SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Several Marines testified Wednesday that their boot camp drill instructor smacked them in the head with flashlights and rifles and ordered platoon members to lie down in their own vomit after forcing them to chug too much water too quickly.
In quiet voices, they each named Sgt. Jerrod M. Glass as the source of abuse they suffered last winter as fresh recruits at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot near downtown San Diego.
Lance Cpl. Sean Fitzgerald recounted for jurors how platoon members began trying to break open one recruit's foot locker after Glass began hitting the trainee over the head with a tent pole for forgetting the code for the combination lock.
"He said, 'I'm going to make you ugly if you can't open that locker,"' Fitzgerald said. "I don't think people should be hit for something as simple as that, sir."
Glass, 25, has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of abuse and violating lawful orders.
His defense attorneys said Glass' behavior was in line with practices accepted by other drill instructors and with the expectations of new recruits. One Marine, Pfc. Daniel Mainville, admitted during cross-examination that he thought he would look weak if he complained.
"That's what the platoon believed, sir," he told Capt. Patrick J. Callahan, a lawyer for Glass.
But in a side hearing, the judge overseeing the case said a failure to report abuse didn't qualify as consent to mistreatment.
"I'm having a hard time seeing the legal basis for your theory that when recruits sign up for boot camp at MCRD they're consenting to being assaulted," said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks, who brought up the drill instructor's creed, which begins with the words, "These recruits are entrusted to my care."
"Does it say, 'You guys are under our power and we're going to beat the living daylights out of you?"'
"No, sir," replied Callahan, as Glass looked on impassively.
Callahan told the judge he hoped to show that Glass believed he was acting with the approval of his fellow drill instructors after they agreed the platoon needed to be better prepared to withstand the rigors of war. Two of them -- Sgt. Robert C. Hankins and Sgt. Brian M. Wendel -- have pleaded not guilty to related abuse charges and have indicated that they will refuse to testify in Glass' court-martial.
A fourth drill instructor was disciplined and reassigned to administrative duties.
Glass is being tried on two counts of assault, two counts of failure to obey a lawful order, two counts of cruelty and maltreatment and four counts of destruction of personal property, covering 110 incidents that allegedly occurred between Dec. 23 and Feb. 10.
Testimony focused on a handful of incidents. Witnesses said Glass routinely stomped on recruits' toiletry kits, breaking razors and soap containers inside, for minor infractions like not displaying name tags properly. They said Glass and another drill instructor would line recruits up after meals and force them to down liters of water from their canteens in a ritual they referred to as "waterbowling."
One Marine, Pfc. Michael Baldridge, described a hazing in which he was pushed headfirst into a trash can for not collecting target stickers quickly enough. He said he hadn't been able to see who was doing the shoving, but testified that Glass was the only one close enough at the time.
"I was basically doing a handstand inside the trash can," Baldridge said.
Glass faces up to 11 years' confinement, dishonorable discharge, reduction in rank and forfeit of pay and benefits if he is found guilty. The case will be judged by a jury of three enlisted Marines and three officers.
Glass, who volunteered for two tours in Iraq, had worked as a drill sergeant for less than a year when the suspected mistreatment occurred. He was relieved of duty as a drill instructor in February.
He joined the Marines in October 2001 and trained as a handler for drug -- and bomb-sniffing dogs with the military police.
Glass' parents said outside the courtroom that they believed their son was being scapegoated for practices so commonly accepted that they had names, like waterbowling.
"For it to have a name, for everyone to know it, means it's not the only time it's happened," said Glass' father, Jerry.
More than 70 witnesses, including almost all of the 40 Marines to graduate from Glass' platoon, are expected to be called to testify.
About 17,000 recruits graduate each year from the San Diego depot. It is one of only two depots nationwide; the other is in Parris Island, S.C.
