'Fragging' case heads to military court

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Nov. 3, 2006, 6:51AM
'Fragging' case heads to military court


By ESTES THOMPSON Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. — When Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez appears in court, it likely will take less than an hour for a military judge to complete the arraignment of the only soldier known to be charged with "fragging" _ or killing his superior officer _ during the Iraq war.

The brevity of the hearing does not matter to the widows of Capt. Phillip Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis Allen. They planned to be at North Carolina's Fort Bragg on Friday, having driven hundreds of miles to face Martinez.

"My husband started the process of holding Martinez accountable for his actions and I'm going to finish it for him," Barbara Allen said. "Every time he walks into a courtroom, he needs to walk past me."

Esposito, 30, of Suffern, N.Y., was Martinez's company commander in the 42nd Infantry Division of the New York National Guard. Allen, 34, of Milford, Pa., was the company's operations officer.

Allen said her husband was working with Esposito to stop black market sales of military equipment when the men were wounded on June 7, 2005, by grenades and a mine that exploded in Esposito's room at one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces. The men died the next day at a base near Tikrit.

An Army captain testified at a hearing last year in Kuwait that Martinez, 39, of Troy, N.Y., twice told him he hated Esposito and was going to "frag" him, using the Vietnam War term that refers to a soldier killing a superior.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4307952.html