Army sergeant charged for streaming equipment
You probably remember the video above of the Army equipment free-falling after it slipped from the harness during an airdrop last year. Army Sergeant John Skipper of the 1st Battalion, 91st Cavalry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, stands charged with destruction of government property and making a false official statement for the incident, according to Fox News;
The charges against Skipper imply that a malfunction of military equipment was not the reason the Humvees slipped from their rigging, according to Military.com.
A Humvee can cost up to $220,000, according to the site. The maximum punishment for the destruction of government property is “10 years in prison, dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of all pay and allowances.”
I don’t figure that Sergeant Skipper will get off light on this one…the Army can’t be happy about the viral video. If he lied during the investigation, it will only hurt more at sentencing.
Thanks to Andy11M for the links.
Category: Army News
Somebody hade to have inspected and signed off that the two inch cotton webbing was secured correctly from the truck to the pallet.
When mishaps like this occur, does the Army conduct a JAG Manual investigation along with a parallel/simultaneous safety investigation, with the safety investigation allowing for ‘privileged’ testimony from participants and witnesses that cannot be released to the JAG Manual investigation team?
We don’t call it “JAG Manual” (that’s a Navy/Marine term) but yes, we do a FLIPL (financial liability investigation of properly loss), and if the equipment is expensive enough…or under certain other circumstances…we do a 15-6, which is the Army equivalent of a JAGMAN investigation, and if I remember there is also a safety investigation with the kind of privileged testimony you’re talking about…the idea is that people can talk freely without subjecting themselves to UCMJ action based on what they say in the investigation.
(Been a few years since I had to deal with this aspect of things, but my memory says it’s this way.)
How I don’t miss doing FLIPLs and 15-6s
AGARs SIRs. And so many more
Paper paper and more paper
Word.
Or Report of Surveys.
How does a buck sergeant get put into the position of being able to cause this kind of malfunction?
And echoing what Sapper said, aren’t there at least 2 or 3 riggers that have to sign off that the equipment is correctly rigged? Was SGT Skipper one of the riggers?
I could see dereliction of duty charges against the riggers if the equipment was rigged incorrectly. This information raises a lot more questions than it answers.
He’s the fall guy probably or he did some selective engineering while in flight or before loading
Most of the time a MCWO-5 is watching everything eagle eyed.
I haven’t gone back and watched the video again but IIRC the vehicles stayed on the pallet but the parachutes did not – which to me is a rigging malfunction.
I had thought that any time a large piece of equipment like that was rigged for a drop, both the rigger and the Senior NCO in charge of the riggers had to sign off that it was properly rigged.
Although I was on jump status almost half of my career this is an area I known very little about, since we never did heavy drops. The biggest thing we would ever drop was a door bundle.
I saw this yesterday and there was a lot of discussion about how this went down and if the Load masters and the other Joint Inspectors were not at fault.
One of the folks there that had rigging experience and may or may not (I can’t remember)have worked with Sgt Skipper have said that Sgt Skipper could have cut critical lines and then hidden the cuts with rigging duct tape that is used for the loads and no one else in the chain would have been wiser.
There were also comments that said he was getting out of the Army soon and was disgruntled and this was his way of getting back.
If I can find the link, (It was a FB page) I’ll post it. Take it with a grain of salt as always.
“he was getting out of the Army soon”
That’s all well and good. The assessed liability from the Report of Survey alone will follow every one of his (or more individuals if so found) tax returns till he/they dies until the government has recouped the depreciated actual loss.
They don’t pay those little old ladies in tennis shoes who work at the DFAS in Indianapolis to just sit on their butts all day and gossip. They get’r’done./smile
I’m one of those little old ladies — and we are at DFAS in Columbus — and we don’t take things like this lightly
Yes. That’s exactly what I’m talking about. The personnel at the DFAS are/were highly efficient at insuring that losses (especially from deserters) are recouped. I have nothing but praise for them.
During the last years of my Army career as a Brigade S-4 NCO, I processed many, many Reports of Survey that were forwarded to the DFAS for collection. In one instance, there was even a deserter who had been charged for his CTA 50-900 issue (that he had pawned to get money to leave post with) sent back cash money to pay for TA-50 once he found out his tax returns would be garnished until the debt was paid.
