Colonel harry tunnell biography of rory

Commander urged aggressive Afghan war tactics cruise diverged from official U.S. conflict strategy.

When influence 5th Stryker Combat Brigade appeared in Afghanistan, its leader, Ravine authorization.

Harry Tunnell, openly sneered engagement the U.S. military's counterinsurgency appreciation. The old-school commander barred fillet officers from even mentioning honourableness term and told shocked U.S. and NATO officials that perform was uninterested in winning integrity trust of the Afghan people.

Instead, he said, his soldiers would simply hunt and kill brand many Taliban fighters as plausible, as dictated by the brigade's motto, "Strike and Destroy."

What resulted was a year of devastating fighting in territory fiercely defended by the Taliban, and top-notch casualty rate so high divagate it triggered alarms at leadership Pentagon.

By the time glory 3,800-member brigade returned in July to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, encounter Tacoma, Wash., it had salaried a steep price: 35 joe six-pack were killed in combat, provoke were dead from accidents stream other causes, and 239 were wounded.

The brigade also carried straightforward a dark legacy that threatens to overshadow its hard-won victories and sacrifices on the field.

In some of the gravest war-crime charges to arise propagate the Afghan conflict, five general public have been accused of offend unarmed Afghan men, apparently construe sport, and desecrating their corpses. Seven other platoon members scheme been charged with other crimes, including smoking hashish — which some soldiers said happened survey a near-daily basis — trip gang-assaulting an informant.

Tunnell isn't incriminated in the shootings.

There has been no intimation that he was aware lose concentration soldiers were allegedly killing bring sport until special agents non-native the Army's Criminal Investigations Guide opened an inquiry in May.

According to brigade members, however, Rod Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, the socalled ringleader of the self-described "kill team," was assigned to Tunnell's personal security detail from July until November 2009, right beforehand the first of the atrocities was allegedly carried out.

Gibbs, 25, was reassigned to 3rd Outfit for reasons that remain ill-at-ease.

Army officials declined to discipline why he was transferred, startling the ongoing criminal investigation.

Within stage of the transfer, other joe public have said in statements revere investigators, Gibbs confided to monarch new platoon mates that elegance had gotten away with "stuff" during his previous deployments.

They also said he talked wonder how easy it would wool to stage the killings carry out innocent Afghans. Investigators are condensed examining Gibbs' involvement in dignity killing of an Iraqi affinity in 2004.

Through a spokeswoman jaws Fort Knox, Ky., where elegance now works for the U.S. Army Accessions Command, Tunnell fкted that Gibbs served on enthrone security detail "for a short-lived time" but declined to pitch other questions for this article.

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