Posted on 11/16/2007 3:03:45 AM PST by Former Military Chick
SAN DIEGO – The first in a trilogy of trials that form perhaps the biggest recruit-abuse scandal in Marine Corps history ended yesterday with a former drill instructor being sentenced to six months in prison. Sgt. Jerrod M. Glass also was demoted to the lowest Marine rank – private – and received a bad-conduct discharge. A military jury had found that he beat or otherwise denigrated 23 men in his charge last winter at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego.
Glass had faced a maximum sentence of 9½ years in prison.
In the coming weeks, two drill instructors who worked with Glass – Sgts. Robert Hankins and Brian Wendel – will undergo courts-martial on charges such as cruelty, assault and disobeying orders.
Hankins, Wendel and Glass supervised the same platoon of recruits. Beyond their case, more than 40 other drill instructors at the depot have been punished in the past three years for misconduct involving recruits.
Yesterday, Glass blinked several times after hearing the verdict in a courtroom at the boot camp. He told a member of his defense team that he was fine, but his eyes looked red and moist.
His mother, Barbara Glass, could be heard sobbing. His father, Jerry Glass, wiped his eyes. Outside the courtroom, the couple again said their son had acted in accordance with the wishes of his superiors.
“I have utmost respect for the Marine Corps as a whole. But the problem I have is with the judicial system. . . . The rules of evidence don't let you tell the whole truth,” Jerry Glass said.
“Marine officials have their heads in the sand if they don't think this is happening every day,” he added.
Glass neither took the witness stand nor made any public comments during his trial. The lead defense attorney, Capt. Patrick Callahan, spoke on his behalf after the sentencing.
“Sgt. Glass did what he did because he thought it was the right thing to do and because it was what he was directed to do by Sgt. Hankins and Sgt. Wendel,” Callahan said.
“(He wanted) to get these troops ready for combat, combat that he had experienced himself,” Callahan added. “That his Marine Corps career is over is harder on him than the prison time he is going to do.”
The jury deliberated two hours before sentencing Glass on eight counts of assault, maltreatment, violating a lawful order and destruction of property. The abuse ranged from hitting recruits with a tent pole and flashlight to making them drink water until they threw up, then making them wallow in the vomit.
Regulations ban using undue force on recruits. But tales of boot camp mistreatment are widespread and long-running, and some former recruits believe the tough approach is a valued part of Marine Corps culture.
At least one of Glass' recruits said his former sergeant was framed.
“Sgt. Glass is a great man,” Pfc. Bradley Montgomery said yesterday. “People went in and lied about him. There was no recruit abuse. I think some people were out to bring him down.”
In his closing arguments yesterday for the sentencing phase, prosecutor Capt. Brent Stricker asked jurors to send Glass to prison.
“Drill instructors right now are going to be watching your decision in this case. . . . If he's not sent to the brig, none of the drill instructors is going to be deterred,” he said.
Capt. Greg Jensen, a defense attorney, recommended 60 days of restriction and said Glass should stay in the Corps.
“It's not time to quit on this Marine,” Jensen said.
jury had found that he beat or otherwise denigrated 23 men in his charge last winter
or does it?
They used to promote guys like this. We are in a downward spiral.
jury had found that he beat or otherwise denigrated 23 men in his charge last winter or does it?
By today's standards, my DI's would have received 6 life sentences...!
If the other Sgt's outrank him, I do not trust this article to get the ranks correct, they will go to prison.
“San Diego Marines”
Personally I don’t like to joke about how California attitudes seep into Marine Boot camp just because of geographical location but......
This trial has left coast/left wing pansies written all over it.
That may have been the case when you were riding with Custer, but it ain't the case now. A funny thing is that my tough as nails retired Gunnery Sargeant brother-in-law and my tough as nails USMC Corporal son happen to agree that you don't abuse the recruits in the manner these guys did. The Corps comes under enough unfair scrutiny from trash like Hairless Reid, Karl Lenin, and despicable Murtha without their d.i.s adding fuel to the fire. The "downward spiral", if it exists, exists in part because people that should know better provide the goddamn fuel.
the worst I ever got was an 8 hour trash can watch...outside, in the winter.....
