Marine Corps 2nd Lieutenant Ilario Pantano is not your average jarhead butterbar. Living among the smoldering ruins after the September 11 terror attacks that killed several of his friends, Pantano quit his cushy six figure civilian job in Manhattan and joined the Marine Corps. Pantano became what is known in the Corps as a “retread”. A retread is a guy who joins up, does a hitch or two, gets out and then, at some point down the road rejoins. Pantano’s first tour took him to Iraq in1991 and then to Yugoslavia.
Pantano put his time between tours in the Corps to good use. He got a college degree, a good job, a wife and two children. After 9-11 he kissed the family good-bye, answered his country’s call to duty and reported to the “Crossroads of the Marine Corps” Quantico, VA for officers’ training. After receiving his commission Pantano became a “mustang”. That’s Marine Corps speak for an enlisted man turned officer. Mustangs are highly respected with-in the Corps for their ability to see issues from both sides of the fence and to smell BS from ten miles away.
Here’s where the story takes a sad turn. On April 15, 2004, "commanders dispatched Lt. Pantano's men to a house believed to hold insurgents and weapons. The Marines found bomb-making equipment and were removing it when two Iraqis tried to speed away in a sport utility vehicle, according to Lt. Pantano's account. The Marines stopped the SUV by shooting out the tires, apprehended the two (Iraqis) and placed them in flexible handcuffs. After setting up a security perimeter, (so as not to injure any Americans) Lt. Pantano took off the cuffs and had the two search the vehicle as he supervised."
Pantano’s lawyer explains, after a few minutes, the two insurgents stopped searching and began to move quickly toward Lt. Pantano "they started talking in Arabic and turned toward him as if they were going to rush him." Pantano shouted at them in Arabic to stop. They declined. Pantano then did what he was trained to do. He shot and killed both of them. It turned out that both were unarmed, which would have been a temporary condition had they gotten to Pantano. Pantano was cleared of any wrong-doing in an internal investigation, but now is up on murder charges for killing the two Iraqis fleeing the bomb making plant.
The government case hinges on a former squad leader that Pantano fired. That disgruntled squad leader now claims Pantano murdered the two Iraqis, shooting them in the back. Because of the danger, the bodies of the two Iraqis cannot be exhumed for autopsy.
Many are claiming that the Marine Corps has gone totally PC in this case. I think not. The services have to investigate and prosecute every allegation, least the left leaning press turn the story into a national security issue as with Abu Ghraib. Lt. Pantano has waived his Article 32 hearing (think Grand Jury here) and asked for an immediate trail. Not the legal strategy of a guilty man. Pantano wants his day in court and a verdict from a jury of his peers. When he is found not guilty, the Corps should give him a medal, promote him and send him back to Iraq, because as we have said before, “my God, we need people that”. You can support Lt. Pantano here.
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