soldier said.

Meanwhile, female soldiers said they were exercising extra caution in the camp after dark. There are about 310 women in the brigade from Fort Lewis.

"It's sad," said Staff Sgt. Theresa Spicer, a supply sergeant with the brigade headquarters. "You can't trust your own people."

The assault follows a number of thefts and other breaches in discipline that have occurred at Camp Udairi over the last several days, much to the consternation of commanders and troops alike.

Earlier in the week, there were reports of ongoing pilfering in the motor pool, with hand microphones, antennas and other items disappearing.

The brigade commander, Col. Mike Rounds, warned he would put half the brigade's 5,000 soldiers on overnight watch if the thefts didn't cease; the message apparently had the desired effect.

On Wednesday, a Stryker brigade soldier lost an M-16 while making a call at the telephone center at the post's morale, welfare and recreation tents.

Commanders ordered the post locked down after the weapon was reported missing. It turned out that a soldier from another unit in the brigade had found the rifle but failed to report the recovery until after the whole brigade started looking for it.

In addition, all the soldiers at Camp Udairi had their personal belongings searched on Thursday after a break-in at the post exchange in which thousands of dollars in goods were stolen.

There are some 7,000 troops living at Udairi, including about 2,000 or so who are not part of the Stryker brigade and are stationed here permanently to maintain the camp. There are also several hundred civilian contract employees.

As of Saturday there were no reports that Stryker brigade soldiers had been implicated in the PX burglary or the pilferage in the motor pool.

But it's all wearing on the patience of the brigade's leaders, officers and enlisted, as they try to prepare for a long, hard year ahead in Iraq.

Members of the brigade's leadership team declined to comment on the case, citing their likely responsibility for overseeing any criminal or disciplinary proceedings that might result against any soldier or soldiers charged in the assault.

But one said privately he is saddened that he will have to report to the victim's family that he was unable to keep her safe within her own brigade.

Col. Rounds before Saturday had told his staff the incidents tarnish the brigade's good work in preparing for its mission in Iraq, which Army commanders have praised as setting a standard for all the other U.S. forces that will follow.

"The brigade's overall focus is getting ready for Iraq," said Piek, the brigade spokesman. "That does not diminish the seriousness of the alleged crime, and we're investigating it as seriously as we can.

"But it's not the kind of thing we need to be dealing with just a short time before we're to go north."

Staff writer Michael Gilbert is an embedded journalist with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, the Army's first Stryker brigade. Reach him at: mjgilbert41@yahoo.com.

(Published 12:01AM, November 30th, 2003)


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: 2ndinfantrydiv; 3rdbrigade; camparifjan; cid; crime; fortlewis; iraqifreedom; kuwait; rape; sexualassault; stryker; strykerbrigade; stynker; usarmy; wariniraq; wheelies
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To: Prodigal Son
No but I've got a lock on my shower door and nobody in my house is big enough to rape me.
21 posted on 11/30/2003 9:26:06 PM PST by TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig (Since when did calling someone a cowboy become an insult?)
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To: joesnuffy
They should keep this stuff internal during times of war and hang the bastard if he is military under military law.
22 posted on 11/30/2003 9:27:37 PM PST by Porterville (We are watching you liberal scum, soon we will take your welfare check, then we will take your home)
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To: big ern
Yeah, this is one of the problems though with communal living. You take your bayonet into the shower trailer and don't take into the actual shower stall with you, one of your "buddies" is going to take that bayonet. Same with a Buck Knife.
23 posted on 11/30/2003 9:30:21 PM PST by Prodigal Son
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To: Husker24
Why the hell not?

=======================

Commanders fear unintentional discharges. Troops are so poorly trained that UD are an extreme likelyhood. Commanders have so little understanding of firearms that they have troops do stupid things in thae name of firearms safety.

24 posted on 12/01/2003 1:49:28 AM PST by Lion Den Dan
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To: Cannoneer No. 4; archy
Ping
25 posted on 12/01/2003 2:50:26 AM PST by FreedomPoster (this space intentionally blank)
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To: Lion Den Dan
Good morning! In South Dakota? Or is it North?

