Those looking for answers to Hasan's Texas massacre might find some in Russell's Iraq bloodbath. Like psychiatrist Hasan, psychiatric patient Russell was apparently breaking down in plain sight with no one noticing. Their cases have also thrown a fresh spotlight on the issues of murder and mental health in the military.
Some observers hope the shootings will also raise interest in the investigations of other service and veteran deaths, including lesser-known cases at Fort Lewis and elsewhere that seem curious. Among the current mysteries: Who shot a female sergeant in the back of the head, and why?
Joseph Laney
Russell complained of being treated dismissively by Army psychiatric staff.
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"The Army," says a reassuring Pentagon spokesperson, Wayne Hall, "thoroughly investigates the death of every soldier, under any circumstance."
But can the Pentagon be trusted to tell all when it probes non-combat deaths in its ranks? No, says Georgia-bred military critic and author Cilla McCain (no relation to the senator from Arizona), who writes about military homicides.
"The Army tends to choose the lesser of two evils," she says, alluding to the Army's tendency to focus on individual acts at the expense of examining systemic failures. "Otherwise, you're going to have to come up with the more difficult task of explaining why people in the military are killing each other, which happens more often than you think."
Similarly, Dr. Fred Baughman, a civilian San Diego neurologist who has been researching military deaths involving psychoactive drugs—particularly antidepressants doled out to troops and veterans—says there are too many unanswered questions about medications triggering deadly reactions. Russell, for one, was taking unidentified meds at the time of his attacks.
"The Army is not being honest about many of these deaths," claims Baughman, who has testified at a Federal Drug Administration hearing on the topic.
McCain, a military brat whose book, Murder in Baker Company (Chicago Review Press), is due out in February, says the Army's report on Russell is an encouraging sign, and she hopes investigators follow through on their promises of a complete investigation in the Hasan case as well. Still, she says she's skeptical after researching other Army murders. Most recently, she delved into the gang slaying of Army Spc. Richard T. Davis, who survived Iraq but was stabbed and killed in 2003 by four fellow soldiers after his return to Fort Benning, Ga. In her book, McCain challenges the Army's handling of the case, claiming they might have prevented his death. She uses Davis' murder as a springboard to question military practices in probing other soldier deaths, including some that may be misclassified as suicides, accidents, and illnesses.
"I've discovered a subculture of families—patriotic military families—who are dealing with the murders of their loved one, who are really being mistreated in their search for the truth," McCain says. "Military investigations seem to follow a template on how to mistreat these families. They can't get answers, and they can't find anyone to help them get answers."
The Pentagon officially lists 837 non-combat deaths in Iraq since 2003. There's no breakdown of the figures, but they include accidents, illnesses, suicides, and murders. Suicides, in particular, have been rising in recent years. The Army alone reports 133 active-duty troop suicides from January through October 2009, compared to 115 suicides for the same period last year.
Furthermore, according to a 2008 Rand Corporation study, about 20 percent of service members returned from Iraq or Afghanistan with symptoms of post-traumatic stress or major depression. Some also suffer from brain injuries, the product of wars in which the enemy's weapon of choice is the roadside bomb. The military has strengthened its mental-health programs in recent years, and tried to break down the taboos surrounding suicide that prevent some soldiers from admitting they're vulnerable. Yet even today the White House does not send its usual letter of condolence to families if their loved one took his or her own life, even in combat.
In the Army, where troops are trained—if not indoctrinated—to kill and guns and trauma are plentiful, murder statistics are difficult to come by. But among the headline slayings in recent years are the four Army wives killed in a six-week span by their soldier husbands in separate 2002 incidents at Fort Bragg, N.C., and five Colorado Springs killings in 2007 and 2008 involving members of nearby Fort Carson's Iron Eagles combat team. Last year, The New York Times reported that more than 120 murders in the U.S., including nine in western Washington, were committed by veterans of the Iraq or Afghanistan wars.
Seattle Weekly found even more homicides—13—involving local soldiers in western Washington ("Murders on the Home Front," The Daily Weekly, Jan. 14, 2008). Most were Fort Lewis troops, including Kenneth Baginski, who fired a shot through the wall of his Tacoma home, killing a neighbor; Brandon Bare, who stabbed his Tacoma wife to death after suspecting her of cheating on him; Godfrey Hurley, who stabbed to death a fellow soldier's wife on the Fort Lewis base; Michael Antonio Jordan, convicted in the kidnapping that led to the Fort Lewis death of his former Army roommate; Jamaal A. Lewis, who killed two people outside a Lakewood tavern; and James Kevin Pitts, who drowned his wife in a bathtub at their Lakewood home. All were sent to prison.
