Posted on 06/17/2005 12:48:29 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
A 37-year-old supply sergeant has been charged with two counts of premeditated murder in the June 7 deaths of his company commander and operations officer at a U.S. military camp near Tikrit, Iraq, officials said Friday.
Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez, of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 42nd Infantry Division, is being held at a detention facility in Kuwait, according to the U.S. command in Baghdad.
The incident, which claimed the lives of Capt. Phillip T. Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis E. Allen, was originally described by the military as an indirect fire attack on Forward Operating Base Danger, headquarters of the New York National Guard division. A few days later, though, the military said it had opened a criminal investigation.
With the two charges of Article 118 (murder) under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, it now appears to be the first incidence in Iraq of what has long been known in military slang as “fragging” — the deliberate killing of a soldier’s own superior officers.
Military officials did not offer a possible motive in announcing the charges against Martinez. They also declined comment on whether Martinez was facing disciplinary action at the time of the incident.
“Staff Sgt. Martinez has been and will continue to be afforded the extensive rights under the [UCMJ],” Col. Billy J. Buckner, a Multi-National Corps-Iraq spokesman, was quoted as saying in a military release.
Soldiers at FOB Danger, a former palace complex along the Tigris River, told Stars and Stripes in recent interviews that they heard a series of four explosions the night of the attack. On Friday, the Los Angeles Times — citing an unnamed “knowledgeable source” — reported “hand grenades and a claymore mine may have been utilized.”
According to a Chicago Tribune story by reporters embedded at the camp, military investigators have drained a man-made lake adjacent to the building where the attack occurred, searching for possible evidence dumped there. Because it sits near the lake, 42nd ID soldiers have dubbed the building the Water Palace.
The charges come the same week as Esposito, 30, and Allen, 34, were buried in their hometowns.
Esposito was a West Point graduate who was married and had an 18-month-old daughter. Allen was a high-school science teacher with a wife and four young sons, family members have said.
Several media reports have said military officers and investigators believe Esposito was the intended target of the attack. Allen had arrived in Iraq only four days before the incident.
Martinez joined the National Guard in 1990 and deployed to Iraq in May 2004, according to military records. He is married and has two children. If convicted, he could face a range of punishments, up to the death penalty.
The charges against Martinez are similar to the case of Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar, who was convicted in April of killing two 101st Airborne Division officers and injuring 14 other soldiers in March 2003 at a camp in the deserts of Kuwait.
Akbar was sentenced to death for that attack, which he said was an effort to stop U.S. soldiers from killing his fellow Muslims. The Akbar case was the first since the Vietnam War in which a U.S. soldier was accused of killing his wartime comrades.
Akbar was sentenced to death in April for the attack, which killed Capt. Christopher Seifert, 27, and Maj. Gregory Stone, 40, and injured 14 others.
Akbar's case was the first in which a soldier had faced a court martial for killing a comrade in wartime since Vietnam.
Wasn't the Akbar case a "fragging" too?
Maybe he resented the fact that his two superior officers were younger than him.
PING
A 37-year-old staff sergeant was charged in the deaths of two of his superior officers in the first alleged case of its kind in Iraq.
The announced this after the troops went to bed, evidently they have been concerned as to who would do this deed to a fellow service member.
Martinez could face a wide range of punishments if convicted in the deaths. Should it be pursued as a capital case, he could be sentenced to death. The other punishments range from reduction of military rank and pay grade to life imprisonment. But as you have read of my previous threads on soldier's murdering their own, they deserve DEATH if they in fact did the deed and convicted of such a horrific crime.
Trial by military court. Execution, immediately following a guilty verdict, by firing squad. No appeal.
I'm guessing here that the supply sergeant had built his own little "empire" over there, and had been discovered by the CO. The arrival of the LT may have tipped the scales toward shutting him down, hence the fragging.
Run of the mill "supply sergeants" don't handle Claymores or frags. Battalion level ammo NCOs do - which requires the rank of E-6. (I used to be a Bn ammo NCO.) I'd bet the guy's dirty as Hell.
I'll bet you're right.
Shades of Sergeant Bilko?
Let justice be swift and equal.
"FOB Danger"
What does FOB stand for? Free On Board Danger? (excuse my ignorance)
Did you not read the article"forward operating base".
In WWII, soldiers of recent German or Italian ancestry were sent to the Pacific and those of Japanese ancestry were sent to Europe. It may not be "politically correct," but it was effective.
No, I was reading too fast and skipped right over it. Sorry! Thanks for letting me know.
It SHOULD be pursued as a capital case, and he SHOULD be sentenced to death.
The Akbar attack took place in Kuwait prior to the invasion, not in Iraq.
FOB is short for "Forward Operating Base" and "Danger" is just the codeword used to identify that particular base
We'll probably see MORE of this crap. As long as there is NOT an immediate retaliation/death, the current/future perps will be brazen enough to copy such atrocities.
IF I was a military person, who came on the scene of this type of horror, my FIRST (and probably last) reaction would be, KILL the BASTARD.
One of my best friends in life was killed on Tuesday, June 7, 2005, at 10pm Iraq time. He was the Physics and Earth Science teacher at Tuxedo high and previously at Burke Catholic.
He was an oustanding teacher and friend.
He was reinstated in the National Guard after 9/11, and served with great pride. He was instrumental in cleaning up bodies after that disaster, and as a tank commander, in guarding the Lincoln Tunnel. In February, he was ordered to stand by to be sent to Iraq.
On Saturday, the fourth, he arrived in Tikrit. His emails to family and friends indicated that all was well. On Tuesday night, a friend was visting him. Both Lou and Captain Esposito were killed by an explosion.
The Army orginally reported that his death was the result of insurgent mortar fire, but now have changed it into a murder investigation.
He leaves behind a beautiful family, his wife Barbara, and 4 sons: Trevor, 6, Colin, 5, Sean, 3, and Jeremy, 1.
A scholarship for the boys will be set up in lieu of flowers.
Those wanting to help can send donations to the Berkshire Bank, c/o Rolly Peacock, P.O. Box 469, Goshen, NY 10924.
Checks should be made payable to the Louis Allen Memorial Fund.
SSG Martinez WAS an E-6, wasn't he? Not to say that your hypothesis may not be true, but he at least holds the rank to be a Bn ammo sergeant.
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