Walter B. Jones: “today is the Article 32 hearing for Second Lieutenant Ilario Pantano, a Marine who I have talked about at great length…”

“today is the Article 32 hearing for Second Lieutenant Ilario Pantano, a Marine who I have talked about at great length and who has served our Nation bravely in both gulf wars. In an action of self-defense a year ago in Iraq, Lt. Pantano made a split-second, battlefield decision to shoot two Iraqi insurgents who refused to follow his orders to stop their movement towards him. Two- and-a-half months later, a sergeant under his command who never even saw the shooting and who was earlier demoted for his lack of leadership abilities, accused him of murder. Because of that, Lt. Pantano today faces an Article 32 hearing where a hearing officer will determine whether he will face a court marshal for two counts of premeditated murder. Mr. Speaker, what is happening to this young man is unfair and an injustice. Lt. Pantano has served this Nation with great honor. My personal experiences with him and his family convince me that he is a dedicated family man who loves his corps and his country. Mona Charen, a well-known journalist, puts it best when she writes: ``Pantano was in the middle of a war zone, not a vacation on the Riviera. He had been dodging ambushes and booby traps for weeks. He had seen his comrades killed and maimed. Perhaps he acted too hastily in shooting those Iraqis. But a murder charge? Has the Marine Corps gone PC,'' politically correct?…”