34. Secret Military History

1992-0131, Race, Three White Soldiers Falsely Convicted of Murder.
Fort Stewart soldiers SPC Mark Jones, Kenny Gardiner, and Dominic Lucci were driving late at night in Savannah, GA. Police pulled them over and Rev James White, black political activist said they were the men who just murdered Stanley Jackson a black man.
The three men spent 25 years in prison.
In 2017, the black activist said he lied when he identified them. The men were proven to be innocent.
In 2020, GA paid each man $1,000,000 for wrongful conviction.


1992-0413, UCMJ, Defense Secretary Writes Bad Checks.
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney writes 25-bad checks in one month at the Ft Myer, VA, PX.


1992-0719, Gay, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT), the beginning.
President Clinton approves the DoD do not ask do not tell policy on gays.
One person summarizes the policy: "The military now permits gays to remain in the military, provided they don't act like fairies."


1992-0810, Gender, Female Pregnancy Hurts Deployment
Three times as many females as males were unable to deploy to Desert Shield. Medical disabilities were the most common cause. 15 percent of all females in the Military were pregnant when deployment orders came down.


1992-1012, Gay, Landstuhl Assistant Base Commander Caught.
14 Military and 8 civilians caught having Gay sex thru a glory hole, in the base library men's room at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LARMC), Germany. The assistant base Commander a full COL was one of the participants. A hidden camera recorded the activities.

1992-1028, Rape, Soldier Rapes and Murders Juicy Girl.
PV2 Kenneth L. Markle III, 20, saw a Korean female Yun Kim-I, 26, staggering down the street in Tonguchon, Korea. He volunteered to help her home.
Once at her apartment PV2 Kenneth raped Ms. Yun. After PV2 Markle raped Ms. Yun he then murdered her by kicking two beer bottles and a bottle of Coke entirely into her vagina, he then drummed an umbrella fully into her anus, filled her mouth with matchsticks and poured laundry detergent on her body.
PV2 Markle was tried in a Korean court and sentenced to life in a Korean prison. Ms. Yun’s family received $94,000 (188,000-2022) from the US government as compensation. On appeal, his sentence was reduced to 15-years. Mr. Markle was released on August 14, 2006.


1993-0419, Military, Number of Married Soldiers
Get married and make as much as $2,000 (3,891-2022) more per month than single Soldiers. Single Soldiers could correctly be considered "second class Soldiers”. Percent married by service:
USMC 51
Navy 55
Army 61
USCG 66
USAF 66

1993-0601, UCMJ, Old Guard SFC Murders Female 2LT at Ft Bragg, NC.
2LT Lisa N Bryant, graduates from Princeton University with honors and is commissioned in the US Army, Engineer Corps. Bryant arrives at Ft Bragg, NC for temporary duty with the 1st ROTC region. She stays at Hardy Hall, a hotel on post; she stays on the second floor.
SFC Graves arrives at FT Bragg, NC, TDY, from the Old Guard in Washington DC. He also stays on the second floor of Hardy Hall. He is supporting ROTC advanced camp. His wife Renee, his son Reecy 14 and Fundre 13 stay in DC while he is away.
SFC Graves frequents the nightclub on the first floor of Hardy Hall. He repeatedly asks 2LT Bryant to dance with him, she refuses, this angers SFC Graves.
SFC Graves, places handcuffs made of bootlaces on the corners of his bed in a plan to kidnap and rape 2LT Bryant who lives down the hall.
2LT Bryant is in the hallway using the pay phone. She was talking to her boyfriend from Princeton, 2LT Noah Rudolph. SFC Graves grabs her. He pulls her towards his room she screams, "Please no!” A struggle ensues, and she is shot four-times in the head and chest with a .357 Magnum, pistol while lying on the hallway floor.
2LT Bryant’s family and SFC Graves’ family are provided transportation and housing at Fort Bragg during the trial. Both families are housed on the second floor of Hardy Hall. This terrifies 2LT Bryant’s family and they are granted off post hotel accommodations
SFC Graves is convicted of premeditated murder, murder committed with intent to commit rape, attempted rape, and assault with intent to commit rape.
He is dishonorably discharged, reduced to PVT, forfeit all pay and confined for life in the brig.
Emily Bryant, the woman’s mother double over and sobbed "He killed my baby" as the sentence was read. SFC Graves will be eligible for parole in the year 2004.

1993-0823, Alcohol, Statistics
Male enlisted Soldiers below the age of 26 are twice as likely to abuse alcohol, at 25.9 percent, as civilians of the same age, at 13.8 percent. Female Soldiers had the same alcohol use pattern as their civilian counterparts. 17.1 percent of male Soldiers were heavy drinkers compared to 4.4 percent of female Soldiers. The main reason for the decline in alcohol use was the Army's average age went up and more Soldiers are now married. In 1980, 17.3 percent of UCMJ action was alcohol related compared to 7.6 percent in 1992. In 1980, 26.7 percent of Soldiers said their jobs were affected by alcohol use compared to 16.4 percent of Soldiers in 1992. These finding were presented to the American Psychological Assn. meeting in Toronto on 1993-0823.

