OCTOBER 30, 2017 3:53 PM
Boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island is about to face one of its greatest tests of public scrutiny in more than six decades.
While other hazing and abuse cases have received attention — see that of former Sgt. Jeffrey VanDyke, who served a year in military prison after one of his trainees needed skin grafts from the bleach burns — the court-martial of Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Felix follows a recruit’s death.
Felix, a former Parris Island DI a Marine Corps investigation linked to former recruit Raheel Siddiqui’s death, is scheduled to stand trial by general court-martial beginning Tuesday at Marine Corps Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Felix is accused of hazing and abusing Siddiqui, who leapt to his death from the third floor of his barracks March 18, 2016. Felix was reported to have forcefully slapped Siddiqui in the face moments before his death, and to have referred to the 20-year-old Muslim recruit from Taylor, Mich., as a “terrorist.” Felix is also alleged to have ordered another Muslim recruit into a commercial clothes dryer — the trainee was burned during the incident — in July 2015, and to have interrogated the trainee about his loyalty and faith.