Marine on trial doing job toughening up recruits, lawyer says
SAN DIEGO — A Marine Corps drill instructor facing court-martial for allegedly abusing recruits was doing his job in toughening them up them for war, his defense lawyers said.
Lawyers for Sgt. Jerrod M. Glass said other drill instructors told Glass that recruits needed to be prepared for combat, even if getting them ready meant violating military policies.
“His job was not to be nice but to instill discipline and toughness,” defense attorney Capt. Patrick J. Callahan told the jury Tuesday in his opening statements. “Why are we here? The other three drill instructors. They felt the platoon would not be prepared for combat, which in today’s Marine Corps is not some fanciful idea but a daily reality.”
Prosecutors disputed Callahan’s account, telling jurors that Glass, once a star student, abused an entire 40-member platoon during training last winter, from dumping water canteens over their heads and destroying their hygiene kits to hitting recruits with flashlights and tent poles.