In Memoriam: Ten Years Ago
On 23 March 2003, the US military suffered its first wartime “fragging” incident since Vietnam. On that date Hasan Karim Akbar – then a soldier assigned to A Company, 326th Engineer Battalion, 101st Infantry Division – conducted a grenade and firearms attack on fellows soldiers at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait.
To execute his attack, Akbar first disabled a generator to disrupt lighting during the early morning hours while most troops were asleep. He then threw four grenades stolen from supply into three sleeping tents. In the resulting confusion, he fired at other US troops with his assigned weapon.
Akbar’s attack killed two US personnel – CPT Christopher S. Seifert, 101st Airborne, and Maj. Gregory L. Stone, 124th Air Operations Squadron, who was attached to the 101st Airborne at the time. Fourteen other US personnel were wounded.
Akbar was apprehended after the attack. He was tried by court-martial and found guilty of premeditated murder in April 2005. During his court-martial, he attacked and injured an MP escorting him to the latrine with a smuggled sharp object.
Akbar was convicted of murder and was sentenced to death. His case was automatically appealed to the Court of Military Appeals, which heard his appeal in 2012. A decision on his appeal is still pending.
Rest in peace, Maj. Stone and CPT Seifert. You’re not forgotten.
And as for you, Akbar: it may take a while, but I’m guessing that your days are indeed numbered. I’m also guessing that you won’t die of old age.
I recommend you start making your preparations to meet Shaytan.
Category: Air Force, Big Army, Historical, Military issues, Reserve Issues, Terror War
“Fragging”? That’s so 1960s. Haven’t you heard, the new terminology for this type of attack is “workplace violence”?
On a serious note, at least Akbar was tried and convicted relatively promptly. Going on four years since the Ft. Hood attacks, on the other hand, and Nidal Hassan has yet to stand before the bar of justice. WTF?
To the families of Maj. Stone and CPT Seifert, we remember!
To Akbar, you will die, a punishment fit for a thug criminal punk coward like yourself!
Ride that needle straight to hell. May there be some bad Jinn waiting to pound that ass for a
Eternity.
You know who meets you at the Gates of Hell?
Cerberus, the many-headed dog. The names of Akbar’s victims will be glowing on his collar.
Put a bullet in him and cover him with pigshit.
I worked with Cpt. Seifert on the CFC drive. He was about the only person at BDE that I ever talked to. He was a nice guy with a sense of humor about one of the most annoying activities that comes up annually. We at least got a laugh about the counts of people reacting with everything from “GET OUT OF MY AO!” to “Don’t make me hurt you.” I’m still at a loss for words about what happened.
It’s an insult to the memories of the fallen that genuinely no-shit guaranteed guilty types like Akbar and Hassan are still vertical.
Take him out to the barn, nail his nutsack to a post, light the barn on fire and throw him a rusty butter knife on the way out. If he makes it out he gets the mercy of a bullet….
@ 9 Old Tanker … Can we add a large cabled treble hook to his ass?
@4: To hell with the needle. That POS shouldn’t get off that easy. I say hang his ass and if they don’t do that anymore, fire up ‘ol sparky and juice him till he’s ash.
Chris was an ROTC classmate of mine and a great guy. I think about him frequently and all the time this time of year. One of those people that the world is truly worse off without. Thanks for remembering.
Force feed Akbar a bacon sandwich just before he’s hung. I volunteer to trip the trapdoor.
Alternately, just before the sack is put over “his” head, stuff bacon/ham/pork in Akbar’s mouth. Then even if he spits it out, it’s still trapped inside the sack over his head, it’ll be the last thing he smells before death.
Or (my fave) have him run a double-line gauntlet (minimum 100 yards) of veterans and those affected by this asshat’s actions. Gauntlet participants are allowed to hit Akbar with anything they can carry and swing effectively. If Akbar makes it alive to the end of the gauntlet, he gets to lay there, under guard, overnight, suffering from his injuries. If he’s still alive after that, then let the pigs loose on him. The pis will waste very little, and WE get to enjoy Akbar Bacon (brand name not registered).
pis = pigs. Sorry about that.
Justice delayed is not justice.
Hasan Karim Akbar Hasan Karim Akbar Hasan Karim Akbar Hasan Karim Akbar Hasan Karim Akbar Hasan Karim Akbar Hasan Karim Akbar Hasan Karim Akbar Hasan Karim Akbar Hasan Karim Akbar
I see a pattern.
NidaNidal Malik Hasanl Malik Hasan Nidal Malik Hasan Nidal Malik Hasan Nidal Malik HNidal Malik Hasanasan Nidal Malik Hasan Nidal Malik Hasan Nidal Malik Hasan
I see another pattern.
Most of you were taught not to see the pattern. I was not. I see the pattern. I will not deny the pattern or pretend it does not exist.
I remember when that happened.
I had forgotten his name was Hasan Karim Akbar.
…a raghead. Imagine that.
I remember that night, as we had received reports earlier that evening that warned us to be cautious of Iraqi troops crossing the border and attacking our camps. That was how this incident was originally brought to us at our camp. When we found out what the real deal was, many hour later, we were angry and in a mad rage. I know I was, as I had met Maj. Stone on the flight over from the states. Seemed like a real good guy, and it pissed me off that he had been killed, particularly in the manner that he was.
