spectr17
08-04-2002, 09:01 PM
HOW GI HEROES TURNED HOMES INTO KILLING FIELDS
NILES LATHEM, New York Post
8/04/02
August 4, 2002 -- FORT BRAGG, N.C. - Teresa Nieves drew only scant attention when she moved into her new home here two months ago, but neighbors clearly remember meeting her Army husband for the first time.
Sgt. 1st Class Rigoberto Nieves, an elite Special Forces commando, had just returned from secret combat duty in Afghanistan. He had requested an emergency two-week leave, telling his superiors he needed to rescue his troubled marriage.
Teresa had written to her husband while he was overseas, telling him she wanted a divorce. There was already another man in her life, friends say.
Soon after Nieves rushed back from Afghanistan to the couple's new home near Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., he introduced himself to the neighbors. As he went from lawn to lawn, the neighbors say Nieves curiously did not give his name, saying only, "I'm the man of the house."
Two nights later, shots cracked the night air in the quiet, all-American cul-de-sac. Soon, police, military officers and forensic technicians were swarming around the Nieves house.
Nieves had shot and killed Teresa after an argument, and then turned his .40-caliber service revolver on himself.
The murder-suicide was the first incident in a sudden explosion of deadly domestic violence that has rocked the foundations of a military community that includes some of the most heroic combat units in the armed forces.
In a shocking six-week span, three other Fort Bragg wives were killed, two military husbands were charged with first-degree murder, an elite Special Forces commando killed himself and an Army wife was charged with the murder of her husband.
Investigators insist the murders are not connected. But interviews with law enforcement, military officials, family friends and neighbors in the Fayetteville area revealed that the couples all had a long history of marital problems plagued by infidelity and fanned by the hardships and separation of military life.
In each of the cases where a soldier husband killed his wife, friends say the women were trying to get out of unhappy marriages while their husbands - entrenched in a military life of obeying orders, masking emotion and being trained to kill - refused to let go.
"[With] the type of problems they had, it would have taken a lot to put these marriages back together," said Lt. Sam Pennica, the head homicide investigator for the Cumberland County Sheriff's Department. Details of the murders show the husbands-turned-killers weren't prepared to try. Two wives were shot in the head, one was stabbed 50 times and another strangled by her powerful husband.
Fort Bragg, home to 45,000 troops and their families, is the largest Army installation in the country. As a community, it experiences problems typical of any neighborhood across the country, residents say. But the harsh realities of military life is that divorce rates and domestic violence are twice the national averages, according to various studies and Pentagon figures.
"Military life is hard. The long absences, the constant moving around, the low pay, it adds a lot of stress to military families," said Dawn Bennett, a reserve officer in her mid-20s who has already been divorced and is now trying to start over with her new boyfriend, Sgt. Gary Moore.
Family support groups and crisis hot lines in the Fort Bragg area have reported a steady increase in calls since the killings. Many have come from military wives on base reporting domestic-abuse problems in their home. Counselors say many are too frightened to make formal complaints.
But the soldiers are not always to blame for marriage breakups.
At a popular pick-up bar known as Itz, not far from the base, manager Joe Flynn says a lot of his customers since the Afghan war began last year have been young military wives.
"They come in . . . frequently a little tense. When the news comes on the TV sets, you see them glancing over to see if something bad happened in Afghanistan. But after four or five drinks, they relax and get festive," Flynn said.
Lisa Roller, whose husband is in a secret Air Force Special Operations unit that went to Afghanistan, said two members of her husband's unit received divorce papers while serving in Afghanistan. Another returned home from a six-month stint there to discover his wife was three months pregnant.
"This kind of craziness happens every time there's a deployment," she said.
Martha Brown, who heads one of the counseling units at Fort Bragg, said help is available.
"Wives are told to give their husbands time to decompress, and before a soldier comes home, he is warned that the wife he left behind has become more independent," she said. "And we tell them that any problems they had when they were apart will still be there when they reunite."
