The Kill Team (2013) Movie Script
1
[ Man ] I love being in the military.
I love wearing the uniform. I'm proud to wear the uniform.
I'd have never in a million years...
imagined that I would be going to jail.
After the first murder,
everything that I believed in in the army was gone.
People in my platoon, they just changed.
Something in them changed.
[ Newscaster ] This was the platoon from hell.
[ Newscaster #2 ] Accused of shocking crimes...
that include murdering Afghans for sport.
At the time, what was
going on around us didn't--
It wasn't far-fetched.
It wasn't bizarre.
It was just, like,
"All right. Sure." You know?
"This is okay."
[ Newscaster ] Soldiers allegedly formed a Kill Team,
mutilating corpses, taking pot shots at Afghan civilians.
Right now, if you
handed me a human finger,
it would--
it would scare me.
But over there, it's--
it's combat, man.
It happens.
[ Newscaster ] Unarmed Afghan civilians...
picked out, stood up, shot and then blown up.
I was so dead set
on just avoiding this,
staying out of it.
I never wanted
to kill anyone ever.
Specialist Adam Winfield's father, Chris, warned the army,
but tragically army officials refused to investigate.
His son now charged in the third killing...
that took place three months later.
[ Woman ] Is your son a whistle-blower or a murderer?
He's a whistle-blower.
He-- He tried.
The army didn't listen.
[ Chris Winfield ] When we first heard that Adam was brought in...
and we felt like he was safe,
the army told us everything was gonna be okay.
But as soon as he stepped off the airplane,
they arrested him for murder.
[ Emma Winfield ] We don't-- We don't know what's going on.
We don't know how this has occurred.
We-- We know that months ago,
he tried to tell people what was going on...
and now suddenly he's being charged...
with the same crimes that he reported.
[ Bugle Call ]
Left.
Left, right.
The army says they want
to move this case,
but yet every action
that they've taken beguiles
that very notion.
I mean, we were supposed
to be going to trial,
and they're just now
coming to the table...
with new evidence they've
discovered? Bullshit.
Okay?
It's just bullshit.
So my eye is
toward getting--
[ Winfield ] I've been confined...
367 days.
They are trying to get me...
for premeditated murder
in the first degree, which is...
a mandatory minimum sentence of life.
So I'm depressed
constantly, constantly,
and my anxiety is at levels
that I've never
experienced before.
- Same guy, right?
- Yup.
Same situation.
Same guy as this guy.
Same guy as this guy.
So, the army's evidence--
[ Winfield ] At one point in time, overseas,
the people in my platoon and my squad leader were murdering people.
Are they trying to say
this is the victim?
Well, then they come along...
and then they say
that this is the victim.
It was, like, I can
make a stand out here...
and risk my life,
or I can just...
try to stay out of it as best as I can.
You know.
Unfortunately, it didn't pan out that way.
And ripped them away
She was queen
for about an hour
After that, shit got sour
As infantrymen,
your entire existence
is like a series of tests.
Are you man enough?
Are you tough enough?
Uh, you know, can
you pull the trigger?
Can you kill?
Can you survive?
Our brigade commander described it before we left.
"Afghanistan is
a warrior's paradise."
[ Holmes ] My first firefight-- We were just getting ready...
to walk into this village
through the wall...
and then bullets are
flying right over your head.
I mean, hitting the trees
right behind you.
And the first thing
that came to my mind...
when that was, was
"Danger Zone" from Top Gun.
It was intense.
You know, it was--
it was really cool.
You can hear
the firefight going on
right down the way...
and we've got helicopters
and fast movers
and, uh, explosions.
All the bullshit
paid off right there.
I mean, all the--
all the rock marchin'...
and the dumb shit,
it was all worth it.
I mean, I don't know
if it was the adrenaline
or what it was,
but to finally be able
to start and do your job
for real was, like,
"All right.
Right on. This is cool."
Like, a couple guys--
like, we were laughing
our asses off...
the first time we started
getting shot at.
You get the reason
why you wanted to join...
for all of, you know,
10 minutes--
10, 15 minutes,
but then it's just back
to the grind, you know?
Hating life.
Just suckin'.
This is boring as fuck.
So, uh...
here we are.
Middle of nowhere, Afghanistan.
Uh, been out here
about three days now.
This sucks a lot.
I expected climbing mountains
and firefights every day...
and staying out
for days at a time.
It really wasn't
anything like that.
You drive out to a village,
find the local elder,
mullah, whatever,
and the L.T. asks him
some questions,
and then you drive back.
[ Shot Fires ]
Ooh, look.
There's an I.E.D.
[ Man On Walkie-Talkie,
Indistinct ]
- One-two.
- One-two, you okay?
What the hell we were, you know,
risking our fuckin' necks for...
driving across the desert,
waiting for a buddy
to get blown up...
just to go ask some old dude
some questions.
Like, for what? You know?
[ Call To Prayer ]
[ Man ]
Patrolling the streets of--
Where are we?
[ Man 2 ]
We are in
Tabin-eh Bulya.
Tabin-eh--
Whatever.
- Yeah.
- We're in Afghanistan.
Great place.
Lots of, uh,
friendly people here
wanting to kill us.
Our biggest fear
is stepping on land mines.
Yeah. Look
at the ground.
Or pressure plates.
We gotta walk
around all day.
[ Children Talking, Playing ]
Making sure we don't
hit any I.E.D.s.
[ Morlock ] We've been training to do one thing all this time,
counterguerilla stuff.
And, you know, being a warrior and going kicking ass.
And then you get there, and we're forced to go and help them...
and build them a well, a school or whatever.
To do any offensive operation,
you needed the top fuckin'
signature from, you know,
whoever--
big dog general
or President Karzai himself.
You can't shoot somebody
because of this reason.
You can't do it
because of that reason.
They blow you up
and you see them driving away...
It was nothing like what
everybody hyped it to be.
And part of that's probably why,
you know, things happened.
[ Helicopter Whirring ]
There are certain facts
that are not in dispute.
You have dead guy.
Two people within 15-20 meters
pointing their gun at this guy,
unarmed civilian, and he's dead.
Why is that?
So, we've got to walk
a fairly close line...
with the moral piece on this,
because he's not
totally clean-gloved.
I guess I'm looking at it
from a different perspective.
To somebody who's looking
at it in a vacuum,
they've got to decide,
is it more likely than not,
or beyond all reasonable doubt,
that this guy,
on that day, knew
what was about to happen
and participated willingly.
And it sounds like he did
under one version of the story.
It's plausible.
It's possible.
Adam was there.
He discharged his weapon.
There are a lot of witnesses
that will corroborate that.
The only-- The only
distinction is:
What was in his brain
at that moment.
Was he a willing
participant or not?
[ Morlock ] We're doing a battalion push on this village.
And, I mean, it wasn't even 30 minutes in.
Pulled up to town. Our squad leader hit an I.E.D.
And, uh, I think
severed his left leg.
I only got to see him
in the hospital...
before they flew him to Germany,
and he was heavily sedated.
He had his eyes closed
and we went up
and we just said,
"We apologize.
We couldn't have
been there, man.
You know, you're
a brother to us
and we love you."
[ Man ]
Hey, you fuckin' move.
[ Morlock ] After that, we were down a guy.
We needed a new squad leader.
And then, it was a couple of weeks later, I guess,
that's when Gibbs showed up.
We'd been in country a while.
You've been training
with each other for years
and you get a new guy.
You're like, "All right.
Who the fuck's this guy?"
I mean, you see him, you're, like, "All right. Well, that's--
that's the mold of an infantryman right there."
If the government was gonna...
push 'em out
on an assembly line,
that would be the guy.
He was an infantry vet already.
He'd already been in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He wasn't afraid to change the tactics.
Bring the fight to us
versus going looking for one
that didn't exist.
[ Stoner ] Other squad leaders follow the rules to a "T."
Gibbs was a much different story.
Odds are, you work for him,
you're probably gonna
come back in one piece.
Or you could work for the guy
who follows the rules
and get your ass blown up.
He never talked to me
about what he did in Iraq.
I did see his tattoos.
He was sittin' there, workin' out...
and I was, like, "Skulls." You know.
"That's cool.
What does it mean?"
I didn't get
an answer from him,
but I asked someone else.
They're, like, "Oh.
Those are the dudes
he's killed."
[ Montalvo ] People outside this room...
are not our friends,
not one.
We have to protect the zone.
Nobody gets in the zone.
Nobody comes in this room.
We don't talk to anybody.
They-- They--
Nothing. Okay?
They are on lockdown.
[ Emma ] It is a military justice system.
Unlike the civilian world where
there are impartial parties,
the people that are accusing Adam of these very crimes are,
in essence, the same people
that determine...
who will hear the case,
who will be the jury...
and who will hand down
the decision for sentencing.
They are the judge and jury.
Literally, judge and jury.
So, talking to any of them,
even if they have
a smile on their face,
means absolutely nothing.
They're all the enemy.
[ Emma ] And so we go into every meeting,
knowing that we're fighting for his life.
[ Morlock ] Me and Gibbs spent a lot of time together...
on the same truck for those first couple weeks.
We were just getting to know each other and shooting the shit.
"Hey, what was your last deployment like?"
He spoke specifically about one incident I remember.
Uh, when he was in Iraq,
he was a SAW gunner.
And, um, he was crossing a road.
I don't know.
And, um, a car was coming
at him, didn't stop,
so he opened up on the car,
and it ended up being a family.
I think, a mother, father
and a small child was killed.
He could have stopped
the vehicle...
or let them go by
and nothing would have
came of it,
but he described it to me
as, like, he was looking...
for that opportunity
for a while and had been.
'Cause that could have been
something very easily
turned around and justified.
You could easily
justify that situation.
They were charging.
There was no one there
to see anything different.
He was, like, "Yeah, dude.
I just said this
and it was cool.
No one questioned it.
You know, it was that easy."
So, that was,
like, the first step,
which ultimately ended up
leading into our own
conversations...
about how we could maybe
implement things
in that sort of same way.
The first conversation was-- It was based around the idea of a drop weapon.
I've always heard
about people, you know,
in Iraq or Afghanistan
or whatnot,
when you find a weapon,
you know, you hold onto it
in case you need it.
In case, you know,
some, you know--
A civilian gets hit
and you need
to drop it on 'em,
so they're not, you know,
they don't look innocent.
During one
of our smoke sessions,
Morlock brought up the fact...
that he could get easy kills
by, uh, setting people up.
He said he'd been talking...
with Sergeant Gibbs,
and he was telling him
how he could get a kill.
Just buy a hand grenade
off the books.
That's all you need.
The idea he kind of pitched me
was, like, "Well, hey, dude.
I've got a couple extra grenades
that aren't being tracked."
So, the idea, we could say, was
we were approached by a local--
a bad guy, was what
we'll call him--
and he approached us, we--
He either threw
the grenade at us...
or we noticed the grenade
in his hand...
and we detonate the grenade
to make it look...
like this guy was attacking us
and we had to take him out.
Who in their right mind's...
gonna think
that we made this up?
If we-- I mean, it's
a believable enough
situation to where--
Who's gonna question it?
You know what I mean?
So, you're just,
like, "Well, you're right.
Doesn't sound--
Yeah. We could pull that off."
On our minds, we'd
been here for months.
And nobody's innocent
because these guys...
either know the Taliban, they're
either working with them--
and they're not working with,
or for us,
and we're here to help 'em,
and they don't give us any help.
We're just getting blown up
every time we go out there...
to, you know, just
to talk with them...
or build them a well,
so fuck 'em.
[ Traffic Passing ]
[ Man Calling Cadence ]
[ Winfield ] Ever since I made...
my first statement,
it's just been fear
of the guys from my platoon.
I get nightmares about that
even, just them hunting me.
And it's always
back over there, too.
