Posted on 11/15/2007 4:29:03 PM PST by radar101
SAN DIEGO -- A military jury on Thursday sentenced a Marine drill instructor to six months in the brig and gave him a bad-conduct discharge for abusing 23 recruits.
The instructor, Sgt. Jerrod M. Glass, also received a reduction in rank to private and pay forfeiture. He had faced a maximum sentence of 10 years of confinement, dishonorable discharge, reduction in rank, and forfeiture of pay and benefits.
Former colleagues lined up to hug Glass and shake his hand after the verdict was read. Glass, 25, hugged his parents.
Earlier, the prosecutors recommended he spend two years in the brig and receive a bad-conduct discharge.
"You need to send the message this is not tolerated," Marine Capt. Brent Sticker told jurors
The instructor's attorney had asked jurors to take into account Glass's previous, exemplary record and sentence him to 60 days of restricted duty and reduction to a rank of their choice.
"There's ways to deal with Sgt. Glass without throwing him out," Capt. Greg Jensen said.
"This wasn't meaningless, senseless violence," Jensen said of the alleged abuse. "It was done with the intent to assist (recruits)."
On Wednesday, Glass was found guilty of eight counts of cruelty and maltreatment, destruction of personal property, assault and violating orders on how to properly treat recruits.
He was relieved of drill instructor duty at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in February.
Glass was accused of ordering one recruit to jump headfirst into a trash can and then pushing him farther into the container. He is also accused of striking recruits with a tent pole and a heavy flashlight. None of the recruits was seriously injured.
Glass was one of three drill instructors charged with abusing recruits. Sgt. Robert C. Hankins and Sgt. Brian M. Wendel are facing special courts-martial on separate charges. A fourth instructor, Sgt. Joseph Villagomez, received administrative punishment.
About 17,000 recruits graduate each year from the depot. It is one of two Marine training depots nationwide; the other is in Parris Island, S.C.
And what is Al-Quaida going to do to them?
That is a dumb and stupid statement!
Sergeant Glass was not disloyal; he did not commit malingering; he did not engage in adultery; but he did get too enthusiastic about training recruits. He crossed the line, in the best judgment of his fellow Marines. Man up, Glass: take your punishment like a Marine, and you may be able to come back.
TC
How is this is the wrong behavior for a Marine DI?
Wonder which congresscritter's kid whined? No integrity at all. This guy did nothing compared to what MCRD was when I went through.
Give the little bastard that ratted a blanket party.
Not the enlisted Marines that shook his hand after the verdict.
Man up, Glass: take your punishment like a Marine, and you may be able to come back.
Since when may he 'be able to come back'?
six months in the brig and gave him a bad-conduct discharge for abusing 23 recruits.
He's done, and his prospects for a civilian job are severely limited with a 'big chicken dinner' discharge.
How will jumping into a garbage can make them into better marines? (I'm not being a smart-ass, I genuinely don't see the training benefit.) This seems a bit more like BS frat-house hazing than the professional military training that the USMC should aspire to.
“Not the enlisted Marines that shook his hand after the verdict.”
Yes, in the judgment of the court, which included those men.
TC
“his prospects for a civilian job are severely limited with a ‘big chicken dinner’ discharge.
“
Hate to say it, but no one cares. Civilians see it as a military affair they do not understand so therefore it is not important. I have known more than one BCD that had not hurt an employee.
Ridiculous.Today’s “abuse” was SOP 40 years ago in all service branches.
Here's the sentence from the story: 'Former colleagues lined up to hug Glass and shake his hand after the verdict was read. Glass, 25, hugged his parents.'
I would interpret that to mean fellow DIs and other Marines he worked with, not the enlisted member(s) of the jury (if he requested that).
True, a lot of companies don’t look at that. Many large corporations do though, and he is locked out of a lot of occupations...he won’t be a peace officer in California with a BCD.
When I went through basic training in 1968 a training cooked off a grenade in violation of instructions and accidentally dropped it. A quick reacting drill instructor tossed over the wall before it exploded. The drill instructors formed a circle and put the trainee in the center. They passed him from one drill instructor to the other each one punching and slapping him. We all got the message and nothing further happen to the kid after he got his behind whipped. I saw many other things that were worse than what this DI is charged with, and all of it seemed to be geared to making sure that we got the message.
I think that much of the “abuse” we received actually made us focus a lot better.
It certainly wasn’t in the Army in 1970.
This kind of hazing is totally unnecessary.
My original three Drill Instructors were replaced at the end of 1st phase and court marshalled because one sh!+bird couldn’t hack it and managed to get a complaint heard. Drill instructors are usually the best Marines, and it is disgraceful when officers who have never been through recruit training decide to play politics with them in order to further their own selfish careers.
I can almost guarantee that if the recruits from his platoon were there, they would have done the same.
Yep, things like that were SOP 40 years ago and still were 38 years ago when I experienced boot camp. We had drill instructors who did worse things. We also had a couple of DIs who were sadistic bastards who did some things that were over the edge. They were courts martialed for what they did and rightly so. Whether the rules are different now than they were then has nothing to do with anything. There were boundaries and rules you adhered to then as a DI and there are boundaries and rules for DIs now. The Corps wants marines who will be disciplined and follow the regulations at all times. That discipline is the basis for greatness that the Marines have achieved and if you break discipline you can be held liable to pay the price and worse yet your fellow marines might end up paying with you in a combat situation. This guy paid the price for not maintaining his self-discipline. Enduring torture is not the point of boot camp, that training comes later after the discipline is ingrained in the new marine. Recruits observing a superior doing something that is clearly outside of regulations are being given a crappy example.
At the first sign of incoming fire you may need to do things a lot nastier and more innovative than jumping into a garbage can to stay alive, and then return fire. I often worked with Marines during my three Vietnam campaigns in the Navy. I told my son Marine Corps training would be brutally hard, but he still became a rifleman and member of Presidential Security Forces. His training at School of Infantry, Security School and Guard Academy only got harder. He completed the “Crucible” at basic with a flesh-eating bacteria tearing at his legs and feet. At Guard Academy they sprayed a special Marine blend of pepper spray into his eyes, before he had to disable the other Marine attempting to take his pistol away from him. The only way to win in combat is to operate on the edge of what is possible, and way beyond what civilians would consider possible. Recruit training should shock people into ways of thinking and acting, which never occurred to them before.
I was an enlisted marine (E5) and and AF officer. I had one sadistic DI who was courts martialed for beating recruits and risking bodily harm to the recruits. He enjoyed inflicting pain and there was no point or training to be gained. The senior DI observed his actions and slapped his ass in the brig instantly.
This current guy also broke discipline and regulations for no real purpose. It doesn’t teach the recruits any valuable lesson to have their DI do something that is pointless and in violation of the standing orders. And by the way, it was probably the senior NCO DIs who handled bringing the original charges on the guy. Dumbasses make them look bad and tarnish their image.
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