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Lt. colonels charged with assaulting contractor

SAN ANTONIO — Two Air Force lieutenant colonels are facing charges of assault and conduct unbecoming an officer stemming from a face-off with a Blackwater contractor in Afghanistan last fall.

Civilian attorneys for the two men say the case raises troubling questions for airmen operating in the war zone, and argue that the Air Force is prosecuting the officers for essentially following rules of engagement.

Join the discussion: What does this case mean for the rules of engagement?

The facts of the case are in dispute.

The Air Force charges indicate the two men, Lt. Col. Gary W. Brown and Lt. Col. Christopher R. Hall, initiated the incident by ramming the contractor’s sport utility vehicle. But family members of the two men say that story is backward — that security contractor Jerry Bergeron rammed the Air Force SUV the two officers were in and that they responded to what they perceived as a threat on their lives.

“This is the most bizarre case — bizarre, that’s the exact word,” said Mary Kathryn Hall, Hall’s wife.

An Article 32 hearing was scheduled for the two officers in Afghanistan on Feb. 24, but the hearing was delayed and was to be rescheduled within a few days because inclement weather prevented some officials from getting there on time, a Central Command Air Forces spokesman said Feb. 22.

If convicted on all charges, both officers face a maximum penalty of dismissal, total forfeiture of pay, a fine and a reprimand. In addition, Brown faces up to 22 years’ confinement; Hall up to nine years.

Air Force officials would not comment on any other aspect of the case.

Blackwater’s spokesman did not return phone calls or e-mails requesting comment on the case.

According to the charges, Hall was a passenger in an SUV driven by Brown on Sept. 19 in the vicinity of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Their wives agree with that much of the official story but their account is at odds with most of the rest of the charges.

According to the Air Force, Brown “wrongfully and recklessly” rammed his vehicle into the one driven by Bergeron, then dismounted with a weapon and assaulted Bergeron by pointing a loaded firearm at him, striking him in the chest and threatening to kill him. The conduct unbecoming charge states that Brown used offensive language, including multiple instances of the “f” word, in telling Bergeron to get down on the ground or be shot. He also threw away Bergeron’s keys.

Hall’s assault charge says he pointed a loaded firearm at Bergeron, and the conduct unbecoming charge accuses him of taking Bergeron’s keys and handing them to Brown.

In an e-mail from Kabul, Hall’s civilian attorney, Greg Pavlik of San Antonio, called the conduct unbecoming charge “unbelievable.”

“There is no evidence that he was ever asked for the keys by Bergeron, so he is essentially charged with the criminal offense of handing Bergeron’s keys to Lt. Col. Brown,” Pavlik wrote. “In my 20 years as a lawyer — 17 in the Air Force with five and a half as a circuit-riding prosecutor, six as a military judge, one and a half as a defense counsel, and three as an instructor at U.S. Air Force Academy — I have never heard of such a ridiculous charge.”

The two officers could not be reached for comment, but their wives agreed to be interviewed about what they know of the case — gained through virtually daily contact with their husbands through phone calls and e-mail.

Stacey Brown and Mary Kathryn Hall say the official account is all wrong, starting with who rammed whom.

“They were driving in downtown Kabul when this guy rammed them a couple of times,” Hall said.

A dark blue SUV with darkened windows attempted to rapidly pass them on the right and squeeze in between the Air Force SUV and a taxi. But there wasn’t enough room, and the dark SUV’s left rear quarter panel struck the Air Force vehicle, both wives said.

The blue SUV then dropped to the rear, sped up and rammed the Air Force vehicle, the wives said.

The officers, concerned the dark SUV was a vehicle bomb or other attack, took evasive action, stomping on the accelerator and weaving through traffic to get away. They were concerned that firing on the other vehicle — which was authorized under the rules of engagement for such an attack — could trigger any explosive that may have been onboard, Hall said.

On Sept. 8, two soldiers from the Army Reserve’s 405th Civil Affairs Battalion, Sgt. 1st Class Merideth L. Howard and Staff Sgt. Robert J. Paul, were killed by a vehicle-borne IED along the same stretch of road.

