Posted on 05/12/2009 5:27:32 PM PDT by SandRat
| WASHINGTON, May 12, 2009 – Military officials in Baghdad today identified a soldier who has been charged with shooting and killing five of his comrades yesterday at a combat stress center at Camp Liberty, Iraq.
Army Sgt. John M. Russell, 44, of Sherman, Texas, is being held in military police custody at Victory Base Complex in Baghdad, and has been charged with five specifications of murder and one of aggravated assault, Army Maj. Hunter Holliday, a military spokesman in Baghdad, said. |
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Three tours in Iraq. Short too...like two weeks.
44 year old Sgt? E-5? Seems a little old for just an E-5.
Plus, so short is also odd. I hope more details come out.
This blog is claim that the man is a muslim, and that it’s being reported by the islamic BBC
http://ibloga.blogspot.com/2009/05/camp-liberty-shooter-was-muslim.html
This is the BBC website in Arabic. JVeritas, can you confirm this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/arabic/news/newsid_8044000/8044972.stm
I think the BBC report turned out to be about an earlier attack (by the base imam in Mosul) but was confusingly translated by Babelfish or some automatic translator. I’m not sure any information has been released about this guy from the US yet.
That is a little on the old side, but there could be a couple of explanations. One would be a break in service, maybe of quite a few years, another would be someone who joined right after 9-11, and was a little old for a first enlistment, but there were lots of those, and more now as they've raised the maximum age for enlistment. I've got a nephew who is only 35, and just barely that, he's a SFC, E-7, in the reserves, AND, IIRC, he had a break in service between his active duty, which would have started around 1993/4 and when he went into the reserves. He's done one voluntary year in the sandbox...based in Kuwait, but TDY to Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi, Kyrgyzstan, and pretty everywhere in Central command's AO. He's now doing "involuntary" tour, with his unit this time, but they are at Ft. Sill, backfilling for active duty types who have other work to do, in other places. Since he lives in OK City, he can drive home on the weekends, or whenever else he can get a pass.
Thanks, Livius.
Last name of Russel and from Texas? What better cover for a Muzzie infiltrator?
I think those are all valid explanations. The other thing that I forgot, is that the reporters will frequently get the titles of SNCO, especially in the Army, wrong. Sometimes it seems that everyone from E-5 to E-9, gets labeled Sgt.
And that bastard Alberto Martinez got away completely with his fragging. I'm not holding my breath waiting for justice in this case.
They were talking about an earlier happening.
They guy was from this area. A 44 year old with 10 years in service.
That right there smells funny to me. He joined up in 99 at age 34?
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