5th Stryker Brigade Cases Update
A Joint Base Lewis-McChord IO, MAJ Michael Liles, recommended dropping charges in 1 of 2 incidents after the Art. 32 hearing in the case of SPC Michael Wagnon. Seattle Times coverage here. According to the story, the IO recommended that conspiracy charges in a another incident go forward.
According to Reuters via NPR, here, CPL Emmitt Quintal pled guilty and was “sentenced to 90 days of hard labor and a bad conduct discharge on Wednesday” for ”keeping war souvenir photos of Afghan civilians, beating a platoon member and smoking hashish.” Quintal must testify in the other courts-martial as a condition of his plea.
NIMJBlog previously reported herethat “[SSGT] Robert Stevens . . . pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment for throwing a grenade from a Stryker vehicle, aggravated assault for firing his M4 in the general direction of two Afghan civilians, but missing, dereliction of duty and two specifications of making a false official statement. The military judge sentenced Stevens to be reduced in rank to private and to serve nine months of confinement, but retained him in the service.”
CORRECTION: Thanks to Cari35426 for pointing out that the charges against SPC Wagnon are in an attempted murder case, not a murder. I tried to incorporate that change above in the first paragrpah.
There are a lot of Stryker Brigades in the Army.
It’s a real stretch to say the military judge “retained [SSGT Stevens] in the service.”
The judge did not include a punitive discharge in the sentence of the court, but doesn’t get to decide whether Stevens is retained. I’m surprised NIMJ worded its article the way it did.
SAG–Thanks, I didn’t know that.
NM, No problem. There are five SBCTs (Stryker Brigade Combat Teams) that I can think of off the top of my head, and I think there are one or two more. Since all of the stories about CAPT Honors referred to his as the CO of the Enterprise, not “the Navy carrier,” I thought maybe the Stryker Brigades deserved the same.
To add to that, three SBCTs are at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, fka Fort Lewis.
FWIW:
There are 6 active Stryker Brigades and one ARNG (Pennsylvania, to be specific)- 2/2, 3/2, 4/2, 1/25, 2/25, and 2CR are active, and 56th (I think that’s the number) Stryker Brigade is the NG one.
[I was a Stryker guy as an LT].
SAG–I was actually being sarcastic. But since the cases all come out of the 5th Stryker Brigade I changed the post title. And yes, I did know it has been reflagged as the 2d Stryker (2/2 not 5/2 anymore). But it was the 5th when it all happened.
Your information is wrong. Michael Wagnon isn’t being charged in 2 killings. The charge that is being recommended to courts martial is a conspiracy to committ assault. The I.O. recommended that they drop the assault because SPC Wagnon did not fire his weapon.
SAG,
I’ll gratefully and non-sarcastically accept Army insight into how many of anything the Army has in future posts. At least until I find the other nine mountain divisions, the other 99 airborne divisions, or explain why Penn State now plays in the “Big Ten.”
I didn’t want to come across as mean.. But SPC Michael Wagnon is my husband. Thank you for your correction!
Ma’am, we thank you for your input. We want to be accurate and we appreciate it when readers point out when we make mistakes.