1993-0906, Gay, Secretary of the Army Caught Shoplifting.
The Secretary of the Army the "honorable" John Shannon is caught shoplifting female’s clothing at the Ft Myer, VA Post Exchange, the skirts, and sleepwear were his size.
GEN Gordon Sullivan, ACOS, will serve as the acting Secretary of the Army. Northrop Corp Executive and political activist To-Go West is a leading candidate to replace Shannon.


1993-0914, U.S. Army Soldier Gets Life for Rape-Murder.
NOTE: This was the first time the Army used DNA to solve a major crime. They screwed it up.
DARMSTADT, Germany, A U.S. Army soldier pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison Monday for raping and murdering the 2-year-old daughter of an American military couple.
SPC Patrick McDonald Smith of Rex, Ga., confessed to the crime as part of a pretrial agreement. He could have been sentenced to death had he contested the charges and been convicted. He was dishonorably discharged, reduced in rank to private and ordered to forfeit all pay. He is found guilty and sentenced to 100-years in the brig and a $100,000 fine. If he is ever paroled, he must pay the fine before he can leave the brig.
But the mystery of Elora McKemy’s death was left unsolved by Monday’s proceedings. ″Oh God, why, why? ″ cried Penny McKemy, the little girl’s mother, breaking down in tears on the witness stand.
Elora’s grandfather, Geronimo Valenzuela, a sheriff in Fayetteville, N.C., was restrained by guards in the courtroom as he tried to go after Smith.
″I’ll see you in hell 3/8″ he shouted.
Smith pleaded guilty to murder, rape and kidnapping, but was unable to say why he did it.
He said he had been drinking beer and hard alcohol for several hours before taking Elora from her room 15 months ago, raping her and beating her to death.
″It’s inexplicable. We really don’t understand why he did what he did. There is nothing in his family, nothing in his background to give us an insight, ″ said Smith’s civilian defense lawyer, Joel Cohen.
The attorney said two months of psychiatric testing also failed to reveal any clue to Smith’s motive. ″He had absolutely no history of violence or sexual deviation, ″ he said. Smith, 22, answered ″Yes, sir, ″ when asked by the judge, Col. Craig S. Schwender, if he had raped the girl and killed her with a blow of his hand.
He also pleaded guilty to kidnapping her, but said he was innocent of the sodomy charge.
Elora was the daughter of Sgt. Brent and Penny KcKemy, who lived in U.S. Army military housing at Babenhausen, near Frankfurt. The girl disappeared from the McKemys’ apartment the night of Sept. 14, 1993. Her body was found the next morning in woods about a half-mile away.
The Army conducted DNA tests on 1,800 soldiers, searching for the killer in a manhunt that lasted eight months.
Eight months after the murder, two Soldiers are eating dinner in the dining facility of the same Kasern. One tells the other about being paid $100 last year to switch ID cards and take a DNA test for SPC Smith. Sitting in the next booth, a female Soldier overhears the conversation and reports it.
Smith and Sgt. McKemy, 27, were assigned to the same unit but did not know each other.
Because of the pretrial agreement, little evidence was heard Monday.
There was no explanation of how Smith picked the fourth-floor apartment of the McKemys, how he knew the girl was in her room and why the girl’s parents never heard him take her away.
Mrs. McKemy, 25, cried on the witness stand as she described her daughter as a ″miracle baby.″ Doctors had said she wouldn’t be able to have a child after four miscarriages. Brent McKemy, who has been reassigned to the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, N.C., watched the proceedings in the company of his sister-in-law, Patricia. Both frequently broke into tears as Mrs. McKemy, holding one of her daughter’s dolls, agonized through her testimony.
″Oh God, I still don’t understand, ″ she said. ″I don’t want to live anymore. That’s what
I’m looking forward to - dying. ″
Smith’s parents, Joseph and Ruth, who live in Rex, both sobbed during the three-hour court session.
It had been set up as a preliminary hearing, with the possibility of continuing as a full court-martial in the United States in January.
But Smith’s confession and guilty plea averted that. He will be sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to serve the sentence.

1994-0826, Leadership, 3d ACR Commander Fired.
COL Robert Young, the 65th COL of the famous Ft Bliss, TX based 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment (3d ACR) relieved of command by the III Corps Commander, LTG Paul Funk for a failure in leadership. COL Robert Wilson selected as his replacement.
LTC Toby Martinez, 1st Squadron, 3d ACR, Commander relieved the same day for unrelated "improprieties.”
The action was taken as the Regt was in the middle of an NTC deployment at Fort Irwin, CA; COL Wilson flew to Ft Irwin, CA and will conduct a change of command ceremony upon the Regiments’ return.
The primary reason for the relief for cause was COL Young's micromanagement of the entire regiment. One example was the Regt's QTB Power Point slide show was 500-Pages long per Squadron. The 2LT from the regimental S3 shop, who was responsible for putting the five squadron, 2,500-Page slide show together, committed suicide.
Shortly after the 2LT’s suicide COL Young brought all the regimental officers together with a picture of the un-named 2LT and called him a coward for committing suicide.
Tom Clancy had just finished the book ARMORED CAV where he heaped praise on the regimental leadership.


1995-0203, Fraternization, Drill SGTs Take Trainees to Mexico.
Officials at Ft Sam Houston, TX, charge five Drill SGTs with adultery and sodomy when they took a bus with 14-female trainees on an overnight trip to Mexico.