A member of the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday asked Sen. Pat Roberts to consider using his hold on the nominee to be Army secretary to bring attention to the case of a Green Beret whose career is about to end because he assaulted an Afghan child rapist.
Roberts, R-Kan., said last week that he would prevent the Senate from voting on Eric Fanning’s nomination to serve as Army secretary over objections to the president’s plan to close Guantanamo Bay, which could include moving troops to Fort Leavenworth in Roberts’ home state.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said he supported the hold over Gitmo, but urged Roberts to also use the hold to raise awareness of the plight of Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland, a “Green Beret war hero,” Hunter wrote in a letter to Roberts.
“I respectfully ask that you consider the case of Charles Martland as the confirmation process of Eric Fanning continues,” Hunter wrote. “The only suitable course of action, I firmly believe, is to permit Martland to continue his service in the U.S. Army.”
Martland was serving in Afghanistan in 2011 when he clashed with an Afghan local police commander who had kidnapped and repeatedly raped a young boy, the letter states. When the boy’s mother came to Martland and some other soldiers for help, they confronted the rapist.
The police commander admitted to the allegations and “laughed in their faces,” at which point the soldiers “took matters in their own hands,” Hunter said.
Following the assault, Martland was removed from his outpost and faced punitive actions. Even though he has the support of his unit and leadership, the soldier could be kicked out of the military by March 1 for his actions.
“Martland was part of a small team of Green Berets, entrusted to keep America safe in ways that often go unreported or unnoticed,” Hunter wrote. “The Afghan justice system continually failed to uphold individual human rights, and we would expect any of our elite warriors to protect a child from a known and admitted rapist.”
Both Roberts and Hunter have stressed that any delay in Fanning’s confirmation is over other issues with the administration’s military strategy, not with Fanning’s qualifications.