[ Therapist ]
It's back
in the theater.
It's not--
It's never in the States.
It's always--
I'm always over there.
In the last year,
I felt kind of...
as the enemy of the platoon,
because I was one of the few
to come clean and--
And do you die
in these nightmares?
You do?Mm-hmm.
How do they kill you?
They blow me up,
mostly.
Normally, it involves
a grenade.
Couple times, it's been,
like, blunt objects.
And it's just not ever even
have a chance to run from 'em.
It's just--
They always catch me.
You know, I've said
some incriminating things
about some of these guys...
and, you know, it's not
hard for me to believe...
that they would want some sort of retribution.
And that's the worst part about it.
The same people that I was--
been in fear of the last year
are also the same people...
that, you know,
I've lived with
the last four years.
These people were my friends and, at some point in time,
they were also willing to lay their life down for me.
And I, you know,
I have to remember that.
In La'l Mohammad Kalay,
there was an incident with a grenade...
[ Helicopter Whirring ]
That day, you know,
we had our high-ups...
on the top of the hill
talking to the village elder.
Myself and, uh, Holmes
found ourself...
kind of secluded
from the majority
of the platoon.
I was, like, "Hey, man.
Let's see if we can get
one of those guys over there.
There's a guy farming a field."
We talked about specifics.
What was gonna happen.
"Hey, this guy was
coming towards us.
We told him to stop.
He didn't listen
to our commands.
Holmes identified
something in his hand.
He thought it was a grenade.
Threw something at us,
and so we engaged him...
and took cover
behind the wall."
And that's what we talked about.
I'm standing back up,
getting ready
to look back over,
and I have, you know, Morlock
scream in my ear, "Grenade!
Holmes, shoot him!"
Pulled the grenade,
dropped it, got down.
Yelled at Holmes, "Fire."
Which, you know, seemed
like a fuckin' eternity.
I had five seconds from
the time that pin falls
off from the grenade...
until it will explode.
He let off a burst
from the SAW.
I pulled his ass down.
Grenade goes off.
A lot of confusion,
a lot of dust
come up, you know.
I looked over
to my left, 'cause that's
where Morlock was.
He had his back
against the wall.
He has his radio
and he's yelling.
Um, he was telling everyone,
"Contact. Contact. Contact."
I just heard, "Contact,"
and thought we got contact.
Then, as soon as I heard
the description...
of what happened,
it all clicked.
What that--
He just said...
that someone tried to throw
a hand grenade...
at him and Holmes
and they shot him.
And that was
the same scenario
he explained to me.
And I look over and I ask him,
you know, "Do we reengage?"
Do we get back up and, you know,
shoot the guy or whatnot?
And, uh, Morlock
didn't answer me.
He just stood back up,
looked over at the guy
who was on the ground,
you know, pulled up his M4
and just pop, pop,
two more shots.
[ Morlock ] He didn't register as a person.
He wasn't-- He was just, you know, there.
I was excited.
Me and Holmes
both kinda were.
I mean, like he said,
it plays that whole...
you know, ideology
of the infantry world.
It was just like,
"Fuck. Right on, man."
We got a kill, whether,
you know, it was--
we knew he was
a bad guy or not.
So they brought
the father down,
the brother down.
They said, "Well,
do you know this guy?"
The guy goes,
"Yeah. That's my son."
And, uh, the brother's
sitting there...
and they just-- they're both
just crying. You know.
We then put him
in a black body bag...
and took him
to the top of the village.
And strapped him down to the
front of one of the Strykers...
and we took him back
to the-- to the FOB.
Jumped back in the truck.
You know, we're all
hyped up on all this
freakin' adrenaline...
and just not knowing
what's gonna happen next.
And we get back to the FOB
and, you know, it was--
it was like I was
looked upon like a--
like a hero.
They were gettin'
all the applause.
Everybody was, you know, giving
'em high fives and handshakes...
and, you know, telling 'em
they're, you know, made men...
and, you know, they're
the-- everyone needs
to look up to them.
And, you know,
I knew differently.
And everybody else
knew differently too,
but it was accepted.
Anybody with half a brain
can go,
"Okay. You guys set this guy up
to get shot. Whatever."
I didn't care.
And I remember we were
smokin', we were high.
And Morlock's like,
"Man. You know, we straight
murdered that dude."
[ Bird Calls ]
[ Phone Rings ]
- [ Chris ] Hello?
- [ Automated Voice ]
Hello.
This call is from a collection facility...
and is subject to monitoring and recording.
[ Winfield ] Hey.
- Hey. How you doing?
- All right.
- How was your day?
- It was okay.
Was it?
What'd you do today?
Anything? Did you get
to go outside at all?
- Got back from rec.
- Did you? That's good.
[ Chris On Phone ] We're probably thinking of Mom coming out next Friday.
- What's the point?
- What do you mean,
what's the point?
[ Winfield ] I'm not getting out.
[ Emma ] Adam, don't start losing faith now.
I mean, I know that you're there day to day,
but, believe me, my heart breaks every day too.
[ Winfield ] I know.
[ Emma ] And maybe I'm not confined, but I am confined.
[ Chris ] When I joined the Marine Corps, it was peacetime.
It was-- It was completely different.
When Adam came home and said he wanted...
to join the service, we were in war.
I had a couple long talks with Adam about that.
You know, he had
pretty much told us...
that, you know,
"I want your permission,
but, you know, when I turn 18,
I'm gonna sign up anyway."
If we made him wait
until he was 18,
there was always
gonna be that...
"they didn't believe in me
and they didn't think
I could do this."
And I didn't ever
want Adam to feel like
we didn't believe in him.
When we flew out there
and he said,
"This is it.
I'm going to Afghanistan."
I told him, "Don't be a hero.
Just do your job and come home."
[ Call To Prayer ]
Gibbs, like, a couple hours
after we got back,
is like, "Hey, Holmes,
come check this out."
So, I walked in the tent
back to his room...
and he pulls out
a little piece of cloth
inside of a bag...
and he pulls out a finger...
and he's like, "This
is from your guy."
[ Morlock ] His idea behind it was...
he was gonna take the fingers and then let them decompose...
and then take the bone
and make a finger bone
necklace out of it.
And you're, yeah,
well, fuck, lookin' at it,
it's like, "All right. That's
pretty fuckin' crazy, dude."
But, at the same time,
like, our mind-sets...
are not on the normal level
of everybody else's...
and so it was just like--
I mean, war trophies have been,
you know, since the Bible.
They cut Solomon's head off.
You know what I mean?
So, it's just like--
Then we're there,
and you're seeing bluts
and gore all the time.
It's war, and you're
just like, "All right.
Well, whatever."
I'm not gonna make
a fuckin' bone necklace,
but if you want one, man,
whatever.
That's cool.
It's your thing. Go for it.
[ Winfield ] I just thought, "What happened to these guys?
What happened to the guys that I knew?
Why are they all
okay with this?
Why isn't anyone
stepping up?
Like, why am I the only one
that's not okay with this?
Why is it just me?"
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
Adam had to actually tell me
in the Facebook chat,
"Don't you understand
what I'm saying?
That they're
killing people here...
that are innocent."
I had to do a double take
and it just was like, "Whew."
It was, like, uh, a rush
just came over me. Just--
The only thing
I could think of was...
he was, like,
8,000 miles away...
and there was nothing
I could do.
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Winfield ] I couldn't take any more.
I wanted to tell somebody what was going on.
I didn't have access to the M.P.s.
If I told someone...
in the chain of command,
it would come right back,
'cause that's how things
are in the infantry.
We tend to handle things
in house.
I felt like I had nowhere to go in the platoon.
Everybody was on Sergeant Gibbs' side, and he had their loyalty.
So, it's my word
against 30 other guys.
Someone had told us
that Winfield...
was gonna go out
and talk to the chaplain...
'cause he was
having, uh, issues.
I can tell the chaplain.
He's not gonna fail me.
He's the chaplain.
And, uh, before I went
over there...
to talk to the chaplain,
Sergeant Gibbs escorted me.
As we're walking down there, he says,
"You're not thinking about saying anything...
that you shouldn't be talking about, are you?"
[ Morlock ] So, Gibbs-- I don't even know...
when it took place.
You know, brought up
the idea, kinda like,
"Hey. man, Winfield
might be a liability.
I might have
to take that guy out."
I go, "What the fuck
you talkin' about, man?"
He says, "Well, you know,
he knows a lot of stuff...
about what's going on
and what we've done...
and, you know,
it's too easy."
"What are you--
What do you mean,
it's too easy?"
And he says we could--
We could take him
to the gym, drop
a weight on his head.
We can drop
a tow bar on him,
so he'll go away.
I asked Morlock
about it a few times.
"Hey, man, what's going on?
Are you guys plottin'
on me or something?"
And he even told me
straight up, "Yeah.
You know, we're
thinkin' about doing
something to you.
Don't know what,
but something, definitely."
Okay. So you got
safety on on white.
[ Girl ]
Mm-hmm.
Flip it up to red.
You're ready to go.
Mm-hmm.Okay?
[ Fires Three Shots ]
[ Chris ] You know, this has become a big story in the press...
and we had people standing at our front door with cameras.
We had people following us everywhere I went.
You get people that think the worst of everything...
and they, you know, they hear,
"Oh, he's arrested for murder, then he must be guilty."
Three.
How many can you
put in there?Eleven.
We have had some threats.
I mean, not in so many words,
but, you know, you can read between the lines...
that "we know where you live, we know your address."
And I have to protect my family.
It's a 9mm Ruger.
I have it sitting by the bedside, loaded and ready to go.
[ Fires ]
We don't want to be caught with our guard down.
[ Fires ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
So, I started
making phone calls.
I didn't know who to call.
I was getting voice mail
everywhere I called,
for the most part.
Um, and I was
leaving messages,
hoping somebody
would call me back.
I thought about, you know,
what I would have to do...
if they came after me
in the middle of the night.
I kept a gun always
around me...
and, you know,
a knife on me handy
and stuff like that...
and always looked
over my shoulder
all the time.
I was frantic.
I was just--
I was just panicking.
I was loud.
I was, "Please
call me back."
I mean, there was
stress in my voice,
and I-- and, you know,
I was just-- I did not--
I was scrambling.
I didn't know who to call.
Gibbs seemed like he was
recruiting more people...
to this Kill Team idea,
basically.
I, you know, I see
other squad leaders,
other soldiers...
going up
to Sergeant Gibbs,
"Hey, man, you gotta
get me a kill.
You gotta help me
get something."
And he'd be, like,
"Just tell me when."
I called the army.
Called the army hotline.
I called, um, Army C.I.D.
in Virginia,
the main C.I.D. office.
I called the C.I.D.
office in Fort--
I kept calling,
I kept calling,
I kept calling numbers.
I called Senator
Bill Nelson's office.
Figured somebody would
definitely be there...
at the army chaplain's
office at Fort Lewis.
Chaplain and the assistant
chaplain. I called both,
got messages,
voice messages
on both of 'em.
Sergeant Gibbs,
the whole time, he
was talking shit to me,
calling me a pussy
and this and that.
Saying, you know,
I should be down to kill.
They're all savages.
And, you know,
they're pieces of shit.
They're not worth anything.
And that was just
everyone's attitude, really.
I finally got a hold
of somebody at Fort Lewis...
at the-- at the--
at the Command Center...
and I told the guy
the whole story.
The guy said, "Nothin'
I can do about it.
It's your son's word
against everybody else's.
Unless somebody else comes out
and says the same story,
then I can't do anything."
And I expected,
within a few days,
someone to just come grab me
in the middle of the night...
and say, "Hey. Come with us.
It's over. You're safe."
And then it never happened.
This is another option
on the table.
I think this is the realest
and most truest option.
[ Winfield ] There's been talk of a plea deal.
