The Robert Bales Incident
In a response to a FOIA, the Army has released a redacted copy of their 15-6 investigation of Robert Bales, the infantry staff sergeant who murdered several Afghan nationals in the villages of Alikozai and Naja Bien on March 11, 2012. It’s at this link, if you want to read the whole 569 pages, but here is my evaluation that leans heavily on my 20/20 hindsight of the incident and my experience as an infantry platoon sergeant.
In previous posts that we’ve written here about Bales, folks who knew him criticized us for judging him based on news reports. However, after reading the report which goes into his character and his performance at the Village Stability Platform (VSP) Belambai leads me to believe that he wasn’t a very good NCO, especially for the position in which he found himself – leading two infantry squads. Not all of it was his fault, though.
To begin with, he had “private problems” at home, meaning that he had problems back home which indicated an immaturity not consistent with his rank and position. That should have raised a red flag for his leadership that he needed direct supervision. There was no direct supervision of Bales at VSP Belambai. His two squads were there in support of a special forces operational detachment and he was the senior NCO of those squads. The special forces there, rightfully, maintained a “hands-off” approach to the inner workings of their infantry attachments.
The special forces detachment issued Bales a 9 millimeter pistol so he wouldn’t have to carry his M4 everywhere with him inside the VSP. The fact that he accepted the handgun should have given them a bit of insight into the type of NCO he was. Yeah, I would have taken the pistol, too, but I still would have carried my M4 like my soldiers – you can never have too many guns when you need them.
The actual platoon leader and platoon sergeant with direct control over Bales were both stationed together at another VSP separated by time and distance from Belambai, leaving Bales pretty much unsupervised. Bales was known to abuse steroids and alcohol at the VSP and that was tolerated by the special forces soldiers and Bales’ subordinate NCOs. The investigation blames the special forces NCOs for either ignoring or tolerating Bales’ behavior.
Me? I blame that platoon sergeant for not taking his platoon leader aside and telling him that one of them needed to physically locate themselves at Belambai to supervise Bales. I know that, as a platoon sergeant, my job was to keep the lieutenant out of trouble, and the potential for an immature NCO to be leading half of my platoon without supervision to get my LT in hot water was nearly a foregone conclusion. I can’t ever remember half of my platoon off on their own without me or the LT being there with them – especially for an extended period of time like Bales and his two infantry squads.
The investigation noted that the special forces folks at Belambai had rejected a request for either the platoon sergeant or platoon leader to be at the VSP. I’m sorry, but it seems to me that they shouldn’t have a say in that decision. They wanted two infantry squads, fine, they don’t get to dictate the composition of the unit.
The investigation also uncovered incidents where Bales had acted irrationally and made overtly racist comments about their allies, the Afghan Army and their support elements. An NCO who knew him before the deployment described Bales as an “angry drunk”. He had assaulted an Afghan truck driver.
Operationally, Bales seems to have been a superior performer, but an NCO is tactically proficient and behaves like an adult during the times that those skills aren’t required. In a combat situation, there is no “time off” for the soldiers and especially their NCOs.
Don’t get me wrong – the fact that Bales committed that horrendous crime all by himself, it’s totally his responsibility, but there were some leadership failures that he took advantage of which could have prevented him from having the freedom of his actions which allowed him the opportunity to become a monster that night.
Category: Politics
That chin strap should have set off some alarm bells.
i have thought the same thing every time I have looked at that picture since 2012.
Bails looks like that guy from Joisey who was the center of attention here a few years ago. He was an airsoft and comic book guy who conducted spec ops in his mommy’s backyard. Can’t remember that knucklehead’s name but I know that a few of you can’t forget it.
Wasn’t he the guy that worked at Subway?
Nah, that guy (Popovic) was in the Phoenix area. 2/17 Air Cav is probably talking about Steve “Snake Eyes” Jordan:
http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=26430
That joke? Good Lord, I’ve seen used kleenexes that looked a thousand times scarier than him!
Yep, that’s the guy: Snake Eyes.
Well Jughead Jordan sure as hell isn’t “Snake Ears.”
A lot of this sounds pretty “par for the course” in terms of what I saw during my time in uniform.
Steroid abuse was fairly common in my company among the guys who spent their downtime in the gym. As far as I know, none of the stuff they were popping was illegal, even our PSG was doing it, and he wasn’t the kind of guy to jeopardize his career. He’s a CSM now, for whatever that’s worth
Alcohol abuse in country is also common, although much less so. We didn’t have a real booze problem in my company, because we were on a base with a lot of brass and a lot of eyes on us. Because of that it was much harder to get alcohol, that probably helped. Other elements of my battalion were in different places and some of those places were so off the radar that alcohol and even drug abuse was fairly common. I wasn’t there, and I could be wrong, but those are the stories I heard from the people who were there, and I don’t think they were bullshitting me.
