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After waiting for nearly five years, SSgt Frank Wuterich will finally have his day in court. The last of the Marines accused in the Haditha case will face trial by general court-martial beginning 13 September 2010 at Camp Pendleton, CA.
Frank has been working at Camp Pendleton since the investigation began in the Spring of 2006. The incident at issue involves the deaths of civilians in the town of Haditha, Iraq, on 19 November 2005.
The day began with the ear-splitting explosion of a command-detonated Improvised Explosive Device (IED) under a Marine Corps HWMMV on a resupply mission, killing one Marine and seriously wounding two others. The explosion was followed by the appearance of a car full of military-aged Iraqi males who scattered when commanded to get down on the ground to be searched and had to be engaged with rifle fire by a Corporal in SSgt Wuterich’s squad.
Immediately after, the squad was taken under fire by a sniper hiding behind an Iraqi home in the residential neighborhood where the IED was detonated. A quick reaction force arrived with SSgt Wuterich’s platoon commander, who ordered SSgt Wuterich and his Marines to clear the houses in the vicinity of the sniper. The Marines cleared one house and saw someone dart toward an adjacent house. The Marines cleared that house as well.
SSgt Wuterich’s Marines cleared the houses strictly in accordance with their pre-deployment training and in strict compliance with the Rules of Engagement for Operation Iraqi Freedom at the time. Yet a tragically flawed criminal investigation initiated by NCIS several months after all physical evidence was gone concluded that several Marines should face criminal charges. All but one, SSgt Wuterich, had their charges dismissed for lack of evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
It has become apparent to his attorneys at The Law Firm of Puckett and Faraj, PC, Neal A. Puckett and Haytham Faraj, the Marine Corps simply cannot bring itself to see the truth that Marines in contact with the enemy are required to be tough, aggressive and lethal. If the enemy chooses to launch its attack (the first of several in Haditha that morning), square in the middle of a residential neighborhood, then we believe that they anticipated and perhaps manipulated the Marines into the inevitability that civilians could be injured or killed in the defense of the Marines who survived the initial IED explosion and sniper fire.
We who defend him have been able to sustain this nearly five-year representation of Frank Wuterich thanks to unsolicited donations from all across America. Frank’s parents have a website (Frank Wuterich) providing more information about him. We will be providing updates on the case between now and its conclusion in late September.
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