Former soldier says discharged Green Beret ‘chose the greater good’

A former Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier will get time to appeal his military discharge, after a slew of political and military leaders expressed their support for him.

In 2011, Sgt. 1st class Charles Martland roughed up an Afghan police officer who he believed was raping a child. He received a negative mark in his service record for it, which has now thrust him into a group that’s being discharged from the army in the latest round of sequestration cuts.

Martland’s service record is confidential but sources tell KIRO Radio it was otherwise perfect.

In parts of Afghanistan, men routinely force young boys to be their sexual partners, in a practice called “bacha bazi,” literally translated as “boy games.”

Was Martland’s reprimand deserved, because he went against his own military training and chose vigilantism over diplomacy? Or did he make a carefully calculated decision to solve a problem in the only way he believed would be effective?

A former Special Forces soldier in Seattle, Matt Doxey, says Martland did his best when faced with a tough choice.

“He chose the greater good,” Doxey says.

“It doesn’t sound like they … beat the guy to death or anything,” Doxey adds. “It sounds like they roughed him up and threw him out of their compound and off their base and I’m sure the local population saw that as a good thing.”

Reports say that the elders of the community of Kunduz where Martland was working approached him and asked him to intervene and that Martland met with the child’s mother, who herself had allegedly been beaten by the perpetrator.

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Doxey says this proves Martland and his colleagues were excellent Special Forces soldiers.

“It means they trusted U.S. soldiers enough and that Special Forces team on the ground there enough to solve their problem and fix what was going on,” he said.

Doxey did three tours in Afghanistan and 18 years in the military, the majority of it doing this kind of Special Forces work abroad.

He says gaining trust is vital for any mission, whether it’s building up a police force, building up governance in the area, or defeating the Taliban.

“That’s what these Special Forces teams do so well,” Doxey says. “That’s their bread and butter, going into these foreign countries, gaining the trust of the local population, and through that making positive changes and achieving and accomplishing the missions they’re there to accomplish.”

“Who are we there to help?” Doxey asks. “This corrupt police officer that’s breaking his own law and committing these atrocities? Or are we there to help the people who have really have no recourse against corrupt officials and corrupt police officers?”

The Army announced Tuesday that Martland’s discharge was postponed 60 days in order to allow time for him to file an appeal with the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records.

His supporters include the VFW, Representative Duncan Hunter of California, and Representative Mark Thornberry, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, who sent a letter to Army Secretary John McHugh, pleading the case that Martland deserves more time to prepare an appeal to the discharge.

According to The News Tribune, Doxey is currently an instructor at an underwater Special operations training course in Key West, Florida.