San Diego Union-Tribune
December 13, 2007
Marine DI Standing Trial Over Training
Witnesses testify about tactics used on recruits
By Steve Liewer, Staff Writer
SAN DIEGO – Stomping on shaving kits. Drinking water to the point of vomiting. Slathering on sunscreen and coating it with dirt. Cramming recruits into bathroom stalls like clowns in a Volkswagen.
All choreographed by screaming, glowering Marine drill instructors.
Marking the start of testimony in the court-martial of Sgt. Brian Wendel, witnesses yesterday painted a vivid picture of life at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego last winter for members of Platoon 2167.
Wendel, 30, is charged with 17 counts of crimes such as maltreatment of recruits, assault and lying to an investigator.
Prosecutors rested their case in the late afternoon after questioning investigators, teachers from the depot's drill-instructor school and recruits who were part of Platoon 2167.
Defense attorneys told the judge, Maj. Brian Kasprzyk, that they will ask this morning that charges be dismissed because the prosecution hasn't proved its case.
Former recruits testified yesterday that Wendel wasn't present for most of the abuse. Several also said Wendel forced each platoon member to drink two or three canteens of water until several recruits vomited. They said Wendel became angry because, against his orders, some of them had eaten desserts after dinner.
“The issue you have to decide is, does that cross the line?” Capt. Jahn Olson, the senior defense attorney, told the jury panel.
The glimpse behind the boot camp's curtain came largely through the testimony of Sgt. Jerrod Glass, the drill instructor whom prosecutors described as mainly responsible for the platoon's “two months of terror.”
Glass, 25, was the “kill hat” – a Marine term for the most junior and most aggressive of the platoon's four drill instructors. In November, a military jury found Glass guilty of mistreating recruits and sentenced him to six months in a military brig, a reduction in rank to private and a bad-conduct discharge.
But the prosecution also said that Wendel, the platoon's second-ranking drill instructor, witnessed many of Glass' cruel actions and even taught him some of the techniques.
“He turned a bright, promising drill instructor ... into a boorish bully,” said Capt. Christian Pappas, the lead prosecutor.
Although Glass was told not to strike recruits or force them into punishment exercises for more than eight minutes at a time, he said violations of those rules occurred every day.
The best drill instructors, Glass said, were good at “slinging stress” – finding ingenious ways to harass and unsettle the young recruits. The constant hazing may seem strange to the uninitiated, but Marines consider it a time-tested way of molding the world's best warriors.
Sometimes, Glass said, he would squeeze up to half a tube of sunscreen onto each recruit and order him to rub it in from head to toe. Then he would order the recruits to march or roll in dirt until they were filthy and uncomfortable.
Frequently, Glass ordered several dozen of his recruits to cram into four or five bathroom stalls. If they succeeded, he would reduce the number of stalls to two or three.
Such actions led drill instructors to violate training rules “several times a day,” Glass said. They got rougher, he said, after Sgt. Robert Hankins – the senior drill instructor – felt the platoon was falling behind others.
Glass said he felt betrayed when Hankins and Wendel turned him in for hitting a recruit with a flashlight and giving him a black eye. Although the two senior drill instructors usually weren't present for the abuse, Glass said, he contended that they condoned it.
Glass said he doesn't regret his actions.
“I would probably get clemency if I would just apologize and say I was wrong to hit recruits, and that I was the only one who did,” Glass said. “But I have my integrity.”
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