In the Sept. 19 incident, as the two SUVs approached the Afghan Ministry of Defense, they had to stop for traffic going through the gate.

At that point, according to the wives, the driver of the blue SUV — whom they said their husbands described as bearded, dark-skinned and wearing a bulky vest under a collared shirt — got out of his vehicle and rapidly approached the passenger side of the Air Force SUV.

“He repeatedly threatened my husband with profane language,” Kathryn Hall said. “He saw Chris’ ID and started yelling, ‘I’ve got you, Hall. I’ve got you.’

“They couldn’t tell if he had a gun or was wearing a bomb or what. They felt they had no recourse but to bring this guy under control.”

Hall dismounted with a drawn pistol, while Brown jumped out with a rifle and came around the vehicle, Stacey Brown said.

But the man remained belligerent until Brown took his M4 off “safe,” although he kept his finger off the trigger, his wife said.

“That’s when he said he was an American,” Stacey Brown said.

The wives agree that their husbands took Bergeron’s keys and tossed them off the road and left.

“They wanted to make sure he couldn’t follow them,” Brown said. “Then they reported what happened to the MPs at Camp Eggers.”

But then the investigation turned into accusations against Brown and Hall.

“After Chris and Gary gave their statements at the MP station, no one came and asked them their side of the story,” Mary Kathryn Hall said. They just relieved them of their weapons a few days later, making it impossible for them to leave the compound and do their jobs.”

Charles Gittins, Brown’s civilian attorney, told the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer that the two officers did nothing wrong. “They did exactly what they were supposed to do, which is use the normal ‘shout, shove, shoot’ escalation of force to get the man under control,” Gittins told the paper.

In his e-mail to Air Force Times, Pavlik, Hall’s attorney, concurred.

“In my opinion, the actions of both Lt. Col. Hall and Lt. Col. Brown were proper under the circumstances,” Pavlik wrote. “There are others who would have fired the weapon based on Bergeron’s response. Fortunately for him that did not happen.

“I can tell you that after the actions taken in this case, many Air Force people in theater question what to do in that situation. They wonder whether they should wait to get shot before pulling the weapon so they can ensure criminal charges will not be levied against them, or if they are supposed to follow the Rules of Engagement put out by the CentAF staff; the very staff now prosecuting Lt. Col. Hall and Lt. Col. Brown.”

Stacey Brown said she believes the original investigation was based on false information, resulting in “grave inaccuracies” in the report that led Lt. Gen. Gary North, commander, 9th Air Force and Central Command Air Forces, to order the Article 32 hearing.

Bergeron, whose current status with Blackwater is unknown, is scheduled to testify in the hearing by phone from Canada, Pavlik said.

“We will hopefully discover the employment status of Mr. Bergeron when we start the Article 32,” he wrote.

Neither officer had previous disciplinary problems. Both were reservists who returned to active duty after Sept. 11, 2001, as part of Air Force recall programs.

Brown took a military leave of absence from his job as a pilot for American Airlines in the fall of 2003 and ended up flying C-17s out of Charleston Air Force Base, S.C.

He is scheduled to remain on active duty until late 2008, Stacey Brown said.

Hall left his airline job in September 2002 and has been serving as an instructor pilot at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas.

“He’s going to retire, we hope,” Mary Kathryn Hall said.

The two men deployed separately to Afghanistan in spring 2006 and ultimately worked to help get the Afghan air force off the ground.

Hall said that since the incident, they have been relegated to supervising third-country nationals performing various contract jobs — a job normally assigned to lower ranking personnel.

Both wives say not only are they confused, but their husbands are confused as to why the Air Force is pushing criminal charges. Stacey Brown said she wonders if senior officials are looking at the incident as if it were a case of civilian road rage — not a potentially life-threatening situation in a combat zone.

“The whole ‘innocent until proven guilty’ went pretty much right out the window,” Brown said. “It’s been guilty — and they have to prove their innocence.

“If he had put a bullet in [Bergeron’s] head, this would have been over three months ago. It’s sad to say, but it’s true.”

Stacey Brown has set up a Web site with documents, comments and updates relating to the case..