Army suicide testimony: Sergeant taunted Danny Chen with slurs 
 
 An African American soldier, Pvt. Marcus Merritt, testified Wednesday that Holcomb addressed him with a racial slur and threatened to "kill me and put me in a body bag and send me home.’’ Merritt said he became suicidal after enduring punishment and humiliation from Holcomb. 
 
 In their opening statements, prosecutors had said testimony would show that soldiers taunted Chen with racial slurs, kicked him and pelted him with rocks in merciless hazing in the weeks before the private’s suicide. 
 
 Holcomb, 30, is the first to face court-martial in a case that has focused renewed attention on allegations of hazing and racism in the Army, where Asian Americans are a distinct minority. Courts-martial for the other seven soldiers, including an officer, are scheduled for later this year. 
 
 Military prosecutors elicited the testimony in the second day of the proceedings to buttress charges that Holcomb hazed and hounded Chen, a Chinese American, into committing suicide at a remote combat outpost in Afghanistan on Oct. 3. Holcomb, one of eight soldiers charged in connection with Chen’s death, faces charges of negligent homicide, assault, reckless endangerment and other counts. 
 
 FT. BRAGG, N.C. -- Sgt. Adam Holcomb bombarded Danny Chen, a shy, 19-year-old Army private, with racial slurs and bloodied Chen’s back by dragging him across rocky ground for disobeying a platoon rule, several former members of Holcomb’s platoon testified at his court-martial Wednesday. 
 
 U.S. Army Sgt. Adam Holcomb, right, is the first of eight men facing prosecution… (Raul R. Rubiera, The Fayetteville…) 
 
 "He was in my face constantly,’’ Merritt testified when asked why he had contemplated suicide. "All the stuff he did had a long-lasting effect on me.’’ 
 
 Under cross-examination, Merritt conceded that he knew Holcomb wasn’t serious about killing him. But he also said he feared the sergeant, telling a military psychiatrist he wanted to kill Holcomb. 
 
 Holcomb’s immediate superior, Staff Sgt. Darren Holt, told the military panel of 10 officers and non-commissioned officers that he confronted Holcomb after the sergeant dragged Chen across sharp, baseball-sized rocks in late September. Holcomb was angry that Chen had ignored posted rules to turn off power to a water heater after taking a shower. 
 
 Holt said he told Holcomb that physically abusing a soldier was wrong and reported the incident to superiors. "I verbally counseled him [Holcomb] . . . and made it clear that was unacceptable,’’ Holt said. 
 
 Chen shot himself under the chin in a base guard tower a week after the dragging incident, according to the Army. 
 
 Chen’s death outraged some Chinese American activists in New York City’s Chinatown, where Chen grew up with his immigrant parents. Several activists are attending the court-martial, along with journalists from China. 
 
 Holcomb’s military lawyers have said Chen killed himself because his parents had disowned him for joining the Army instead of attending college. They have portrayed Chen as an incompetent soldier who endangered his platoon and required constant discipline for such violations as sleeping on guard duty or reporting for his guard post without his helmet. 
 
 Defense lawyers have also said that nicknames -- even those with racially tinged overtones -- were common "terms of endearment’’ in the small, tight-knit platoon. One African American platoon member, they said, encouraged soldiers to call him "Black Mamba.’’ 
 
 Under cross-examination by the defense, former members of the platoon conceded that most discipline meted out by Holcomb was justified by Chen’s failure to follow orders or regulations. Such "corrective training,’’ especially in combat zones, is an accepted way to improve soldiers’ performance, according to testimony. 
 
 Several soldiers testified that Chen never gave any overt indication that he was contemplating suicide. The platoon medic, Spec. Zachary Bolin, who treated Chen’s back abrasions at Holcomb’s request, said Chen denied suicidal thoughts when Bolin asked him about it. ||||| “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” -John 15:13 
 
 SFC Jonathon Prins and SSG Charles Allen Judge, Jr. were not in uniform Saturday night. They were not on duty, and no one ordered them to risk their lives. They simply acted to do what they knew was right, moving without hesitation to risk their lives for a stranger. They died, but she lived. Those who knew them say they wouldn’t have had it any other way. 
 
 “He was a great man and knowing him, if he knew what the outcome was going to be, he would have done the same thing,” Judge’s brother-in-law, Jon Adams, said Sunday. A soldier who served beside Prins offered almost the same words about him. 
 
 Prins and Judge were at the Frayed Knot Bar & Grill in Chapin just before midnight Saturday. Joseph Elijah Mills, 25, of Little Mountain, allegedly began arguing with a woman and another man outside the bar. Multiple witnesses said Mills assaulted the woman, slamming her into a stair railing, then pulled out a gun. 
 
 Prins and Judge moved without hesitation when they saw the woman assaulted, according to witnesses. As they moved, Mills allegedly fired into the air, and the two men attempted to get to him and disarm him. Mills shot both Prins and Judge, killing them, again according to witnesses, then ran away from the scene. 
 