My lawyer is trying to talk the charge down.
That it's not--
That I'm not guilty
of first-degree murder.
Don't get visceral on me,
just hear
what I'm saying. Okay?
Cowardly conduct.
Okay?
"That the accused committed
an act of cowardice." Okay?
In this scenario,
you didn't stop them
from doing something bad.
Mm-hmm.Okay? 'Cause you
were scared.
"Conduct is cowardly only
if it amounts to misbehavior...
which was motivated
by fear.
A mere display of apprehension
is not sufficient.
Cowardly conduct is
the refusal or abandonment...
of the performance of duty
before or in the presence...
of the enemy
as a result of fear." Okay?
Well, the enemy in this case
was not only the Taliban man,
but it was also Gibbs.
I mean, the guy was continuing
to threaten to kill you.
[ Emma ]
What's the--
What are you looking at?
I mean, I get the misbehavior
before the enemy,
cowardly conduct charge.
Mm-hmm.
What are you looking for
as the cap to--
Eight years.
Time went on
and the second
murder happened,
which, at first,
I didn't even know
it was a murder again.
I thought this was
a real engagement.
I heard Morlock and Sergeant Gibbs...
joking and talking about it.
And I found out what really happened.
Set up a kill with an AK. Shot a dude, just, you know, in cold blood.
Dropped the AK next to him and said it was a legit shoot.
It seemed like everything
was falling apart...
just from the seams.
My whole unit, my whole,
just, concept of...
the military and honor
and integrity...
and just, you know,
the image you get
from a soldier,
what you would expect
a soldier to be.
About to show you
what Apaches do...
to fuckin' bodies.
All right?
[ Man Laughing ]
It's a good shoot.
He's dead as a motherfucker.
Word.Don't show 'em
that shit, man.
[ Laughing ]
[ Morlock ] Everybody had their own cameras.
Take a picture of your little combat experience. Sure. Why the hell not?
You sit down with all
your squad leaders and,
you know, other guys...
and they all bust out
their DVDs and discs
of their prior deployments,
and, you know, "Hey, look
at these dead guys
we killed here."
Death and dead bodies...
and bluts and gore,
and, you know, that thing--
You get taught to be the norm
and be okay with it.
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
It was just that I was
pissed at everything.
I was pissed at the whole
situation. Just--
What is-- Just--
What's the point
of all this?
And the thing that really got me was,
from other stories I've heard from people from other units,
I knew that this stuff happens more than--
Well, I knew that it was...
happening really
more than people
were letting on.
If I were to do it
all over again, I would
probably have kept calling,
but it's easy to say that
now as I'm sitting here.
At the time, I was
just worried what is--
If I continue to do this,
am I gonna get my son killed?
It was-- It was probably
the most difficult decision...
I have ever had to make
in my life.
You know, he only had
a couple more months...
and he would be home,
and we would report it...
and he would be safe.
And it just didn't
turn out that way.
[ Chris ] Adam used to go in my closet and put on my uniform on.
He would always look through my Marine Corps books.
Essentials of a Marine.
Adam probably
read that book 50 times.
Before he was supposed to ship off to boot camp, he was about 100 pounds.
He was too light, so...
they picked up a gallon of water
before they went in there...
and they made him drink it
and said, "Don't pee
until you get weighed."
So I just kind of stepped
on the scale real fast...
and got off
and went to the bathroom
and threw it up.
But you know, I was--
I was really motivated
to get in.
And he's putting a pack
that weighs 80 pounds
on his body.
It's, you know,
almost heavier than him.
So, you know, he had a lot--
He had a huge uphill battle
to climb.
[ Morlock ] See him, you're, like, ah, there's no--
That guy's in the infantry? No fuckin' way, you know what I mean?
But he's got heart. If we were rockin' 20 miles, he's rockin' 20 miles.
You'd run into some guy and--
"Oh, he's not infantry.
Look at that scrawny
little bastard."
You could go up to him
and be, like, "Hey,
listen, motherfucker.
He's probably the most
squared-away, bad-ass
infantryman I fuckin' know."
[ Dog Barking ]
[ Emma ] It just sounds heinous. It just sounds, you know--
Manslaughter
just sounds horrible.
[ Chris ]
Just came from the prosecutor.
They came back with--
This is what
they are offering.
Involuntary
manslaughter.
They're saying
he failed to act
when he could have acted.
What they expect him
to have done, I still
don't quite understand.
I don't know how Adam's
gonna react to that.
What do you think
he's gonna say?
Maybe, in his mind,
it would be better to do
involuntary manslaughter...
than cowardice.
I don't know.
I don't know.
The whole thing sucks.
Bottom line.
Yeah. They just still
want to say...
"Well, see, we got him
and he was the bad guy."
I think
that's a bunch of crap.
They still have to try
to get him for eight years
to make it look good?
I've been saying
that same thing.
You know,
at this point,
we don't have
a choice.
He's being forced to make
another decision that...
isn't right...
no matter what he chooses.
Again.
Going on leave is probably
one of the worst parts
of deployment,
'cause you go home,
and you want everything
to be normal.
But nothing's normal.
You're angry
and you're pissed off.
I mean, you know,
you're surrounding yourself...
by people that love you
and care about you,
but you don't know how to deal
with their emotions,
'cause you don't have
a grasp on your own,
and it was just--
I don't know.
It just all weighed on me.
I actually spent some time
thinking about it quite a bit.
Who I would tell.
Would I talk to my girlfriend
or my brother or my mom?
But how do you tell somebody
something like that, you know?
And so, I don't know.
I did what most guys do.
Or, you know,
most fuckin' macho.
I just turned it inward.
You know what I mean?
I've never been a guy
that's been really good
with emotion to begin with,
and so I did
what I always did, you know?
Buried-- Buried it
and fuckin' powered through it.
So, I got back, I think,
sometime early, early April,
and then, you know,
instantly--
I mean, not even a day
or an hour--
I literally
got off the Black Hawk
and made my way to my room...
and ran straight into Gibbs.
"Hey, look at all
the fuckin' goodies I got
while you were gone.
And soon as I get back
from patrol, I'll tell you...
all the cool shit you missed
while you were gone," you know?
It was right there,
right back into it.
As long as they have,
you know, open season...
on whatever sentence
the case they want to put,
the worst he's going to get,
regardless of the facts,
is eight years.
That's what
the government's saying.
The worst.
So, what--
What the hell matters
is the charge.
I can't reconcile with the fact
that they won't move
off this eight,
regardless
of what the charge is,
when that's
what Morlock got
for murdering people.
And I'm not saying
that Adam was innocent...
and that he made
every single right decision,
but I also know
that on January 20,
he e-mailed us--
as early as January 20--
saying, "There's something
I need to talk to you about."
And then February comes.
Oh, well, you know what?
Just suck it up.
Suck it up and be a man.
Gibbs is, what, a 200-
and-something-pound man?
This is the ultimate case
of bullying,
and I can't reconcile
with the fact
that they're just gonna say,
"Well, let's give him
eight years."
The government
can excuse themselves...
from all of the missteps
they made.
But let's get--
Let's get, in your own words,
let's get our pound of flesh
from Adam Winfield,
even though,
of all the people out there,
he was the only one
that did anything.
I-I-I have
a problem with that.
And I guess ultimately,
it's not my issue.
It's Adam's issue.
But I have a problem
with that, 'cause, to me,
that's not justice.
The army still has my son,
and unless we do what they say,
I never get him back.
Listen, I know
you're a mom.
I know that's your child.
I'm tracking on all that.
But you are the only mom
in the world to him.
To everybody else,
he's a soldier.
[ Door Hinge Squeaks ]Thank you.
[ Door Shuts ]
So, what do you think?
Fine.
I don't really have
a problem with it.
Are you sure?
'Cause ultimately,
worst case scenario,
everything falls apart,
it's eight years.
And I don't want you to feel
like we're giving up on you.
Why are we making
this deal?
What else
are we gonna do, Emma?
We don't have a choice.
Do we go to trial?
No.
We can't.
I don't know, Chris.
I just feel like
in some ways...
we're just leading him
to the slaughter.
I should
have done more.
I shouldn't have accepted
the answer that I got.
I've been thinking
about that
for a long time.
It's always
on my mind.
[ Sniffs ]
And we wouldn't be
standing here right now
if I'd done something more.
[ Vehicle Rumbling ]
[ Man On Radio, Indistinct ]
[ Winfield ] March went by, April went by, and--
You know, we're coming up
to the end.
We got maybe
one more big mission.
I knew Sergeant Gibbs had
a lot of stuff planned.
If I could just hold out...
two more months till June,
July, and it's all over.
[ Morlock ] The task on that day was...
to go re-engage
an individual...
that had been arrested
while I was on leave.
They found an I.D.
or something in his house,
so the P.O. wanted
to check him out
and see what he's up to.
Me and Winfield ended up
leaving that compound...
and then making our way
towards an adjacent compound
that's kind of attached to it.
And then we ended up
running into an individual,
a local there.
Sergeant Gibbs
was coming around
the other side.
He had a few
other guys with him.
Most of the guys
that were with him...
kind of had an idea
of what's going on, what--
You know, these sort
of scenario things
that had been taking place.
Um, and then--
So, there wasn't
a whole lot of conversation.
I knew right then and there
that I couldn't kill
an innocent person.
I couldn't shoot an innocent man
just in cold blood.
I couldn't do it.
I didn't have it--
I didn't have any drive
or want to do it.
I didn't want to do it.
I didn't want to be there.
I didn't want
that situation.
I wanted to get up
and just run.
Sergeant Gibbs started,
you know, telling us
how things were gonna go.
Saying, you know,
"We're gonna set this up...
to make it look
like we're doing
a movement...
and this guy came out
and attacked us when we
were passing through."
"We saw a grenade.
We had to shoot him.
And that's, you know,
that's the way
it'll play out."
My heart started going
1,000 miles a minute. Just--
Just started
getting nervous.
My muscles started
to twitch. Just--
I just froze.
We were laying
right next to each other,
so I kinda just
talked him through it,
speaking in his ear,
letting him know, "Hey, yeah.
Nothing to worry about, man.
It's too easy.
We've done it before.
You got nothing to worry about.
Stick to the story,
and just get it over with."
I can stand up
and shoot Gibbs and Morlock.
But shooting
one of our own guys...
over, in their opinion,
over a worthless Afghan?
Reason to show me
absolutely no mercy.
I fired...
a couple shots off
after the grenade blew up.
I didn't aim at him.
I didn't--
I just-- I drew my weapon
away from him.
After the dust settled
from the explosion,
Sergeant Gibbs walked up
and, uh, smile on his face,
and he just shot the guy
two more times.
Then he said, "Hey.
Come take a picture
with me with the body."
And he told me
that I was a made man...
and I didn't have
anything to worry about
from him ever again.
What, what-- What just happened? How did I get in--
I was doing fine
just avoiding it,
and now I'm in it.
His face is--
I can't forget his face.[ Man ] Yeah.
It's his dead face.
His head just,
you know, with shrapnel,
and it's so swollen.
I just see it staring
at me all the time.
Like whenever
I think about it.
And that scream
from that woman.
I'd never heard
anything like it before.
I've never heard
such serious grief.Yeah.
And that's, I'd say,
the hardest part
to live with is that.
Yeah.
And just the smile
on his face
when he shot that guy again.
Gibbs' smile
on his face?
Yeah. It just--
He was pleased.
He was happy.
He just had
this huge smile, a grin.
And just looked
straight at me, smiling.Oh.
And then I just--
The thought that I know...
he would have the same smile
if he did it to me.
[ Chris ] I'm living a nightmare right now.
If I don't take sleeping medicine, I, I'm--
You know, I have nightmares.
I fight-- I gotta fight this-- this evil monster in my dreams.
