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Court-martial weighed in Iraq discipline cases
The Army is weighing whether to prosecute two soldiers charged with maltreatment and cruelty of their troops, including a soldier who committed suicide just four days after joining the unit in Iraq.
Ten soldiers testified over the weekend that Staff Sgt. Bob Clements and Sgt. Enoch Chatman regularly punished them with verbal abuse and grueling exercise. The soldiers also described how Pvt. Keiffer Wilhelm, 19, of Plymouth, Ohio, was hazed and treated roughly by Chatman and Clements before the private killed himself Aug. 4.
The two days of testimony were part of an Article 32 hearing, a military equivalent of a grand jury, to determine whether there is enough evidence for a court-martial. Maj. Gen. Richard Nash, the top U.S. commander in southern Iraq, should decide in a few weeks.