Power of the pen and all that. Thank you for what you do.
CSB time,
I was loading a flatbed trailer when I was an E-2, during a rain storm and not using a spotter. I hit a pick up truck with the tines.
I took the broke tail light inside and reported it.
Because the Transportation Squadron had the highest vehicle mishap and accident and damage rate (Well we *ARE* the Transportation Squadron, DUH!) a few folks had to pony up cash. We had on SSgt who had to pay a pretty penny for not paying attention and putting diesel in a Mo-Gas vehicle. We had 2 Security Forces guys who went joy riding up in the mountains on Okinawa and ended up rolling their squad car. They got busted and had to buy it.
Luckily I only had to write the govt a check for $77. ($77 WTF?? Someone just made that shit up)
but to an E-2 only making a couple of hundred a month that was a hefty bite of my paycheck.
I actually had to take the report and the bill and the check and present it to the Finance folks and get a receipt.
/end CSB.
In one of my Transportation Squadrons the SP’s asked why we never had any reportable vehicle accidents. We said for the same reason SP’s never got speeding tickets.
Just parsing the phraseology of the article… this was my first thought. Dereliction of duty is a more proper charge for just being an idiot. Destruction of Govt property implies to me, that Skippy did a little bit more than have a temporary brain fart.
Just my $.02 – and I am not a lawer, and I do not play one on TV.
There’s a difference between “willful” and “negligent” destruction of government property, but both are legitimate charges (under article 108 of the UCMJ).
If you take it to court martial, negligent destruction carries a heavier penalty than negligent dereliction of duty (article 92)…which is one of the mildest charges in the UCMJ.
$660 grand. That could have been a helluva a beer party.
Snark Alert.
That’s just the cost of the Humvees. What about all the Station Property (mattresses, sheets, pillows, wall lockers, floor buffers, typewriters,etc) that was loaded into their beds?
I’m sure the cost of all that stuff is pretty significant./smile
“mattresses, sheets, pillows, wall lockers, floor buffers, typewriters,etc”
Man, it appears that when the 173d goes to the field, they do it with all the comforts of garrison living, hmm? I’d sure like to see what they use those floor buffers on. Can’t you just here a first sergeant yelling, “Dammit, Jones, I wanna see that dirt gleam!”
Instead of Sky Soldiers” we need to start calling them “Living High” Soldiers.
Heh…
Naw, it’s just the company commanders being able to charge off a bunch of stuff that needs replacing, got lost/stolen/stove up, that he had to sign for.
You’d be surprised how many tool boxes, full of gear, got “lost overboard” on carriers just before returning from deployment.
Especially when it’s old gear that’s too expensive to otherwise replace. 🙂
Hey, those sponsons get REALLY wet out there!
When I was a Lietenant in 3/73 Armor (aka The Free World’s Only Airborne Armor Battalion) one of my Sheridans burned into Holland DZ during a mass tac. My company commander included every missing tool he could think of on the report of survey. My battalion commander told him he forgot to include the four wall lockers and eight wool blankets.
That was the logistics meant to provide accommodations for the party guests, Claw.
Would you rather they slept on ammo boxes?
Did they get his rank wrong and call an E6 or E7 Sergeant? Amazing that the buck stops at an E5 for that screw up, or maybe the superiors are in separate trouble but aren’t being charged?
Some poor butter bar is probably getting the scarlet letter too.
I’m just a dirty nasty leg, but rigging for sling loads is a 10 level task, and the inspection has to be done by an E-4 and above with Air Asault, Pathfinder or SLICC.
Does anyone know grade requirements for airborne rigging/inspection? I don’t mean personnel, just equipment. My uneducated mind could see him signing off on those rigs with out really inspecting them.
As I said above, I’m pretty sure it is at least a senior NCO (E-7 or above) who has to sign off. Given the danger to both life and equipment, they’re not going to put that responsibility on one E-5.
