SOLLIMS Sampler Volume 8 Issue 2 | Page 29

year old girl by a police commander, Captain Quinn informed the provincial police chief. However, the perpetrator only got one day in jail and then the girl was forced to marry him. So, Captain Quinn informed his superior officer who said that there was nothing else he could do since he had already told local officials. Captain Quinn witnessed several other violations without repercussions; after each incident, he would lecture the Afghan police commanders on human rights. Meanwhile, village elders and villagers were getting more and more upset at the behavior of these American-backed commanders who were committing atrocities which many locals saw as worse than the Taliban. In September 2011, a mother with visible bruising came to their American base with her limping 12- year old son, explaining how he had been abducted, tied to a post, and raped repeatedly by a local American-backed police commander, Abdul Rahman. The woman had also been beaten, and she wanted to make sure that the abuse to her son would not happen again, especially because, being good- looking, he was coveted as a status symbol by local commanders. Upon hearing the account, Captain Quinn confronted Rahman. The police commander admitted this was true, but laughed it off when Quinn lectured him on how a higher standard was expected from him. At this point, Captain Quinn and SFC Martland threw Rahman to the ground so that he would know that such behavior would not be tolerated. After this physical confrontation, both Captain Quinn and SFC Martland were given a “relief for cause” from that 2011 deployment. Both Soldiers were removed from that camp in Kunduz Province and eventually sent home from Afghanistan. Reports vary as to extent of injuries to the police officer, although another Afghan officer corroborated that they were not serious. It is unclear whether there were positive or negative repercussions for the boy or his mother as a result of the physical confrontation between the Green Berets and the police commander; news outlets have not reported whether or not the child was abused again. After being forced to leave Afghanistan, Captain Quinn left the military. Sergeant 1 st Class (SFC) Charles Martland, however, decided to continue his military career. In 2015, however, under the Army’s Qualitative Management Program (QMP) – a process for downsizing the military by involuntary separation of Soldiers with black marks on their records – SFC Martland was selected to be separated from the Army due to the incident of shoving the child rapist, even though SFC Martland was highly decorated. SFC Martland appealed his case with high support from Representative Duncan Hunter, R-California, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), and petitions from outraged citizens. After months of advocacy, the Army