Word: sergeant
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...spring of 2006, the psychological isolation that 1st Platoon had been experiencing throughout the deployment was becoming nearly total. "First Platoon had become insane," declared platoon-member Sergeant John Diem flatly. "What does an infantry rifle platoon do? It destroys. That's what it's trained to do. Now turn that 90 degrees to the left, and let slip the leash, and it becomes something monstrous. It's not even aware of what it's doing...
...violence. They passed around short, graphic, computer-video compilations of collected combat kills and corpses found in Iraq. Iraqis were not seen as humans. Many soldiers actively cultivated the dehumanization of locals as a secret to survival. "You can't think of these people as people," opined Sergeant Tony Yribe, another member of 1st Platoon. "If I see this old lady and say, 'Ah, she reminds me of grandmother,' but then she pulls out a f___ing bomb, I'm not going to react right." Children were considered insurgents or future insurgents, and women were little more than insurgent factories...
...When Staff Sergeant Bob Davis, a combat stress technician, arrived in January 2006 as part of the team to relieve Marrs' team, she told them about Green. "She warned us that, given his experiences and the things that he's done, he might be someone we'd want to follow up with," Davis remembered. Despite this warning, they would not see Green until March 20, 2006 - eight days after he had already murdered the Janabi family...
...After three loved and respected leaders from 1st Platoon - First Lieutenant Ben Britt, Staff Sergeant Travis Nelson and Sergeant Kenith Casica - were killed in a two-week period in late December 2005, the unit went into a tailspin of poor discipline, substance abuse and brutality. Green, however, was more noticeably and disturbingly affected than anyone else...
...prodding of his platoon sergeant, Green went to see Lieutenant Colonel Karen Marrs, a psychiatric nurse practitioner from the Combat Stress team who was visiting Bravo Company's base on December 21. The intake evaluation form she filled out while talking to him that day is a horror show of ailments and dysfunctions. In the entry marked "Chief Complaint," she quoted him: "It is f - ing pointless." Green told Marrs he had been suffering from symptoms of instability, extreme moods and angry outbursts, including punching walls. He told her he was experiencing all of the following: sadness, difficulty falling asleep...