A lot of times, I don't remember what they are.
I just know that they're violent.
I'll jump up and I'll try
to get something...
or grab it
or stop it from coming.
And I've actually
physically fell out of bed
a couple times doing that.
I worry about Chris.
Um, I think he's dealing with...
maybe some guilt.
Did I raise him right?
You know, did I--
Should I have let him
go in the army?
Should I have continued
to pursue it?
You know, that-- It's--
You know,
he's a great father.
And when your son comes to you
and asks for help...
and you're not able
to help him--
We tried to do the right thing, and...
it still wasn't good enough.
[ Helicopter Whirring ]
[ Morlock ] We only had a couple months left deployment.
We're safe from here on out.
The lid's on everything and the stories were in line...
and we've got nothing to worry about.
And that's when
the whole incident
with Stoner arose.
Stoner went
and expressed his concern...
about guys in his platoon
smoking hash,
which led to him
getting beat up.
Why would you get stoned
in my room?
Why would you do that?
The shit reeked.
And who are they gonna blame?
The private.
And I heard the knock
on the door, so I--
You know, I just opened it
and let them in.
I knew it was coming.
I knew what was gonna happen.
He said some cheese dick line
like, "I understand you guys
are here to beat my ass.
Go ahead and--
Go ahead and do it."
So after that, it was
just, like, "All right."
[ Stoner ] My entire goal the entire time...
was just don't give 'em the pleasure of letting 'em know it hurts.
I'm just sitting here and I'm gonna take it, and I'm just gonna deal with it.
But you're the weak ones
for snapping like this.
Now we got an issue,
'cause he's rattin' us
about fuckin' hash.
You know, what else
is he rattin' us about?
Gibbs was very polite,
actually.
He was almost like
a crazy, happy, nice person.
Um, he explained to me,
you know, "You understand
why we did that."
Gibbs went so far
as to tell me,
"We could stick you
in a Hesco barrier
and kill you.
You know, no one
will ever find you.
Fill you in with dirt.
No big deal.
Or take you out
on a mission.
Kill you.
No one would ever know
the difference."
He wanted
to prove his point...
by rolling out
the guy's fingers,
which were
his war trophies,
you know,
out on the floor.
The next day, an acquaintance of mine down--
a medic
down at the aid station--
I was going down there
for some shit.
She's like, "Stoner
was just down here
and saw our major,
and they were all
super-secretive and shit."
They took me
into his personal tent...
to talk to me
about everything
that had happened.
It didn't take
a brain surgeon...
to realize that I'd just
gotten my ass whupped.
And of course, he just
immediately contacts
the guy higher than him,
and it just goes higher
and higher and higher.
When C.I.D. got involved, they, uh, started asking other questions.
The one thing I did know about was the body parts.
Once that was said,
that opened up the door
to everything.
Five U.S. soldiers
stand accused
of shocking crimes...
that include
murdering Afghans
for sport.
Today near Seattle,
the alleged ringleader of...
The story's out.
They got Gibbs locked up.
Morlock's locked up.
Um, they brought
everybody else in.
And so, initially,
we were, like, "Okay. Good.
So, it's out there.
He's safe."
The Army C.I.D. people came
here, and they told us--
You know, we asked them,
"Does Adam need a lawyer?"
They said, "No,
he shouldn't need a lawyer."
It was really from
the direction of Adam
that had said,
"You can call my parents.
Go talk to my parents.
I told them about this
back in February."
"He's fine. He's just-- He's--
He's the witness here.
He's the main witness.
Everything's gonna be okay."
I was relieved, you know?
A huge weight just got lifted.
I finally got
to express everything...
and really tell somebody about
what I'd been wanting to say...
for the last, like,
six months, almost.
They told me
that I was gonna help them...
with their case
against Sergeant Gibbs.
That they're not
coming after me.
But they lied to me.
You thought they
had lied to you?
Yeah.
They just tricked me.
I was at work, and, um,
Emma-- Emma called me.
She said that the commander
at the base had called her
and told them...
that Adam had been charged
with first-degree murder.
And she was--
Emma was hysteric,
and I was just,
like, "What?"
I mean, "What? What--"
I was stunned.
I mean, I--
I was stunned.
I mean, I--
I, like, lost it.
I was just-- I, like--
I started hyperventilating.
I fell on the floor.
You know, I was, like--
I couldn't believe it.
I almost killed myself
that night.
It's like I'm gonna do it
tonight for sure.
Tonight's the night.
Just kept thinking
about it.
I was having panic attacks
the whole night and, um--
I was sitting at the desk,
and I had an M4
sitting right next to me.
I loaded it.
It was ready to go.
I had one
in the chamber already.
Um, and I was getting ready
to write a note.
To whom?
Uh, my parents.
Apologizing for everything.
Sorry for leaving
this way, and--
So, um--
As I was looking for some paper
and a pen to write,
I actually found
a Bible instead.
Started reading that.
Started praying.
Started crying
and asking God
for forgiveness, and--
I just kept reading the Bible,
and it said something
about your--
You'll be brought before kings
and the judges in the synagogues
and judged,
but, um,
if you stay faithful
and suffer for my sake,
then I'll be with you.
So, I just--
I just kept praying
all morning.
Unloaded the weapon
and put it back.
[ Chris ] He smiled at everything.
Just talked a thousand miles an hour.
He was, like, the happy-go-lucky kid.
[ Emma ] You know, a mom, a dad, a house, jobs, three kids--
This is what we hoped for.
This is what every American family hopes for.
And we had it.
He reads
all the history books,
and he reads all about
these great American patriots
and how heroic they were.
He wanted to prove to himself that he could do something like that.
[ Winfield ] The trial's finally here.
I'm pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
My other charges...
of premeditated murder
and conspiracy
are being dropped.
The army is just wanting
to, you know, make
this all go away,
and they're trying
to drop it down to
the lowest common denominator.
They want the lowest guys
to pay for it.
There's nobody been charged--
You know, staff sergeant or below, and that's it.
There's no officers have any responsibility for anything.
[ Sighs ]
It's huge.
This thing is big.
It's bigger than Adam.
It's bigger than me.
It's bigger than everybody
right now.
Best-case scenario, um,
the judge awards me time served,
and I'd walk out with my family that day.
Worst case, I get
an eight-year sentence.
If Adam would have went
to somebody out there,
he would have been dead.
He would have came home
in a body bag
if we were lucky.
'Cause, you know,
Gibbs had threatened him...
that he would cut him up
in a million pieces...
and throw him
to the wild dog packs out there,
and nobody
would ever find him.
The only remnants he would have
would be Adam's finger
on his necklace...
that he was making
of body parts.
It's all about getting that first kill...
and going home with a mark that says you killed somebody.
You know, you get the badge
that says you been over there
and that you fought in a war,
and that's what
they're all shooting for,
regardless if it's
legitimate or not.
And it's just ridic--
It just makes me sick
to my stomach.
[ Winfield ] Part of my job over there was to protect civilians.
I had a responsibility to put a stop to what was going on.
You know, I feel--
You know, I am guilty.
Adam's a pawn in the big picture, is what he was.
He was stuck
in the middle of nowhere.
He had the Taliban
shooting at him on one side.
He had his own guys
threatening to kill him
if he didn't--
if he said anything
on his other side.
He had guns pointed at him
in both directions.
What do you do?
What do you do?
It'll be the first time
I've seen you in those.
I've never seen you
in your dress blues.
[ Winfield ] No. It's the second time I've actually worn them. So--
Will you--
Will you have to wear those
for the rest of the trials?
No.Okay.
It depends on what happens,
and if I'm still in,
whatever I'm wearing in the jail.
All right.
After tomorrow,
no matter what,
either he's out,
or we can circle a date
on a calendar and say...
we have "x"
number of days
till you're home.
We have one less day
until you're home.
And I think
that's huge for him,
that he can
at least say...
it's gonna be over.
He told me
he doesn't expect
to walk away tomorrow,
but we'll see.
I sure would
like him to.
Take two, three deep breaths,
and then just go into
what you're gonna say.
And just keep that in mind
and keep an image,
and then you might want
to look at your parents.
Mm-hmm. Okay.Okay?
Don't give up.
Promise me that,
all right?I won't.
Things are
gonna be okay.Mm-hmm.
Okay.
[ Bailiff ]
All rise.
[ Man ]
Specialist Winfield understood
on May 2, 2010...
that they were blowing up
an innocent man.
He could have made a scene that day.
He could have done anything.
What does Specialist
Winfield do?
Nothing. He had the opportunity
over and over and over again...
to ensure
he did the right thing.
And he himself told you he failed.
And that failure had catastrophic consequences.
[ Winfield ] Sir, not protecting that man was--
It's haunted me for the last year now.
And--
I just want to go home, sir. Sorry.
[ Man ] Specialist Adam Christopher Winfield,
this court martial sentences you...
to be confined for three years,
and to be discharged from the army...
with a bad conduct discharge.
I'm all right.
I can do this.
I'm sorry we didn't
protect you.It's okay.
Mom. Hey.
He got three years.
Three years.
And a bad conduct
discharge.
- Are you okay?
Are you okay?
- I'm fine.
Just promise me
you're not gonna do
anything to yourself.
I'm not gonna
do anything.Okay? Good.
I was proud
of you today.So was I.
You're stronger
than me.[ Chuckles ]
[ Chuckles ]
I've already been through
the worst of this.
It's over right now.It doesn't matter what--
I mean, you know what?
They can't do
anything else to you.
It's over.
Exactly.
It's all done.
It's all over.
[ Morlock ] I find myself thinking sometimes...
how are you gonna tell this story later on?
Somebody told me
the way to look at it...
is it's not
that you're a murderer.
You were convicted
of murder.
Pretty much initially after the first incident,
it was, like, "Fuck, welcome to the club, Morlock."
You know? "You're a grown-ass man now."
That's what every
infantryman's looking for.
They're looking to be--
to fulfill their job.
To fulfill, you know,
the way of life
of an infantryman.
And so, I mean--
Your superiors, in a way,
kind of become
your father figures.
They become the guys
that you most want to impress,
and this was the way
to do it.
[ Holmes ] I was 19. Fresh out of high school.
I thought I knew everything that there was to know,
but, man, I was really, really wrong.
I didn't know who to talk to, you know?
I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to think.
'Cause these were the guys
that I was walking into combat.
I was doing patrols
with these guys,
and I didn't want to--
I didn't want them to,
you know, think different of me.
[ Stoner ] We're training you...
from the day you join to the day you're out...
to kill.
Your job is to kill.
You're infantry.
Your job is to kill everything
that gets in your way.
Well, then why the hell
are you pissed off
when we do it?
I never want to be referred to as a whistle-blower,
'cause it's worse than what they're being portrayed as.
If I could go back, I wouldn't have said anything.
Everything we did was put into the media...
as we're horrible, we're the Kill Team,
we're rogue platoon, we're all these things.
I don't care
what the military
wants to say,
but this goes on
more than just us.
We're just the ones
that got caught.
[ Morlock ] There was no way for me not to be a part of it.
There's no way not to be surrounded by Gibbs.
There's no way not to be pressured into these things.
The constant pressure of having to kill...
and then the risk of being killed yourself--
It was impossible
not to surrender
to the insanity of it all.
[ Winfield ] I think about it a lot. The war.
All the stuff that the guys in my platoon were doing.
I never understood it. I--
Even now, I don't understand.
I just-- I don't know. I'll never understand, I guess.
War is dirty.
It's not how they portray it
in the movies where, you know,
there's just a bunch
of honorable men...
with, you know,
unshakable patriotism.
It's just a bunch
of guys with guns.
And I wish
that I could fix it.
And I wish--
I don't know.
I wish that none of that
had to happen to them.
Um--
And I wish I could
tell them that myself.
