The Marine Corps Times nabbed an exclusive interview with Joseph Chamblin, who as a Marine staff sergeant in 2011 commanded a platoon of Marines that urinated on Taliban corpses. When video of the incident surfaced in early 2012, it made national headlines and the commandant of the Marine Corps ordered an official inquiry into their actions.
Chamblin was demoted to sergeant and medically separated from active service Oct. 6. But he said he regrets nothing from that fateful day when he was the man in charge of a group of Marines that unfastened their pants and relieved themselves on the enemy fighters they had just killed.
The full interview is well worth the read. But here are four key quotes that offer a glimpse into the Marine veteran's mindset:
On his thoughts toward the Taliban fighters: "I won that day. They didn’t."
On the investigation into him and the members of his unit: "I think a lot of very senior Marines decided to use some of the junior or mid-level Marines as scapegoats."
On the morality of his act:"I don't see anything wrong with it, they're a bunch of f---ing animals."
On whether the act hurt the Corps' reputation: "If your ideal of what a Marine should be is the enemy's worst f---ing nightmare, that we'll go out there and kill him, and take the fight to him no matter what the cost, then I don't think it did."
There are a lot of quotable moments. Watch the video below:
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