Congress orders hearing on military hazing - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Congress orders hearing on military hazing

Spurred by two high-profile military hazing cases, Congress will hold a hearing next month to examine the problem’s scope and what the Pentagon is doing to stop it, Military Times has learned.

“This is a serious issue, one the [House] Armed Services Committee will take up in a hearing in March,” Claude Chafin, the committee’s communications director, said Thursday.

Each of the services’ senior enlisted leaders will testify during the hearing, Chafin said, but no specific date has been determined. The timeframe is late March.

Hazing in the ranks rose to lawmakers’ attention after two suicides last year in Afghanistan, one involving a Marine and another involving a soldier. In each instance, the individuals were allegedly abused by their peers before they killed themselves.

In January, several members of Congress queried the Defense Department for hazing-related statistics, with hopes of determining how widespread the problem is and how it can be addressed. The Pentagon is working to compile that data, but it is unclear how — or even if — the individual services document hazing allegations and investigations.

At the forefront is Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., whose nephew, 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Harry Lew, committed suicide April 3 after other Marines in his unit allegedly beat and forced him to exercise as punishment for repeatedly falling asleep while posting security at a remote outpost in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

Three Marines were court-martialed as a result. The first was sentenced in late January to 30 days in jail after pleading guilty to assault. Another was found not guilty Feb. 9. The third went to trial this week at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, and proceedings are ongoing.

In the other case, Army Pvt. Danny Chen, 19, shot himself in a guard tower in October after allegedly being dragged across floors, pelted with stones and forced to hold liquid in his mouth while hanging upside-down, according to a military investigation. His death led to charges against eight soldiers in a case that also has brought allegations of racial discrimination.

Legal proceedings are pending.

“It is clear that hazing must be addressed across our armed services,” Chu told Military Times. “Young patriotic Americans who want nothing more than to serve their country in uniform should not be harmed by their fellow service members.”

The Lew case has prompted the Marine Corps to revise a 15-year-old policy that addresses hazing. The commandant, Gen. Jim Amos, has ordered the service to begin tracking all hazing allegations and investigations. Additionally, he has called on leadership to get more aggressive in confronting claims of abuse, and instituted new protections for victims and whistleblowers.

“Regardless of the form it takes, hazing is always unacceptable,” Amos wrote in a recent message to the force. “… It destroys our Marines’ confidence and trust in their fellow Marines and in unit leadership, thus undermining unit cohesion and combat readiness.”