[ Classical Piano ]
[ Man ] I love being in the military.
I love wearing the uniform. I'm proud to wear the uniform.
I'd have never in a million years...
imagined that I would be going to jail.
After the first murder,
everything that I believed in in the army was gone.
People in my platoon, they just changed.
Something in them changed.
[ Newscaster ] This was the platoon from hell.
[ Newscaster #2 ] Accused of shocking crimes...
that include murdering Afghans for sport.
At the time, what was
going on around us didn't--
It wasn't far-fetched.
It wasn't bizarre.
It was just, like,
"All right. Sure." You know?
"This is okay."
[ Newscaster ] Soldiers allegedly formed a Kill Team,
mutilating corpses, taking pot shots at Afghan civilians.
Right now, if you
handed me a human finger,
it would--
it would scare me.
But over there, it's--
it's combat, man.
It happens.
[ Newscaster ] Unarmed Afghan civilians...
picked out, stood up, shot and then blown up.
I was so dead set
on just avoiding this,
staying out of it.
I never wanted
to kill anyone ever.
Specialist Adam Winfield's father, Chris, warned the army,
but tragically army officials refused to investigate.
His son now charged in the third killing...
that took place three months later.
[ Woman ] Is your son a whistle-blower or a murderer?
He's a whistle-blower.
He-- He tried.
The army didn't listen.
[ Chris Winfield ] When we first heard that Adam was brought in...
and we felt like he was safe,
the army told us everything was gonna be okay.
But as soon as he stepped off the airplane,
they arrested him for murder.
[ Emma Winfield ] We don't-- We don't know what's going on.
We don't know how this has occurred.
We-- We know that months ago,
he tried to tell people what was going on...
and now suddenly he's being charged...
with the same crimes that he reported.
[ Bugle Call ]
Left.
Left, right.
The army says they want
to move this case,
but yet every action
that they've taken beguiles
that very notion.
I mean, we were supposed
to be going to trial,
and they're just now
coming to the table...
with new evidence they've
discovered? Bullshit.
Okay?
It's just bullshit.
So my eye is
toward getting--
[ Winfield ] I've been confined...
367 days.
They are trying to get me...
for premeditated murder
in the first degree, which is...
a mandatory minimum sentence of life.
So I'm depressed
constantly, constantly,
and my anxiety is at levels
that I've never
experienced before.
- Same guy, right?
- Yup.
Same situation.
Same guy as this guy.
Same guy as this guy.
So, the army's evidence--
[ Winfield ] At one point in time, overseas,
the people in my platoon and my squad leader were murdering people.
Are they trying to say
this is the victim?
Well, then they come along...
and then they say
that this is the victim.
It was, like, I can
make a stand out here...
and risk my life,
or I can just...
try to stay out of it as best as I can.
You know.
Unfortunately, it didn't pan out that way.
And ripped them away
She was queen
for about an hour
After that, shit got sour
As infantrymen,
your entire existence
is like a series of tests.
Are you man enough?
Are you tough enough?
Uh, you know, can
you pull the trigger?
Can you kill?
Can you survive?
Our brigade commander described it before we left.
"Afghanistan is
a warrior's paradise."
[ Holmes ] My first firefight-- We were just getting ready...
to walk into this village
through the wall...
and then bullets are
flying right over your head.
I mean, hitting the trees
right behind you.
And the first thing
that came to my mind...
when that was, was
"Danger Zone" from Top Gun.
It was intense.
You know, it was--
it was really cool.
You can hear
the firefight going on
right down the way...
and we've got helicopters
and fast movers
and, uh, explosions.
All the bullshit
paid off right there.
I mean, all the--
all the rock marchin'...
and the dumb shit,
it was all worth it.
I mean, I don't know
if it was the adrenaline
or what it was,
but to finally be able
to start and do your job
for real was, like,
"All right.
Right on. This is cool."
Like, a couple guys--
like, we were laughing
our asses off...
the first time we started
getting shot at.
You get the reason
why you wanted to join...
for all of, you know,
10 minutes--
10, 15 minutes,
but then it's just back
to the grind, you know?
Hating life.
Just suckin'.
This is boring as fuck.
So, uh...
here we are.
Middle of nowhere, Afghanistan.
Uh, been out here
about three days now.
This sucks a lot.
I expected climbing mountains
and firefights every day...
and staying out
for days at a time.
It really wasn't
anything like that.
You drive out to a village,
find the local elder,
mullah, whatever,
and the L.T. asks him
some questions,
and then you drive back.
[ Shot Fires ]
Ooh, look.
There's an I.E.D.
[ Man On Walkie-Talkie,
Indistinct ]
- One-two.
- One-two, you okay?
What the hell we were, you know,
risking our fuckin' necks for...
driving across the desert,
waiting for a buddy
to get blown up...
just to go ask some old dude
some questions.
Like, for what? You know?
[ Call To Prayer ]
[ Man ]
Patrolling the streets of--
Where are we?
[ Man 2 ]
We are in
Tabin-eh Bulya.
Tabin-eh--
Whatever.
- Yeah.
- We're in Afghanistan.
Great place.
Lots of, uh,
friendly people here
wanting to kill us.
Our biggest fear
is stepping on land mines.
Yeah. Look
at the ground.
Or pressure plates.
We gotta walk
around all day.
[ Children Talking, Playing ]
Making sure we don't
hit any I.E.D.s.
[ Morlock ] We've been training to do one thing all this time,
counterguerilla stuff.
And, you know, being a warrior and going kicking ass.
And then you get there, and we're forced to go and help them...
and build them a well, a school or whatever.
To do any offensive operation,
you needed the top fuckin'
signature from, you know,
whoever--
big dog general
or President Karzai himself.
You can't shoot somebody
because of this reason.
You can't do it
because of that reason.
They blow you up
and you see them driving away...
It was nothing like what
everybody hyped it to be.
And part of that's probably why,
you know, things happened.
[ Helicopter Whirring ]
There are certain facts
that are not in dispute.
You have dead guy.
Two people within 15-20 meters
pointing their gun at this guy,
unarmed civilian, and he's dead.
Why is that?
So, we've got to walk
a fairly close line...
with the moral piece on this,
because he's not
totally clean-gloved.
I guess I'm looking at it
from a different perspective.
To somebody who's looking
at it in a vacuum,
they've got to decide,
is it more likely than not,
or beyond all reasonable doubt,
that this guy,
on that day, knew
what was about to happen
and participated willingly.
And it sounds like he did
under one version of the story.
It's plausible.
It's possible.
Adam was there.
He discharged his weapon.
There are a lot of witnesses
that will corroborate that.
The only-- The only
distinction is:
What was in his brain
at that moment.
Was he a willing
participant or not?
[ Morlock ] We're doing a battalion push on this village.
And, I mean, it wasn't even 30 minutes in.
Pulled up to town. Our squad leader hit an I.E.D.
And, uh, I think
severed his left leg.
I only got to see him
in the hospital...
before they flew him to Germany,
and he was heavily sedated.
He had his eyes closed
and we went up
and we just said,
"We apologize.
We couldn't have
been there, man.
You know, you're
a brother to us
and we love you."
[ Man ]
Hey, you fuckin' move.
[ Morlock ] After that, we were down a guy.
We needed a new squad leader.
And then, it was a couple of weeks later, I guess,
that's when Gibbs showed up.
We'd been in country a while.
You've been training
with each other for years
and you get a new guy.
You're like, "All right.
Who the fuck's this guy?"
I mean, you see him, you're, like, "All right. Well, that's--
that's the mold of an infantryman right there."
If the government was gonna...
push 'em out
on an assembly line,
that would be the guy.
He was an infantry vet already.
He'd already been in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He wasn't afraid to change the tactics.
Bring the fight to us
versus going looking for one
that didn't exist.
[ Stoner ] Other squad leaders follow the rules to a "T."
Gibbs was a much different story.
Odds are, you work for him,
you're probably gonna
come back in one piece.
Or you could work for the guy
who follows the rules
and get your ass blown up.
He never talked to me
about what he did in Iraq.
I did see his tattoos.
He was sittin' there, workin' out...
and I was, like, "Skulls." You know.
"That's cool.
What does it mean?"
I didn't get
an answer from him,
but I asked someone else.
They're, like, "Oh.
Those are the dudes
he's killed."
[ Montalvo ] People outside this room...
are not our friends,
not one.
We have to protect the zone.
Nobody gets in the zone.
Nobody comes in this room.
We don't talk to anybody.
They-- They--
Nothing. Okay?
They are on lockdown.
[ Emma ] It is a military justice system.
Unlike the civilian world where
there are impartial parties,
the people that are accusing Adam of these very crimes are,
in essence, the same people
that determine...
who will hear the case,
who will be the jury...
and who will hand down
the decision for sentencing.
They are the judge and jury.
Literally, judge and jury.
So, talking to any of them,
even if they have
a smile on their face,
means absolutely nothing.
They're all the enemy.
[ Emma ] And so we go into every meeting,
knowing that we're fighting for his life.
[ Morlock ] Me and Gibbs spent a lot of time together...
on the same truck for those first couple weeks.
We were just getting to know each other and shooting the shit.
"Hey, what was your last deployment like?"
He spoke specifically about one incident I remember.
Uh, when he was in Iraq,
he was a SAW gunner.
And, um, he was crossing a road.
I don't know.
And, um, a car was coming
at him, didn't stop,
so he opened up on the car,
and it ended up being a family.
I think, a mother, father
and a small child was killed.
He could have stopped
the vehicle...
or let them go by
and nothing would have
came of it,
but he described it to me
as, like, he was looking...
for that opportunity
for a while and had been.
'Cause that could have been
something very easily
turned around and justified.
You could easily
justify that situation.
They were charging.
There was no one there
to see anything different.
He was, like, "Yeah, dude.
I just said this
and it was cool.
No one questioned it.
You know, it was that easy."
So, that was,
like, the first step,
which ultimately ended up
leading into our own
conversations...
about how we could maybe
implement things
in that sort of same way.
The first conversation was-- It was based around the idea of a drop weapon.
I've always heard
about people, you know,
in Iraq or Afghanistan
or whatnot,
when you find a weapon,
you know, you hold onto it
in case you need it.
In case, you know,
some, you know--
A civilian gets hit
and you need
to drop it on 'em,
so they're not, you know,
they don't look innocent.
During one
of our smoke sessions,
Morlock brought up the fact...
that he could get easy kills
by, uh, setting people up.
He said he'd been talking...
with Sergeant Gibbs,
and he was telling him
how he could get a kill.
Just buy a hand grenade
off the books.
That's all you need.
The idea he kind of pitched me
was, like, "Well, hey, dude.
I've got a couple extra grenades
that aren't being tracked."
So, the idea, we could say, was
we were approached by a local--
a bad guy, was what
we'll call him--
and he approached us, we--
He either threw
the grenade at us...
or we noticed the grenade
in his hand...
and we detonate the grenade
to make it look...
like this guy was attacking us
and we had to take him out.
Who in their right mind's...
gonna think
that we made this up?
If we-- I mean, it's
a believable enough
situation to where--
Who's gonna question it?
You know what I mean?
So, you're just,
like, "Well, you're right.
Doesn't sound--
Yeah. We could pull that off."
On our minds, we'd
been here for months.
And nobody's innocent
because these guys...
either know the Taliban, they're
either working with them--
and they're not working with,
or for us,
and we're here to help 'em,
and they don't give us any help.
We're just getting blown up
every time we go out there...
to, you know, just
to talk with them...
or build them a well,
so fuck 'em.
[ Traffic Passing ]
[ Man Calling Cadence ]
[ Winfield ] Ever since I made...
my first statement,
it's just been fear
of the guys from my platoon.
I get nightmares about that
even, just them hunting me.
And it's always
back over there, too.