The closest parallel I can think of is the rigging of parachutes for personnel drops. When I went through the USASOC Jumpmaster course in 1995 we were given a block of instruction on rigging procedures and although the riggers are all junior enlisted (E-4 and below) there are at least three points during the rigging of each parachute that they have to stop, and get a senior rigger to come over and verify that they’ve done everything correctly, before they can proceed to the next step. And when the parachute was done, both the rigger and the NCOIC had to sign off on the little booklet that is in a pocket on the parachute harness.
I’m certain that when rigging heavy equipment the procedures are similar, i.e. there are multiple people who have to verify that everything was done correctly.
I went through SLICC. As an E5. We can sign off on sling loads. But it is your ass if something goes wrong.
Yep, he’s toast. Sometimes I think the Army rates damage or loss of property higher than murder, and if he was a SNCO I’m sure his entire chain was turned slowly over the fire 🙂 .
Shared a room at the old AAFES center with a guy who had been in jail for theft of government property and said he killed someone in self defense while in prison – was trying to join the Marines and they were highly concerned about his moral fiber and requested trial records – of the theft trial.
I think the “senior rigger” could be an E-6 but he had to have a certain amount of experience (I don’t know if that was measured in years holding that MOS or numbers of parachutes packed.)
Thanks guys. I can only speak to air assault operations, where SPC Snuffy can sign off.
I also did SLICC, that’s why I remembered the grade and education requirements.
I might have to wander around the interwebs and see if there is a TM.
ChipNASA’s explanation is the only one that could account for only one soldier being charged criminally.
I wonder if Skipper was a rigger or not? If not, how did he get access to the rigged vehicles? When I was at Bragg I seem to recall that there was a heavy drop rigging area near Green Ramp and that vehicles were taken over there by the unit, where they were rigged by the riggers (usually with the assistance of a couple of “duty bodies” from the unit doing the drop.)
Once they were rigged, the pallets were put in a secure area under guard so there would be no way someone could mess with them after they were rigged (basically an accountability measure so that if there was a malfunction, the riggers couldn’t come back and say “someone messed with it after we rigged it properly.”)
So either the unit security procedures were lax enough to let someone get access to the rigged vehicles prior to the drop, or else Skipper was someone who had “legitimate” access to the rigged vehicles, which would mean he’d have to have been one of the riggers or maybe one of the guys pulling guard on the rigged vehicles.
Here’s a link to Military.com where someone in the comments said he deliberately sabotaged the loads.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/07/05/soldier-charged-humvees-free-fall.html?ESRC=todayinmil.sm
Well here’s one fact, it was 3 different vehicles on 3 different C-130s and they had dropped over 150 loads and bundles for this exercise.
What are the odds??
It happens all the time, but this was posted on YouTube. So at least one head has to roll.
Shortly after GW1, the military discovered that many units did not know how to mobilize. As a senior instructor, I was sent to Fort McCoy, WI to train as a UMO.
Good times.
Given the predilections of some of our young Soldiers…when the article said he was “streaming” his “equipment,” I had a completely different picture in mind.
WRT the specific charges, i.e. deliberate destruction of government property, I’m not too familiar with the UCMJ but destroying vital military equipment during a time of war ought to count as “sabotage” and make the punishment significantly more severe, shouldn’t it?
What am I missing?
Or if there’s not a UCMJ provision for sabotage in time of war, is there an equivalent USC statute he could be prosecuted under?
There is a civilian sabotage statute but that requires specific intent to “injure, interfere with, or obstruct the United States or any associate nation in preparing for or carrying on the war or defense activities.” And I don’t see any sign of that in this story.
There isn’t a specific “sabotage” statute in the UCMJ but willful destruction of property worth over $500 carries up to 10 years and a DD or BCD, plus he can get up to 5 years for the false statement, so unless this is a horribly aggravated case in ways I’m not aware of…he can get what’s coming to him.
