Military Murders

[Seascamp]

It seems to me that under the best of circumstances military life can really stress relationships and split ups occur as a matter of course. Living in base housing horribly compounds the problems in my opinion. Even with all the handicaps, I still don?t see any justification for violence and murder. I?m wondering if the accused had time to depressurized and power down before stepping back into a domestic environment. Duty in Afghanistan has to be exceptionally stressful and to step back into a presumably shaky domestic situation may just have been one step too far. During the VN war, I don?t recall many relationships that survived a deployment but I don?t recall any situations of violence upon returning either. In our case a trip over or back took 5-10 days, depending, so maybe that was a bit of a cooling off period, who knows. I hope that the military really digs into this situation and not just from a prosecution perspective. I?m thinking there is a real bad story in this tragedy and it just could be that there needs to be some serious thought put into getting people ready to go on home. And I wouldn?t agree that the level of training or pay grade automatically insures that a person isn?t a walking grenade with the pin pulled.

Scamp

[Arrow]

John, Your point is well taken. And understood. And experienced. Shocked the heck out of myself a few times. Whoa where did that come from? Wish I could say the devil made me do it but it's not true. All my own doing. Only a well watered garden can produce a good harvest...

[Marissa]

There was a total of 5 just one seemed conveniently not as important as the others....



Wife of Soldier Arrested in Shooting


By The Associated Press
The wife of an Army Special Operations officer has been charged in his shooting death, the latest in a string of domestic violence incidents that have shaken Fort Bragg.



Joan Shannon, 35, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the July 23 fatal shooting of Maj. David Shannon, 40.
"We believe financial gain is one of the primary motives of the crime," said police Lt. Tom Guilette. He did not elaborate.

Shannon's slaying if the fifth domestic-related slaying linked to the base since June 11. Four Fort Bragg wives have been killed, allegedly by their husbands, and Fort Bragg officials say they are looking at the cases to determine if the stress of military life was a contributing factor.

In the Shannon slaying, three of his four children and a teenage friend were at home when the soldier was shot in the chest and head as he slept, police said.

Joan Shannon told police she awoke to gunshots about 3 a.m. and saw an intruder, and followed him from the bedroom down a hallway. She was unable to give police a description.

David Shannon had served in the Army since 1987 and was assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. He had been at Fort Bragg two years. The family lived off the base.

His wife worked as a loan receptionist at the Fort Bragg Credit Union about a year, said her supervisor, Mae Davis. Davis said workers there raised about $500 for her and her family after her husband's death.