Camp Pendleton investigates Kuwait shooting that injured Marine

[thedrifter]

Camp Pendleton investigates Kuwait shooting that injured Marine

ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:23 p.m., June 4, 2003

CAMP PENDLETON ? A 22-year-old Marine from Camp Pendleton remained in military custody Wednesday after he allegedly shot and wounded a fellow Marine last week as their unit prepared to return home from Kuwait, according to a news report.

Marine Corps officials are investigating the May 25 shooting of Cpl. Steven Eichenberger, a vehicle crewman with the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion at Camp Pendleton, 40 miles north of San Diego, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Eichenberger, who was shot in the left side of the neck, was recovering at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland, Marine Capt. Lara Bennett, a base spokeswoman, said Wednesday.

Cpl. Jose Miergrimado, 22, with the battalion's Charlie Company, was taken into custody May 27 at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, according to the Union-Tribune.

Witnesses told the newspaper that the two men got into a confrontation, allegedly over a dirty sleeping bag and keys to an armored vehicle during a football game at Camp Grizzly, a Marine base in northern Kuwait.

Miergrimado allegedly went into his tent, loaded a round into his M-16 rifle and returned to the field. There he shot Eichenberger at close range before Marines tackled him.

Miergrimado remained in the Camp Pendleton brig. No charges have been filed against him, a base spokesman said.

The two Marines, who are single, enlisted on the same day in August 2000. Both joined the battalion on Feb. 22, 2001, base officials said.

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Sempers,

Roger

[thedrifter]

Marine held as suspect in shooting of comrade

Camp Pendleton unit was in Kuwait, about to head home

By James W. Crawley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

June 4, 2003

Marine Corps officials are investigating the shooting of a Camp Pendleton corporal in Kuwait, allegedly by another Marine, just days before the men were to fly home after the war in Iraq.

A disagreement over a dirty sleeping bag and keys to an armored vehicle may have preceded a corporal's shooting another Marine May 25 at a camp in northern Kuwait, several Marines who saw the attack said.

Cpl. Steven Eichenberger, 21, was in stable condition yesterday at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland. He has a neck wound from an M-16 bullet, military officials said.

Eichenberger is a vehicle crewmen in Charlie Company of the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, based at Camp Pendleton.

The suspect was identified as Cpl. Jose Miergrimado, 22. He was flown May 27 to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, where military police placed him in the brig.

No charges have been filed, a Marine spokeswoman said.

Witnesses, who asked not to be identified, said Miergrimado and Eichenberger got into a confrontation during a football game at the base known as Camp Grizzly.

Miergrimado, also in Charlie Company, allegedly went to his tent, loaded a round into his M-16 rifle and returned to the field. At close range, Miergrimado shot Eichenberger in the neck, a witness told The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Marines tackled the suspect and Navy corpsmen and doctors rushed to treat Eichenberger. A helicopter took him to an Army hospital 30 miles away in Kuwait City. Later, he was flown to a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, and then to Bethesda.

Several Marines said the shooting was especially surprising because the battalion had suffered only one combat fatality and few injuries in the war and was just days from returning home after a five-month deployment.

The battalion, which participated in the invasion of Iraq in March and April, was waiting to return to Camp Pendleton after leaving Iraq in early May. Most of the unit arrived home May 27.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James W. Crawley:
(619) 542-4559; jim.crawley@uniontrib.com



Sempers,

Roger


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