Reservist will get honorable discharge

Jace Radke

Monday, May 17, 2004 | 10:55 a.m.

A Marine reservist who bragged about killing two Iraqis in a published report will not face court-martial and will retire and receive an honorable discharge from the military.

Gunnery Sgt. Gus Covarrubias, 39, was found guilty during a military hearing of two counts of making false statements to investigators who were looking into an April 25, 2003, story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, according to a Marine spokesman. The story stated that the sergeant shot an Iraqi soldier twice in the back of the head and killed another enemy soldier after an attack on his unit in Baghdad last year.

No letter of reprimand was issued, but Covarrubias was required to forfeit one month of his base pay, about $1,500, after a hearing before his commanding officer, Capt. Patrick Kerr, spokesman for Marine Forces Reserve in New Orleans said.

He will retire with just over 20 years of service, receive about 50 percent of his base pay and retain medical benefits, Marine officials said.

Covarrubias spun the tale after returning home to Las Vegas from Iraq after being injured when his Las Vegas-based unit, Fox Co., 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marines, came under attack near Baghdad on April 8.

"He had no business giving that interview because he had a head wound and was on medication," his attorney Joe Brown said. "The reporter should have checked the story with his (Covarrubias') superiors."

Brown said his client was also suffering from the head injury and was heavily medicated when he gave an interview to military investigators about the newspaper story.

Brown, who took the case pro bono and is the former chairman of the Nellis Support Team, said the case was settled about two weeks ago.

Nine members of Fox Co., a reserve unit made up of Marines from Nevada and Utah, were wounded in the April 8 firefight, and Covarrubias suffered a concussion when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded near him.

After the fighting Covarrubias told the newspaper he took his pistol and went in search of the Iraqi soldier who fired the grenade.

He claimed he found an Iraqi Republican Guard member in a nearby house with a grenade launcher next to him. Covarrubias ordered the Iraqi soldier to stop and turn around, before shooting him twice in the back of the head, according to the newspaper account.

Covarrubias then reportedly tracked and killed another Iraqi soldier and returned to his unit with the dead men's identification tags.

During a February Article 32 hearing, the military's version of a grand jury hearing, an investigator said that other soldiers in the unit knew that Covarrubias liked to tell stories.

"He was highly regarded but others did notice that he told exaggerated stories," said the investigator, whose identity was kept confidential on government orders, during the Article 32 hearing. "He had real vivid accounts of things that didn't happen."

During the hearing Brown submitted a statement from a neurologist who confirmed that Covarrubias had severe head trauma and amnesia from his injuries.

Sun reporter

Jean Reid Norman contributed to this story.