Lead Lab and Duke Rape Case

We had a Lead Lab early this morning. The topic was Combat Medical Care. Lead Labs always make me feel useless because I don't have nearly the experience of any of the other cadets, including the freshmen. I was put on my platoon's secondary Aid & Litter team (taking care of fallen or wounded comrades). When one of my squad members took an imaginary wound to the leg via an injury-simulation-card, I didn't know how to deal with it because I had never seen a card like that before (because I was not allowed to participate in the Field Training Exercise a few weeks ago). In a real combat situation, my squad member and I would have been in serious trouble.

I'm certainly not upset or anything. The MS4s do a good job of explaining and are very patient with anyone (including myself) who's lost or confused. Lead Labs are supposed to be learning experiences, and I sure as heck know what to do for the next time. I always feel like I'm letting people down when I screw up though. I suppose it's better to do that now when it doesn't matter versus going to BTC and blowing it there.

In other news, Crystal Gail Mangum has dropped all charges against the three former members of the Duke lacrosse team. Apparently somebody missed the fact that of all four the DNA samples found in or on her clothes at the time of the initial investigation, not one match could be made to any of the lacrosse team members. This of course is coupled with the fact that her story changed on a regular basis, and the only member of the team she identified in each of the line ups presented to her had a solid alibi; he was not even at the University on the day of the party.

How can injustices like this happen? I certainly understand with making sure the victims get justice, but how about making sure that victims are what they claim to be in the first place? The severity of the screw ups in this case are astronomical. Crystal's allegations will follow those three boys for the rest of their lives, and they were completely baseless from the start! Testimonies from multiple people, a complete lack of DNA evidence, and numerous inconsistencies on the part of the accuser should have gotten the charges dismissed a year ago when this case first came to fruition.

That's all I've got. Peace out.

EDIT: Anyone who has a problem with the validity of using Wikipedia as a source for news and the like ought to take a look at the sources cited on the bottom of the "2006 Duke University lacrosse team scandal" article to which I link above. One-hundred-and-sixty-seven independent articles. Not bad...