Posted on 06/28/2005 6:29:33 PM PDT by pfflier
Excerpts:
CHARLESTON, S.C. - A water survival instructor at the Parris Island Marine Corps Depot could face trial in the drowning of a 19-year-old recruit, and an investigation report released Tuesday said the death could have been prevented
snip
An Article 32 hearing, similar to a civilian grand jury proceeding, will be held in the Feb. 8 death of Jason Robert Tharp of Sutton, W.Va. Depending on the outcome, the instructor could face a trial by court-martial.
snip
Tharp was in his fifth week of his 12-week Marine training and apparently unhappy. He wrote home seven times that he wanted out of the Marine Corps, in which he had enlisted to get money for college.
As a result of his drowning, a water survival certified officer has assumed duties at the pool to improve supervision. Each year, more than 20,000 recruits pass through the pool. The last drowning was in 1991.
snip
The investigative report also recommended disciplinary action against three other Marines for actions related to Tharp's training but not connected to the drowning.
One allegedly threatened to have Tharp thrown into the poll if he did not get in on his own. A second, a drill instructor, grabbed Tharp by the shirt the day before the drowning and struck him on the forearm, and the third was a training officer who saw and failed to report that incident, the report said.
This is beyond coincidence. This is a media attack on the integrity of the military.
"This is beyond coincidence. This is a media attack on the integrity of the military."
I figured that out about the time the UN started demanding to know where our "prison ships" are.
Gawd. Show me a recruit in boot camp (particularly USMC boot camp) who doesn't want out at five weeks!!!!!!!
I can see it now: "You've had enough? Okay, here is your plane ticket home..."
Riiiiiiggggghhhhtttt.....
The boy doesn't sound very bright. If you are going in just for the money, the Marines are not your best choice.
Their lead story tomorrow will be "Military continues to have recruiting problems"
We also have Bob Mac Namera (SP?), bring back the draft articles, RM Nixon, and a host of "Vietnam" Replays. Ramsey Clark is all that is missing.
The scenario goes like this:
Bush lied to get us involved. He is a crook.
Rumsfeld lied about the progress
Chaney profited from Halliburton. He has millions in unpaid taxes from a phantom fund.
Condi Rice helped make up the lies by being the puppet master.
The Republican congress is not doing any checks and balances.
Vote Demoncrat in 2006 to get a majority in the senate.
Let the RINOS jump through the media hoops as they cannibalize their fellow Republicans
Frist, a relative do nothing ala Gerald Ford is constitutionally in line for the presidency.
The Hildabeast comes in to restore the executive branch.
If that looks familiar that is almost a mirror image of how we got Jimmy Carter.
I didn't. I wanted Honor Man!
LOL! Of course you did-you stuck it out and made it through...:)
But didn't you know guys who did want out?
Thanks for your service!
An apt parallel!
Bet ya looked real sharp in those Blues! ;<)
Semper Fi
Never got Honor Man, some guy lied to my Series Commander, said I was beating up Privates
I nevr laid a hand on anyone
A Marine recruit is dead, and not from Islamic terrorists. Of course there should be an investigation and, if warranted, a courts martial. The DIs are responsible for the lives of these recruits.
Matthew C. McKeon, the man court-martialed for the Ribbon Creek drowning, died on Veterans Day.
The day the corps changed RIDGELAND: On April 8, 1956, six Marine Corps recruits drowned in a disciplinary march into Ribbon Creek. The aftermath caused an overhaul of basic training.
By William H. Whitten Special to the Carolina Morning News Matthew C. McKeon, the Parris Island drill instructor who received national attention when he was court-martialed after six of his recruits drowned during a disciplinary march into Ribbon Creek on April 8, 1956, has died at the age of 79.
Ironically, he died on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
For days, news of the death of the man whose actions caused an overhaul of Marine Corps basic training - some say the demise of the "Old Corps" - has circulated by word of mouth and e-mail throughout the Marine Corps community.
McKeon's obituary appeared in the Worchester (Mass.) Telegram &Gazette but without reference to the Ribbon Creek tragedy.
After the most publicized court martial in Marine Corps history - even Life magazine sent a sketch artist to the trial - McKeon was acquitted on Aug. 4, 1956, of charges of manslaughter and oppression of troops. He was found guilty of negligent homicide and drinking on duty.
The sentence was a $270 fine, nine months of confinement at hard labor, rank reduced to private and a bad conduct discharge.
The secretary of the Navy later reduced the sentence to three months in the brig, reduction to private with no discharge and no fine. McKeon went back on active duty, regained his sergeant's stripes in about a year and served another 16 years, retiring in 1972 with time credited for his Navy service during World War II.
But in a real sense it was the Marine Corps which had been on trial. For Gen. Randolph Pate, the only Marine Corps Commandant to have been born in the local area (Port Royal, Feb. 11, 1898), the failure of the training system was a larger issue than McKeon.
Pate ordered a separate recruit training command to be established at Parris Island, and in San Diego, Calif., to be commanded by a brigadier general selected by the commandant and answering directly to him.
Each of the recruit training commands was to be staffed with specially trained officers "to supervise and monitor but not to supplant the drill instructors" in the training of recruits.
An inspector general was established at Marine headquarters in Washington, D.C.
What has been described as an "uninterrupted flood of publicity by the press, radio and television" divided the nation into opposing camps - those who condemned McKeon and the perception of cruel, sometimes injurious, recruit training, and those who sympathized with him, not wanting to see the nation's premier military service "go soft."
