July 24, 2012
Army Prosecutor Details Racial Abuse That Preceded Soldier’s Suicide
By KIRK SEMPLE
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — A military prosecutor on Tuesday opened the first court-martial in the death of Pvt. Danny Chen, a Chinese-American from Lower Manhattan, by declaring that he committed suicide last year while serving in Afghanistan after enduring repeated abuse by a fellow soldier, including racial taunts and a physical attack.
“This conduct over time drove Private Chen to take his own life,” the prosecutor, Capt. Blake Doughty, said.
But a lawyer for the defendant, Sgt. Adam M. Holcomb, contended here that Private Chen killed himself because he had been distraught over his incompetence in the Army and over being “disowned” by his parents, both Chinese immigrants, who were upset that he had enlisted in the military and had been deployed to Afghanistan.
“There is one and only one person responsible for the death of Private Chen, and that person is not Sergeant Holcomb,” said the defense lawyer, Capt. Dennis Hernon. “That person is Private Chen.”
Sergeant Holcomb, of Youngstown, Ohio, is one of eight soldiers whom military prosectors have implicated in the death of Private Chen, whose body was found on Oct. 3 in a guard tower on a small military base in southern Afghanistan with what investigators say was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.
He was 19 years old.
Private Chen’s death touched off strong reactions in the Asian population in New York and around the country, with some advocacy groups questioning whether a pattern of discrimination against Asians exists in the United States military.
Sergeant Holcomb is accused of negligent homicide, dereliction of duty and other charges.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The other seven defendants — one officer and six enlisted soldiers — are scheduled to stand trial in the next several weeks.
The prosecutor said Sergeant Holcomb had a history of engaging “in a pattern of racial abuse against subordinates.”
The final insult to Private Chen came on the night he died, Captain Doughty said.
After Private Chen failed to turn off a water heater in the shower, the lawyer said, Sergeant Holcomb dragged Private Chen out of his bunk and across “very sharp, rocky ground.”
“That night, while on duty and alone in the guard tower, Private Chen “placed a gun to the base of his chin and pulled the trigger,” the prosecutor said.
But Captain Hernon said that Private Chen had been struggling for weeks in his relationship with his parents and with the demands of his job.
Shortly before he deployed with a brigade out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska, to Kandahar Province, one of the most volatile regions of Afghanistan, Private Chen revealed to another soldier that his parents had disowned him, casting him into a funk, Captain Hernon said.
In Afghanistan, he repeatedly failed to satisfy his duties, the lawyer said. “Private Chen had a lot of deficiencies as a soldier,” Captain Hernon said.
He would at times show up for guard duty without his helmet, water or night-vision goggles, the lawyer said.
Sometimes he would even fall asleep while on duty, the lawyer added.
Captain Hernon acknowledged that Private Chen was once dragged out of bed by Sergeant Holcomb and subjected to exercises as a form of “corrective training.”
But the lawyer said that it was an isolated episode and that contrary to the prosecution’s claims, Sergeant Holcomb never called Private Chen any racially derogatory terms.
“Private Chen is dead because of the problems he was having with his family and because he was not cutting it as an infantryman,” Captain Hernon said.
But Private Chen’s mother, Su Zhen Chen, who was called to testify toward the end of the day’s hearing, said that she and her husband had never disowned their son, their only child.
“He was the best son in the world for me,” she said through a Chinese-language interpreter, her grief-stricken voice barely audible in the courtroom. “We had a very good relationship.”
Private Chen’s parents have said that their son displayed no suicidal or depressive tendencies.
On Tuesday, Ms. Chen even questioned the military’s findings that he had killed himself.
Hazing and the use of ethnic slurs are prohibited by Army rules. The Army defines hazing as conduct whereby a service member causes another service member “to suffer or be exposed to an activity that is cruel, abusive, oppressive or harmful.”
Advocates for the family have lobbied the Army to combat hazing and to improve conditions for minorities, particularly soldiers of Asian descent, who enlist at lower rates than other minorities.