He was laughing, predicting the failures. I was a 130 LM. My guess: he went back after the the final JAI, messed with the M-1, so the main chutes would separate (move the fingers off to the side, would release as soon as force was applied). He knew it was going to happen, listen to him laugh
The you tube link
https://youtu.be/nPCxy3RiN_k
WOW. Brings back memories. Early 1966 found the OKI 3 (LPH3) in the Philly yard getting a refit for the move in 1967 to San Diego/SEASIA. So yours truly was standing the A/C&R cold iron watch and while checking the log book, I saw that the #1 high pressure air compressor down in the hole (boiler room) was not in service yet so I did not check it. Next thing you know, I was written up for deriliction of duty because the compressor ran out of oil. All Navy Machinery leaked something at that time and that is why there were like 2 inch metal dikes around the machinery. XO hearing was first then Capt’S mast. Skipper told me that if their were more men like me in the Navy, the fleet would be at the bottom of Hampton Roads. Suspended bust. I mentioned the log book but they ignored it. Still asked to re-up but I declined.
I was on jump status for 8 years or so, 2 of which were as an HHC company commander in a parachute infantry battalion. I was also a company XO and PL in an Air Assault unit. I was responsible for rigging dozens of heavy drop loads, and ran several heavy POS where we were sling loading everything from HMMWVs to howitzers. The bottom line is the dropping unit prepare the equipment, but the riggers rig the load (i.e. parachutes, dunnage, etc) and the Air Force pushes it out of the plane. If your load is improperly prepped it’s the Army’s problem- parachute fails to open, load imbalanced, not secured to the pallet, etc. So, my air assault and pathfinder qualified Soldiers rigged loads, but my NCOs and I double checked (I was JM, AASLT, and what we used to call Sling Master/Heavy PZ qualified. This catches mistakes and even negligence, but it won’t catch a criminal like this asshole. It’s not so much the equipment loss as the extreme risk to everyone on the aircraft and on the ground. Those loads could have gone anywhere- they could have hung up in the aircraft and caused a catastrophic crash. It’s happened before. In JM school they teach you that the sky, to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect. The first time I saw this video I knew it was gross negligence or willful destruction. There is simply no way, with all the inspections and re inspections and double checks that there were three bad loads on one pass on a drop zone- and they were all the same malfunction. I have seen loads oscillate, land on top of each other, land in the trees, and even land safely only to have the parachute inflate and drag it into the trees or another load. I have never seen (or heard of) a load simply falling off the pallet. Skipper was either a rigger or had surreptitious access to the loads, and he somehow sabotaged the rig and hid it from… Read more »
I learned this last month. If he were a commissioned officer, he would be buying the whole kielbasa. Enlisted men can only be charged two paychecks. I wonder if this applies to willful acts. Ten years in the federalpounding intheass prison might be the only satisfaction the USG gets from this jerk.
Yeah, I really would like to know what Skipper’s duty position was that allowed him to have apparently unlimited access to 3 different rigged, palletized vehicles going onto 3 different aircraft. I would have assumed he was in the rigger platoon but I don’t know, do cav squadrons even have rigger platoons nowadays?
And Reddevil is correct that destroyed HMMWVs that cost the taxpayers ~$600k is really the “best case” scenario of what COULD have happened. There’s a horrible YouTube video of a C-17 that crashed near Bagram killing everyone on board because a load shifted. Not to mention that when you have heavy stuff dropping from the sky and soldiers on the ground (even if they’ve “cleared” the DZ prior to the heavy drop, as is SOP) bad stuff can happen, and Skipper could have been looking at manslaughter at the very least.
So in that respect both Skipper and the Army got lucky.
I finally found a little more info from a commenter on the Stolen Valor web page and again, as always, until we get official notification or comment, take it with a grain of salt,
https://www.facebook.com/StolenValor/
Scroll down to the article and you have to open up all the comments to find this.
Jb Wittworth —– When the loads are rigged there is a nylon band that is taped down where the type XXVI attaches to the Clovis on the platform. The malfunction investigation showed they were intentionally cut on all of the platforms causing the malfunction. This is not a place normally checked by the JAI during any inspection.
Assume they are talking where the suspension slings run from the platform clevises to the M-1. If cut where they are stowed with 80 lbs., you’d have to accidently find it. Especially if covered with a thin layer of tape. Think the 1748 just said “attached to platform and M-1” or something like that.
His best bet now to get out of this, and maybe even benefit is to demand immediate female hormone prep and follow up sexual reassignment surgery to be done courtesy of the US taxpayer . CAPT “Bones” USN (ret)