Word: aberdeen
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Army may be unprepared for the extent of the damage it uncovers. A toll-free hotline set up at Aberdeen logged some 3,930 calls by the end of last week. Of this number, about 1 in 10 were crank calls, and some people were calling to report problems dating back to World War II. But other calls were considerably more urgent: 506 possible incidents of abuse, including 101 relating to Aberdeen, have been handed off to the Army Criminal Investigation Command for further study. Captain Paul Goodwin, a former company commander in the 143rd at Aberdeen, who has helped...
...allegations at Aberdeen, though, that raise the most troubling questions about the Army's ability to police itself. Nearly all the cases made public so far involve relationships that occurred between trainees and their direct commanders within the same company of the 143rd Battalion--a violation of one of the cardinal rules of the military, which forbids even consensual sex between a superior and subordinate in the same chain of command. Moreover, the relationship between drill sergeants and new recruits is one of the most highly charged in the military. Assuming authority that falls somewhere between in loco parentis...
Although most of the Aberdeen incidents occurred between July and September 1996, officials on base say they first became aware of the problems there in early September, when Private Jessica Bleckley complained that Staff Sergeant Nathanael Beach of the 143rd Battalion's Charlie Company had sexually assaulted her. Her protest unleashed a volley of other allegations, mostly involving Staff Sergeant Delmar Simpson, a 12-year Army veteran. According to Army documents, he told a trainee, "If anyone finds out about me having sex with you, I'll kill you." In the wake of such threats, the Army decided to jail...
There were also hints of trouble at Aberdeen long before Simpson was locked up. Lieut. Colonel Martin Utzig, commander of the 143rd, formally scolded him in January for jabbing a female recruit (superiors are not allowed to touch subordinates in training) and transferred him from Bravo to Alpha Company. And another drill sergeant with the 143rd was booted from the service earlier in Utzig's tenure for inappropriately touching a female student. This may have led Utzig and others to believe the problems were being properly handled, but it could also have masked a more serious breakdown in the chain...
Indeed, some soldiers at the 143rd Battalion's headquarters, a cluster of brick buildings 12 miles from Aberdeen's main post, confessed they were not shocked by the charges. They described a high school atmosphere on base where gossip about sex rustled among the troops. "There's lots of talk about relationships, but it's whispered, not broadcast widely," says Private Xanett Salgador-Hill, 18, a mechanic from Savannah, Georgia. "It's the same as in the civilian world, but people expect more from the military." Private Bashir Gray, 18, has heard the rumors too. "People were saying some...