Dead checking

Last updated

Dead checking is U.S. military jargon for the practice of verifying the death of Iraqi insurgents and the subsequent killing of those who remain alive when U.S. Armed Forces enter an insurgent house in hot battle as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The term was in use as early as November 2004 when reporter Evan Wright of The Village Voice quoted an unnamed enlisted U.S. Marine and Iraq war veteran as saying, "They teach us to do dead-checking when we're clearing rooms. You put two bullets into the guy's chest and one in the brain. But when you enter a room where guys are wounded you might not know if they're alive or dead. So they teach us to dead-check them by pressing them in the eye with your boot, because generally a person, even if he's faking being dead, will flinch if you poke him there. If he moves, you put a bullet in the brain. You do this to keep the momentum going when you're flowing through a building. You don't want a guy popping up behind you and shooting you." [1]

The term was used again by the Associated Press in July 2007, when Corporal Saul H. Lopezromo, a defense witness in the murder trial of Corporal Trent D. Thomas testified that the procedure of dead checking was routine and stated, "I don't see it as an execution, sir, I see it as killing the enemy." Lopezromo later added, "If somebody is worth shooting once, they're worth shooting twice." [2] [3]

The Los Angeles Times in July 2007 reported that Corporal Lopezromo testified, "Marines are taught dead-checking in boot camp, the School of Infantry at Camp Pendleton, and the pre-deployment training at Twentynine Palms called Mojave Viper." [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sniper</span> Highly trained marksman

A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision rifles and high-magnification optics, and often also serve as scouts/observers feeding tactical information back to their units or command headquarters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Battle of Fallujah</span> Operation of the Iraq War

The First Battle of Fallujah, code-named Operation Vigilant Resolve, was an operation against militants in Fallujah as well as an attempt to apprehend or kill the perpetrators of the killing of four U.S. contractors in March 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Battle of Fallujah</span> 2004 battle of the Iraq War

The Second Battle of Fallujah, initially codenamed Operation Phantom Fury,Operation al-Fajr was an American-led offensive of the Iraq War that lasted roughly six weeks, starting 7 November 2004. Marking the highest point of the conflict against the Iraqi insurgency, it was a joint military effort carried out by the United States, the Iraqi Interim Government, and the United Kingdom. Within the city of Fallujah, the coalition was led by the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army, the battle was later described as "some of the heaviest urban combat U.S. military have been involved in since the Battle of Huế City in Vietnam in 1968".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ilario Pantano</span> Former United States Marine Corps second lieutenant

Ilario Gregory Pantano is a former United States Marine Corps second lieutenant. He has also been an author, a television commentator, and served as a deputy sheriff in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was a Republican Party nominee for the US House of Representatives in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fallujah during the Iraq War</span> American bombardment of Fallujah, Iraq

The United States bombardment of Fallujah began in April 2003, one month after the beginning of the invasion of Iraq. In April 2003 United States forces fired on a group of demonstrators who were protesting against the US presence. US forces alleged they were fired at first, but Human Rights Watch, who visited the site of the protests, concluded that physical evidence did not corroborate US allegations and confirmed the residents' accusations that the US forces fired indiscriminately at the crowd with no provocation. 17 people were killed and 70 were wounded. In a later incident, US soldiers fired on protesters again; Fallujah's mayor, Taha Bedaiwi al-Alwani, said that two people were killed and 14 wounded. Iraqi insurgents were able to claim the city a year later, before they were ousted by a siege and two assaults by US forces. These events caused widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis in the city and surrounding areas. As of 2004, the city was largely ruined, with 60% of buildings damaged or destroyed, and the population at 30%–50% of pre-war levels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haditha massacre</span> Killings committed by U.S. marines in 2005

The Haditha massacre was a series of killings on November 19, 2005, in which a group of United States Marines killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians. The killings occurred in Haditha, a city in Iraq's western province of Al Anbar. Among the dead were men, women, elderly people and children as young as 1, who were shot multiple times at close range while unarmed. The ensuing massacre took place after an improvised explosive device exploded near a convoy, killing a lance corporal and severely injuring two other marines. The immediate reaction was to seize 5 men in a nearby taxi and execute them on the street.

The Hamdania incident refers to the alleged kidnapping and subsequent murder of an Iraqi man by United States Marines on April 26, 2006, in Al Hamdania, a small village west of Baghdad near Abu Ghraib. An investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service resulted in charges of murder, kidnapping, housebreaking, larceny, Obstruction of Justice and conspiracy associated with the alleged coverup of the incident. They were forced to drop many charges on the defendants. The defendants are seven Marines and a Navy Corpsman. As of February 2007, five of the defendants have negotiated pleas to lesser charges of kidnapping and conspiracy, or less, and have agreed to testify in these trials. Additional Marines from the same battalion faced lesser charges of assault related to the use of physical force during interrogations of suspected insurgents. Those charges were dropped.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Forces casualties in Afghanistan since 2001</span> List of British casualties in Afghanistan since 2001

The United Kingdom was one of the first countries to take part in Operation Enduring Freedom against the Taliban regime in autumn 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Haditha</span>

The Battle of Haditha was a battle fought between U.S. forces and Ansar al-Sunna in early August 2005 on the outskirts of the town of Haditha, Iraq, which was one of the many towns that were under insurgent control in the Euphrates River valley during 2005.