The fact that there was apparently free flowing booze and steroids on an SF base surprises me the least of all. My platoon worked extensively with SF for the first three months in Iraq, and it was no big secret that the SF guys had a sizeable liquor cabinet, and a fridge full of actual beer. They told us upfront that while we were on their base that we were welcome to any food in the fridges/freezers, but they told us not to touch the alcohol. Sounds like these guys should have taken a similar tack with Beale’s, not that it abdicates Beale of deciding to murder civilians.
As for Beale being on his own with two squads, that is a little surprising, but he was probably the senior E6 in that platoon, or at least the one the PSG and PL though most capable of leading two squads. Pity.
Oops, Bales.
Dunno about that “none of it was illegal” assertion. Anabolic steroids and HGH have been Schedule III controlled drugs under Federal law since 1990 – which means that legal possession requires a doctor’s prescription. And last time I checked, US military personnel stationed overseas remain subject to Federal law as well as the UCMJ.
I probably shouldnt have referred to them as steroids, because I’m really not sure exactly what they were. I never took them, or handled them. But steroids was the term I recall being used.
I was under the impression that they were shipped in from companies in the States, but maybe they were getting these things from Europe or South America. All I know for certain was these things were not mere supplements. The guys who took them got jacked very quickly, and I definitely saw a level of anger that I would categorize as being consistent with roid rage.
If it is illegal then that rule was one the leadership was flat out ignoring. A couple guys got hammered (no pun intended) for getting caught with alcohol during a health and welfare check, but nobody got in trouble for having these pills.
I wouldn’t doubt that they were in fact steroids of some form. I’ve heard the same rumors (though not firsthand accounts from those who claimed to have used). I was just commenting on the “not illegal” assertion.
Many people don’t realize that steroids and HGH are in fact controlled drugs, and that possession or use w/o a prescription is a legal issue.
What scares me so much is how much Bales sounds like some of the other SSGs I worked with. Like they were untouchable because they were the hardcore TST platoon dudes that everyone loved for how many doors they kicked, but never realized they lacked any of the leadership, sense of duty to their soldiers, or their focus on getting back to throwing Iraqis against walls or breaching and clearing again.
I have to wonder if we just enabled a generation of dudes who weren’t in uniform to do right but to scratch whatever itch they had.
Dunno. I have no issue with shooting people in the face, I never felt some sort of deep social injustice when we dragged Iraqis off, but there were a lot of loose cannons that got top cover because they were someone’s ideal of a warrior, without asking if they were worth a damn as an NCO. Wish I’d known back then enough to know I should have said something, or that the chain of command can indeed be very wrong on some things.
There’s no need (for me) to read 569 pages of information about Bales and the incidents described after reading the introduction, or better yet, the executive summary included above.
Insightful, startling….and a damn shame.
It’s amazing nobody in his line of leadership was was held feet to the fire
I would never allow half my platoon to be sent somewhere else without myself or my Platoon Commander accompanying them, damn what some SF unit has to say. While I trusted my squad leaders, I trusted them to lead their squads, I was not about to place something that should have been my responsibility on their shoulders. Granted, in the Marines a Platoon Sergeant is an E-6, while E-7’s are normally at the company level.
Always believed that the PLC should position himself at the primary point of friction (in this case half his platoon located at a different base) and the Plt Sgt should be at the secondary point of friction.
I would also like to know where they got alcohol. Being on little PB’s scattered all over Iraq and Afghan, I never saw any of that, of course I ran a pretty tight ship (which my Marines resented me for at the time, but I was not about to place any of my guys in harms way through stupidity). Guess SF has their own rules.
Sounds like poor decision making from all parties.
SF has their own rules.
“Usually” SF and SOF types are expected to be more mature and responsible than the average yogi. There will be alcohol, more freedom, less brass eyeing them. Work hard, Play hard.
I’m guessing SF’s objection was to having higher ranking outsiders on their camp seeing what they have/do and tattling about it. SSG and below probably considered it all “cool” and “awesome” because they got to be like SF.
Divided platoon. Thats why you have both a Platoon Commander and Platoon Sergeant. No excuse why Bales was in Charge,
Be interesting to see what the Infantry Officer’s Basic Course Guide says in that regard.
Bingo !!!!! thats what I’m trying to say… why was his leadership not held accountable.
they knew before the deployment that he had a ton of issues. it’s like the freak show manning..
they knew the issues and they do it anyways. crappy Ate up Leadership. and where is the NCO support network E-5s E-6s and senior NCOs it seems they did not give a SHIT ! ! ! !
I kind of wish some foresight was used to handle Bales in a better way before Bales blew ballistic on the civvies. However, Bales is taking his punishment. He pled guilty and saved the cost of a court martial. He could be a model prisoner at USDB. There will be little Bales can do to atone for his actions. But at least we all can develop better characters like he should be doing.
I was at that VSP 10 days before that happen, thank God THE hello came in on Sat and picked me and my team mate up to go out to another VSP. We were doing a site engineering survey for 10 day’s. I had been out at a couple of VSP’s that was are job but something did not fill good about that Team. I talked to Bails couple of times and I told the Team SGT that something was off with Bails lets just say that he nodded his head that is all I will say.