That in and of itself justifies the conviction and sentence.
My Son is in bootcamp, he left 10 days ago. I hope this is much worse on me than it is on him. But I am his Mom (you all know how us Moms are)
MCRD has watched San Diego grow up around it. Blaming this on the culture of SoCal is misguided. What is a legitmate concern is that the WM CG of MCRD has had an adverse effect on what happens at the depot. If zeros wanted to, they could probably charge one DI from every platoon that has ever existed for abuse. It would be interesting to see a comparison of the number of cases involving DIs between Parris Island and San Diego since Salinas assumed command.
he will be fine....gets fed 3 times a day, plenty of fresh air and exersize...and lots of new friends..and brand new clean clothes...
I haven’t heard of any cases at PI, have you?
Personally I was hit repeatedly by my DI’s and crawled through muck I believe was deliberately “enhanced” by various bodily secretions and byproducts for effect.
I have 2 reactions:
“In his closing arguments yesterday for the sentencing phase, prosecutor Capt. Brent Stricker asked jurors to send Glass to prison.”
Seeing statements like that shows just how self-righteous one must be to be a prosecutor — you have to leave the button in your brain in the “off” position that would normally tell you that you’re really going “over the top”.
Second, this strikes me an analogous to Abu Ghraib prison camp abuse, in that both prison and boot camp provide a ‘theatre’ for certain people with a sadistic impulse. That’s why the activities have to be carefully managed. In Abu Ghraib, the army let a very little gang of immature, deviant,obsessed national guardsmen/women bring (with help from the leftist media) shame on the US.
So oversight in these settings is critical, and was clearly missing here.
MCRD, Parris Island or Ft Knox?
Just write several times a week, send small newspaper clippings or the odd family photo - that’s about all that is allowed anyway.
I sent my son quotes from various Marines and pages of MoH awards. In a Warrior Culture, support the Warrior!
He should do just fine.
Seriously, you and I both know that the officers in charge and the senior DI's set the tone for this to happen.
Glass may have been cut loose, but I'm thinking he did a LOT more that we aren't privy to and even his chain of command couldn't cover for him.
I don't know the guy but I'd rather send him up than start having Marine boots marched into the swamps to die by accident like they did back in the 50's.
....and yes, I've had the abuse, which was worse than a tent pole upside the head but at least I think I deserved it. /sarc
If I remember correctly Chesty Puller himself testified at that court martial about how Marines should be trained and I think won an acquittal for that DI.
Jack Webb may have even done a fictional account of it in “The DI”.
I would hate to think that Glass himself couldn’t make it through what we went through.
When I got out of Boot Camp I never wanted to have to hit another Marine, (I did several times without being charged) but my first instinct was that if I ever was a Drill Instructor I could do it without beating on recruits.
If Glass and his cronies are guilty of anything it is of being poor leaders, a capital sin in the Corps.
It causes your blood sodium to drop and your brain swells up....that's what causes you to puke, not the fact that your stomach is full.
Classic mistake of hazing and "punishments" that lead to death.
My father was at PI when the Marines were drowned. He was hard as nails, salty and a warrior.....When we were older and could talk like men to each other he said the DI involved was an a##hole and should have been stuck out there himself.
It all starts from the officer in charge letting the kids play without supervision and you are absolutely correct (in spite of your poor choice of boot training) that poor leadership was the key to this whole mess.
You take care of your men, first......always. Eat chow before you, get liberty before you, get up after you do and go to bed before you do.... you make sure that each of your men is squared away.
Now as far as Hollywood Marine training...... well my brother...the women train with ya'll in Paris Island.....bwahahahahahaha....
just kidding...Semper Fi
No comment about the third choice, please.
I'll bet it wasn't known as a "trash can", though...
Seriously, in our platoon (July 1966) one poor kid was picked on and thumped to the point that at graduation, the series commanding officer asked if he wanted to press charges (he didn't).
Just be glad MCRD San Diego isn’t MCRD San Francisco or you’d be sporting a whole different sort of Camouflage.
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