2009 Darwin Award Winners: Dumb USMC gyrenes shoot selves in the head!

Unprofessional marines Shoot Selves in Stupid Gun Game!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/11/marines-take-risks-with-d_n_284125.html

RALEIGH, N.C. — Lance Cpl. Patrick Malone was relaxing on his bunk at an Iraqi combat base when a direct superior interrupted his late-night movie.

It was time for a game marines sometimes play to build confidence in colleagues: Point a gun at a comrade and ask, "Do you trust me?"

Cpl. Mathew Nelson raised his weapon and the 9 mm pistol went off, striking Malone in the head. The higher-ranking marine rushed to the wounded man's side and tried to perform CPR, but Malone was mortally wounded.

The game, which has cropped up in barracks across Iraq and Afghanistan, is supposed to make a serviceman feel comfortable enough with a comrade that he would stare into the other marine's gun barrel. But it violates the military's basic weapon-safety rules.

"I can't believe the marines, these professional soldiers, are playing these games," said Damian Malone, father of the slain 21-year-old.

[EDITOR: they ain't professionals. WARNING TO PARENTS: send sons/daughters off to USMC you might get back a closed, sealed casket]

The younger Malone "was willing to put his life on the line every day, and when he came back to his unit he wasn't supposed to have to worry about his safety."

On Thursday, Nelson pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and seven counts of reckless endangerment for the shooting at Combat Outpost Viking in Anbar province just before midnight on March 9.

Nelson, 25, of Dearborn Heights, Mich., was sentenced Thursday to eight years in Camp Lejeune's brig, demoted to the lowest rank in the marines and given a bad-conduct discharge.

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Tags:

• 2009
• darwin
• awards
• natural
• selection
• dumb
• moron
• marine
• corps
• 9mm
• automatic
• pistol
• m9
• beretta
• usmc
• iraq
• afghanistan
• narcissism
• barracks
• games
• unprofessional
• peer
• pressure
• weak
• egos