NILES LATHEM, New York Post
8/04/02
August 4, 2002 -- FORT BRAGG, N.C. - Teresa Nieves drew only scant attention when she moved into her new home here two months ago, but neighbors clearly remember meeting her Army husband for the first time.
Sgt. 1st Class Rigoberto Nieves, an elite Special Forces commando, had just returned from secret combat duty in Afghanistan. He had requested an emergency two-week leave, telling his superiors he needed to rescue his troubled marriage.
Teresa had written to her husband while he was overseas, telling him she wanted a divorce. There was already another man in her life, friends say.
Soon after Nieves rushed back from Afghanistan to the couple's new home near Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., he introduced himself to the neighbors. As he went from lawn to lawn, the neighbors say Nieves curiously did not give his name, saying only, "I'm the man of the house."
Two nights later, shots cracked the night air in the quiet, all-American cul-de-sac. Soon, police, military officers and forensic technicians were swarming around the Nieves house.
Nieves had shot and killed Teresa after an argument, and then turned his .40-caliber service revolver on himself.
The murder-suicide was the first incident in a sudden explosion of deadly domestic violence that has rocked the foundations of a military community that includes some of the most heroic combat units in the armed forces.
In a shocking six-week span, three other Fort Bragg wives were killed, two military husbands were charged with first-degree murder, an elite Special Forces commando killed himself and an Army wife was charged with the murder of her husband.
Investigators insist the murders are not connected. But interviews with law enforcement, military officials, family friends and neighbors in the Fayetteville area revealed that the couples all had a long history of marital problems plagued by infidelity and fanned by the hardships and separation of military life.
In each of the cases where a soldier husband killed his wife, friends say the women were trying to get out of unhappy marriages while their husbands - entrenched in a military life of obeying orders, masking emotion and being trained to kill - refused to let go.
"[With] the type of problems they had, it would have taken a lot to put these marriages back together," said Lt. Sam Pennica, the head homicide investigator for the Cumberland County Sheriff's Department. Details of the murders show the husbands-turned-killers weren't prepared to try. Two wives were shot in the head, one was stabbed 50 times and another strangled by her powerful husband.
Fort Bragg, home to 45,000 troops and their families, is the largest Army installation in the country. As a community, it experiences problems typical of any neighborhood across the country, residents say. But the harsh realities of military life is that divorce rates and domestic violence are twice the national averages, according to various studies and Pentagon figures.
"Military life is hard. The long absences, the constant moving around, the low pay, it adds a lot of stress to military families," said Dawn Bennett, a reserve officer in her mid-20s who has already been divorced and is now trying to start over with her new boyfriend, Sgt. Gary Moore.
Family support groups and crisis hot lines in the Fort Bragg area have reported a steady increase in calls since the killings. Many have come from military wives on base reporting domestic-abuse problems in their home. Counselors say many are too frightened to make formal complaints.
But the soldiers are not always to blame for marriage breakups.
At a popular pick-up bar known as Itz, not far from the base, manager Joe Flynn says a lot of his customers since the Afghan war began last year have been young military wives.
"They come in . . . frequently a little tense. When the news comes on the TV sets, you see them glancing over to see if something bad happened in Afghanistan. But after four or five drinks, they relax and get festive," Flynn said.
Lisa Roller, whose husband is in a secret Air Force Special Operations unit that went to Afghanistan, said two members of her husband's unit received divorce papers while serving in Afghanistan. Another returned home from a six-month stint there to discover his wife was three months pregnant.
"This kind of craziness happens every time there's a deployment," she said.
Martha Brown, who heads one of the counseling units at Fort Bragg, said help is available.
"Wives are told to give their husbands time to decompress, and before a soldier comes home, he is warned that the wife he left behind has become more independent," she said. "And we tell them that any problems they had when they were apart will still be there when they reunite."