Some soldiers at the base where Staff Sgt. Robert Bales served in 2012 drank alcohol and made derogatory remarks about Afghans, according to a Defense Department investigation released on Tuesday.
Bales left through the front gate of Village Stability Platform Belambai the night of March 11, 2012 with an M4 rifle, an XM-320 grenade launcher and 9mm pistol. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for shooting and killing 16 Afghan civilians in neighboring villages around the base.
Bales made comments such as “shoot through the [Afghan National Army] guy, he is not a person,” and told people that he was not racist “unless you count Afghanis or Iraqis,” the report said.
The report found broader problems with the command climate at the base in Afghanistan, including low standards of personal conduct and discipline. It also found that non-commissioned officers at the site participated in drinking and steroid use, in addition to inappropriate remarks or behavior about Afghans.
“Several NCOs at VSP Belambai uttered offensive racial/ethnic slurs, but the practice was not widespread and usually comments were made among peers and in a joking manner,” according to the nearly 600-page report, which was finally released years after the incident.
While the non-commissioned officers were primarily to blame, the report also said upper leadership should have been aware of the drinking and inappropriate behavior toward Afghans that troops were participating in at the base. It found that the leadership of Operational Detachment-Alpha special forces group took a “hands off” approach to managing troops rather than enforcing the rules.
There were indicators of problematic behavior from Bales before the shooting, the report said. He attacked an Afghan truck driver in February 2012, punching and kneeing him, and acted erratically on a mission due to his steroid use the week before the March shooting.
Operational Detachment-Alpha leadership did not know about the incident with the truck driver, the report said.
Gen. John Campbell, the commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan at the time of the report, expressed his condolences for those killed in the attack.
“Though words and investigations cannot undo what happened, please be assured that I will continue to take every measure to ensure that our forces are well disciplined and follow the laws of armed conflict,” he wrote.
