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thedrifter
05-15-08, 08:47 AM
SPEAK OUT: Hutchins has suffered enough
Delahunt’s support for freedom is the right thing

By Thomas A. Bolinder
The Patriot Ledger
Posted May 15, 2008 @ 08:16 AM
Last update May 15, 2008 @ 08:26 AM
QUINCY —


I read your editorial piece regarding Congressman Bill Delahunt’s call for release of Private Lawrence W. Hutchins III, United States Marine Corps., with great dismay (“Standing by our own standards,” May 10.)

Delahunt and I stand as far apart on political issues as two Americans can.

However, I applaud the Congressman for his support for his constituent, Lawrence Hutchins, and the entire Hutchins family.

It has certainly not been politically expedient for him, and downright unpopular with those who vote for him.

He has done this because he felt it was the right thing to do.

Private Hutchins’ case is a complicated one. We have no idea how extreme the pressure on Hutchins was to protect the lives of the Marines with which he served.

To this day, this is what he believes he was doing on that night.

Statements you attribute to him were made during stressful combat patrol with adrenalin flowing.

Who knows if he even made those statements.

I cannot discuss the entire case here, but Hutchins believed he was acting on the instructions of a superior.

From all accounts, the man killed was a former policeman in the Saddam regime. We do not know if he was a terrorist.

As a police officer, I spent my entire adult life trying to put criminals in jail, but more importantly, I tried to protect the rights of not only the victims, but of the accused.

Our beautiful Constitution not only enumerates our freedoms, but also the protections from unlawful government intrusion.

It appears that those protections have been trampled in Hutchins’ case and others.

I would ask, “Who deserves more protection from the Constitution than those that put their lives on the line to protect it?”

No matter what you may think of Private Lawrence Hutchins, United States Marine Corps, he has suffered enough.

He has refused all offers of a deal.

He is a man with a spotless record, reduced in rank from staff sergeant to private.

He forfeits all pay and benefits.

He has been imprisoned since the investigation began – the only one of his squad to experience this – sometimes in solitary.

And he has witnessed the devastation this has caused in his great American family.

He told his dad, Lawrence Hutchins Jr., also a Marine, that his worst punishment is that he will no longer be allowed to protect his country and claim the title United States Marine.

Enough is enough.

Thomas A. Bolinder is a retired sergeant in the United States Marine Corps., as well as the vice president of the Military Combat Defense Fund. He lives in Quincy.

Ellie