Al-Karmah, also sometimes transliterated as Karma, Karmah, or Garma, is a city in central Iraq, 16 km (10 mi) northeast of Fallujah in the province of Al Anbar.

The Shinwar Shooting or Shinwar Massacre was the alleged killing of a number of Afghan civilians on 4 March 2007, in the village of Spinpul, in the Shinwar District of the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. United States Marines, fleeing the scene of a car bomb attack and ambush by Afghan militants, fired on people and vehicles surrounding them, according to initial reports, killing as many as 19 civilians and injuring around 50 more. The exact casualty figures have not been firmly established. Inquiries after the incident were also unable to find the graves of the alleged victims.

<i>Redacted</i> (film) 2007 film directed by Brian De Palma

Redacted is a 2007 American war film written and directed by Brian De Palma. It is a fictional dramatization, loosely based on the 2006 Mahmudiyah killings in Mahmoudiyah, Iraq, when U.S. Army soldiers raped an Iraqi girl and murdered her along with her family. This film, which is a companion piece to an earlier film by De Palma, Casualties of War (1989), was shot in Jordan.

Sergeant Jose Luis Nazario Jr. is the first American to be tried in a civilian court for war crimes which were allegedly committed while he was on active duty. Nazario was charged, under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, with voluntary manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence for his role in the death of four unarmed Iraqis. The Iraqis were killed on November 9, 2004, in Fallujah, Iraq, when Nazario was leading a squad of 13 Marines on house to house searches as part of Operation Phantom Fury, during the Second Battle of Fallujah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anbar campaign (2003–2011)</span> Campaign during the Iraq War

The Anbar campaign consisted of fighting between the United States military, together with Iraqi security forces, and Sunni insurgents in the western Iraqi governorate of Al Anbar. The Iraq War lasted from 2003 to 2011, but the majority of the fighting and counterinsurgency campaign in Anbar took place between April 2004 and September 2007. Although the fighting initially featured heavy urban warfare primarily between insurgents and U.S. Marines, insurgents in later years focused on ambushing the American and Iraqi security forces with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), large scale attacks on combat outposts, and car bombings. Almost 9,000 Iraqis and 1,335 Americans were killed in the campaign, many in the Euphrates River Valley and the Sunni Triangle around the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.

<i>Six Days in Fallujah</i> Upcoming tactical shooter video game

Six Days in Fallujah is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Highwire Games and published by Victura. Set in the Second Battle of Fallujah of the Iraq War over the span of six days in November 2004, the game follows the United States Marine Corps' 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines (3/1) as they fight the Iraqi insurgency in the city of Fallujah, Iraq. Its campaign follows two perspectives: a squad of Marines from 3/1 deployed to battle the insurgents, and an Iraqi family attempting to escape the city in the midst of the battle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Longest recorded sniper kills</span>

Reports regarding the longest recorded sniper kills that contain information regarding the shooting distance and the identity of the sniper have been presented to the general public since 1967. Snipers have had a substantial history following the development of long distance weaponry. As weapons, ammunition, and aids to determine ballistic solutions improved, so too did the distance from which a kill could be targeted. In mid-2017 it was reported that an unnamed Canadian special forces operator, based in Iraq, had set a new record of 3,540 m (3,871 yd), beating the record previously held by an Australian sniper at 2,815 m (3,079 yd). In November 2023, the record was once again broken by 58-year old Ukrainian sniper, Vyacheslav Kovalsky from the Security Service of Ukraine, who shot a Russian soldier from a distance of 3,800 m (4,156 yd) during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in the United States Marine Corps</span>

There have been women in the United States Marine Corps since 1918, and women continue to serve in the Corps today. As of 2020, women make up 8.9% of total active duty Marines. The Marine Corps has the lowest percent of female service members of all of the U.S military branches. Women's presence in the Marine Corps first emerged in 1918 when they were permitted to do administrative work in an attempt to fill the spots of male Marines fighting overseas. It was not until 1948 that women were able to become a permanent part of the Corps with the passing of the Women's Armed Services Integration Act. However, even with the Integration Act, women were still banned from certain military occupation specialties. It was not until 2016 that Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that all military occupations would be open to women without exception. As of 2018, there were 18 women serving in the Marine Corps combat arms. In December 2020, the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego agreed to join the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in accepting female recruits, with 60 female recruits starting their boot camp training at the San Diego depot in February 2021. 53 of these recruits would successfully graduate from boot camp in April 2021 and become Marines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sean Stokes</span> United States Marine and Silver Star recipient (1983–2007)

Sean Andrew Stokes  was a United States Marine who posthumously received the Silver Star for actions while serving with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines during the Second Battle of Fallujah. Stokes was one of only three Marine privates to ever be awarded the Silver Star.

References

  1. Dead-Check in Falluja
  2. Marine testimony: All Iraqi men viewed as insurgents
  3. "Marine: Beating of Iraqis became routine". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-07-16.
  4. Marine says beatings urged in Iraq