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AMERICAN HERO HUNG OUT TO DRY



He was the commander of the Aggressors.



An ass-kicking group of tankers out of the 1st Armored Division.



He got the bullet hole in his flak vest the old fashioned way – in the dark of the night on some Iraqi back street. And when Najaf fell he was the one who told the world about the 40 insurgents they had to take out to make it so. (Story) http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=9& ... htm&e=7370



He’s on trial this week.



For something just short of murder.



His name is Capt. Roger Maynulet. A 30-year-old out of the ROTC program at Champaign-Urbana.



By all accounts he is a good man, a capable combat commander and – until now – a rising Army officer.



But that’s all over now. By the end of the week, he could be facing 20 years in the stockade.



It was May 21 of last year. He was near the end of a deployment to Iraq as commander of Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion of the 1st Armored Division’s 37th Armored Regiment. The Alpha Company soldiers are nicknamed the Aggressors.



And they must have lived up to the billing.



Because Maynulet and his men got the assignment to capture Moqtada al Sadr. He was the king of the insurgents and Public Enemy No. 1.



And intelligence had it that a certain sedan was going to come down a certain road at a certain time with Moqtada al Sadr inside. And it was Maynulet’s Aggressors who got the nod to stop him.



When the thing went off, it was a whole lot of crap that hit the fan.



There was a sedan ripping in and out through a cramped neighborhood, veering this way and that, with a string of Army vehicles racing behind it, and things got pretty intense.



But Captain Maynulet’s men got a shot at the car and opened fire. The back window was blown out and the vehicle crashed. A bunch of guys from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves rolled out of the back and took off.



But not the driver.



He had been shot in the head.



“He was sitting up and sounded like he was choking,” the soldier who found him told the “Chicago Tribune.”



Captain Maynulet called his medic to aid the Iraqi. The medic – a sergeant – pulled the injured man from the car and laid him on the ground.



He was hemorrhaging in an incredible way. His arm was thrashing around. He was in clear agony.



“I told Captain Maynulet (that) he wasn’t going to make it,” the sergeant said. “With all the blood, I was stunned. I went, ‘Wow!’”



Then the first soldier ran off to look for the people who’d escaped and the captain sent the medic on to look after another wounded Iraqi.



That left Roger Maynulet alone with a dying Karim Hassan Abed Ali al-Haleji.



It was too dangerous to call in a helicopter evacuation for the man, he was spurting blood like nobody’s business, he was thrashing around as if in great pain, a piece of his head was missing and the competent medical authority on the scene had said he was going to die.



The man was in horrific death throes.



So what do you do?



If you’re Captain Maynulet, a young American kid out of Illinois, what do you do?



What is the right thing to do? Morally, in that situation, what do you do?



Captain Maynulet shot him.



He lowered his M-4 and discharged it twice, killing the man instantly.



To “tell the truth,” the captain told the medic, “I shot him to put him out of his misery.”



That’s what Captain Maynulet did. He killed the man to stop his suffering. He was too gravely injured to live. He faced the prospect of bleeding to death there, in agony, on the dirt, and the captain spared him.



That’s what he told everyone. That’s what he put in his report. That’s what he told his superiors.



And now that’s his defense.



At first it was a murder charge, but now it’s something called “assault with intent to murder.” And it’s worth 20 years. It turns out that being merciful is against the regs. The lead prosecutor said, “There is no exception for mercy killing in the code of military justice.”



And there’s no way an American GI can catch a break for doing the right thing in this politically correct war. Roger Maynulet did an honorable and caring thing, he spared a man an agonizing death which – in a war – is sometimes as generous as circumstance allows you to be.



So Roger Maynulet is being hung out to dry.



Which is enough of an outrage.



But it becomes all the more incomprehensible in the context of what’s happening in Florida. In the week Terri Schiavo is finally starved to death – under the protection of an American court – this man may lose 20 years of his life for a mercy killing.



A mercy killing that was for more justified and far more humane than what Terri Schiavo has faced.



The Iraqi driver was in pain, he was going to be dead within minutes, and he was dispatched in a way that killed him in the blink of an eye without any pain.



Terri Schiavo was fine, she probably would have continued to live for decades, and she was put down in an excruciatingly slow manner that has required a morphine drip to minimize the pain.



And it’s Captain Maynulet who’s on trial.



Which is a clear sign of just how screwed up things are.



In the war zone, and here at home.



