« Self-Defense Time | Main | Kerry's Plan for the Military »

May 27, 2004

Training Injuries

Jim Henley has been tracking reports of a soldier who says he was beaten by other soldiers during a training exercise.

In the interview, Baker said that as part of the training drill, he was given an orange detainee jumpsuit to wear and turned over to four soldiers. Baker said the soldiers beat and choked him, stopping when they saw he was wearing parts of an Army uniform.

Baker said he has undergone numerous treatments, but still has medical problems.

The Army has confirmed the story, although there is some dispute about the extent of Baker's injuries. Obviously I have no actual knowledge about this incident, but it does not surprise me to learn of it. When I was at Guantanamo back in 1995 (my unit was assigned to run housing camps for Cuban and Haitian refugees), we ran several exercises designed to prepare us just in case the refugees rioted. Some soldiers were assigned to act as refugees, so they dressed in civilian clothes and did their best to escape or put soldiers into threatening positions. During the course of these exercises, emotions would always run high, and on at least one occasion I saw one of the 'refugees' thrown to the ground with such force that he nearly lost an eye to a tent stake. Cooler heads quickly prevailed, but there's no question some serious injuries could have been incurred.

It's possible that this may explain what happened to SPC Baker. He was assigned as a role-player for some kind of prison training and the soldiers got carried away. Let's note that this is not an excuse for their actions; the officers and NCOs running the event have to be aware of the potential for lost tempers and guard against it. Particularly when the risk is even higher when dealing with real prisoners, since you can't just step in and tell everyone to knock it off in a real-world situation.

Again, I don't know what actually happened in this incident. But it sounds like some training may have gotten out of hand, and that suggests to me that the leadership isn't doing what it should to guard against people letting their emotions overpower their common sense. This is the type of thing Army leaders have to tackle in order to prevent abuses such as we've seen at Abu Ghraib, setting standards up front that ensure soldiers are trained to remain calm and professional in difficult situations. If they can't keep their cool in a training exercise, they have no business being exposed to real prisoners.