By the time something acquires a nickname, it may be said to have entered the realm of the normal. "Blood pinning," however, is anything but. Ordinarily, when Marine paratroopers complete 10 training jumps, they receive their golden wings, a pin with two half-inch protruding points on the back. Sometimes, with that military love of macho ritual, the pin is even proudly thumped into a Marine's chest to draw a little celebratory blood. But according to two amateur videotapes obtained by Dateline NBC and aired as well on CNN late last week, that ritual sometimes descends into something much more barbaric.
The tapes, which depict incidents among elite paratrooper units in 1991 and 1993, are chilling in and of themselves for the naked sadism they reveal. On them, dozens of Marines take turns punching, pounding and grinding the gold pins into the bloody chests of new initiates, who scream and writhe in pain.
The tapes are one more vivid manifestation of the military's greater problem: a seeming inability to police itself. In spite of leaders' repeated "zero tolerance" pronouncements--concerning political extremism, racism, sexual harassment and hazing--authorities are just as often forced to acknowledge a breakdown in the chain of command. Last week a sixth soldier at Maryland's Aberdeen training ground was brought up on charges of sexually harassing a trainee, while the Citadel, a military-training school, is in the midst of its own hazing scandal involving female cadets. Blood pinning cannot be written off as the overexcitement of young Marines: one video plainly shows a first lieutenant guzzling a beer and looking on as his men are being abused.
Military authorities insist that they will do all they can to prevent such hazing in the future. "If they think that the leadership of the Marine Corps believes that beating on their fellow Marine makes for a better warrior, they'd better find themselves a new occupation," said an angry General Charles Krulak, commander of the 174,000-strong Marine Corps. The new Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, declared himself "disturbed and disgusted" by the hazing and was forced to devote much of his very first Pentagon press conference to the stabbing scandal.