A Marine Corps chief at Parris Island was arrested for alleged felony cruelty towards a baby and battery over the weekend, and was reassigned from his place as govt officer on the South Carolina set up’s recruit coaching regiment.
Lt. Col. Michael Masters was booked right into a Florida county jail on Saturday morning and charged with felony-level “abuse of a kid with out nice bodily hurt” and home battery by strangulation, in keeping with county police data obtained by Navy.com. He was reassigned after his arrest, in keeping with the Marine Corps.
With Masters’ reassignment, the regiment’s prime three positions have turned over in nearly precisely two months. Altogether, 5 prime Marine leaders have been dismissed or reassigned throughout the Corps’ Coaching and Training Command since June, a three-month stretch that has introduced elevated consideration to the entity accountable for molding new troops however offered few solutions as to why some leaders have been relieved.
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“The investigation is ongoing and extra particulars are unavailable right now,” Maj. Philip Kulczewski, a spokesperson for Parris Island, instructed Navy.com on Tuesday. “Lt. Col. Masters has been reassigned pending expenses. Any questions associated to the investigation could also be directed to the Santa Rosa County authorities.”
On Sept. 2, an officer with the Gulf Breeze Police Division in Florida arrived at a residence on the western a part of the small metropolis the place a feminine sufferer was “choked to the purpose she couldn’t breathe,” in keeping with the police report. It seems Masters was visiting the residence on go away from Parris Island for the lengthy Labor Day weekend.
Whereas the report was partially redacted to exclude the id of the alleged victims, one instructed police that Masters had strangled her beforehand. Masters denied the accusations to the responding officer, in keeping with the data and “began yelling, ‘She’s a liar!'”
The officer noticed “slight purple marks” on the alleged sufferer’s neck and reported that she mentioned, “[Redacted] squeezed my neck and choked me and I couldn’t breathe.” Masters was then arrested, and the Division of Youngsters and Households was notified.
Navy.com tried to succeed in Masters by way of social media, however didn’t hear again by publication.
The arrest marks the newest in a string of identified Coaching and Training Command dismissals or reassignments, which began on June 2 when Sgt. Maj. Beth Ellen Abbott, a senior enlisted chief at Quantico‘s Fundamental Faculty, struck two teenage pedestrians in an alleged drunk driving incident a number of miles outdoors of the bottom.
The subsequent month, Col. Bradley Ward and Sgt. Maj. Fabian Casillas have been relieved from their positions as prime leaders of the Recruit Coaching Regiment — the identical unit that Masters was part of. Ward and Casillas have been relieved for “lack of belief and confidence,” and it seems that Ward is now the camp commander of Camp Mujuk in South Korea, in accordance to his official biography.
In July, Sgt. Maj. Steven Burkett, generally known as “Sergeant Main Kettlebell,” was additionally fired for “lack of belief and confidence.” He was the senior enlisted chief for the service’s Faculty of Infantry-West out of Camp Pendleton, California, one in every of two entry-level infantry colleges within the Marine Corps.
All leaders, together with Masters, fell below the Marine Corps Coaching and Training Command, an entity within the service tasked with instructing and molding Marines from boot camp via specialised abilities programs.
Except for Masters’ arrest, firings that have been coupled with a prison cost or when native authorities launched particulars publicly, the rationale given by the Marine Corps for senior chief dismissals this summer season was “lack of belief and confidence” — with none additional elaboration.
That has not stopped alleged particulars in regards to the firings from surfacing on-line. A few of these claims couldn’t be independently confirmed by Navy.com, regardless of makes an attempt to contact a few of the accused and affected.
For the instances that don’t seem to contain prison expenses, the Marine Corps has been reluctant to publicly launch particulars about senior chief firings. With Masters’ arrest, nevertheless, no additional particulars have been launched by the Marine Corps on Tuesday.
In Burkett’s firing, Navy Instances reported that the service’s public data workplace mentioned that it might not “start a seek for the inquiry or affirm its existence as a result of it might not be a publicly releasable doc.”
The murkiness surrounding senior chief misconduct just isn’t restricted to the final three months. Final 12 months, the Warfare Horse, a nonprofit information group, sued the Marine Corps and Navy for what it known as the service’s “black ebook” — an officer disciplinary pocket book that accommodates alleged investigations and crimes dedicated by senior leaders.
Navy.com requested the Coaching and Training Command to elucidate or contextualize the string of alleged misconduct that has occurred over the previous three months.
It didn’t straight reply the query, however Maj. Joshua Pena, a spokesperson for the command, mentioned “TECOM is in full help of [Marine Corps Recruit Depot] Parris Island as they proceed to work with civil authorities on the matter, and alter, as required, to make sure the very important mission of creating Marines continues.”
As of Tuesday morning, Masters was nonetheless within the Santa Rosa County Jail, in keeping with Adam Riddle, the data supervisor for Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Workplace. Nevertheless, an inmate search that afternoon mentioned that he had been launched.
“The jail remains to be scanning and processing the arrests from the vacation weekend,” he instructed Navy.com over electronic mail. Santa Rosa County Jail set Masters’ bond at $10,000 for every of his two expenses, in keeping with on-line inmate data.
Based on his official Marine Corps biography, Masters has been within the service since 2005. Previous to arriving at Parris Island, he was the chief officer on the Marine Corps Ways and Operations Group at Twentynine Palms, California.
— Drew F. Lawrence could be reached at drew.lawrence@army.com. Comply with him on Twitter @df_lawrence.
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