Lucas Michael McConnell | |
---|---|
Born | February 17, 1975 |
Allegiance | United States |
Service/ | United States Marine Corps |
Years of service | 1997–present |
Rank | Major |
Unit | 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines |
Battles/wars | Iraq War |
Lucas Michael McConnell (born February 17, 1975) is an officer in the United States Marine Corps. In accordance with standard administrative procedure, he was removed from command of the Camp Pendleton-based Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines following his role in the haditha massacre, November 2005 war crime in Haditha, Iraq.
According to reports in a local newspaper, McConnell grew up in Napa, California, and graduated from Vintage High School in 1993, where he was the captain of the football team. He went to study at the United States Naval Academy, graduating in 1997. [1] [2] McConnell started his Marine career as the 1st platoon commander of Bravo Company, 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion in 29 Palms, California.
In accordance with standard administrative procedure, he was removed from command of the Camp Pendleton-based Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines following an alleged November 2005 war crime in Haditha, Iraq, where Marines under his command were accused of having murdered 24 civilians after one of them had been killed in an insurgent attack. According to a report in The Times on 29 May 2006, commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey R. Chessani and 10-years-veteran Captain James Kimber (born 1973) were also removed from command. [3] McConnell was not physically present during the incident but was being investigated for related events that occurred afterwards. Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich was the Marine leading the patrol.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service was called in to conduct an inquiry after Time magazine published a report on the killings that said the shooters' officers failed to effectively inquire into the incident. [4] Thirteen months passed between the killings, and the initiation of the NCIS inquiry. NCIS recommended charges in December 2006.
Charges against McConnell have since been dismissed by Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of the Marine Forces Central Command, after it was decided that any alleged "errors or omissions" made by the Captain would best be handled through an administrative process.
Haditha is a town in the Al Anbar Governorate, about 240 km (150 mi) northwest of Baghdad. It is a farming town situated on the Euphrates River. Its population of around 46,500 people, predominantly Sunni Muslim Arabs. The town lies near the Buhayrat al Qadisiyyah, an artificial lake which was created by the building of the Haditha Dam, the largest hydroelectric facility in Iraq.
3rd Battalion, 1st Marines (3/1) is an infantry battalion in the United States Marine Corps based out of Camp Horno on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. Nicknamed the "Thundering Third", the battalion consists of approximately 1,200 Marines and Sailors and falls under the command of the 1st Marine Regiment and the 1st Marine Division.
3rd Battalion, 5th Marines is an infantry battalion in the United States Marine Corps. The battalion is based at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California and consists of approximately 1,000 Marines and Fleet Marine Force Navy personnel. The 3rd Battalion falls under the command of the 5th Marine Regiment which falls under the command of the 1st Marine Division.
3rd Battalion, 4th Marines (3/4) or (V34) is an infantry battalion of the United States Marine Corps. Nicknamed "Thundering Third" and "Darkside," it is based at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California, and consist of approximately 1,000 Marines. The unit currently falls under the command of the 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, but — along with its two sister battalions — is hosted by the 3rd Marine Division, at Camp Schwab in Okinawa, Japan, when training in jungle warfare. The 3rd falls under the 4th Marine Regiment at such times.
3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, abbreviated as (3/3), was an infantry battalion of the United States Marine Corps, based out of Kaneohe, Hawaii. Known as either "Trinity" or "America's Battalion", the unit normally fell under the command of the 3rd Marine Regiment of the 3rd Marine Division. When fully manned, the unit consisted of approximately 1000 U.S. Marines and United States Navy Sailors. Like most 20th century model infantry battalions of the U.S. Marine Corps, 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines was made up of three rifle companies, Weapons Company and a Headquarters and Services (H&S) company. The battalion was originally formed at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina in 1942 and saw action on both Bougainville and Guam during World War II, where it was awarded its first Presidential Unit Citation and Navy Unit Commendation. Marines in the battalion were also awarded one Medal of Honor and seven Navy Crosses during the war.
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 the city of Haditha in Iraq's western province of Al Anbar. Among the dead were men, women, elderly people and children as young as 3, 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 of some of the marines was to seize five men in a nearby taxi and execute them on the street.
Jeffrey R. Chessani is an officer of the United States Marine Corps, and was the commanding officer 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines during the November 2005 urban combat in Haditha, Iraq. In that event, known as the Haditha massacre, marines in his battalion were accused of having killed 20 civilians to revenge another marine that was killed in a roadside bomb attack.
Major General Eldon Arthur Bargewell was a United States Army officer. He served as commander of the U.S. Army's Delta Force unit.
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.
Frank D. Wuterich is a former United States Marine Corps Staff Sergeant and mass murderer who pleaded guilty to negligent dereliction of duty as a result of his actions during the Haditha massacre where he murdered multiple innocent civilians. As a result of the plea agreement, he was reduced in rank to Private. He was given a general discharge in February 2012.
Richard Huck is a retired United States Marine Corps officer. Huck served as Commanding General of the 2nd Marine Division from 2004 until June 16, 2006. Huck is currently serving as Assistant Deputy Commandant for Plans, Policies and Operations, Headquarters Marine Corps.
The United States Marine Corps is organized within the Department of the Navy, which is led by the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV). The most senior Marine commissioned officer is the Commandant of the Marine Corps, responsible for organizing, recruiting, training, and equipping the Marine Corps so that it is ready for operation under the command of the unified combatant commanders. The Marine Corps is organized into four principal subdivisions: Headquarters Marine Corps, the Operating Forces, the Supporting Establishment, and the Marine Forces Reserve.
Jan C. Huly is a former United States Marine Corps officer who retired on 7 November 2006 after almost 37 years of service. His last role was as Deputy Commandant for Plans, Policies and Operations. Huly currently serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Marines' Memorial Association located in San Francisco, CA.
The Battle of Haditha took place 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.
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. A later U.S. Navy investigation found that between 5 and 7 adult men were killed, and 2 civilians, a 16-year-old boy and a woman, were injured. However, the exact figures remain unknown, as U.S. Military Police did not find any dead or wounded civilians when they arrived 30 minutes after the shooting.
Battle for Haditha is a 2007 drama film directed by British director Nick Broomfield based on the Haditha killings. Dramatising real events using a documentary style, Battle for Haditha is Broomfield's follow up to Ghosts. The film was aired on Channel 4 in the UK on 17 March 2008.
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.
Forward Operating Base Delhi in Afghanistan was a military expeditionary base occupied by the United States Marine Corps. It was along the Helmand River Valley in Garmsir at an abandoned Agricultural College building.
The Marine Raider Regiment (MRR), formerly known as the Marine Special Operations Regiment (MSOR), is a special operations force of the United States Marine Corps, which is a part of Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC). Renamed for its predecessor, the World War II Marine Raiders, this unit is the principal combat component of MARSOC, which is the Marine Corps' contribution to the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM).
The Battle for Sangin was an extended campaign during the War in Afghanistan. Sangin is considered the bloodiest battleground of Afghanistan by both United States and United Kingdom alike. With both nations suffering the loss of over 100 killed in action, and several hundred moderate to severe casualties. The volatile campaign in the Sangin Valley was extensively covered in the media.
The separate investigation into how the incident was reported led to dereliction charges against a lieutenant colonel, two captains and a first lieutenant. They are accused of failing to thoroughly investigate and accurately report the slayings to superiors. The lieutenant also faces charges of making a false official statement and obstructing justice, according to the Marine Corps.