Colombia RPCV Journalist Maureen Orth, Vanity Fair magazine, discusses the murders at Fort Bragg Army Base in North Carolina
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Monday, November 4, 2002
Interview: Maureen Orth, Vanity Fair magazine, discusses the murders at Fort Bragg Army Base in North Carolina
MATT LAUER, co-host: Last summer the Army base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was rocked by a string of murders and suicides over a six-week span. In the December issue of Vanity Fair magazine, special correspondent Maureen Orth focuses on three of those cases where, according to authorities, soldiers who had recently returned from Afghanistan came home and murdered their wives.
Maureen Orth, good morning. Good to have you here.
Ms. MAUREEN ORTH (Vanity Fair): Thanks.
LAUER: In--in one of these cases a soldier killed his wife, in the other two cases the soldier killed his wife and then himself.
Ms. ORTH: That's right.
LAUER: What other threads tie these cases together?
Ms. ORTH: In all of these cases these were long-term marriages where there had been no physical violence ever reported before. However, these were--these were marriages where they--they had had trouble for a while, for a long time, and the wives had made a conscious decision they wanted out and these sort of warrior husbands decided they would not escape.
LAUER: Let's go back to that. The--the wives had made a conscious decision that they wanted out because their husband's lives were consumed by the Army.
Ms. ORTH: That's right.
LAUER: And in particular, the Special Forces.
Ms. ORTH: Exactly. And, you know, now that we have a professional army there are constant deployments and some of these people in Special Forces are gone 200 to 300 days of the year. Oftentimes, the wives don't even know where they are. They have large families and they lie--and the wives are left to cope alone at home.
LAUER: And--and they told their husbands in no certain terms, 'Changes are going to be made or this marriage will be over.' We're talking about the cases of Bill Wright, Brandon Floyd and Rigoberto Nieves.
Ms. ORTH: Mm-hmm.
LAUER: All good soldiers?
Ms. ORTH: Excellent soldiers. In fact, Brandon Floyd was a member of the ultra-secret Delta Force, highly decorated. They were all considered excellent soldiers.
LAUER: You mentioned the--there had been no history of physical violence in these marriages but they weren't perfect marriages.
Ms. ORTH: Not at all.
LAUER: All had had trouble before, so what was it about this particular time period that forced these good soldiers to snap?
Ms. ORTH: What happened--it could be just a coincidence that they all came at the same time. However, they were a--they were away for a long time and then coming back and things had changed. You know, often wives are told, 'Don't change too much while your--when your husband comes home because it'll disturb him.' They were under a tremendous amount of pressure overseas and so when they got home they found one of them had a brand new house--two of them had brand new houses. They had wives who'd become more independent. There were just too many changes and they didn't...
LAUER: They were taking care of the kids, paying all the bills...
Ms. ORTH: That's right.
LAUER: ...taking control away from the husbands.
Ms. ORTH: Exactly, and it's--always in domestic violence it's an issue of control. And the most dangerous time in a domestic violence situation is the moment of separation.
LAUER: The--the Special Forces troops have this kind of 'activate to
kill' instinct...
Ms. ORTH: Yes.
LAUER: ...and training.
Ms. ORTH: Yes.
LAUER: And is the problem when they come home it's hard to turn that off?
Ms. ORTH: According to one Delta Force officer I spoke with, or--told me that their--it's almost like two people trying to possess their bodies. He said, 'We're good Christian people and then we go to--overseas, it's like flipping a switch.' He said, 'Our job is to export violence.' And when they come home they--it's very hard sometimes to bring it down.
LAUER: Compounding the problem you write about and you--you say that these people are not prone to seek counseling or help because it's a sign of weakness...
Ms. ORTH: Absolutely not.
LAUER: ...and that goes on your record when you're in the...
Ms. ORTH: Well, exactly. This is the hardest thing. There is no confidentiality in the Army about seeking psychological counseling, and if you check of that little box, you've seen a mental health professional, it means your security clearance can be revoked, it's like a career breaker. So a lot--there's no culture for going to seek help, and that's one of the things that is trying to be addressed right now.
LAUER: So we train these guys not to show fear, not to show emotion, not to show weakness or anxiety...
Ms. ORTH: Or their wives.
LAUER: ...which works in the battlefield, but it doesn't work at home.
Ms. ORTH: Exactly. And so the Army now has--they've just passed a law in Congress that they're going to put people to help domestic violence victims with confidentiality. But we haven't seen it yet, it just happened.
LAUER: So much in the article. There's also the whole discussion about Lariam...
Ms. ORTH: Right.
LAUER: ...which is a malaria medication, and--and that it may have some possible side effects that some people are thinking could have played into this.
Ms. ORTH: Exactly. Now there's a high leveled report coming out from the Army in the next couple of weeks and it's my understanding their downplaying the Lariam aspect of it. But Lariam has been given to all soldiers going to these areas where malaria could be, and it causes very psychotic side effects in a--in a few people, in certain numbers of them. And so the--two of these soldiers were acting very strangely and their symptoms looked like Lariam kind of after--side effects.
LAUER: You write--you write, though, "These crimes seem to open a floodgate of self-examination by the Army."
Ms. ORTH: Exactly.
LAUER: So are we going to see some major changes?
Ms. ORTH: Yes. As a matter of fact, you know, one of the things I discovered was that the survivors, these poor innocent children and the parents of these murdered wives, etc., were treated so shabbily. They--they didn't--they--they were engulfed in red tape. In one case where Brandon Floyd's three children had to be awakened, age eight, six and four, to be told--the Army came to the door of the--of the grandmother's house and said, 'You have to wake up these children and tell them that their, you know, parents are dead and how they died. And--and not exactly how if you don't want to, but we strongly urge you
to.' So it was just awful. So actually I was able to meet someone from one of the top generals of the Army and I told him about this and by gosh, within a week I got a call from the adjunct general of the Army and they are changing instructions.
LAUER: They'll make a change.
Maureen Orth. The article appears in Vanity Fair magazine. Interesting stuff.
Ms. ORTH: Thank you.
LAUER: Thank you.
Thirty-eight after the hour. We're back on a Monday morning right after this.