[ Therapist ]
It's back
in the theater.
It's not--
It's never in the States.
It's always--
I'm always over there.
In the last year,
I felt kind of...
as the enemy of the platoon,
because I was one of the few
to come clean and--
And do you die
in these nightmares?
You do?Mm-hmm.
How do they kill you?
They blow me up,
mostly.
Normally, it involves
a grenade.
Couple times, it's been,
like, blunt objects.
And it's just not ever even
have a chance to run from 'em.
It's just--
They always catch me.
You know, I've said
some incriminating things
about some of these guys...
and, you know, it's not
hard for me to believe...
that they would want some sort of retribution.
And that's the worst part about it.
The same people that I was--
been in fear of the last year
are also the same people...
that, you know,
I've lived with
the last four years.
These people were my friends and, at some point in time,
they were also willing to lay their life down for me.
And I, you know,
I have to remember that.
In La'l Mohammad Kalay,
there was an incident with a grenade...
[ Helicopter Whirring ]
That day, you know,
we had our high-ups...
on the top of the hill
talking to the village elder.
Myself and, uh, Holmes
found ourself...
kind of secluded
from the majority
of the platoon.
I was, like, "Hey, man.
Let's see if we can get
one of those guys over there.
There's a guy farming a field."
We talked about specifics.
What was gonna happen.
"Hey, this guy was
coming towards us.
We told him to stop.
He didn't listen
to our commands.
Holmes identified
something in his hand.
He thought it was a grenade.
Threw something at us,
and so we engaged him...
and took cover
behind the wall."
And that's what we talked about.
I'm standing back up,
getting ready
to look back over,
and I have, you know, Morlock
scream in my ear, "Grenade!
Holmes, shoot him!"
Pulled the grenade,
dropped it, got down.
Yelled at Holmes, "Fire."
Which, you know, seemed
like a fuckin' eternity.
I had five seconds from
the time that pin falls
off from the grenade...
until it will explode.
He let off a burst
from the SAW.
I pulled his ass down.
Grenade goes off.
A lot of confusion,
a lot of dust
come up, you know.
I looked over
to my left, 'cause that's
where Morlock was.
He had his back
against the wall.
He has his radio
and he's yelling.
Um, he was telling everyone,
"Contact. Contact. Contact."
I just heard, "Contact,"
and thought we got contact.
Then, as soon as I heard
the description...
of what happened,
it all clicked.
What that--
He just said...
that someone tried to throw
a hand grenade...
at him and Holmes
and they shot him.
And that was
the same scenario
he explained to me.
And I look over and I ask him,
you know, "Do we reengage?"
Do we get back up and, you know,
shoot the guy or whatnot?
And, uh, Morlock
didn't answer me.
He just stood back up,
looked over at the guy
who was on the ground,
you know, pulled up his M4
and just pop, pop,
two more shots.
[ Morlock ] He didn't register as a person.
He wasn't-- He was just, you know, there.
I was excited.
Me and Holmes
both kinda were.
I mean, like he said,
it plays that whole...
you know, ideology
of the infantry world.
It was just like,
"Fuck. Right on, man."
We got a kill, whether,
you know, it was--
we knew he was
a bad guy or not.
So they brought
the father down,
the brother down.
They said, "Well,
do you know this guy?"
The guy goes,
"Yeah. That's my son."
And, uh, the brother's
sitting there...
and they just-- they're both
just crying. You know.
We then put him
in a black body bag...
and took him
to the top of the village.
And strapped him down to the
front of one of the Strykers...
and we took him back
to the-- to the FOB.
Jumped back in the truck.
You know, we're all
hyped up on all this
freakin' adrenaline...
and just not knowing
what's gonna happen next.
And we get back to the FOB
and, you know, it was--
it was like I was
looked upon like a--
like a hero.
They were gettin'
all the applause.
Everybody was, you know, giving
'em high fives and handshakes...
and, you know, telling 'em
they're, you know, made men...
and, you know, they're
the-- everyone needs
to look up to them.
And, you know,
I knew differently.
And everybody else
knew differently too,
but it was accepted.
Anybody with half a brain
can go,
"Okay. You guys set this guy up
to get shot. Whatever."
I didn't care.
And I remember we were
smokin', we were high.
And Morlock's like,
"Man. You know, we straight
murdered that dude."
[ Bird Calls ]
[ Phone Rings ]
- [ Chris ] Hello?
- [ Automated Voice ]
Hello.
This call is from a collection facility...
and is subject to monitoring and recording.
[ Winfield ] Hey.
- Hey. How you doing?
- All right.
- How was your day?
- It was okay.
Was it?
What'd you do today?
Anything? Did you get
to go outside at all?
- Got back from rec.
- Did you? That's good.
[ Chris On Phone ] We're probably thinking of Mom coming out next Friday.
- What's the point?
- What do you mean,
what's the point?
[ Winfield ] I'm not getting out.
[ Emma ] Adam, don't start losing faith now.
I mean, I know that you're there day to day,
but, believe me, my heart breaks every day too.
[ Winfield ] I know.
[ Emma ] And maybe I'm not confined, but I am confined.
[ Chris ] When I joined the Marine Corps, it was peacetime.
It was-- It was completely different.
When Adam came home and said he wanted...
to join the service, we were in war.
I had a couple long talks with Adam about that.
You know, he had
pretty much told us...
that, you know,
"I want your permission,
but, you know, when I turn 18,
I'm gonna sign up anyway."
If we made him wait
until he was 18,
there was always
gonna be that...
"they didn't believe in me
and they didn't think
I could do this."
And I didn't ever
want Adam to feel like
we didn't believe in him.
When we flew out there
and he said,
"This is it.
I'm going to Afghanistan."
I told him, "Don't be a hero.
Just do your job and come home."
[ Call To Prayer ]
Gibbs, like, a couple hours
after we got back,
is like, "Hey, Holmes,
come check this out."
So, I walked in the tent
back to his room...
and he pulls out
a little piece of cloth
inside of a bag...
and he pulls out a finger...
and he's like, "This
is from your guy."
[ Morlock ] His idea behind it was...
he was gonna take the fingers and then let them decompose...
and then take the bone
and make a finger bone
necklace out of it.
And you're, yeah,
well, fuck, lookin' at it,
it's like, "All right. That's
pretty fuckin' crazy, dude."
But, at the same time,
like, our mind-sets...
are not on the normal level
of everybody else's...
and so it was just like--
I mean, war trophies have been,
you know, since the Bible.
They cut Solomon's head off.
You know what I mean?
So, it's just like--
Then we're there,
and you're seeing bluts
and gore all the time.
It's war, and you're
just like, "All right.
Well, whatever."
I'm not gonna make
a fuckin' bone necklace,
but if you want one, man,
whatever.
That's cool.
It's your thing. Go for it.
[ Winfield ] I just thought, "What happened to these guys?
What happened to the guys that I knew?
Why are they all
okay with this?
Why isn't anyone
stepping up?
Like, why am I the only one
that's not okay with this?
Why is it just me?"
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
Adam had to actually tell me
in the Facebook chat,
"Don't you understand
what I'm saying?
That they're
killing people here...
that are innocent."
I had to do a double take
and it just was like, "Whew."
It was, like, uh, a rush
just came over me. Just--
The only thing
I could think of was...
he was, like,
8,000 miles away...
and there was nothing
I could do.
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Winfield ] I couldn't take any more.
I wanted to tell somebody what was going on.
I didn't have access to the M.P.s.
If I told someone...
in the chain of command,
it would come right back,
'cause that's how things
are in the infantry.
We tend to handle things
in house.
I felt like I had nowhere to go in the platoon.
Everybody was on Sergeant Gibbs' side, and he had their loyalty.
So, it's my word
against 30 other guys.
Someone had told us
that Winfield...
was gonna go out
and talk to the chaplain...
'cause he was
having, uh, issues.
I can tell the chaplain.
He's not gonna fail me.
He's the chaplain.
And, uh, before I went
over there...
to talk to the chaplain,
Sergeant Gibbs escorted me.
As we're walking down there, he says,
"You're not thinking about saying anything...
that you shouldn't be talking about, are you?"
[ Morlock ] So, Gibbs-- I don't even know...
when it took place.
You know, brought up
the idea, kinda like,
"Hey. man, Winfield
might be a liability.
I might have
to take that guy out."
I go, "What the fuck
you talkin' about, man?"
He says, "Well, you know,
he knows a lot of stuff...
about what's going on
and what we've done...
and, you know,
it's too easy."
"What are you--
What do you mean,
it's too easy?"
And he says we could--
We could take him
to the gym, drop
a weight on his head.
We can drop
a tow bar on him,
so he'll go away.
I asked Morlock
about it a few times.
"Hey, man, what's going on?
Are you guys plottin'
on me or something?"
And he even told me
straight up, "Yeah.
You know, we're
thinkin' about doing
something to you.
Don't know what,
but something, definitely."
Okay. So you got
safety on on white.
[ Girl ]
Mm-hmm.
Flip it up to red.
You're ready to go.
Mm-hmm.Okay?
[ Fires Three Shots ]
[ Chris ] You know, this has become a big story in the press...
and we had people standing at our front door with cameras.
We had people following us everywhere I went.
You get people that think the worst of everything...
and they, you know, they hear,
"Oh, he's arrested for murder, then he must be guilty."
Three.
How many can you
put in there?Eleven.
We have had some threats.
I mean, not in so many words,
but, you know, you can read between the lines...
that "we know where you live, we know your address."
And I have to protect my family.
It's a 9mm Ruger.
I have it sitting by the bedside, loaded and ready to go.
[ Fires ]
We don't want to be caught with our guard down.
[ Fires ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
So, I started
making phone calls.
I didn't know who to call.
I was getting voice mail
everywhere I called,
for the most part.
Um, and I was
leaving messages,
hoping somebody
would call me back.
I thought about, you know,
what I would have to do...
if they came after me
in the middle of the night.
I kept a gun always
around me...
and, you know,
a knife on me handy
and stuff like that...
and always looked
over my shoulder
all the time.
I was frantic.
I was just--
I was just panicking.
I was loud.
I was, "Please
call me back."
I mean, there was
stress in my voice,
and I-- and, you know,
I was just-- I did not--
I was scrambling.
I didn't know who to call.
Gibbs seemed like he was
recruiting more people...
to this Kill Team idea,
basically.
I, you know, I see
other squad leaders,
other soldiers...
going up
to Sergeant Gibbs,
"Hey, man, you gotta
get me a kill.
You gotta help me
get something."
And he'd be, like,
"Just tell me when."
I called the army.
Called the army hotline.
I called, um, Army C.I.D.
in Virginia,
the main C.I.D. office.
I called the C.I.D.
office in Fort--
I kept calling,
I kept calling,
I kept calling numbers.
I called Senator
Bill Nelson's office.
Figured somebody would
definitely be there...
at the army chaplain's
office at Fort Lewis.
Chaplain and the assistant
chaplain. I called both,
got messages,
voice messages
on both of 'em.
Sergeant Gibbs,
the whole time, he
was talking shit to me,
calling me a pussy
and this and that.
Saying, you know,
I should be down to kill.
They're all savages.
And, you know,
they're pieces of shit.
They're not worth anything.
And that was just
everyone's attitude, really.
I finally got a hold
of somebody at Fort Lewis...
at the-- at the--
at the Command Center...
and I told the guy
the whole story.
The guy said, "Nothin'
I can do about it.
It's your son's word
against everybody else's.
Unless somebody else comes out
and says the same story,
then I can't do anything."
And I expected,
within a few days,
someone to just come grab me
in the middle of the night...
and say, "Hey. Come with us.
It's over. You're safe."
And then it never happened.
This is another option
on the table.
I think this is the realest
and most truest option.
[ Winfield ] There's been talk of a plea deal.
