A sergeant at Fort Lewis has made the news. It was for allegedly committing a crime.
A sampling of some crimes committed or allegedly committed by Fort Lewis soldiers:
Olympia Police Arrest 2 Fort Lewis Soldiers:
Pierce County prosecutors have charged a Fort Lewis soldier with promoting prostitution, alleging he directed two teenage girls to trade sex for money.Stories about crimes that occur near a military base that involve military members frequently make it into the local newspapers. In some cases, the stories appear to be written in a manner that are trying to put the military in a bad light. Fort Lewis has certainly been in the news over the last few years. Not for little crimes. For big, bad crimes. I don't think the newspapers are picking on Fort Lewis, either. McChord AFB is the next door neighbor to Fort Lewis. A search for news stories about McChord yields results like "Air Show" or "Fireworks" or "USO Hugs and Kisses", but no stories about criminal behavior.
The girls involved in the case are 16 and 17 years old.
A sampling of some crimes committed or allegedly committed by Fort Lewis soldiers:
Olympia Police Arrest 2 Fort Lewis Soldiers:
Police have arrested two Fort Lewis soldiers following the weekend stabbing of a 24-year-old man outside an Olympia, Wash., bar.Army Files Charges Against Soldier in Death of Teen at Fort Lewis:
Pvt. Timothy E. Bennitt, 19, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of Leah King. He was also charged with wrongful use and distribution of controlled substances and conspiracy to use controlled substances.Soldier Sought in Abductions, Fires:
A Fort Lewis Stryker Brigade soldier accused of abducting and torturing two women is being sought on a warrant that charges kidnapping, rape and arson.Fort Lewis Soldiers Charged in University District Holdups:
Three Fort Lewis soldiers accused of robbing University of Washington students at gunpoint last month were charged with robbery Friday in King County Superior Court.Fort Lewis Officer Among Soldiers Accused of Skimming Reconstruction Money:
In a federal indictment in March, prosecutors alleged that Nguyen skimmed more than $690,000 in cash while acting as the civil-affairs officer responsible for overseeing millions of dollars intended for reconstruction projects and payments to private Iraqi security forces northeast of Baghdad.
Nguyen, 28, a West Point Military Academy graduate, is accused of packing stacks of cash into boxes and mailing them to his family's home.
Former Army Ranger Gets 24 Years in Prison for Bank Robbery:
What is the U.S. Army doing about this? These are serious crimes that pose a big risk to the local community. They are robbing community banks, robbing local college students at gunpoint, being very involved in the death due to drug overdose of a local girl, and pimping out local girls.
I certainly don't want to indict all of the soldiers at Fort Lewis. In fact, the soldiers that were robbing college kids were turned in by a fellow soldier after bragging about pistol-whipping one of the students. Still, these are a lot of serious crimes happening in a pretty short period of time. I have commented on these stories in the past, defending the soldiers. It is getting kind of tough to continue to comment that most of the soldiers at Fort Lewis are good people. I think that the time has come that the Commanding Officers of the base and the various units take action to protect the community. These thugs may represent only a small percentage of the soldiers at Fort Lewis, but they pose a substantial risk to the members of the surrounding communities.
I think it is time some officers at Fort Lewis get fired. I am not talking about the O-1's and O-2's. I mean guys that have scrambled eggs on their hats. They are failing in their duties and have squandered their chances to stop this crime wave emanating from Fort Lewis.
According to documents filed in the case, Sommer was an Army Ranger stationed at Fort Lewis when he recruited two other Rangers, Chad Palmer and Alex Blum, and Canadian nationals Tigra Robertson and Nathan Dunmall to participate in the Aug. 7, 2006, robbery of a Bank of America branch on South Tacoma Way. The robbers, some armed with AK-47s and wearing body armor, made off with $54,011.Admittedly, the embezzlement crime happened in Iraq, but I felt justified in including it in the list because the money was spent at or near Fort Lewis. Other than the bank robbery, which occurred in 2006, these crimes were all committed in the last six months.
What is the U.S. Army doing about this? These are serious crimes that pose a big risk to the local community. They are robbing community banks, robbing local college students at gunpoint, being very involved in the death due to drug overdose of a local girl, and pimping out local girls.
I certainly don't want to indict all of the soldiers at Fort Lewis. In fact, the soldiers that were robbing college kids were turned in by a fellow soldier after bragging about pistol-whipping one of the students. Still, these are a lot of serious crimes happening in a pretty short period of time. I have commented on these stories in the past, defending the soldiers. It is getting kind of tough to continue to comment that most of the soldiers at Fort Lewis are good people. I think that the time has come that the Commanding Officers of the base and the various units take action to protect the community. These thugs may represent only a small percentage of the soldiers at Fort Lewis, but they pose a substantial risk to the members of the surrounding communities.
I think it is time some officers at Fort Lewis get fired. I am not talking about the O-1's and O-2's. I mean guys that have scrambled eggs on their hats. They are failing in their duties and have squandered their chances to stop this crime wave emanating from Fort Lewis.
3 comments:
Wadda expect, they are soldiers, not Marines.
I was in the local barbershop in Iowa, and had the opportunity to give a Marine ten dollars for his haircut.
U.S. Army vetting standards for recruiting are not as high as the U.S. Navy or USMC. So, I am sure there is a higher percentage of misfits in comparison to the other services. FT Lewis problably has the highest number of personnel of all the bases in the Pacific Nortwest. So that just increases the probablity of someone doing something stuid.
From experiance here in the Northewest, When the flat tops pull into the Shipyard for maint, the number of stuid human tricks performed by sailors increases in a logarithmic frequency.
As a former Army Ranger I can tell you that seeing this kind of thing doesn't surprise me. It really doesn't matter that these individuals were in the military. In the military or out these individual just have a serious lack of moral compass.
As for this being strictly a Ft. Lewis problem. I grew up in Bremerton. The news was ALWAYS full of the bad exploits of Navy and USMC personnel.
I think the news media just likes to sensationalize criminal exploits of military members. It's an easy target since it involves this big organization and not a single individual.
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