3 Buddies Home from Iraq are Charged with Murdering a 4th

[Hissyspit]

Source: New York Times

3 Buddies Home From Iraq Are Charged With Murdering a 4th

By DAN FROSCH
Published: January 12, 2008
COLORADO SPRINGS — After surviving intense combat in Iraq, Specialist Kevin Shields was killed on what he had thought was friendly soil. His bloody, bullet-riddled body was found by a newspaper deliverer, sprawled on a downtown sidewalk here on Dec. 1.

Three of Specialist Shields’s buddies, all current or former soldiers who served with him in Iraq before their return last year, have been charged with murdering him. Details are still emerging, but his death, and that of an Army private whose killing has now been attributed by the authorities to two of the three men charged in the Shields case, have shaken this staunchly pro-military city and Fort Carson, an expansive Army base on the edge of town.

According to court documents released this week and accounts from his family, on the night of Nov. 30 Specialist Shields celebrated his 24th birthday by getting together with those three friends: Louis Bressler, 25; Kenneth Eastridge, 24; and Pfc. Bruce Bastien Jr., 21. The four men, who had served together as members of the Second Infantry Division’s Second Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Carson, went drinking at a Colorado Springs nightclub.

Most of what is publicly known about the events of that night comes from a police interview about a month ago in which, prosecutors say, Private Bastien, having earlier denied knowledge of the killing, declared that he was present when Mr. Bressler committed it. And that was just one of several crimes that Private Bastien said the three had carried out around Colorado Springs.

Investigators say Mr. Eastridge has confirmed most of Private Bastien’s account of the Shields killing, but have revealed little else.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/us/12soldier.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin

[dddem]

1. damn.

I just went to a funeral of a guy I worked with. He was a nice enough guy, but he was an alcoholic. Had a nice wife, a nice house, kids, grandkids. I never understood why he let himself get to the point he was at. In his obituary, they mentioned that he was a marine who served in Viet Nam. Then I understood. I found a nice quote to put in our company newsletter in his memory. It says "In war, there are no unwounded soldiers" - Jose Narosky.
God help all these kids. God help us all.
Peace.

[acmavm]

2. I suppose that when your own government sends you to kill innocent

civilians who did nothing to this country you're bound to get pretty jaded and corrupt. Life wouldn't seem to be worth much after that, would it?