My lawyer is trying to talk the charge down.
That it's not--
That I'm not guilty
of first-degree murder.
Don't get visceral on me,
just hear
what I'm saying. Okay?
Cowardly conduct.
Okay?
"That the accused committed
an act of cowardice." Okay?
In this scenario,
you didn't stop them
from doing something bad.
Mm-hmm.Okay? 'Cause you
were scared.
"Conduct is cowardly only
if it amounts to misbehavior...
which was motivated
by fear.
A mere display of apprehension
is not sufficient.
Cowardly conduct is
the refusal or abandonment...
of the performance of duty
before or in the presence...
of the enemy
as a result of fear." Okay?
Well, the enemy in this case
was not only the Taliban man,
but it was also Gibbs.
I mean, the guy was continuing
to threaten to kill you.
[ Emma ]
What's the--
What are you looking at?
I mean, I get the misbehavior
before the enemy,
cowardly conduct charge.
Mm-hmm.
What are you looking for
as the cap to--
Eight years.
Time went on
and the second
murder happened,
which, at first,
I didn't even know
it was a murder again.
I thought this was
a real engagement.
I heard Morlock and Sergeant Gibbs...
joking and talking about it.
And I found out what really happened.
Set up a kill with an AK. Shot a dude, just, you know, in cold blood.
Dropped the AK next to him and said it was a legit shoot.
It seemed like everything
was falling apart...
just from the seams.
My whole unit, my whole,
just, concept of...
the military and honor
and integrity...
and just, you know,
the image you get
from a soldier,
what you would expect
a soldier to be.
About to show you
what Apaches do...
to fuckin' bodies.
All right?
[ Man Laughing ]
It's a good shoot.
He's dead as a motherfucker.
Word.Don't show 'em
that shit, man.
[ Laughing ]
[ Morlock ] Everybody had their own cameras.
Take a picture of your little combat experience. Sure. Why the hell not?
You sit down with all
your squad leaders and,
you know, other guys...
and they all bust out
their DVDs and discs
of their prior deployments,
and, you know, "Hey, look
at these dead guys
we killed here."
Death and dead bodies...
and bluts and gore,
and, you know, that thing--
You get taught to be the norm
and be okay with it.
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
[ Blip ]
It was just that I was
pissed at everything.
I was pissed at the whole
situation. Just--
What is-- Just--
What's the point
of all this?
And the thing that really got me was,
from other stories I've heard from people from other units,
I knew that this stuff happens more than--
Well, I knew that it was...
happening really
more than people
were letting on.
If I were to do it
all over again, I would
probably have kept calling,
but it's easy to say that
now as I'm sitting here.
At the time, I was
just worried what is--
If I continue to do this,
am I gonna get my son killed?
It was-- It was probably
the most difficult decision...
I have ever had to make
in my life.
You know, he only had
a couple more months...
and he would be home,
and we would report it...
and he would be safe.
And it just didn't
turn out that way.
[ Chris ] Adam used to go in my closet and put on my uniform on.
He would always look through my Marine Corps books.
Essentials of a Marine.
Adam probably
read that book 50 times.
Before he was supposed to ship off to boot camp, he was about 100 pounds.
He was too light, so...
they picked up a gallon of water
before they went in there...
and they made him drink it
and said, "Don't pee
until you get weighed."
So I just kind of stepped
on the scale real fast...
and got off
and went to the bathroom
and threw it up.
But you know, I was--
I was really motivated
to get in.
And he's putting a pack
that weighs 80 pounds
on his body.
It's, you know,
almost heavier than him.
So, you know, he had a lot--
He had a huge uphill battle
to climb.
[ Morlock ] See him, you're, like, ah, there's no--
That guy's in the infantry? No fuckin' way, you know what I mean?
But he's got heart. If we were rockin' 20 miles, he's rockin' 20 miles.
You'd run into some guy and--
"Oh, he's not infantry.
Look at that scrawny
little bastard."
You could go up to him
and be, like, "Hey,
listen, motherfucker.
He's probably the most
squared-away, bad-ass
infantryman I fuckin' know."
[ Dog Barking ]
[ Emma ] It just sounds heinous. It just sounds, you know--
Manslaughter
just sounds horrible.
[ Chris ]
Just came from the prosecutor.
They came back with--
This is what
they are offering.
Involuntary
manslaughter.
They're saying
he failed to act
when he could have acted.
What they expect him
to have done, I still
don't quite understand.
I don't know how Adam's
gonna react to that.
What do you think
he's gonna say?
Maybe, in his mind,
it would be better to do
involuntary manslaughter...
than cowardice.
I don't know.
I don't know.
The whole thing sucks.
Bottom line.
Yeah. They just still
want to say...
"Well, see, we got him
and he was the bad guy."
I think
that's a bunch of crap.
They still have to try
to get him for eight years
to make it look good?
I've been saying
that same thing.
You know,
at this point,
we don't have
a choice.
He's being forced to make
another decision that...
isn't right...
no matter what he chooses.
Again.
Going on leave is probably
one of the worst parts
of deployment,
'cause you go home,
and you want everything
to be normal.
But nothing's normal.
You're angry
and you're pissed off.
I mean, you know,
you're surrounding yourself...
by people that love you
and care about you,
but you don't know how to deal
with their emotions,
'cause you don't have
a grasp on your own,
and it was just--
I don't know.
It just all weighed on me.
I actually spent some time
thinking about it quite a bit.
Who I would tell.
Would I talk to my girlfriend
or my brother or my mom?
But how do you tell somebody
something like that, you know?
And so, I don't know.
I did what most guys do.
Or, you know,
most fuckin' macho.
I just turned it inward.
You know what I mean?
I've never been a guy
that's been really good
with emotion to begin with,
and so I did
what I always did, you know?
Buried-- Buried it
and fuckin' powered through it.
So, I got back, I think,
sometime early, early April,
and then, you know,
instantly--
I mean, not even a day
or an hour--
I literally
got off the Black Hawk
and made my way to my room...
and ran straight into Gibbs.
"Hey, look at all
the fuckin' goodies I got
while you were gone.
And soon as I get back
from patrol, I'll tell you...
all the cool shit you missed
while you were gone," you know?
It was right there,
right back into it.
As long as they have,
you know, open season...
on whatever sentence
the case they want to put,
the worst he's going to get,
regardless of the facts,
is eight years.
That's what
the government's saying.
The worst.
So, what--
What the hell matters
is the charge.
I can't reconcile with the fact
that they won't move
off this eight,
regardless
of what the charge is,
when that's
what Morlock got
for murdering people.
And I'm not saying
that Adam was innocent...
and that he made
every single right decision,
but I also know
that on January 20,
he e-mailed us--
as early as January 20--
saying, "There's something
I need to talk to you about."
And then February comes.
Oh, well, you know what?
Just suck it up.
Suck it up and be a man.
Gibbs is, what, a 200-
and-something-pound man?
This is the ultimate case
of bullying,
and I can't reconcile
with the fact
that they're just gonna say,
"Well, let's give him
eight years."
The government
can excuse themselves...
from all of the missteps
they made.
But let's get--
Let's get, in your own words,
let's get our pound of flesh
from Adam Winfield,
even though,
of all the people out there,
he was the only one
that did anything.
I-I-I have
a problem with that.
And I guess ultimately,
it's not my issue.
It's Adam's issue.
But I have a problem
with that, 'cause, to me,
that's not justice.
The army still has my son,
and unless we do what they say,
I never get him back.
Listen, I know
you're a mom.
I know that's your child.
I'm tracking on all that.
But you are the only mom
in the world to him.
To everybody else,
he's a soldier.
[ Door Hinge Squeaks ]Thank you.
[ Door Shuts ]
So, what do you think?
Fine.
I don't really have
a problem with it.
Are you sure?
'Cause ultimately,
worst case scenario,
everything falls apart,
it's eight years.
And I don't want you to feel
like we're giving up on you.
Why are we making
this deal?
What else
are we gonna do, Emma?
We don't have a choice.
Do we go to trial?
No.
We can't.
I don't know, Chris.
I just feel like
in some ways...
we're just leading him
to the slaughter.
I should
have done more.
I shouldn't have accepted
the answer that I got.
I've been thinking
about that
for a long time.
It's always
on my mind.
[ Sniffs ]
And we wouldn't be
standing here right now
if I'd done something more.
[ Vehicle Rumbling ]
[ Man On Radio, Indistinct ]
[ Winfield ] March went by, April went by, and--
You know, we're coming up
to the end.
We got maybe
one more big mission.
I knew Sergeant Gibbs had
a lot of stuff planned.
If I could just hold out...
two more months till June,
July, and it's all over.
[ Morlock ] The task on that day was...
to go re-engage
an individual...
that had been arrested
while I was on leave.
They found an I.D.
or something in his house,
so the P.O. wanted
to check him out
and see what he's up to.
Me and Winfield ended up
leaving that compound...
and then making our way
towards an adjacent compound
that's kind of attached to it.
And then we ended up
running into an individual,
a local there.
Sergeant Gibbs
was coming around
the other side.
He had a few
other guys with him.
Most of the guys
that were with him...
kind of had an idea
of what's going on, what--
You know, these sort
of scenario things
that had been taking place.
Um, and then--
So, there wasn't
a whole lot of conversation.
I knew right then and there
that I couldn't kill
an innocent person.
I couldn't shoot an innocent man
just in cold blood.
I couldn't do it.
I didn't have it--
I didn't have any drive
or want to do it.
I didn't want to do it.
I didn't want to be there.
I didn't want
that situation.
I wanted to get up
and just run.
Sergeant Gibbs started,
you know, telling us
how things were gonna go.
Saying, you know,
"We're gonna set this up...
to make it look
like we're doing
a movement...
and this guy came out
and attacked us when we
were passing through."
"We saw a grenade.
We had to shoot him.
And that's, you know,
that's the way
it'll play out."
My heart started going
1,000 miles a minute. Just--
Just started
getting nervous.
My muscles started
to twitch. Just--
I just froze.
We were laying
right next to each other,
so I kinda just
talked him through it,
speaking in his ear,
letting him know, "Hey, yeah.
Nothing to worry about, man.
It's too easy.
We've done it before.
You got nothing to worry about.
Stick to the story,
and just get it over with."
I can stand up
and shoot Gibbs and Morlock.
But shooting
one of our own guys...
over, in their opinion,
over a worthless Afghan?
Reason to show me
absolutely no mercy.
I fired...
a couple shots off
after the grenade blew up.
I didn't aim at him.
I didn't--
I just-- I drew my weapon
away from him.
After the dust settled
from the explosion,
Sergeant Gibbs walked up
and, uh, smile on his face,
and he just shot the guy
two more times.
Then he said, "Hey.
Come take a picture
with me with the body."
And he told me
that I was a made man...
and I didn't have
anything to worry about
from him ever again.
What, what-- What just happened? How did I get in--
I was doing fine
just avoiding it,
and now I'm in it.
His face is--
I can't forget his face.[ Man ] Yeah.
It's his dead face.
His head just,
you know, with shrapnel,
and it's so swollen.
I just see it staring
at me all the time.
Like whenever
I think about it.
And that scream
from that woman.
I'd never heard
anything like it before.
I've never heard
such serious grief.Yeah.
And that's, I'd say,
the hardest part
to live with is that.
Yeah.
And just the smile
on his face
when he shot that guy again.
Gibbs' smile
on his face?
Yeah. It just--
He was pleased.
He was happy.
He just had
this huge smile, a grin.
And just looked
straight at me, smiling.Oh.
And then I just--
The thought that I know...
he would have the same smile
if he did it to me.
[ Chris ] I'm living a nightmare right now.
If I don't take sleeping medicine, I, I'm--
You know, I have nightmares.
I fight-- I gotta fight this-- this evil monster in my dreams.
