THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 1, 1997 TAG: 9702010294
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 101 lines
Defense Secretary William Cohen said Friday he was ``disgusted'' by the bloody Marine Corps hazing incident revealed this week on videotape, but Marine leaders said the practice may still be occurring.
The videotape of the bizarre initiation rite, called ``blood pinning'' or ``gold winging,'' shows members of a Marine Corps airborne unit at Camp Lejeune, N.C., plunging and pounding the pins of achievement badges into the chests of anguished newcomers to their outfit.
``I am disturbed and disgusted,'' Cohen told the Pentagon press corps Friday. ``Abuse such as this has no place in any branch of the United States Military.''
Appearing beside him, Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was clear that ``some leaders were involved and did not take the right steps. That's what's particularly bothersome about this incident.''
Maj. Scott Campbell, a spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters next to the Pentagon, said that while the corps condemns hazing, ``we recognize that it was going on then, and I think we recognize that it's going on now. . . . We recognize that the hazing continues today, and it's something we have to address.''
He said an investigation into the incidents is under way.
The behavior was first revealed Thursday on a videotape that depicts scenes of the new members, grimacing and screaming, having the pins smashed into their chests during the rite.
The black-and-white videotape depicts one line of Marines lined up against a wall facing other Marines who are applying the pins. All are clad in T-shirts and fatigue pants.
The incidents were recorded by participants during two sessions in 1991 and 1993 at Camp Lejeune.
News of the hazing also drew quick condemnation on Capitol Hill.
Training for the corps ``has always been tough - physically, mentally and emotionally,'' said Sen. Charles S. Robb, D-Va., a former Marine. ``But there is no place for the kind of sadistic behavior depicted on that videotape.''
Robb, who retired from the Marine Corps Reserve in 1991, said he telephoned Gen. Charles C. Krulak, the service's top officer, after viewing the hazing video in his office.
``The commandant assured me that all of the men on the tape have been identified and that he has ordered a full-scale investigation,'' Robb said. ``I suspect those men the inspector general concludes were responsible or condoned the activity will be out of the Marine Corps very soon.''
In a statement, Krulak said: ``I am outraged that Marines would participate in such disgusting behavior. There is absolutely no excuse for this. . . . I will simply not tolerate abhorrent behavior by Marines.''
Campbell said that Marines required to have parachute training are first taught at the Army's jump school in Fort Benning, Ga. After completing training and accomplishing five jumps, the students receive a small set of silver wings.
When the Marines are later sent to their parachute units, they undergo further training and when they perform five more jumps, they receive golden jump wings.
And it is then that the illicit ceremony takes place, Campbell said.
Marine officials said they did not know how far back such hazing goes, but Lt. Col. Stanton Gould, a Marine spokesman at Camp Lejeune, said it ``started many, many years ago.''
In the rite, Gould said, the badge pin is forced ``into a Marine's chest, which obviously is painful. Once that happens, you are part of the team. All of this is against regulations. It's not condoned in any way shape or form.''
Campbell noted that the hazing was secretive and often voluntary.
He said the videotapes were first brought to the Marines' attention by the NBC television magazine program ``Dateline,'' and that the Marines began their investigation into the incident Jan. 7.
He said the incidents seem to involve about 30 Marines from a logistics unit: the Second Air Delivery Platoon, of the Second Force Service Support Group's Second Landing Support Battalion.
Investigators have found and interviewed about 10 of the Marines shown on the tape - both initiators and recipients at the rite, Campbell said.
Campbell said 52 Marines have been court martialed for hazing since 1994 and 34 others have received lesser punishments. He said perpetrators found guilty have been fined, jailed and in some cases kicked out of the corps.
He added that the five-year statute of limitations has run out on the 1991 incidents, but that anyone found culpable in that case could still be thrown out of the corps.
Some experts inside and outside the military said the administration is likely to find hazing practices deeply rooted - like the sex harassment and racism problems the Pentagon is fighting.
In a 1993 report, the Marine Corps inspector general came to that conclusion in an examination of hazing practices at a Yuma, Ariz., base. ``The real problem uncovered by this investigation is a systemic one,'' the inspector general said.
That investigation found that in the course of training, Marines were punched and kicked, forced to swallow lighted cigarettes and smeared with excrement. The investigators found that the hazing practices had begun 12 years earlier and ``evolved from the seemingly harmless to the perverse.'' MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by Knight-Ridder News
Service, The Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press and staff writer
Dale Eisman. ILLUSTRATION: Associated Press color photo
A U.S. Marine screams in pain as his jump wings are ``pinned'' on
him during a ritual, now called a hazing, for paratroopers.