Private Danny Chen: Victim of Intolerance Inside US Army Culture?

Despite evidence that US Army private David Chen, (pictured left) was the target of a long pattern of racial slurs, insults, harassment and physical abuse aimed at his ethnicity from the time he entered boot camp, Sgt. Adam Holcomb (the first of eight soldiers court charged in a violent racial hazing just prior to Chen's death) was found not guilty of negligent homicide in a court martial at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina last week.

While the 10-person jury did find Sgt. Holcomb guilty of maltreatment of a subordinate and assault, the max he'll get is two and a half years. It leaves Chen's family, friends, neighbors and members of the Chinese-American community across the US still seeking answers and justice in the wake of the murky circumstances surrounding Chen's death in Afghanistan last year.

On the night of October 3, 2011 the 19 year-old Lower East Side Manhattan native (assigned to Company C, 3rd Battalion of the 25th Infantry Division) was found in the guard tower of a remote Army base known as Combat Outpost Palace near the Pakistan border in Kandahar Province southwest Afghanistan with a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Army lawyers claimed it was suicide resulting from Chen's struggle to adjust to the intense demands of infantry life coupled with depression over being disowned by his Chinese parents.

Chen's mother Su Zhen Chen took the stand to vehemently deny she, her husband and family were estranged from their son, or had disowned him in any way. His lawyer, Army prosecutor Captain Blake Doughty argued Chen was driven to suicide as a result of a pattern of physical abuse and harassment (including ethnic and racial slurs) that started when Chen began basic training as the only Asian-American in his platoon.

New York Times reporter Kirk Semple provided excellent insight into the case including details from the first day of the court-martial being held at Ft. Bragg, NC. [Read it.]. But with suicide rates among active duty US personnel stationed overseas at an all-time high, I thought this case was deserving of more extensive mainstream media coverage than it has received.

Chen was stationed in Fort Wainright, Alaska prior to his deployment overseas. An article in the Anchorage Daily News claims he documented the racism he faced from his Army peers and superiors in a journal he kept. [Read the ADN piece.]. The article also offers accounts from older Asian-American military veterans who document patterns of discrimination in the Army going back for years.

Few accounts encapsulate the historic struggle of Asian-Americans to overcome the obstacles of bigotry and racism within the US military more than the incredible story of the US Army's 442nd Regimental Combat team during World War Two. A unit comprised of Japanese-Americans recognized as the most highly-decorated regiment in the history off the Army. [Read about the 442nd]

In light of such lessons, paid for with the blood and sacrifice of American soldiers, you'd think the Army would've learned to crack down harder on officers, NCO's or soldiers who discriminate against any fellow soldier based on ethnicity or race.

Regardless of the outcome of the court martial it's clear lack of oversight by the Department of Defense and the Army allowed this kind of harassment to exist at the unit level. During his stint in the Army Chen was harassed because of his ethnicity at bases both here while he was training and later overseas where he was serving. Seems to me he was fighting two wars.