 Prins was a soldier, currently posted as a drill sergeant at Fort Jackson, training other soldiers. He was deployed twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq. His brother in arms, Sgt. Brandon Baldwin, spoke Sunday night about his fallen comrade. 
 
 “SFC Prins was a warrior built and forged to his solid state through war. He and I served 8 years together in the 2/327th Infantry Battalion. Both currently Drill Sergeants out of Fort Jackson, we have deployed three different times: once to Iraq, twice to Afghanistan. 2/327 is named the No Slack BN. The No Slack Battalion has seen the fiercest fighting Afghanistan has ever seen. There is actually a movie out about the BNs deployment called The Hornets Nest. SFC Prins was apart of the Strong Eagle 3 mission that the movie is filmed from. SFC Prins had the instinct to protect the weak instilled into him over the last 10 years of service. The way SFC Prins was taken from us, is a testament to his bravery and his selfless service. The No Slack family is still in a state of disbelief. Just yesterday his wife Roxanne was just at our baby shower. Still doesn’t feel real. I knew SFC Prins would go out a hero.” 
 
 Judge was also a soldier and a teacher, an engineer instructor with the South Carolina National Guard at the McCrady Training Center in Eastover and an Iraq veteran. The 218TH Leadership Regiment 1ST BN Engineers posted a photo of him on Facebook Sunday night, writing “It is with a heavy heart we say goodbye to SSG Charles A Judge JR. You will be truly missed by so many!! RIP Judge, see you on the other side brother!” 
 
 His Commander at the 218th Regiment Leadership Command at the McCrady Training Center, U.S. Army Col. Renita Berry, commander 218th Regiment (Leadership), shared the following statement. “On behalf of the Soldiers, staff and families of the 218th Regiment, we are shocked and saddened by the loss of Staff. Sgt Judge. He was an outstanding instructor who served with great dedication and enthusiasm and demonstrated unwavering commitment to his peers, his students and this organization every day. He will be missed tremendously.” 
 
 A friend and comrade who asked not to be named offered more memories of Judge. “He served as a combat engineer in Iraq. Left behind a son and daughter. He volunteered countless hours to helping homeless veterans through Operation Stand Down. He cared about people and did whatever he could to help out whenever he could. Even with the long hours that we work as instructors, Judge would leave McCrady to head to the Upstate for a meeting with the volunteers or spend time with his children. He will be sorely missed around the community.” 
 
 Frequent customers described the Frayed Knot as a locally owned and community friendly place. It sits on the edge of Lake Murray near Dreher Island, and Prins and Judge certainly did not go there expecting to run into trouble, or expecting to be asked to give their lives. When the moment came, however, they moved. The life of a stranger was more important to them than their own lives. 
 
 Prins and Judge leave behind five children between them. The Frayed Knot joined with family and friends of the heroes Friday for a boat parade and fundraiser. Another fundraiser is being planned in their honor, and Midlands Anchor will supply details as soon as they are finalized. Charles Judge was 40 years old. Jonathon Prins was 29. The woman they gave their lives to save was not seriously injured. They died as they lived, as heroes and as victors. 
 
 Lexington County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Mills Sunday afternoon. He is charged with two counts of murder. 
 
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– Playing "Taps" on a well-worn bugle, the emotional recitation of "A Soldier's Creed," and calling each other racial slurs one day per week: all time-honored customs in the US Army? That last practice is, at least in one platoon, according to a black staff sergeant who tells the Army Times that he's filed an equal-opportunity complaint against his platoon leader at Alaska's Fort Wainwright for "[encouraging] 'Racial Thursdays' as a way to build morale and camaraderie," the Times notes. The soldier from the 2nd Platoon, C Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment tells the newspaper that although epithets were never hurled his way, he was told upon arrival that the special day was a "tradition" in which soldiers "can say any racist remark you want without any consequences." "It's degrading to the soldiers," the staff sergeant says. "We've had soldiers almost fight over the crap that's going on here." A junior enlisted soldier anonymously backs up the NCO's claim, telling the Times that "you didn't have to participate, but they'd remind you." He recalls a Latino soldier being called a "wetback" and "border jumper" before almost getting into a scuffle when the others wouldn't stop. The Alaska unit is the same one in which 19-year-old Pvt. Danny Chen served before killing himself in 2011 after being deployed. Chen, who was Chinese-American, reportedly had rocks thrown at him and was called names like "Dragon Lady" and "Egg Roll" in the weeks before his death in Afghanistan, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2012. A spokesman for the Alaska unit tells the Army Times an investigation into the recent claims is underway and that "there is absolutely no connection between this current investigation and the case of Pvt. Danny Chen. Treating all soldiers with dignity and respect is something this command takes extremely seriously." (Prince Harry once got into hot water with the UK military for using a racial slur.)