Haditha, Iraq

What Happened?

In September of 2005, Marines of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, First Marine Division manned Forward Operating Base 'Sparta' in the Anbar Province of Iraq near the town of Haditha; an area known to harbor insurgents. This was the company's third deployment having participated in the Invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the battle for Fallujah in 2004. The average age of the Marines in the company was twenty-one and two-thirds of the company had previous Iraq deployments. This was the first Iraq deployment for the SGT leading the convoy and all but one of the officers to include the Company Commander.

During a routine resupply mission on 19 November 2005, Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas was killed and two other Marines were injured when their vehicle was struck by an IED in the city of Haditha. Soon after the IED attack 24 Iraqi men, women and children were killed by Marines who were in the same unit as Terrazas. At first, the Haditha incident was reported as Marine reaction to an insurgent IED attack. It was reported that the IED had killed 15 of the Iraqi civilians and that the remaining 9 Iraqi men were insurgents killed by Marines after they were fired upon. The initial report was quickly rebuked by witnesses and as experts were called in the evidence from the scene clearly disputed what was reported by the Marines. The confusion, conflicting stories, and casualties were caused by the Marines, contradictory to the initial report. As a result of the investigation eight of the Marines were charged in connection with the killings. The Marines filed charges of unpremeditated murder against Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt and Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum. Charges of dereliction of duty charges for failing to investigate were filed against Lt. Col. Jeffery Chessani, Capt. Lucas McConnell, Capt. Randy Stone and 1st Lt. Andrew A. Grayson. The group was also charged with multiple infractions to include: violating a lawful order, dereliction of duty, obstruction of justice, improper reporting, and making false statements. As of now all the charges have been dropped for 7 of the Marines and the trial of the eighth is still pending.

Questions to Discuss with your Soldiers?

• As a leader, how can you positively influence your soldiers to make moral decisions in stressful combat situations? What is your role in helping soldiers deal with the emotional realities of combat?
• As a leader, how are Army Values best served if your soldiers perform questionably- by rendering false, incomplete, or misleading reports to 'protect' them or by providing 'the cold hard truth'? What is your responsibility if you find out that other people are misrepresenting the actions of your soldiers? How can you uphold the value of loyalty in situations where you have to choose between 'taking care of your buddies' and working for the greater good of your company, the Army, and country? Do you believe certain actions could have prevented the killing of the Iraqi's?
• As a soldier, do you find that you view the value of American life as worth more than non-American life? How do you think authentically moral leaders would respond to your view?
• As a soldier, at what point do you say 'enough is enough' and begin to take action against illegal or immoral activities? In what ways, has your training enabled you to develop a capacity to attend to, store, retrieve, process, and make meaning of morally relevant information?
• What would you have done had you been in Staff Sgt. Wuterich's position? What would you have done had you been in Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz position? What would you have done had you been in Lt. Col Jeffery Chessani's position?