I very much appreciate that you do not use the term "accidental discharge". Using AD really sets my teeth on edge. UD or ND (negligent discharge), either one, works.
26 posted on 12/01/2003 2:57:15 AM PST by FreedomPoster (this space intentionally blank)
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To: FreedomPoster; Cannoneer No. 4; archy; Lion Den Dan; big ern; Prodigal Son; Valin; Matthew James; ..
Here are my comments from another thread on this topic I posted earlier this morning:

Let this old retired maintenance warrant officer spout off on the topic of women in the military one more time. Females in the military do more to undermine the morale then they do to boost it! Call me a male chauvinist pig or whatever. I had a mission and having X number of females replace X number of males meant that the remainder of the males had to pick up the load and carry the females. That is just a plain old ordinary fact of life!

As an NCO I had females selling oral sexual favors to males on breaks. When I put an end to that the males all complained and even some of the women as they were making a few extra bucks on breaks. I had a female soldier offer me sexual favors if I would show her favors in assigning duties. As a warrant officer I had basically the same problems and a PC chain of command that was afraid of offending them. I tried to support the NCO's who felt the same way that I did, but was told to chill and not interfere.

Now we read of a female on ship who had a baby! Talk about exposing her fellow sailors/Marines to risk. This gives the ship's Captain one more concern to plan for when sailing into harm's way.

In no way will I ever infer that a female in a unit is asking for or deserves to be raped. I believe that rape should remain a capitol offense. I just do not want the leaders of our military to have to spend the extra resources needed to prevent it when not exposing women to those conditions would go a long way in preventing it.

Added to this thread:
Does she not carry her beretta with her everywhere even if she leaves her rifle in her bunk? Where is her combat knife? I have a hard time believing someone goes out raping amongst that many armed people.

By MTOE her personnel firearm might be an M9 but more than likely was an M16. This ain't like WWII movies where everyone and their brother packed a M1911A1, an M1 Garand and maybe a BAR, or so Hollywood would have us believe.

27 posted on 12/01/2003 3:03:07 AM PST by SLB ("We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us." C. S. Lewis)
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To: joesnuffy
Reality Check here, folks... As a former Military Police, I can tell you that if you've got over 9000 soldiers stationed anywhere, you're gonna have crime. Simple as that. Folks, these people aren't all Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Any problems or predispositions they had before joining, come with them. The Libs will probably make a big fat hairy deal out of this, but it is not an uncommon occurrence. I feel bad for her if indeed she was raped, but let’s not make more of this than it is.
28 posted on 12/01/2003 3:27:47 AM PST by WolfRunnerWoman (I want closure on the word "closure".)
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To: FreedomPoster
See Post 69 of Female Stryker brigade soldier alleges rape

There is more going on in this brigade than one rape.

Wonder what their blotter reports looked like at Fort Lewis?

29 posted on 12/01/2003 6:56:17 AM PST by Cannoneer No. 4 (Old soldiers never die. They just go to the commissary parking lot and regroup.)
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To: big ern
I'm not talking about pilfering equipment for personal benefit. I'm talking about how units get the equipment they need to operate.

I had an additional duty once as NBC NCO for a new unit we were bringing online. We had a classic scrounger supply sergeant, and he helped us get every single piece of equipment we needed through "unofficial" means - The official supply authorization process took almost a year. Once we got the official stuff, we swapped our unofficial NBC room with other units for a bunch of other stuff we needed.
30 posted on 12/01/2003 9:15:24 AM PST by LouD (Otherwise they might actually nominate someone who could win...)
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To: LouD
I knew what you meant but a sandwhich at night is what keeps you working through the midwatch. That's why they have Midrats (midnight rations) when you go out to sea, but the cooks didn't want to do it if we weren't out for more than a week.
31 posted on 12/01/2003 9:23:49 AM PST by TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig (Since when did calling someone a cowboy become an insult?)
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To: joesnuffy
All the soldiers have their DNA on file in their medical records. Should be easy enough to catch.
32 posted on 12/01/2003 3:08:32 PM PST by Britton J Wingfield (TANSTAAFL)
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To: big ern
I never mail-ordered some lock picks, and stole cheese-cake and frozen tacos from the Goat Locker every night while I was in the gulf. That would have been wrong.

33 posted on 12/01/2003 3:13:25 PM PST by Britton J Wingfield (TANSTAAFL)
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