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Corps charges recon sergeant in shooting death

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The Marine Corps has charged a reconnaissance sergeant with manslaughter in the Oct. 30, 2006, death of another Marine during what was supposed to have been a nonlive-fire drill, officials said.

Sgt. Caleb P. Hohman is also charged with four counts of violating lawful general orders because he failed to unload and remove live 5.56mm frangible ammunition from his M4 carbine rifle after a live-fire training course he did the week before the shooting and because he failed to ensure that he had loaded blanks into his rifle for the non-live-fire raid exercise.

Hohman, a member of Bravo Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, shot then-Cpl. Sgt. Seth M. Algrim in the head and arm during a night raid package at the 25 Area combat town, an area of concrete buildings and walls Marines use for platoon- and company-sized patrols and maneuvers. No live ammunition was planned for the five-day training exercise, one of a series of predeployment exercises the company was conducting.

Algrim, a 22-year-old mortarman from Garden City, Kan., was playing the role of an insurgent when Hohman, who was part of an assault element for the mock raid, spotted him laying on the floor with a rifle tucked under him. Algrim at the time was waiting to attend the Basic Reconnaissance Course to become a reconnaissance Marine.

At one point, Hohman fired two rounds at Algrim, which missed, and continued to move closer to Algrim’s position. Then he fired another volley of shots, which struck Algrim in the left arm and head, killing him instantly, according to an investigation into the incident.

Hohman was officially charged April 19 and awaits an Article 32 preliminary hearing, said Capt. Mike Alvarez, a division spokesman. No date has been set.

The charges were among punishments recommended by an investigating officer, a colonel, who completed an investigation under the Judge Advocate’s General Manual, or JAGMan. Marine Corps officials at Camp Pendleton on Monday released a redacted version of the JAGMan report. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service also has done an investigation into the shooting.

In an endorsement to the JAGMan report, the division commander, Maj. Gen. John Paxton, wrote that Algrim’s death “was the result of individual and small unit negligence and a lack of supervision. This tragedy could have been avoided.”

Paxton ordered that the battalion take additional steps, as well as the rest of the division, to ensure greater safety, accountability and adherence to existing or revamped regulations and procedures for live-fire and non-live-fire training exercises.

Hohman had become ill Oct. 20 with pharyngitis near the end of the live-fire Dynamic Assault Course at the Range 116 complex at Camp Pendleton, and his personal gear, equipment and weapon remained at his platoon tent before they were collected by platoon members. Hohman resumed training on Oct. 30 after five days on light duty, according to the investigation.

The investigating colonel cited a series of errors that lead to Algrim’s death, among them: Hohman’s failure to turn in unexpended rounds and absence of “shake downs” and checks for unexpended ammunition after the Dynamic Assault Course; lack of supervision; poor accounting of ammunition; ignorance of existing safety procedures and regulations; and disinterest toward range safety billets.

The investigating colonel found that “the single factor to exercise the sixth Marine Corps Troop Leading Step: Supervise” as a contributing factor in the Marine’s death and placed blame at the battalion’s “over-reliance on the leadership and supervisor capabilities of reconnaissance team leaders” to ensure safety.

“The declining respect for the dangers of unaccounted for ammunition beyond the scope of the immediate training contributed to this tragedy,” the colonel. Repeated combat deployments and operations in Iraq “dulled” the unit’s emphasis on accounting for ammunition and “bred complacency” back home, he wrote.