Update On The Beauchamp Story.

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Matt Sanchez, a Marine Reservist, is currently in Iraq interviewing soldiers and visited the camp that was made famous not for heroic deeds, which I’m sure there are many such examples, but made famous due to one douchebag making stories up to sell to a liberal rag: (h/t Hot Air)

There’s no doubt the Baghdad Diarist comments distract from the mission. Lt. Colonel James Crider of the 1-4 Cavalry of Ft. Riley, Kansas gave me a Significant Acts (SIGACTS) briefing that included three car bombs, several IED’s and today’s near encounter with a lobbed grenade. No one has been injured due to information from locals. “The 1-4 Cavalry has been fairly successful in getting the people on our side,” said Lt. Colonel Crider with a slightly southern accent that translates well to the residents of this southeast Baghdad neighborhood…

With the dangers of the real mission in mind, soldiers at the PAO are frustrated that the major media has chosen to focus on the negative, a common complaint I have heard among troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The real question here is about accountability,” said Public Affairs Officer Major Luke Luedeke who was quick to debunk several statements in Private Beauchamp’s article “Shock Troops”, after several military bloggers, JD Johannes, Jeff Emanuel and Michael Yon, pointed out glaring inconsistencies in Beauchamp’s articles.

~~~

After several terse conversations, it was obvious soldiers at FOB Falcon took the events described in The New Republic very seriously. What was not so obvious was how seriously The New Republic editorial staff treated the matter. If the investigation proves the “Baghdad Diarist” stories to be false, what will The New Republic do? Will they retract the story? Will they reveal the process they used to vet the original information? Every soldier I spoke to realizes he or she is accountable for what is said and done while deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Careers can be ruined because of scandals like the “Baghdad Diarist.”

And Michael Goldfarb received some clarification from Matt about his visit:

We emailed Sanchez to see if we could get anything more definitive. Sanchez reports that the New Republic has sent “one or two emails” to the PAO at FOB Falcon to ask what were called “lukewarm” questions as part of their effort to “re-report” the stories.

Sanchez added that:

No one has seen or heard of the melting lady. No soldier would confuse an officer with a contractor. It just wouldn’t happen. It’s a small base and most people have seen each other. I just got back today and all these people I haven’t seen in a month are welcoming me back. They don’t know me, but they’ve seen me before.

Meanwhile a comment left at Matt’s blog appears to indicate that Beauchamp is currently undergoing a Article 15-6 investigation.  Not being Army I’m not sure what that is but I’m told its close to a Court Martial.

Right now, PV2 Scott Thomas Beauchamp is in the middle of an Article 15-6 investigation. If his allegations are true, then he’s a dirtbag who demeans disfigured women, tolerates the desecration of human remains and thinks that running over dogs is funny. If his allegations are false, he’s a walking honor code violation. Either way, I’m not impressed. Nobody on my tour did the kinds of things that he’s claiming.

Just rewards in my opinion.  I’m hoping he gets a great view of some bars in the stockade very soon.

UPDATE

ChrisG in the comments updates me on what exactly a Art 15-6 is:

an Army Regulation (AR) 15-6 Investigation is a formal or informal investigation into allegations which requires a commissioned officer to act as the investigator working with JAG, CID, and the entire command to discover if there is enough evidence to proceed with judicial UCMJ (Court Martial), non-judicial UCMJ (ART-15), or some other action.

Article 15 and AR 15-6 get confused often.

This means that a commissioned officer, probably a captain (O-3) Company Commander, or higher because of the charge, has been removed from combat operations to be the investigator.

http://www.gordon.army.mil/osja/15-6.htm (Guide to investigators)

http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r15_6.pdf (Actual Regulation)

Good news to my ears.

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Article 15 is Non-Judicial Punishment – Office Hours for Marines or Captains Mast for the Navy.

Chad is correct on UCMJ Article 15s. However, an Army Regulation (AR) 15-6 Investigation is a formal or informal investigation into allegations which requires a commissioned officer to act as the investigator working with JAG, CID, and the entire command to discover if there is enough evidence to proceed with judicial UCMJ (Court Martial), non-judicial UCMJ (ART-15), or some other action.

Article 15 and AR 15-6 get confused often.

This means that a commissioned officer, probably a captain (O-3) Company Commander, or higher because of the charge, has been removed from combat operations to be the investigator.

http://www.gordon.army.mil/osja/15-6.htm (Guide to investigators)

http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r15_6.pdf (Actual Regulation)

I had to conduct one of these as a Company Commander as did my XO. They are very serious matters, which could lead to a full Court Marshall very easily in this case. Either the ENTIRE Battalion, ALL the contractors, ALL the government employees, and ALL the media on the FOB are covering up massive amounts of criminal activities by the unit (which I any many others highly doubt), or PV2 Scott Thomas Beauchamp is a lying sack of excrement who made up stories his wife’s bosses wanted to print without a care for fact checking or journalistic ethics.

I am betting the latter.

Thanks for the info Chris and Chad. Glad to hear the Art 15 could be more then just office hours. Gonna put your description up in the post Chris.

As for Blasts comments. Sanchez didn’t break the story. Yon and others are also covering this so to dismiss it because a reporter you disagree with personally is over there is quite childish.

The sad part is that a Company Commander or higher has been pulled from duty in order to conduct this investigation. TNR’s fantasy writer has now caused over a hundered soldiers to have thier CO’s attention diverted to this.

If it is a Field Grade officer conducting the AR 15-6, then someone is without an BN S-3/BN XO/Brigade S-1/S-3/S-4 for the time being. Luckily, most staffs are deep enough to compensate but still, other soldiers will suffer because of this PV2s fantasies.

Hey Curt, read the links from the Marine Corps Times. I think the hypocrisy of someone like Sanchez reporting is the problem for me. If Sanchez cleared up publicly the issues from the Marine Corps investgation – which were more serious than him lying about his gay porn background. The Marine Corps Times indicated Marine Col Charles Jones said:

“Jones wrote that Sanchez’s participation in porn films was part of the investigation, but that two of the three allegations against him involved lying “to various people, including but not limited to, representatives of the New York City United War Veterans Council and U-Haul Corporation” about deploying to Iraq at the commandant’s request.

“Specifically, you wrongfully solicited funds to support your purported deployment to Iraq” by coordinating a $300 payment from the UWVC and $12,000 from U-Haul,”

I don’t want to take anything away from the story of Beauchamp, but at the same time if the person providing additional information could be tainted in any way… that needs to be part of the record.

I understand and would agree if he was the only one reporting and/or the one who broke the story. I would definitely need corroberation. But he is just one piece to the puzzle here, and he is reporting pretty much the same thing as others so I see no reason to discount his information. but I get your point.

Thanks bro

heh…

blastmarine said: “I think the whole Beauchamp story is bs….”

Sounds like you wouldn’t believe it even if a guy following u on it wasn’t ghey….

Fine…disregard what he says… You can wait for the findings of the Army’s investi-ga-tion (little play on words there for fun..)