GI Flashback: The 1981 Ingman Range Massacre

In recent years the US military has seen massacres committed by  fellow soldiers such as the 2009 Nidal Hasan and the 2014 Ivan Lopez shootings at Ft. Hood.  However, these recent massacres are not something new as an incident that happened over three decades ago in South Korea proves.  On June 5, 1981 soldiers from the 2nd Engineer Battalion were conducting an M-16 qualification range at Ingman Range on Camp Casey.  Ingman Range is named after Corporal Einar Ingman Jr. who was recognized with the Medal of Honor for heroic combat actions on February 26, 1951 while serving with the 7th Infantry Division.  During the battle he was seriously wounded and survived his wounds to become one of 39 living Medal of Honor recipients from the Korean War.

In recognition of Corporal Ingman’s combat actions the 2nd Infantry Division named Ingman Range in his honor.  Unfortunately a range that was named after someone so honorable would become the scene of possibly the most dishonorable act committed by soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division.

As the 2nd Engineer Battalion soldiers conducted the M-16 range in 1981 everything started out quite normal.  Ingman Range has 8 firing points with two firers per foxhole with a Non-commissioned Officer (NCO) working as range safeties standing behind them.  However, an unusual feature of the range was that firing points 6, 7, and 8 are obscured from the range control tower due to terrain masking caused by the range being built on the slopes of Mt. Soyo. The website KoreaATourOfDuty.us has a 1968 picture of the steps leading up to these firing points on Ingman Range:

After the range control tower gave the command, firers in the foxholes began to engage their assigned targets on the range.  After the first round of firing the personnel in the tower saw something strange happen.  The white helmet that designated a range safety was seen rolling down the hill from between firing point 6 and 7.  The tower immediately called a halt to firing on the range.  The NCO range safety on firing point 6, Sergeant Bruce Cardinal ran up the steps to firing point 7 to see what was going on.  He was then shot and fell back down the hill.  Other soldiers rushed to him to give him first aid.  While first aid was being administered to SGT Cardinal, two soldiers Specialist Archie Bell and Private First Class Lacy Harrington were then seen walking down the steps from firing point 7 with Bell claiming there was a crazy man up on the hill shooting people.  Bell then fainted and was carried over to a shady area while the rest of the soldiers gathered on nearby bleachers.  By this time the Military Police had arrived and began to investigate the scene on the hill.  At firing point 7 they ended up finding 4 dead soldiers, 3 white and 1 Hispanic who had all died of gun shot wounds.  The names of the deceased soldiers were:

• SPC Ralph M. Clark
• SGT James M. Elliott
• PFC Richard L. Marteny
• (Could not locate the 4th name)

By this time SPC Bell had become the chief suspect because he had woken up shouting in Arabic and English “They are Devils” and that he did it.  He also told people to “Study Islam, then you’ll understand.  I took the first step, the rest is up to you.”  The wounded SGT Cardinal told the MPs that Bell had shot him and PFC Harrington would later tell investigators that Bell came down from firing point 8 and shot the scorer and safety NCO there after he had already shot the two people up on firing point 8.  Bell apparently did not shoot Harrington because he was his roommate, but told him to keep quiet about the killings. The fact that four non-black soldiers were killed by a black soldier with a Nation of Islam background who did not kill a black soldier caused immediate concern within USFK that this could be interpreted as a racial hatred incident.  In 1991 Richard Machamer wrote a detailed case study about the Ingman Range murders and how the Public Affairs Office (PAO) handled the messaging to ensure that it was not interpreted as a racial incident.  It appears that the PAO’s messaging worked because there was little state side news coverage of the killings and what stories there were did not dwell on the racial angle.  Here is an example of the limited news coverage of the massacre at the time:

[Times-News – June 6, 1981]

This link shows a Miami Herald article that provides another example of the limited news coverage this massacre received that trumpeted the messaging put out by USFK. The article also shed light on the fact that Bell was a 21 year old high school drop out from New Jersey who was considered “well adjusted” before joining the Army.  This “well adjusted” individual was ultimately arrested for the murders of four soldiers and the attempted murder of SGT Cardinal.  However, SPC Bell would never stand trial for the murders because a medical board met the same night of the murders and declared that he was crazy and lacked the capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct.