@17 He was not Middle Eastern. He was born Mark Fidel Kools. His Father, an L.A. Gang Member converted to Islam while in Prison. After his release he converted his entire family incuding Mark to “The Relgion of Peace”. He was raised with the hate-filled rhetoric of American Black Muslims all around him. He attend college for NINE years to get his BA in Mechanical Engineering. As early as 1992 he was documented as making violent racist statements and plotting to help destroy the US. Despite this background he was allowed to join the military.
@19 – Radicalized Muslim, then. (I’m not too P.C.)
Time to establish a Death Row for guys named Hasan…
@19. I guess I should have been clearer. USMCE8Ret got it. The Fort Hood murderer was born in Arlington, Virginia. The pattern has nothing to do with where one was born.
Comrades in Arms: In the early months of 1970, when I was at the Phu Lam Signal Battalion in Saigon, someone rigged an explosive outside the window of the company commander’s office. The device was a fragmentation grenade with the pin pulled and a rubber band holding the spoon in place, which was placed inside a can of gasoline. Fortunately, it was detected before it could detonate. Guys said the company commander was really shook up by the incident. I don’t know if the perpetrator was ever caught. There was a guy who was drunk at a company party and got mad at me because, due to my religious convictions (I’m a Mormon convert), I wanted to celebrate with a soft drink instead of a beer. He went after me with his M-16, but the other guys stopped him while I left the scene. Months later, at Camp Eagle, the headquarters of the 101st Airborne located near Hue and Phu Bai, I made enemies with my vocal opposition to marijuana use, which was everywhere, all of the time, and later, developed into flagrant use of heroin. No, I wasn’t a commissioned officer, just a lowly Specialist E-4. When I returned from a maintenance trip to Da Nang, I found my hooch blown up, and guys told me it was done as a warning. Then, late one night, or during the wee hours, while I was asleep on my cot, a grenade went off next to me. I was VERY lucky! The grenade detonated in the doorway, which had fifty gallon drums filled with sand, topped by sandbags, topped by cement. If I had been standing or sitting, I would have been killed. But, because I was lying down, the shrapnel went all around me. Yes, I was a bit stunned, shocked, shook up, and downright scared, not knowing what to do. The other guy in the hooch with me told me I should go outside and look for the guy who threw the grenade. So, I grabbed my rifle and rather timidly (does “cautiously” sound more heroic?) stepped outside the… Read more »
Mr. Mallernee, I am sorry you have had problems because of your convictions (sp?). My wife and her side of the family is the same. They have had to deal with their share of bigotry for being Mormon and their convictions.
@24 Mr Mallernee’s memories are similar to my own, but because because of religion. Over the course of three tours I got to see discipline deteriorate as the war wore on and drug use increased. The court martial Mr Mallernee mentions was the result of a fragging at Bien Hoa about a week before I finally left and happened across the street from the unit I was in. The private in question was eventually found not guilty of the murder charges. From what I’ve read (this thread triggered a renewed interest), the case was later compared to that of OJ Simpson in that a black man was being persecuted because of his race. I still feel that Pvt Billy Dean Smith, like OJ, got away with murder.
@25 First sentence should read ……, but not because of religion.
FRAGGING:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragging
PRIVATE BILLY DEAN SMITH (currently incarcerated?)
http://www.labeez.org/articles/2009/05/27/remembering-billy-dean-smith-on-memorial-day
By the way, I don’t think my religious beliefs were the reason guys tried to murder me.
I have a knack for alienating folks with expressing my personal opinions.
Also, prior to entering the Army, I’d spent my adolescence totally isolated and locked up with the criminally insane, where I was abused and terrorized, subjected to electric shock treatments and experimental psychotropic drugs, with the development of my personality heavily influenced by perverts, deviants, and violent criminals.
Thus, when I entered the Army, compared to my peers, I was rather retarded and warped.
I was VERY fortunate in being a convert in The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints and a draftee in my beloved United States Army, the two major positive influences in presenting me with opportunities to have a “normal” life.
Never-the-less, throughout most of my brief military career (of ten years), the Army DID have monumental problems in the lower enlisted ranks with race, drugs, and extremely low morale, and when serving in the Republic of Viet Nam, I never knew whether I’d be killed by the enemy or by my fellow troops.
Oh, by the way, the danger wasn’t only in Viet Nam.
Prior to going to Viet Nam, I was stationed at Kleber Kaserne in Kaiserslautern, Germany, with Company “A”, 11th Air Defense Signal Battalion, 32d Army Air Defense Command.
One of the men in my company (I didn’t know him) was suspected by the drug users of being a C.I.D. informant, so they ganged up on him, and CASTRATED him!
And the racial problems – – – ?
There was polarization, hostility, and violence EVERYWHERE you went!
Further, the Army would cover up reports of racial violence.
Having been at Camp PA when this went down (1-327th INF, 1 BCT, 101 ABN) and being located about 200 meters from the command tents, I can tell you there was a lot of confusion, and a lot of stuff going on. We heard the gunfire and then the giant voice went off with the “ground attack” warning. We were like WTF? This was about 0130 or so as I recall. We didn’t find out the full story til about 0600. We were in the tents the next day. Ugly. Maj Romaine, our BDE XO was hit in the arm. I saw him at the Class 6 at Campbell in Dec 2003. He had a bunch of surgeries and his hand/forearm was still in a brace type thing. When Akbar was caught, they apparently wanted to execute him on the spot. They probably should have.