A lot of times, I don't remember what they are.
I just know that they're violent.
I'll jump up and I'll try
to get something...
or grab it
or stop it from coming.
And I've actually
physically fell out of bed
a couple times doing that.
I worry about Chris.
Um, I think he's dealing with...
maybe some guilt.
Did I raise him right?
You know, did I--
Should I have let him
go in the army?
Should I have continued
to pursue it?
You know, that-- It's--
You know,
he's a great father.
And when your son comes to you
and asks for help...
and you're not able
to help him--
We tried to do the right thing, and...
it still wasn't good enough.
[ Helicopter Whirring ]
[ Morlock ] We only had a couple months left deployment.
We're safe from here on out.
The lid's on everything and the stories were in line...
and we've got nothing to worry about.
And that's when
the whole incident
with Stoner arose.
Stoner went
and expressed his concern...
about guys in his platoon
smoking hash,
which led to him
getting beat up.
Why would you get stoned
in my room?
Why would you do that?
The shit reeked.
And who are they gonna blame?
The private.
And I heard the knock
on the door, so I--
You know, I just opened it
and let them in.
I knew it was coming.
I knew what was gonna happen.
He said some cheese dick line
like, "I understand you guys
are here to beat my ass.
Go ahead and--
Go ahead and do it."
So after that, it was
just, like, "All right."
[ Stoner ] My entire goal the entire time...
was just don't give 'em the pleasure of letting 'em know it hurts.
I'm just sitting here and I'm gonna take it, and I'm just gonna deal with it.
But you're the weak ones
for snapping like this.
Now we got an issue,
'cause he's rattin' us
about fuckin' hash.
You know, what else
is he rattin' us about?
Gibbs was very polite,
actually.
He was almost like
a crazy, happy, nice person.
Um, he explained to me,
you know, "You understand
why we did that."
Gibbs went so far
as to tell me,
"We could stick you
in a Hesco barrier
and kill you.
You know, no one
will ever find you.
Fill you in with dirt.
No big deal.
Or take you out
on a mission.
Kill you.
No one would ever know
the difference."
He wanted
to prove his point...
by rolling out
the guy's fingers,
which were
his war trophies,
you know,
out on the floor.
The next day, an acquaintance of mine down--
a medic
down at the aid station--
I was going down there
for some shit.
She's like, "Stoner
was just down here
and saw our major,
and they were all
super-secretive and shit."
They took me
into his personal tent...
to talk to me
about everything
that had happened.
It didn't take
a brain surgeon...
to realize that I'd just
gotten my ass whupped.
And of course, he just
immediately contacts
the guy higher than him,
and it just goes higher
and higher and higher.
When C.I.D. got involved, they, uh, started asking other questions.
The one thing I did know about was the body parts.
Once that was said,
that opened up the door
to everything.
Five U.S. soldiers
stand accused
of shocking crimes...
that include
murdering Afghans
for sport.
Today near Seattle,
the alleged ringleader of...
The story's out.
They got Gibbs locked up.
Morlock's locked up.
Um, they brought
everybody else in.
And so, initially,
we were, like, "Okay. Good.
So, it's out there.
He's safe."
The Army C.I.D. people came
here, and they told us--
You know, we asked them,
"Does Adam need a lawyer?"
They said, "No,
he shouldn't need a lawyer."
It was really from
the direction of Adam
that had said,
"You can call my parents.
Go talk to my parents.
I told them about this
back in February."
"He's fine. He's just-- He's--
He's the witness here.
He's the main witness.
Everything's gonna be okay."
I was relieved, you know?
A huge weight just got lifted.
I finally got
to express everything...
and really tell somebody about
what I'd been wanting to say...
for the last, like,
six months, almost.
They told me
that I was gonna help them...
with their case
against Sergeant Gibbs.
That they're not
coming after me.
But they lied to me.
You thought they
had lied to you?
Yeah.
They just tricked me.
I was at work, and, um,
Emma-- Emma called me.
She said that the commander
at the base had called her
and told them...
that Adam had been charged
with first-degree murder.
And she was--
Emma was hysteric,
and I was just,
like, "What?"
I mean, "What? What--"
I was stunned.
I mean, I--
I was stunned.
I mean, I--
I, like, lost it.
I was just-- I, like--
I started hyperventilating.
I fell on the floor.
You know, I was, like--
I couldn't believe it.
I almost killed myself
that night.
It's like I'm gonna do it
tonight for sure.
Tonight's the night.
Just kept thinking
about it.
I was having panic attacks
the whole night and, um--
I was sitting at the desk,
and I had an M4
sitting right next to me.
I loaded it.
It was ready to go.
I had one
in the chamber already.
Um, and I was getting ready
to write a note.
To whom?
Uh, my parents.
Apologizing for everything.
Sorry for leaving
this way, and--
So, um--
As I was looking for some paper
and a pen to write,
I actually found
a Bible instead.
Started reading that.
Started praying.
Started crying
and asking God
for forgiveness, and--
I just kept reading the Bible,
and it said something
about your--
You'll be brought before kings
and the judges in the synagogues
and judged,
but, um,
if you stay faithful
and suffer for my sake,
then I'll be with you.
So, I just--
I just kept praying
all morning.
Unloaded the weapon
and put it back.
[ Chris ] He smiled at everything.
Just talked a thousand miles an hour.
He was, like, the happy-go-lucky kid.
[ Emma ] You know, a mom, a dad, a house, jobs, three kids--
This is what we hoped for.
This is what every American family hopes for.
And we had it.
He reads
all the history books,
and he reads all about
these great American patriots
and how heroic they were.
He wanted to prove to himself that he could do something like that.
[ Winfield ] The trial's finally here.
I'm pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
My other charges...
of premeditated murder
and conspiracy
are being dropped.
The army is just wanting
to, you know, make
this all go away,
and they're trying
to drop it down to
the lowest common denominator.
They want the lowest guys
to pay for it.
There's nobody been charged--
You know, staff sergeant or below, and that's it.
There's no officers have any responsibility for anything.
[ Sighs ]
It's huge.
This thing is big.
It's bigger than Adam.
It's bigger than me.
It's bigger than everybody
right now.
Best-case scenario, um,
the judge awards me time served,
and I'd walk out with my family that day.
Worst case, I get
an eight-year sentence.
If Adam would have went
to somebody out there,
he would have been dead.
He would have came home
in a body bag
if we were lucky.
'Cause, you know,
Gibbs had threatened him...
that he would cut him up
in a million pieces...
and throw him
to the wild dog packs out there,
and nobody
would ever find him.
The only remnants he would have
would be Adam's finger
on his necklace...
that he was making
of body parts.
It's all about getting that first kill...
and going home with a mark that says you killed somebody.
You know, you get the badge
that says you been over there
and that you fought in a war,
and that's what
they're all shooting for,
regardless if it's
legitimate or not.
And it's just ridic--
It just makes me sick
to my stomach.
[ Winfield ] Part of my job over there was to protect civilians.
I had a responsibility to put a stop to what was going on.
You know, I feel--
You know, I am guilty.
Adam's a pawn in the big picture, is what he was.
He was stuck
in the middle of nowhere.
He had the Taliban
shooting at him on one side.
He had his own guys
threatening to kill him
if he didn't--
if he said anything
on his other side.
He had guns pointed at him
in both directions.
What do you do?
What do you do?
It'll be the first time
I've seen you in those.
I've never seen you
in your dress blues.
[ Winfield ] No. It's the second time I've actually worn them. So--
Will you--
Will you have to wear those
for the rest of the trials?
No.Okay.
It depends on what happens,
and if I'm still in,
whatever I'm wearing in the jail.
All right.
After tomorrow,
no matter what,
either he's out,
or we can circle a date
on a calendar and say...
we have "x"
number of days
till you're home.
We have one less day
until you're home.
And I think
that's huge for him,
that he can
at least say...
it's gonna be over.
He told me
he doesn't expect
to walk away tomorrow,
but we'll see.
I sure would
like him to.
Take two, three deep breaths,
and then just go into
what you're gonna say.
And just keep that in mind
and keep an image,
and then you might want
to look at your parents.
Mm-hmm. Okay.Okay?
Don't give up.
Promise me that,
all right?I won't.
Things are
gonna be okay.Mm-hmm.
Okay.
[ Bailiff ]
All rise.
[ Man ]
Specialist Winfield understood
on May 2, 2010...
that they were blowing up
an innocent man.
He could have made a scene that day.
He could have done anything.
What does Specialist
Winfield do?
Nothing. He had the opportunity
over and over and over again...
to ensure
he did the right thing.
And he himself told you he failed.
And that failure had catastrophic consequences.
[ Winfield ] Sir, not protecting that man was--
It's haunted me for the last year now.
And--
I just want to go home, sir. Sorry.
[ Man ] Specialist Adam Christopher Winfield,
this court martial sentences you...
to be confined for three years,
and to be discharged from the army...
with a bad conduct discharge.
I'm all right.
I can do this.
I'm sorry we didn't
protect you.It's okay.
Mom. Hey.
He got three years.
Three years.
And a bad conduct
discharge.
- Are you okay?
Are you okay?
- I'm fine.
Just promise me
you're not gonna do
anything to yourself.
I'm not gonna
do anything.Okay? Good.
I was proud
of you today.So was I.
You're stronger
than me.[ Chuckles ]
[ Chuckles ]
I've already been through
the worst of this.
It's over right now.It doesn't matter what--
I mean, you know what?
They can't do
anything else to you.
It's over.
Exactly.
It's all done.
It's all over.
[ Morlock ] I find myself thinking sometimes...
how are you gonna tell this story later on?
Somebody told me
the way to look at it...
is it's not
that you're a murderer.
You were convicted
of murder.
Pretty much initially after the first incident,
it was, like, "Fuck, welcome to the club, Morlock."
You know? "You're a grown-ass man now."
That's what every
infantryman's looking for.
They're looking to be--
to fulfill their job.
To fulfill, you know,
the way of life
of an infantryman.
And so, I mean--
Your superiors, in a way,
kind of become
your father figures.
They become the guys
that you most want to impress,
and this was the way
to do it.
[ Holmes ] I was 19. Fresh out of high school.
I thought I knew everything that there was to know,
but, man, I was really, really wrong.
I didn't know who to talk to, you know?
I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to think.
'Cause these were the guys
that I was walking into combat.
I was doing patrols
with these guys,
and I didn't want to--
I didn't want them to,
you know, think different of me.
[ Stoner ] We're training you...
from the day you join to the day you're out...
to kill.
Your job is to kill.
You're infantry.
Your job is to kill everything
that gets in your way.
Well, then why the hell
are you pissed off
when we do it?
I never want to be referred to as a whistle-blower,
'cause it's worse than what they're being portrayed as.
If I could go back, I wouldn't have said anything.
Everything we did was put into the media...
as we're horrible, we're the Kill Team,
we're rogue platoon, we're all these things.
I don't care
what the military
wants to say,
but this goes on
more than just us.
We're just the ones
that got caught.
[ Morlock ] There was no way for me not to be a part of it.
There's no way not to be surrounded by Gibbs.
There's no way not to be pressured into these things.
The constant pressure of having to kill...
and then the risk of being killed yourself--
It was impossible
not to surrender
to the insanity of it all.
[ Winfield ] I think about it a lot. The war.
All the stuff that the guys in my platoon were doing.
I never understood it. I--
Even now, I don't understand.
I just-- I don't know. I'll never understand, I guess.
War is dirty.
It's not how they portray it
in the movies where, you know,
there's just a bunch
of honorable men...
with, you know,
unshakable patriotism.
It's just a bunch
of guys with guns.
And I wish
that I could fix it.
And I wish--
I don't know.
I wish that none of that
had to happen to them.
Um--
And I wish I could
tell them that myself.
[ Classical Piano ]