A platoon in Alaska at Fort Wainwright is currently going through an investigation for “racial Thursdays”, according to reports.
Racial Thursdays’ offer troops in the platoon that one day in a week i.e. Thursday to openly use racial slurs against one other without having any retaliation by the recipient.
Report says that the platoon is part of the 1/25 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, the 2nd platoon, company, 3rd battalion, 21st infantry regiment.
According to sources who are familiar with such issues, the authorities were first notified about the racial Thursdays’ routine via an informal complaint which had been filed by a member of the platoon itself.
Lieutenant Colonel Alan Brown, a US Army Alaska spokesperson, has stated that officials have been alerted on the issue of the Racial Thursday in the past, according to KTVA Alaska.
Brown has informed that an informal complaint was reported through command channels regarding this practice. An investigation officer has been appointed and an investigation in the form of a commander’s inquiry has been embarked on and is currently ongoing.
The command is acknowledged for taking every complaint seriously and will investigate every allegation in detail, he added.
Brown has said that the upcoming step for the military will be a 15-6 investigation. “15-6 is a formal investigation where the commander appoints an investigating officer to gather all the facts in a particular case and makes recommendations to the commander”, he said.
In addition to all that, Lieutenant Colonel Brown has gone out of his way in his report to put more emphasis and reiterate the seriousness with which army takes such allegations.
He has declared that the command is very serious when it comes to treating all the soldiers with dignity and respect and in cases where there are indications of those values being broken or not followed, the command will absolutely make inquiries, conduct appropriate investigations for taking all the necessary actions which are required to make things right.