- by Bob Lonsberry © 2005





Comment on this Column:

http://www.lonsberry.com/comments.cfm?story=1623



Read Current Comments:

http://www.lonsberry.com/readcomments.cfm?story=1623

Let's leave the vitriol out, shall we?

Be nice to each other!

On topic, its interesting to see how the face of warfare has changed. What do people think? Should the soldier be locked away for his actions, or was he justified in what he did?

Scrat wrote: I would have done the same thing. It is stupid to bust this guy for anything. It's called mercy.I have to agree with you somewhat Scrat. He was justified in the mercy part. My point of view comes from the many years I have been around livestock and the "mercy" killings one has to do. It is one of the hardest decisions a person has to make.

I don't know all the specifics of the case but he might be in a jam here. Even if the guy was going to die anyways, there is no way to proove it after he relieved his suffering.

I am sure he is not the first nor the last soldier to make this decision.





Hawke wrote: Let's leave the vitriol out, shall we?

Be nice to each other!Good idea



Hawke wrote: On topic, its interesting to see how the face of warfare has changed. What do people think? Should the soldier be locked away for his actions, or was he justified in what he did?Like I said above, I think he was jusified in the nature sense of doing it but I fear he will hung out over this...

Not usre that any comparison can be made with shooting Livestock !

It cannot either be compared to the Sciavo case in any way, Schiavo is not in a war zone.

As was quoted this was "HIS side of the story" , you need to very careful on these judgements, it is not a great leap from putting someone out if their misery to shooting less wounded individuals. I would be more disposed towards him if the situation arose because his men were in danger because they were hanging around rather than him doing it to end another persons suffering.

The biggest problem here as I see it is that the Captain was alone when this happened, if this was the case why even report it ?

Sigh.:yh_ttth :yh_eyerol Don't you have to change your oil or something BTSBS?? The RedWhite&Blue goo is nauseatingly sickly sweet:yh_loser

BTS wrote:

A bunch of guys from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves rolled out of the back and took off.





- by Bob Lonsberry © 2005


without regard to the story, i think mr. lonsberry should be ashamed of himself for that comment.

Below is a posting on another forum I was on. I'm pulled both ways on the issue - it seems a mercy killing was right thing to do, but in basic training you are told to never commit a mercy killing - no matter what.

I was an Infantry Company Commander in Iraq during the war and during the following stability operations.

Ran into a similiar situation. During a night TCP, one of my platoons shot a 52 year old Kurdish man 6 times throughout his body. He committed a serious mistake of charging the TCP.

The medic said the man was going to die after conducting a quick evaluation. I did not shoot the man in the head. I had him re-evaluate the WIA and treat all wounds to include a head wound. I personally called in a 9 line medivac and waited 45 minutes until the bird arrived. I even argued with a Brigade Battle Captain to send a Medivac via air as opposed to driving the WIA to the CASH. Surprisingly, the man lived.

I was under stress. At that time i had spent 8 months in country conducting stressful missions everyday. I follow military law, rules and regulations and i would never allow a soldier to murder an unarmed civilain regardless if the unarmed wounded civilian had earlier fought coalition forces.

CPT Roger Maynulet was wrong and most commanders in the military do not support his actions. He is the commander and responsible for all actions in his company. Remember-this commander used an Iraqi handgun also.

anastrophe wrote: without regard to the story, i think mr. lonsberry should be ashamed of himself for that comment.This, unfortunately, is the general attitude US troops have toward Arabs. And they want to be bowed to as "heroes!" Insufferable.

Dave, Dave, Dave! Such seething hatred for something outside of your experience is bad for the digestion.

Of course, if warfare is not outside your experience, let me know and I will respectfully apologize.

Accountable wrote: Dave, Dave, Dave! Such seething hatred for something outside of your experience is bad for the digestion.



Of course, if warfare is not outside your experience, let me know and I will respectfully apologize.I'll just accept an apology for disregarding my post number status in the Garden Mr. 17.:yh_hugs

David813 wrote: I'll just accept an apology for disregarding my post number status in the Garden Mr. 17.:yh_hugs


Sorry, dude. I respect my elders for being old, not for being wrong. You do have my undying admiration for finding this url before I did, though. :yh_worshp

Apology accepted "Accountable."

I don't know. I kinda like Dave. Makes my Zantac worth the investment.

BTW David, Is there a message you've posted in the past that capsulizes your overall political view you can point us newbies to?