posted on September 6, 2012, at 11:43 AMDisturbingly, one soldier celebrated a promotion by allowing his
superior officer to deliver potentially fatal blows to his chest with a
wooden malletThe video: Promotions are usually celebrated with
congratulatory drinks at a local watering hole, or at the very least, an
enthusiastic handshake. But that wasn't the case for newly minted Army
Sgt. Phillip Roach, whose superior officers at Fort Bragg marked his
rise from specialist with what the Army now calls an [url=http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/332102]"unauthorized hazing"[/url]
ritual. The April 4 incident was captured on video that was only
recently released. (Watch it below.) The disturbing footage shows a
higher-ranking officer taking a few practice swings at Roach's gut with a
large wooden mallet, then delivering [url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2197025/Fathers-fury-hazing-video-army-son-hit-mallet-initiation.html?ito=feeds-newsxml]"a brutal coup de grace"[/url]
to his chest. Roach is sent reeling then crumpling to the floor,
slicing his head open on a chair along the way. After the video ends,
says Roach's father, Ken, his son suffered a seizure that could keep him
from ever returning to active duty, where he was to have piloted
unmanned aerial vehicles. The hammer wielder has been fined $1,000 and
reprimanded, but Ken Roach, an Army veteran himself, wants a stiffer
punishment. "It was assault with a weapon," he tells the AP. "He could have killed my son."
The reaction: Only in the Army would good news like a promotion be feted "with dangerous physical violence," says Gabriel Legend at Gather.
But while the Army brass blames this hazing on a few bad apples, it
sure looks like "another example of the Army's unofficial 'policy' of
not only allowing soldiers to be victimized by other soldiers, but
punishing victims when they do come forward." Roach really could have
died, and other soldiers almost certainly have, through injuries from
hazing or suicide afterward. Sadly, "promotion hazings in the service
are common," says Geoffrey Ingersoll at Business Insider.
But the good news is that "disturbing" videos like Roach's will
probably put an end to these "twisted" rituals. Clearly, the public does
not approve.http://theweek.com/article/index/232929/the-brutal-military-hazing-caught-on-video