Posted on 10/08/2008 1:36:44 PM PDT by ansel12
Army disciplines sergeants in Jewish soldier case By CHRIS REINOLDS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, October 05, 2008
The Atlanta Anti-Defamation League said Sunday it has intervened in the case of a Jewish soldier at Fort Benning who allegedly suffered religious discrimination.
At the ADL’s request, Army Pvt. Michael Handman has been moved to another unit.
League spokesman Bill Nigut said that in September, Handman wrote to his parents and complained that he had been discriminated against. Two drill sergeants were disciplined in connection with those incidents.
Then, on Sept. 24, Handman was attacked and beaten by another soldier. He was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for a concussion and bruises and was released, said Fort Benning spokeswoman Monica Manganaro.
Army officials do not believe Handman’s initial complaint was connected to the beating, Manganaro said.
The soldier was not available to be interviewed because of a continuing investigation by the Army into the assault, she said. Efforts to contact his parents Sunday were not successful.
Handman wrote to his parents after a drill sergeant refused to let the 20-year-old soldier, an observant Jew, wear his yarmulke in the dining hall, Manganaro said. The sergeant also did not allow him to pray during guard duty.
Army policy allows Jews to wear their yarmulke while dining, but no one is allowed to pray while on guard duty, she said.
Another drill sergeant allegedly referred to Handman as “Juden” – a German word for Jew and a perjorative term.
“That drill sergeant has lived in Germany and did not know that it is derogatory,” Manganaro said. “It doesn’t matter if you are aware or not.”
The sergeants received a letter of reprimand and sensitivity training that requires them to teach a class on various customs and religions.
The first time battalion leadership heard about the problem between Handman and the drill sergeants was Sept. 19, when it received a notice of a “congressional inquiry” from the office U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Manganarao said. The young soldier’s parents had contacted Chambliss after receiving their son’s letter.
Sworn statements taken from other soldiers in the unit denied any religious discrimination was taking place, she said.
Nigut said the ADL became involved late last week after the assault and requested that the Army move Handman for his safety.
“We know that in basic training, the job of a drill sergeant is to break down the trainees. But it would be highly offensive if in attempt to break the trainees down, they chose to use anti-Semitic, racist or ethnic slurs. It opens those individuals up to taunting by other trainees,” Nigut said.
Neil Block, a retired Navy captain and a leader of the Jewish community in Columbus, near Fort Benning, was brought in to talk with Handman and assess the situation.
“The incidents involving Handman are not the same incident. There’s not this great conspiracy out there … and the Army is absolutely behind rectifying any issues that need to be resolved,” said Block, who runs a Jewish religious program in Columbus that attracts about 300 soldiers every week.
Block said he knew Handman before the assault and that he is a “solid” young man, not a complainer or troublemaker. The private attended college for two years before enlisting.
He said he saw Handman Sunday morning, and the soldier looks “fine.”
“He’s confused because he wants to stay in the Army, but at same time, he’s concerned about the hostility in the unit he came from,” Block said.
“Basic training’s a different kind of experience and very subjective,” he said. “These drill sergeants had not set out to be anti-Semitic or discriminatory. They just screwed up, and the Army has dealt with it appropriately.”
I’m taking Captain Block at his word. I’ll believe a Navy officer who is a Jew before I’ll believe the ADL.
Just cuz I’m Jewish doesn’t mean that I believe every Ahole hates me because I’m a Jew. Usually, they are just Aholes who hate people cuz they don’t have anything better to do or more intelligent to say. It’s rarely personal.
So the guard was lying?
During my time in Basic in the mid-1990’s, the Drill Sergeants were very scrupulous about not trampling on religious rights. They’d overturn your bed, throw your locker down, make you do front-back-goes in a sand pit for 2-3 hours, but they never went after someone for their religious beliefs.
Why? Oh yeah, this is the new sensitive Army. Long ago they'd use anything about you in order to tear you down. It wasn't actually about your religion, race, origin, height, or the size of your nose -- no discrimination on anything but the soldier you were becoming.
Same here, did basic in 1990 and the DI’s never went after religion or race. Although I have never seen a stress card, I have heard a lot about them. Do they even have stress cards still? If they do, the recruit could always throw up his stress card I suppose. Not really sure though as I have never seen them in action.
I hope they’re looking into what WAS the cause of the “fist-fight”. Presumably it’s not normal daily routine for soldiers to be engaging in random fights that end up with one of them requiring treatment for a concussion.
“The sergeants received a letter of reprimand and sensitivity training”
No `diversity training’?
Minuses- Level of training not as hard (though I wasn't complaining about it at the time), having to carry their gear after they got their inevitable "stress fractures".
Pluses- Barracks a whole lot cleaner (girls do clean better than guys), the girls were actually stronger and better trained than Women Marines or Women Navy...that was because while the guys' training was softer, the women had it tougher and thus they were tougher.
“I hope they’re looking into what WAS the cause of the “fist-fight”. Presumably it’s not normal daily routine for soldiers to be engaging in random fights that end up with one of them requiring treatment for a concussion.”
I killed a player in High School football, things happen.
From USA Today
“He was treated for a concussion and bruising to the left side of his face at the Army hospital on post and moved to a different platoon after he returned to training the next day, said Fort Benning spokeswoman Monica Manganaro.”
“Investigators have interviewed a fellow trainee suspected of attacking Handman, but no charges have been filed. Mangaro said investigators believe the attack “was not due to religious prejudice” but would not explain why.”
pabianice
US Navy (retired)
My close buddy went through Basic and then AI training at Fort Benning (Infantry) last summer. He was very knowledgeable about the Army and knew a great deal about the training process before he ever left home, due to the prior service of several of his family members and friends.
After he finished up, he told me that the quality of his DIs varied greatly, from first rate to outright incompetent. Moreover, apparently there was some kind of internal peeing match going on between those DIs who had served in the Sand Box and those who had not, resulting in clear acrimony among them.
Not kosher. Morale in the training companies plummeted because of it, and there was about a 66% loss rate in my pard's outfit (he was one of the one's who made it).
True story.
“This Jew suspects Handsman is a whiney putz who his bunkmates couldn’t stand.”
My whiney putz antennae are starting to twitch a little, it doesn’t help that they brought in Mikey Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to do what it does against the military.
Whooo, after using the word putz, I figured that I better look it up since I didn’t know what it meant.
I liked this definition-in this context (basic training).
“To behave in an idle manner; putter.”
I am a Jew, and do not think he should be permitted to wear a kipah (yarmulke), nor pray on guard duty, as no one should. I think the Army exists to create killing machines, not soldiers of diversity. I don't give a shit what religion anyone is. Pray on your own time, in private, and keep it out of the training. Do we want damned footbaths mandated for Muslim soliders? This is my big beef with the stinking ADL, and why I yell at my aunt for donating to it.
Another drill sergeant allegedly referred to Handman as “Juden” – a German word for Jew and a perjorative term.
On the other hand, my son will learn that if anyone in the Army (or Marines, which he wants to join) calls him a "Juden", he is to break their nose (drill sergeants excepted).
There was gender integrated basic training in the late seventies. President Reagan put an end to it along with implementing the “We ask don’t join” policy for sodomists.
They are just overall more likely to break. The VA numbers...if you can find them...will illustrate this. The cost of gender integration and reduced standards will manifest itself for decades.
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