He was sentenced on November 10, the 242nd birthday of the Marine Corps. That anniversary is a big deal for Marines, and I trust it was not lost on Gunnery Sergeant Felix.
Wow, what a sicko.
Will he face civilian justice to?
Fixed it.
While I’m at it, I’d like to register a complaint about the picture accompanying the article. That is the lousiest picture of the Marine Corps Memorial at Arlington that I’ve ever seen. Second, that memorial should not be associated with a story like this even with such a lousy picture.
A military jury also ordered Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Felix, a 34-year-old Iraq veteran, to forfeit all pay, be demoted to private and given a dishonorable discharge.
Sounds familiar. I hope this time they remember to enter the convict’s name and info into the appropriate database so that when he gets out of prison he can’t just stroll into a gun store and buy a bunch of assault weapons, post photos of them on Facebook and then go shoot up a church. Or in his case maybe a mosque.
Most bases such as MCRD Parris Island are areas of exclusive federal jurisdiction, which means that the only possible civilian prosecution would be by DOJ in federal court. In light of the sentence handed down by the court martial, it is highly unlikely that DOJ would prosecute him again.
Well I know that they track domestic violence but is there a space for workplace violence?
For reasons I never have understood, these types of abuses seem to be more prevalent at Parris Island than at the only other Marine Corps boot camp, which is located in San Diego.
I’m glad the article mentions that charges also were brought against the recruit battalion’s commanding officer. The article mentions that lesser charges were brought against eleven other Marines, and I hope that includes everyone in the chain of command between the CO and the each of the drill instructor charged with court martial offenses. Had they been doing their jobs, the Company GySgt and Company Commander should have been aware of the abuse.
I’m not sure, but it looks like this guy got an actual “dishonorable discharge” and therefore is banned by federal law from buying guns.
As I recall, the Texas shooter got something slightly different, a “bad conduct discharge” or some such thing. The domestic violence charges are what should have made him fail a gun background check (if they had put him in the database).
But in this case, assuming the reporting is correct and he’s getting a dishonorable discharge, he should fail the background check, again, assuming they remember to enter him in the database.
Of course while that stops him from strolling into a gun store and stocking up for a murder spree that way, it doesn’t stop him from strolling into the parking lot behind the gun store, where there just happens to be a “gun show” every Saturday afternoon, and buying his murder weapons from a “fellow gun enthusiast” there, background-check-free.
But hopefully by the time this creep gets out of prison, we’ll have closed that loophole.
I also will be interested in hearing what the others get convicted of, I
Back in the Bush II years my half brother graduated college at U of A and got his commission in the Navy. His uncle on his mother’s side gave a nice speech at the time. Dan was a career Naval aviator spoke of duty and following “lawful orders.” I can’t figure out other drill instructors and this one’s staff allowed this to get to the point where a recruit killed himself.
Fuck you for your disservice to the Corps and to the honorable Marines of past and present.
Agreed. But my opinion of the pic itself is that it’s aesthetically pleasing and also uplifting. Different strokes.
He’s a sadist.
Ten years is not enough. He should be locked away permanently as a lesson to any military man who might ever even think about torturing a recruit just because he is Christian.
…"…he Company GySgt and Company Commander should have been aware of the abuse…
Guaranteed they did, but did nothing, couldn’t care less. Why? Because prosecution for such behavior is rare or non-existent. This jerk was court martialed because his victim killed himself.
It’s time to take a look at the myth of the bad ass Drill Sgt. I went through basic training in the pre Vol-Ar ( all volunteer Army ) days. Abuse by Drill Sgt’s was common. Were they tough? Hell no. They were protected. You couldn’t fight back. No matter what the circumstances were if you offered resistance it would result in a trip to the brig. Sociopathic Drill Instructors could not lose. You couldn’t resit and you couldn’t complain. And how did they do? All that bad assery? They trained us to fight in Vietnam. And we lost. That’s the legacy of the bad ass DI. We lost.
Ten years isn’t enough. Forever isn’t enough. Just. Horrible.
He begged for forgiveness. All bullies are indeed cowards at heart.
The felony conviction will bar him from owning firearms. Under federal rules, any sentence of 1 year or longer constitutes a felony.
10 years of boot camp with a DI just like him and a well oiled dryer.
That would possibly be justice.