Armv Declares GI Insane SEOUL, South Korea (UPI) An American GI charged with shooting to death four fellow soldiers during rifle practice has been declared insane by an army sanity board, U.S. military authorities said Thursday. An army official indicated Spec. 4 Archie R. Bell would not be put on trial. He said the board Wednesday also found thai Bell, 21, of Long Beach, Calif., “does not possess sufficient mental capacity lo intelligently coop- crate in his own defense.” Bell apparently went berserk June 5 and was one of two soldiers who fired on a group of -10 men taking part in Ml 6 qualification firing on a rifle range. Four soldiers were killed and one wounded. Pvt. Lacy M. Harrington, 19, of Baltimore, Md., also has been charged in the shooting. Army officials said he, too. was examined by a sanity hoard, but no official report on those hearings have been released. He remains in custody of U.S. military authorities at the 8th Army confinement facility at Camp Humphrey, 40 miles south of Seoul. Bell was charged with four counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. The official said he will be transferred to the Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Fort Gordon. Ga., for further treatment.  [Syracuse Post Standard – June 19, 1981]

It is interesting that this diagnosis happened so quickly after the incident and coincided well with USFK not wanting this to be interpreted as a racial incident.  Plus Bell would not have to stand trial which could inflame racial tensions if he decided to take the stand and make provocative statements.  However, the diagnosis of Bell as being crazy would not end USFK’s racial tension concerns because it would later come out that Harrington may have been involved in the murders as well.

On June 9th Army investigators questioned Harrington after his account of what happened on the hill did not match the forensic evidence.  Faced with the ballistic evidence and then failing a polygraph test, Harrington admitted that Bell forced him to shoot the range safety on firing point 7, SGT James Elliott.  However, Bell would go on to maintain that he killed all four soldiers on firing point 7 and 8, but could not remember shooting SGT Cardinal who ran up the stairs to see what was going on.  As the investigation turned to focus on Harrington’s involvement, SGT Cardinal began to change his story as well.  Under hypnosis he began to remember that it was Harrington that shot him and not Bell as be had originally believed.  That fall Harrington would receive a court martial for murder and attempted murder and it would be the first time that hypnosis induced testimony would be used in a trial:

[Pacific Stars & Stripes – Nov. 4, 1981]

During the trial Bell was also brought in to testify against Harrington where he maintained that he killed all four soldiers on the firing points, but that Harrington shot SGT Cardinal.  Ultimately the jury convicted Harrington of unpremeditated murder and sentenced him to 20 years of confinement.

[Eugene Register Guard – Nov. 5, 1981]

However three years later in 1984 a military appeals court over threw the convictions due to the hypnosis induced testimony by SGT Cardinal.  Harrington was released from confinement in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas with an honorable discharge from the Army.  So an admitted killer of a US Army NCO was set free and treated as if nothing had happened because Army prosecutors were dumb enough to enter hypnosis based witness testimony into the trial to support the attempted murder charge.

Whatever happened to PFC Lacy Harrington after the trial is unknown.  He is from Baltimore, Maryland and would be around 52 years old today. I was able to find this MyLife profile for a 52 year old Lacy Harrington living in Baltimore, but I have no idea if it is the same person.  It would probably be an interesting article if someone from the media was able to track him down and interview him about what happened that tragic day in 1981.  As far SPC Archie Bell, I could find nothing out about what he is doing today either.  I would hope he is still locked up in a mental institution somewhere for these murders.  Justice would not be served if both of these individuals are both walking free today.

As far as Ingman Range is concerned, today it is still used by soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division stationed on Camp Casey:

The range has gone on to train thousands of soldiers each year living up to the honor shown by the range’s namesake CPL Einar Ingman.  Today what happened in 1981 has largely been forgotten by the US Army, but here on the ROK Drop the lives of the soldiers lost that day will not be forgotten.

Further Reading:

• 1981: GI Kills Fellow Soldiers
• An Incident in Korea: A Case Study of US Army Public Affairs Activities in Response to the Ingman Range Murders in 1981