Stryker soldier says beating made him talk of unit's drug use in Afghanistan

[unhappycamper]

Stryker soldier says beating made him talk of unit's drug use in Afghanistan
By Adam Ashton | The (Tacoma) News Tribune
Posted on Thursday, December 9, 2010

The beating Spc. Justin Stoner took at the hands of seven platoon mates in May sealed his decision to talk with Army investigators about drug use and other possible illegal activity in their Stryker unit, he testified Wednesday.

Stoner said he believes his fellow Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers were trying to silence him after he asked for a transfer to another unit because he didn’t want to be held accountable for their misconduct during their deployment to southern Afghanistan.

“That was their way, but obviously it didn’t work too well,” he said while testifying in a Lewis-McChord courtroom at a pretrial hearing for one of his alleged attackers.

Sgt. Darren Jones, 29, of Pomona, Calif., is charged with assaulting Stoner, shooting at unarmed Afghans during a patrol, participating in a conspiracy to harm those noncombatants and trying to impede the Army’s investigation into Stoner’s complaints.

Prosecutors dropped a charge alleging Jones smoked hashish during his deployment.



unhappycamper comment: Many soldiers came back from Vietnam with a drug habit. I suspect the same thing is happening now.

[bananas]

1. Many DOCTORS came back from Vietnam with a drug habit.

[madokie]

2. I came back with a pot habit

I won't call it an addiction because when I quit smoking there was no strong desire to go find some or any withdrawals at all.

[Pisces]

3. Drugs help people cope and escape. Seems logical that you would want

to escape war conditions.

[UTUSN]

4. The beating platoon mates will be the future generation of SwiftBots.

Just as KERRY testified about the abuses and got blasted as unpatriotic.

[Javaman]

5. Stoner? nt