The reason for this particular entry is to illustrate how things can very easily get out of hand when people decide to play "Politics" with peoples lives and careers. I feel that the primary person that committed the assault, and is given as an example, really isn't to blame for what happened in mid December of 2005, the Officer Corps is. I say this simply because the ability and chance to prevent it from ever happening was simply ignored. I also want to say before I get into it that the "Felon" is someone I deeply respect and consider a friend.

In mid December of 2005 we of TF Konohiki were preparing to leave FOB O'Ryan for good. To do this many items had to be destroyed with a fire, so one was built on this particular day and burned impressivly throughout the day. The Iraqi intrepreters were helping in the process by tossing various items into the bonfire. During this time I was assinged radio watch inside the bunker about thirty yards from were the incident would take place. there were roughly seven iraqis and seven american soldiers burning items.

One of the Iraqis had recieved permission from one of the Officers to take home anything he wanted, so long as it was not a military item, things like wood and chairs, these items are very hard to come-by in Iraq, especially wood.

One of the Seargents, SSG F, started throwing all the wood into the fire and when the Iraqi ( aka Bekum ) protested the burning of the wood he wanted to take home, SSG F said that he really couldn't care less what he was told and that he, SSG F would make sure that no wood would be left for him to take to his family. Of course this upset "Bekum" and I am told that he started throwing everything he got his hands on into the fire. apparently one of the things thrown into the fire was a plastic folder that we call a "dispatch" in this folder were the keys and paperwork to a large vehicle called an LMTV. SSG then told the "Terp" Bekum to go in the fire and retrieve the dispatch. When he refused SSG F grabbed him by the neck punched in the face and threw him into the fire. As he rolled out and tried to flee SSG F grabbed him again and started choking him, As this happened a second Iraqi "Terp" came to his aide, this "Terp" went by the name "Van Damm", he was also punched in the chest and face and thrown to the ground. ( This I was told by Van Damm himself ) It was at this time that others there ran to the fire and stopped the action.

I learned all of this just minutes after it happened because some of the Officers there began an immediate investigation and brought all the iraqis present to the CQ desk where I was at and had all of them write statements. One very intresting comment was made by the officer called Konohiki 55, he walked over to me as the statements were being written and said " Now we'll see what kind of commander we really have here. He threatens one Seargeant with a court martial and has him fill over three hundred sand bags in the middle of summer for running with headphones on,and now he's got felony assault on an Iraqi citizen." Most of us there felt that a court martial was warranted and at the very least, reduction in grade and punishment.

The NCO that committed the assault was confined to quarters and placed with a fellow NCO, his roomate and fellow Samoan. MSG Morrill showed up and put his arm around the NCO and seemed to be reassuring him not to worry. I did not hear the conversation but could only see facial expressions. As it turns out some of his fellow Samoans were taken off some upcoming patrols and got rather offended by this and made their oblections known, after which they were put back on patrols. There are cultural issues here worth discussing at length that did affect the unit training, and I will mention some in future blogs. Part of what we, as an Army, where trying to accomplish was to discourage Iraqis from turning to physical abuse to achieve desired results, yet we seemed to tolerate in our own ranks.

I think part of the rational for taking the Samoans off patrol was that most of them in the Task Force felt no wrong was committed, one fellow NCO even told the investigating Officer he would have done exactly the same thing, beating, choking and throwing the Iraqi into the fire.

As far as I can tell virtually nothing was done in the form of punishment, I know this because I saw the Seargeant in question a month later in Hawaii and asked him about it and he said all he had to do was apologize, I never thought that I had that option for jogging and listening to music. ( Yes, it's personal )

When one of my favorite "Terps" came back to duty I asked him to find out what was going on as far as the other "Terps" knew. This particular Terp didn't even know what had happened during his time off. He was quite shocked when I told him and reported back to me that a simple apology was given and they were asked to forget about it. I have to wonder if the leadership at the Abu Grahib prison or the Vietnam " My Lai " masacre ever just swept similar acts under the rug and therbye adding fuel to an impending fire.. I also felt this was an oppurtunity to show citizens of Iraq that we would not tolerate physical abuse of their fellow citizens. If the leadership doubts things like this don't get back to the Iraqi people I have to wonder what colour the sky is in their world.

Bekum was treated for his burns by our medical personel on site and we had a few days of tention as a result. We are supposed to protect these people not beat them. I do not know what happened to all the sworn statements that were taken that day or how far up the chain they went I just know it happened and people wanted to act like it didn't. I want to point out that part of me is glad nothing happened to this man, he really is a good man. But Army policy was again ignored by Morrill and the Command, exactly what Officer made the decision to do nothing I do not know but it was definetly an Officers decision.

Now how do I know that this involved a convicted felon and what could possibly be the reasoning behind no punishment being given ? And did this person already establish a track record of assaults ?

In November of 2004 while training at Fort Bliss Texas I personally reported an assault by SSG F to my then comanding Officer, LT. Smithers. I did this because I was the person he attacked. I won't get into specifics other then to say I was told by SSG F to lie next time I was questioned by a superior about our training and readiness. I had been asked some very direct questions by our CSM of the 100th BN and answered them honestly and this upset SSG F because it exposed weakness in our readiness.( There seemed to be alot of half truths said concerning training and readiness.) When I flat out refused to lie to superiors SSG F came at me from across a tent and threw a punch, other soldiers there grabbed him and I immediatly reported it to LT Smithers, nothing was done about it.

One of the Seargeants in my squad that lived in the same community with SSG F in Samoa told me to be careful because SSG F was convicted of assault and battery back in Samoa and actually put a guy in the hospital.

Later in December of 2004 several hundred of the pacific Islanders were sworn in a citizens of the United States, SSG F was not allowed to because of his conviction for assualt. As a mtter of FACT, SSG F was sworn in as a citizen about five days after the above mentioned assault. I believe that like so many other things this was just plain and simple "Politics". The Army is woefully short of personel and must find people to fill its ranks with non- traditional recruiting. By this I mean get many more people that do not fit the standard 18 to 24yr old male citzens. It was obvious the Samoans were offened by any possibilty of SSG F being dealt with harshly and I personally believe this was a factor in non punishement.

I can remember while stationed in Europe in the ealry eighties prior to dismissal every Friday we were all read the most recent court martials, crime and punishment, and it was a real eye opener and I really believed the swiftness and harshess help to enforce discipline. It was what the Army wanted. I truly believe in the Army and want this blog to inform people that one person can have a great impact on world events and they can be good and bad results. Keeping people around that are unsuitable to Army needs simply because we are now crunching numbers can only hurt our reputation , or have we already forgotten Abu Grahib?

I will pursue this particular issue with other venues simply because I went pretty far with military venues and recieved nothing. I do not enjoy writing about such an idiot like Morrill and will start reminding people of the very good men that were on the TF and some of their accomplishments. I am very proud to have been apart of what may be in Iraq and even prouder of the "average joe" I served with. If people like this continue to be allowed to make life and death decisions with those we love then they should be exposed.

I am still bothered by the fact that so many enlisted personal are in prison that served at Abu Grahib for some of the pictures we all saw and yet I have never hear of a single Officer getting prison time. And I must give one more example of physical abuse being tolerated by the Officer Corps. Just one week after our Batallion arrived in Iraq our Commanding Officer, LTC Ostermueller, attacked a fellow officer, one of his Majors. The soldiers that were there had to pull him off the much smaller Major and break his choke hold. His punishment ? reassingment to Bagdad. And this story was published in Hawaii's Honolulu Advertisor. If an enlisted person did such a thing I wonder ? reassingment or just an apology ?