NM Unit Ordered to Strip
National News
Army officials said the searches last May of 58 New Mexico National Guardsmen in a unit called Task Force Cobra were proper and legal.
But Brig. Gen. Kenny Montoya, head of the state National Guard, said he believes ethnicity played a role in the episode - the unit is 55 percent Hispanic.
"I said something wrong was done there, and it was because of race, and I want to make sure it will not happen again," Montoya said.
The search was prompted by an unsubstantiated allegation from a Soldier in another unit who complained about gang activity among Soldiers in Kuwait. The Soldier claimed to have seen gang tattoos among members of Task Force Cobra's parent unit.
The search, conducted by an agent with the Army Criminal Investigation Division, turned up no gang tattoos. The Army forbids extremist, racist, sexist or vulgar tattoos and prohibits membership in any extremist organization, though the regulations do not specifically mention gangs.
After the incident, the Army recommended discipline against three New Mexico Soldiers who objected to the searches. Maj. Kenneth Nava, a spokesman for the New Mexico Guard, said those three were counseled but not otherwise punished.
After the Albuquerque Journal reported the incident this week, New Mexico's congressional delegation demanded a full investigation from the Army. Gov. Bill Richardson, the nation's only Hispanic governor and a Democratic presidential hopeful, said he supports an investigation into the "degrading searches."
The New Mexico chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens also expressed outrage.
"This is no way to treat our troops that are sacrificing their lives for the cost of our freedom. Racial profiling is reprehensible and should not be condoned," said Paul A. Martinez, the group's executive director.
Maj. Anne Edgecomb, an Army spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said in an e-mail Wednesday to The Associated Press that the Army had just received the call for a full investigation and had yet to respond.
"The U.S. Army, one of the most ethnically diverse organizations in our nation, provides equal opportunity to all our Soldiers regardless of race, ethnicity or gender," she said.
The military previously looked into the incident and cleared the Army of any wrongdoing. It said that before the searches were conducted, the Army was advised by a military attorney that having Soldiers remove their shirts to check them for gang tattoos would be legal.
One officer who knew the search was going to be conducted, Lt. Col. Broc Perkuchin, told investigators he thought agents would investigate individuals, not the entire unit.
The unit is 55% Hispanic? So what about the other 45% of the unit, what did they have to say about the event. Is it only "racist" because 30 of the 58 are Hispanic? What if it was 25 Hispanics and 38 whites, black, reds, yellows, etc?
This race card crap is just getting to insane levels and it seems to be rapidily infiltrating the military as well. How effective are our military leaders going to be when they are walking on eggshells around the troops they are supposed to be commanding?
I see NOTHING wrong with this search, legally speaking. It's a bit odd, and I'm not sure how tattoos (or lack of tattoos) would definitively explain anything, but I GUARANTEE you if that had been a unit of predominately white-skinned men, this would never have even made the local New Mexico paper, let alone international news.
The army has ZERO tolerance for extremist groups within its ranks; if there were reason to believe that kind of activity was going on within the unit, the commanding officer had every right to weed it out.
I'm very sorry if these guys joined thinking they were going to get an easy paycheck and the opportunity to shoot automatic weapons (no sarcasm there, honestly do feel bad for these guys who are too young to see the forest for all the trees), but once you sign on the dotted line, you aren't a civilian any more. Your ass belongs to Uncle Sam for the duration. So what if it was humiliating? The military specializes in humiliation; breaking a trooper down and then building them back up to the military standard.
I can't imagine why the Islamic extremists see us as weak. They shoot their nay-sayers in the head for talking back or complaining, while we sit back and have a media frenzy, castrating the commanding officers in the process.
Ridiculous.
~Dubya
Gang members in the military has been discussed in other venues, IIRC, and to the extent that there are such in the military (and I do not doubt that there are), pose a real issue for the military as well as the civilian authorities. It may be argued that so long as any gang members don't act upon the membership while on active duty, and such does not affect the readiness of the unit, such, in and of itself, should not be a reason for disqualification from service.
The issue I have concerning gang members is the degree that skills learned while in the military are taken back "to the streets" once the member's enlistment is over, and s/he returns to civilian life. A member of a gang with specific knowledge of use of high explosives, for example, would be a valuable member to the gang when turf wars break out. Similarly, the marksmanship skills learned in the military would be useful in the same context.
I also note that this was a National Guard unit activated and deployed, not "regular Army".
Dubya, I agree that the military as a whole is vigilant concerning "extremist groups" and trying to weed the same out from its forces. I do wonder, though, if the unit had been say 80% "white-skinned", to use your term, if there would have been such an inspection at all.
While far from any expertise on gangs in general, it is my understanding that tatoos representing membership in a gang is required, in many instances, as a condition of membership. Thus, the stories about former gang members trying to have the same removed, and discussions on whether "the government" should pay for this as a part of trying to clean up gang activities.
If you ask me, the guys who resisted should have been counselled, but the soldier who did the reporting should ALSO have been counselled for false reporting or negligence. I don't think the commanders or brass should be crucified here. If there was suspect activity, it needed to be addressed.
And I completely agree with you, VT....background checks should be completed on anyone going into the military. You can't have a felony and get in, but some of the misdemeanors may be going under the radar. If someone has 5 counts of marajuana possession, or misdemeanor firearm possession, etc....some red flags should probably be going up.
And yep...perfect example, LH...Tim McVeigh.
~Dubya
Yea, it was a ARNG unit. That's what I meant; they may be signing up for NG duty, but when the chips are down, they are going to get called up just like everyone else. Signing up in the NG doesn't mean free money was all I meant by that statement.
I don't know where I came up with "white-skinned"...hmm. Caucasian, perhaps. I think maybe I was unconciously trying to steer the conversation away from the term "race" before we arrived there. I hate that term as there is absolutely no genetic difference between me and the next guy, whether he's from Africa, Asia, the Americas, or Europe...we can all be equal jerks. hehe....
~Dubya
When I was stationed in Camp Lejeune I had a friend in the Army stationed at Ft. Bragg.
I drove over to see him one weekend and we went to the Enlisted Club.
When we got there, the military police had the placed blocked off and we could see one group of black people dressed up in red and another in blue. They were being sperated by the military police.
It was a gang fight on a military base by members of the military.
It is not as far fetched as you might think.
The military has a zero tolerance policy on gang activity for a reason. They investigate and shut down any that they find.
I would rather they error like this than do nothing at all.
This is what political correctness in our society gets us.
That's a real shame...I seem to recall hearing something about that too. I guess it stands to reason that as those "waivered" individuals make their way up in the ranks, there are going to be major problems....
~Dubya
Groups infiltrating the ranks of the Army to do harm were to be discovered and put out after Court Martial review.
There is an application when one goes to the recruiter that specifies whether or not you belong to subversive groups. If you lie you get booted, simple.
Once you are in the Army, it doesn't matter if you are pink with purple dots, all are subject to search and seizure. That would include searching for tattoos.
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