Another Ft. Carson Soldier Charged with Homicide

by: C76

Mon Aug 18, 2008 at 22:29:02 PM EDT


   For the second time in less than eight months, a member of the 2nd BN, 12th INF REGT, 4th BCT at Ft. Carson has been charged with murder. According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, PFC Jomar Dionisio Falu-Vives was arrested for trying to kill a member of his platoon with an assault rifle in an off-post incident. During the course of the investigation, it was discovered that PFC Falu-Vives had allegedly shot and killed two other men in a confrontation on June 6th of this year.
  This case would be disturbing in and of itself, but it is made even more noteworthy by the fact that three other members of the 2-12 were arrested late last year and charged with the murders of two Ft. Carson soldiers. Two of those troops, Kenneth Eastridge and PFC Bruce Bastien Jr., have pleaded guilty to both counts and have agreed to testify against the third, Louis Bressler. In one case, the men allegedly shot one soldier to death and stuffed his body in the trunk of his car. In the other, Bressler allegedly robbed and then shot a fellow soldier to death in a Colorado Springs parking lot.
 As awful as it may sound, the problems in this battalion are not limited to cold-blooded murder here in Colorado Springs. In pre-trial testimony, Bressler claimed that while in Iraq, he and other soldiers on his team would routinely fire on civilians with captured AK-47s. They would then hide the weapons to avoid suspicion. Spokesmen for the army at Ft. Carson have vigorously denied these claims.
 Regardless of the outcomes of these cases, they both serve to illustrate the recruiting crisis that the army is facing. The fact is that the leadership in the pentagon is more concerned with politics and statistics than they are in finding qualified people to serve. The OPTEMPO created by the war in Iraq, the horrific treatment of veterans, and the disregard for the mental health of our troops that has been demonstrated by the administration have all to the hemorrhaging of quality servicemembers. The resulting hole has been filled by representatives of the lowest tier of our society; we're literally back to the days of "go to war or go to jail." We could be back to the post-Vietnam era all over again.  
 The pentagon is not going to solve this problem, and the administration is so wrapped up in deceiving the public that they don't even realize that there is an issue. Congress needs to act on this issue, and they need to do it now. The army is wearing down their soldiers by treating them like cattle, and that has forced an exodus of people who have the skills to make it on the outside. We need to spend time and money to make the army more than a last resort. That is the only option that will allow us to raise the bar high enough to keep thugs and murderers from disgracing the uniform any further.
C76 :: Another Ft. Carson Soldier Charged with Homicide
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Very true. (0.00 / 0)
I didn't see shit like this in the Marine Corps. We beat the shit out of each other a few times, but nothing ever like this. Maybe the Army really is broken.

Nice intra-service cheap shot (4.00 / 1)
but do you really want to talk about all those women raped in Okinawa?

Let's just not go there. This is a tragedy.


[ Parent ]
Never said we were (0.00 / 0)
perfect, but if the Army is broken, lets fix it ASAP. Good to go.  

[ Parent ]
Not (0.00 / 0)
condoning the rapes, but this incident strikes me as being much more disturbing and requiring immediate attention.

[ Parent ]
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