Asian-American soldier was forced by comrades to crawl 100m on gravel

I'm going to take a wild guess and say you have never served in the military.

I'm a Korean-American serving in the Marines. I haven't personally experienced anything as bad as Private Chen here went through. It definitely is a break down in leadership and it does not represent the US military as a whole. It's the select few that puts a stain on the organization. I've met some r****ds in the Marines as well that would try to pull crap like this.

 

It looks like a bad mix of hazing, lack of seniority or leadership skills leading to being the runt of the group, and the mind-bending stress of being in a hellish war-zone with no way out without save a criminal penalty or stigma of some kind of illness. And the sense of failure that comes from having spent your entire adult life working up to this point.

 

Did you think rational people like to go abroad and kill people they don't know, to protect a country whose president they may or may not consider American, who is elected out of a pool of remarkably underwhelming candidates?

American gangs kill more people than terrorists. Is that logical? That you're flying people out while gang crime runs rabid in the country? If those soldiers are so concerned with protecting their country, maybe they should camp out in some of the rougher neighbourhoods in the US.

It is interesting (and I do mean interesting) how the average American doesn't seem to share responsibility for the consequences of war, even though they vote in the people who launch these wars.

 

Well, on the other hand, you have the foot solderers mostly from Mississippi, Kansas, Nebraska ... from a different religious background than most Asian Pacific Americans and relatively low socioeconomic class (let's just put this way). That is not going to change anytime soon. Just stay away.

 

lmao. thanks for the laugh

dumbest thing I've read in a while

 

Atheists?

How do they get discriminated against?

This story is so weird. I didn't realize people actually had hostility towards Asians still. I know people who are seriously racist against hispanics, blacks, even gays, but asians? I don't think I know anyone who would say anything more than "bad driver" about asians.

 

Math nerd? Tiny wang?

 

#1 You would be wrong - USMC
#2 We were taught to not respect the enemy, total dehumanization. When you do that with young people, it is a short jump to carry the attitude over. I do not blame the military, they have to do it to make us competent soldiers and to obey orders.
#3 You know, like I do, that cover ups happen. We were completely at the mercy of our CO, and their arbitrary decisions.

 

Look, you are a good poster, but when I was in the service anything that made you different was pointed out and ridiculed. You are dealing with young guys and a strong push to "fit in". Obviously most cases don't end like this one.. But I can see how it could happen.. And have seen it on a smaller scale.

 

Its demographic.

If you talk to pinoys from Hawaii (I) or Guam, they consider themselves Pacific Islanders. California pinoys tend to consider themselves Asian (I think to fit in with the rest of the Asian in a large Asian demographic area.

 

You know it could be more pointed to a who is Sergeant and how was he raised....? I mean if everyone is following this guy and worried about repercussion they might do as he does?

I've been stationed in CA and VA. Small boat and big boat. The first time I have ever witnessed racism was in Texas after I got out of the branch. The Navy is too mixed up in ethnicity.

 

Mathloom, you do not understand the impact that suburban development, massive transportation infrastructure and near comprehensive K-12 and heavily subsidized higher education have had on this country. An American suburban town within commuting distance of a big city or a small American town with a healthy industrial and farming sector is one of the safest, most prosperous places on the planet.

 

#1 Then I apologize, Semper Fi. What was your mos and what unit were you in?

#2 Yes, we are in a sense. What I disagree with is how the training has an effect on how they treated Pvt Chen. What happened here was due to their upbringing/background, not because of their training.

#3 I haven't seen cover ups that involve suicide of anything else of that magnitude. The few I have seen involved fraternization and hazing. Now I don't think the issue was at the CO level. If there was a "cover up", it was most likely at the NCO level. That's where I think the leadership broke down.

 

Not true, don't speak on what you have no understand of

 

When I served in the Airforce back in the 80s, there were only a handful of Asians in basics as well as in my base. I got to know a couple of Airmen of Asian descent when I was stationed in Holland. We would sit and talk sometimes and the subject of bigotry came up, and they told me they never personally faced any racial slurs, hazing or outright hatred for being who they are.

Maybe the Airforce is more civilized than the Army or Marines!

 

I'm not Asian but I'm of African descent. I haven't been a victim of racial discrimination since I joined the army

 

Thanks for the info!

 

That is a matter of unit discipline. The US military like the US is diverse. While you have soldiers from MS, KS, NB and other rural, mostly white states you also have soldiers from big inner cities, blacks, Hispanics and every other ethnicity. Military training is meant to build unit cohesion and while the warrior culture encourages aggression and dehumanization it also encourages bonding with your other comrades in arms.

The US military survived widespread racial integration and I don't see this as endemic of racism in the military but a failure at the unit level.

 

Good, I hope this is true.

I am more cynical than you. The wide-spread racism is endemic, not only in the Military, but the society at large. I agree w/ you in this case the unit commander let it go too far.