Word: cortez
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...some form of combat nearly every day, suffering from a high casualty rate and enduring chronic breakdowns in leadership, one of the battalion's platoons - 1st Platoon, Bravo Company - fell into a tailspin of poor discipline, substance abuse and brutality. In March 2006, four 1st Platoon soldiers - Specialist Paul Cortez, Specialist James Barker, Private First Class Jesse Spielman and Private First Class Steven Green - perpetrated one of the most heinous war crimes known to have been committed by U.S. forces during the Iraq War: the rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the cold-blooded murders...
Spielman packed up the cards and put them away. Cortez went out to the truck to check on Private Seth Scheller, who was the only one on guard. Scheller was a brand-new private and he had been in the truck all morning...
...Cortez returned and said, "If we are going to do this, let's go before I change my mind." He and Barker started changing their clothes, putting on their black, silk-weight Polartec tops and bottoms and balaclava thermal face masks to obscure their faces. They wanted to look like insurgents, they said, and ordered Spielman and Green to do the same. Green objected, saying he wasn't changing. At least take your patches off, Cortez said, which Green did. Spielman only wore his uniform bottoms and a T-shirt while Green kept his whole uniform on. Cortez insisted they...
Green grabbed a shotgun, Cortez and Barker snagged M-4 rifles. Spielman picked up an M-14, a larger, heavier rifle than the M-4 frequently used as a longer-range weapon...
...Cortez briefed Howard. Cortez told him they knew about an Iraqi girl who lived near here and they were going to go out and f___ her. To Howard, it was the most insane thing he'd ever heard. He did not believe them, but he also could not believe that they were actually leaving for somewhere, leaving him and Scheller alone. Cortez gave the radio and told him to call if there were any patrols or humvees coming through...