Thread: Fort Bragg Killings may be stress related

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The killings of four military wives in the past six weeks -- allegedly by their husbands who are based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina -- have led commanders to take a new look at whether combat deployments may be causing undue stress.

Sources at Fort Bragg, home to the Army Special Operations Command, say there's no common thread among the cases, and suggest it may simply be an "anomaly" that so many incidents have occurred so close together.

Officials acknowledge that three of the men had recently served in Afghanistan, and at least one of them had been brought home early to deal with unspecified family problems. But authorities have not established any connection between their service in Afghanistan and the incidents.

Military and local authorities say two of the Special Operations soldiers committed suicide after their wives were killed.

Two of the women were fatally shot, one was strangled, and one was stabbed to death. All four killings took place off the base.

In one incident, the man is suspected of setting the couple's house afire after his wife was killed.

The Fort Bragg garrison commander, Army Col. Tad Davis, is reviewing counseling and stress-management programs available at the base.

A spokesman said the Army wants to see if there is something it could do better. But one military official who had previously served at Fort Bragg pointed out that Special Operations soldiers may be reluctant to seek help.

Benjamin Abel, an Army Special Operations Command spokesmen, gave these details on the four incidents:

On June 11, Sgt. 1st Class Rigoberto Nieves, 32, and his wife, Teresa, were found shot to death at their residence in a suspected murder-suicide. Nieves was assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group. He was deployed to Afghanistan in early January and returned in mid-March.


On June 29, Jennifer Wright, the wife of Master Sgt. William Wright, 36, was found strangled. Wright was charged with first degree murder. He was assigned to the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion. He was deployed to Afghanistan in mid-March and returned in mid-May.


On July 9, Marilyn Griffin, wife of Sgt. Cedric Griffin, 28, was stabbed to death. Griffin is charged with first degree murder. He was assigned to the 37th Engineer Battalion, 20th Engineer Brigade. He had not been deployed to Afghanistan and no such deployment was planned.


On July 19, Sgt. 1st Class Brandon S. Floyd, 30, and his wife, Andrea, were shot at their home in an apparent murder-suicide. Floyd was assigned to Headquarters Company, U.S. Army Special Operations Command. He was deployed to Afghanistan in November and returned in January.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/07/26/army.wives/index.html

I saw this on FOX NEWS this morning.I think it's terrible.They need to give these people some kind of counseling when they come back from wars like this.It's so sad.

THESE PEOPLE, OUR "SOLDIERS", NEED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIER ACTIONS, AND STOP MAKING EXCUSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amen Smurfy!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is a dang scarey thing to be happening! I will have these poor women on my mind for a while...shame on the killers and shame on anyone who contributed!

Well, they should be held accountable, but I do believe that they should be required to attend some type of after war/conflict/whatever, counselling. This is so sad.

Hubby is a Sargent and are at Fort Bragg, and 3 went to Afganastan. I think that if I was a wife to a sargent at Fort Bragg, I would be a little scared about now! But Also anyone that is in the armed forces that have went to war should have to go to counseling for the service person and as a family too. This can effect the rest of theirs and their families life.

mizjen, I was hoping someone would bring up VietNam. I don't understand why things today should be any different or more stressful than they were back then. You are so right, many of our guys were messed up from VietNam and still are. Any way you look at it, war is an awful thing and military families are under a lot of stress during any war.