The story began some minutes after 10 p.m. on Sunday, Apr. 8, 1956, when McKeon - a staff sergeant and drill instructor - marched the 74 men of Platoon 71, "A" Company, 3d Recruit Training Battalion from their barracks to Ribbon Creek.
After the recruits, with their individual equipment, entered the tidal stream under darkness some stepped or slid into water over their heads and panicked.
Later testimony indicated that McKeon knew the area and if the recruits had strictly followed his directions, they might not have drowned.
But because he had been drinking earlier, and he decided the platoon needed an unannounced disciplinary night march and was the DI in charge when the drownings took place, the court placed the blame squarely on McKeon.
"In conducting an unauthorized and unnecessary march by night into an area of hazard ... which resulted in the deaths of six brother Marines, (he) not only broke established regulations but violated the fine traditions of the noncommissioned officers of the United States Marine Corps and betrayed the trust reposed in him by his country, his Corps, his lost comrades and the families of the dead," said the Corps, in ordering a general court martial.
But, with national attention centered on the already historic courtroom building and DI facility at Parris Island (since destroyed by fire), a celebrated New York civilian lawyer, Emile Zola Berman - who later defended Robert Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan - volunteered to defend McKeon without pay.
He mounted a massive public relations campaign on behalf of McKeon.
For three weeks there was testimony, including defense testimony by one of the Corps' most renowned heroes, Lt. Gen. Lewis "Chesty" Puller, and the Marine Corps commandant himself.
There was also testimony that McKeon was graduated from the base's DI school just three months earlier, ranking 14th in a class which began with 90 men and ended up with 55.
Documentary evidence showed that McKeon had also undergone a routine psychiatric screening three months before and had been given the highest possible rating on "motivation," "emotional stability" and "hostility factors," and a better than average rating on "achievement."
The psychiatric unit's conclusion was that McKeon was a "mature, stable appearing Marine."
On Oct. 18, 1956, McKeon - having already served part of his time prior to sentencing - was released from custody and restored to active duty, but with reduced rank.
Over the years at least two books have been written about the Ribbon Creek tragedy and infrequent interviews were done with McKeon, who lived out his life in the Worchester suburb of West Boylston.
John Stevens III, a former Marine and now a Massachusetts judge, authored the most recent book, "Court-Martial at Parris Island: The Ribbon Creek Incident," and was at Parris Island in October signing copies.
McKeon is survived by his wife, five children and eight grandchildren. He remained a member of the Marine Corps League. Burial on Nov. 15 was in St. Joseph's Cemetery, Leicester, Mass.
Semper Fi
For the record, I was Navy and spent more time training in the pool than I did showering during boot. It was an integral part of the training of young men who would be spending some of their tour of duty at sea. I've seen many a man panic in the water to the point where they were nearly impossible to save. I've also seen recruits so afraid of water they refused to go near the pool. 99% of them were cured with a swift kick.
It should be noted that the Marines are NAVAL INFANTRY, and as such, it can be assumed that they might, one day, be called upon to fufill a traditional role of naval infantry: assaulting hostile beaches, all of which you will note, border some large body of water. Should said Marine's landing craft or assault ship take some sort of damage which causes it to lose buoyancy, the Marines aboard will have to learn how to survive in the water. Hence, all the time they spend training in pools, much of it in full field gear.
What has not been mentioned in this case, to my knowledge, was whether the recruit in question was physically up to the task of maintaining buoyancy with a 60 pound ruck on his back, or whether or not the young man had an underlying medical condition that either caused him to panic (making it difficult for someone to yank him out of the pool in time) or which contributed to his drowning. To simply blame the instructors is wrong until all the facts are in. And yes, I know the DI's do have a responsibility for the safety of their recruits, they are also not supposed to mollycoddle them. Training is supposed to be as realistic as possible.
Finally, training accidents occur all the time and there is little difefrence between a recruit drowning at P.I. and a 10-year veteran cracking his FA-18 up during a carrier landing. Things happen, even when all the precautions and safeguards are in place.
I feel for this young man, but he volunteered. I feel for his family, but they are not entitled to sue the Marine Corps unless really gross negligence was involved, and until it was proven that some other outcome was possible.
Yeah, I wanted Honor Man too, I did end up as Second Squad Leader for most of 2nd and all of 3rd Phase through Graduation. That was in 1983.
I still remember our Platoon Number 1134, backwards it spells HELL, and were reminded of that fact daily. San Diego Hollywood Marine here.
We had a Navy Retread Staff Sergeant for a Senior DI, who served in Vietnam so we had all the fun Cadence Songs, no PC Crap for us back then. But Mid 2nd Phase he didn't show up, never did find out why, and Our Sgt got Promoted to SSGT, and was our new SDI.
Ahh... Those were the days.
Thanks for the memories.
Regards,
Joe
The point is that suddenly AP discovers two cases of recruit abuse . This is after we've been blasted with weeks of Gitmo abuse. The Army and Marines aren't making their recruiting goals.
The AP is trying to create and perpetuate a myth that American soldiers are sadistic. Mommy and daddy, keep your kids out of the hands of the meanie drill sergeants.
Get the picture?
Oh Yeah, these Men are going to war and need to be prepared for such.
What happens when a whiner is told to go through the door In Iraq, and he says no, and while he's whining, an IED goes off.
Men die in Training, accidents happen, and frankly I'm tired of all this PC Crap. Train them as the warriors they need to become.
Semper Fi!, Never Die, and Once a Marine, Always a Marine.
Ohh-Rah......
Are you sure about that ? Check your source.
I read that only the Army National Guard was not meeting their goals.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.