http://www.armytimes.com/article/20140201/NEWS06/302010003/-Catastrophic-crime-ring
“The leaders of those units blaming Mr. Bennett for their problems in
the unit is not consistent with the way the Army does its business,” Sun
said. “I don’t think they would be saying that to an Army court, but I
guess through the U.S. attorney, they think that it’s appropriate to
tell you that. We don’t think it is.”
What do you think of Sun's parting shot?
Responsibility
Crime
Overall it is a tragedy, but I think the one comment to the article itself speaks volumes on the environment that the current and previous administrations created for the SMs serving repetitive dangerous deployments without enough recovery time, even though they preached a year or more, I personally was right back in Iraq in less than 8 months after initial 14 months deployment.
Many SMs saw all the contractors and local citizens making a mint from the government funds and off the military and it became more promoted by the lack of command control in many areas as is mentioned within the article, this is a similar statement made in many convictions and cases over the last decade.
Absolutely, If there are an abundant number of incidents, allegations and UCMJ/civilian charges pending or completed while in country and pending upon return, then the CDRs review is a priority of everything that led to the problems and how they were addressed once discovered as well. I do think there should be a external review conducted, and by that I mean outside of the Division altogether, because even though we know it is not supposed to be occurring, anything within the Division that could create a backlash will not receive a non-political unbiased investigation and review.
While it is true that the CDR cannot be everywhere 100% of the time, s/he is held accountable for all actions that take place within and under their command. The issue I have is that while the Warrant rcv'd 3 years and the E7 rcv'd 18 months, it showed that the junior SMs were slammed with BCD as well as jail time, again showing the prejudice of punishment between senior leaders and junior Soldiers. And yes the 1st two were civilian convictions, but the article did not address the military follow up on discharges or loss of benefits if any for either, only what was being done to the junior Soldiers.
I think this issue goes all the way up to the General staff within country that has perpetuated the rise of these types of events occurring with their own abuses, for example the General that was relieved of command for abusing his gov't. travel card for personal benefits for him and his wife. Troops see this and get in their heads that if the most senior leaders are doing it that it must be considered the norm when deployed away from home station or abroad at any times.
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