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13 years after her husband's unexplained death, military widow finally wins compensation
Mike Blanchfield
The Ottawa Citizen
Thursday, January 27, 2005
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The Canadian Forces ombudsman will recommend compensation for the widow and the commanding officer of an infantryman killed in a freak training exercise on an Alberta base almost 13 years ago.
The recommendations are among the 34 contained a sweeping 383-page report by military ombudsman Andre Marin that is to be released today into the death of 29-year-old Master Cpl. Rick Wheeler, who was run over by an armoured personnel carrier during a war games exercise at Canadian Forces Base Suffield in April 1992.
Master Cpl. Wheeler's wife, Christina, had to fight for six years for information about her husband's death, and eventually had to go public with her concerns.
The original military police inquiry blamed her husband for his own death. Master Cpl. Wheeler was playing dead in a war game, and a summary investigation said he should have simply gotten up and gotten out of the way.
"She was left feeling alienated, abandoned, a feeling no family member of a soldier who dies in the service of their country should feel," the report states.
Master Cpl. Wheeler's commanding officer, retired lieutenant-colonel Jay Lapeyre, was also unfairly held responsible for the death after a board of inquiry -- sparked by Mrs. Wheeler's public complaints -- re-examined the death five years later.
Mr. Lapeyre's reputation "was harmed as a result. ... He was a man who, in what should have been the high point of his career, was depicted as having mismanaged an exercise in which one of his soldiers had died."
The Defence Department, in response to the report, has urged Mrs. Wheeler and Mr. Lapeyre to file claims and says they will be treated "sympathetically."
In the report, Mr. Marin calls on the chief of defence staff to personally ensure that Mrs. Wheeler is compensated "so that she and her family can put an end to this lengthy saga."
The findings of the ombudsman's report could have ramifications for another high-profile military investigation that is to issue its report soon: The board of inquiry into October's fatal fire aboard the submarine HMCS Chicoutimi, which claimed the life of 32-year-old Lieut. Chris Saunders.
An investigator and lawyer from the ombudsman's office travelled to Glasgow to consult with the Chicoutimi board of inquiry when it was convened a week after the incident.
In addition to compensation, the ombudsman's report on Master Cpl. Wheeler's death recommends that military police be properly trained in the latest investigative and forensic techniques, including properly preserving accident scenes and separating key witnesses for interviews. They should also have independence from the chain of command.
The report concludes that it will never be possible to know why Master Cpl. Wheeler died because the original investigation of his death was badly botched after being left in the hands of a junior military police officer.
Many of the ombudsman's recommendations have been adopted by the Forces, the report notes.
Others, including a recommendation that the system be more sympathetic and helpful to families of deceased personnel, have been phased in as the military culture evolved.
"It is always good that lessons are learned, but particularly unfortunate that lessons are so often learned by hurting others," the report states. "That is what happened here."
Ms. Wheeler had to fight for six years to get information about her husband's death, including applying for documents under the Privacy Act, which were only given to her in a highly censored form. She was spurred on because she found it ridiculous that her husband was blamed for his own death.
The 1997 board of inquiry that cleared Master Cpl. Wheeler of all blame also pointed the finger at Lt.-Col. Lapeyre, a finding that would eventually be reversed six years later when the board of inquiry's findings were formally amended.
Master Cpl. Wheeler's death was also the subject of an investigation by the military police's National Investigation Service in 1999 and separate administrative review board ordered by the chief of the army in 2002.
A 'sorry story of missteps, insensitivity'
System has improved since bungled probe into soldier's death, ombudsman says
Mike Blanchfield
The Ottawa Citizen
Thursday, January 27, 2005
1 | 2 | NEXT >>
The freak accident that killed Master Cpl. Rick Wheeler in 1992 resonated through the Canadian Forces for 12 years.
Master Cpl. Wheeler was playing the role of a dead "enemy force" soldier in a war game at CFB Suffield in rural Alberta on April 7, 1992, when an armoured personnel carrier, part of the fictional opposing force, drove over him, crushing his skull and internal organs.
Master Cpl. Wheeler was initially blamed for his own death. His commanding officer, Jay Lapeyre, was also blamed. The Forces withheld information about his death from his widow. The scene of his accident was trampled and a key witness changed his testimony years later.
Over the years, a series of internal military investigations has tried to make sense of the tragedy, but closure has yet to come to those involved. At one point, a veteran RCMP officer seconded to the Forces' new National Investigations Unit, considered laying criminal charges against the entire military establishment, apparently out of frustration.
"As stories go, this is a sorry one, a tale of missteps and misjudgment, of inattention and insensitivity. Fortunately, it is also largely an historic story -- things have improved appreciably and the CF has learned from hard lessons," says a sweeping report released today by Forces ombudsman Andre Marin.
Rick Wheeler, a Digby, N.S., native, was a 29-year-old father of two daughters who had been in the Forces for 10 years prior to his death.
Lt.-Col. Lapeyre ordered a summary investigation of the death, not a board of inquiry such as the one ordered into the death of Lieut. Chris Saunders, the 32-year-old sailor who died in October's submarine tragedy on board HMCS Chicoutimi off the coast of Ireland.
A junior military police officer initially investigated Master Cpl. Wheeler's case. The RCMP was content to leave the case to the military.
Mrs. Wheeler would have to fight the system for information, eventually receiving a three-page summary of a 50-page report into the accident only after she made a formal request under the Privacy Act. The synopsis blamed Master Cpl. Wheeler for not getting out of the way of the APC.
Five years later, Mrs. Wheeler went to the media with her story and the publicity sparked a full-blown board of inquiry.
Master Cpl. Wheeler was cleared of causing his own death, but Lt.-Col. Lapeyre was blamed for being indirectly responsible. In a press release, the army pointed the finger at Lt.-Col. Lapeyre -- without naming him -- and another officer, who was identified as being in charge of the exercise. Lt.-Col. Lapeyre launched a privacy complaint that he had been unfairly blamed and had not been given a chance to defend himself.
The complaints sparked yet another investigation in 1999, this time by the military's National Investigation Service.
RCMP Insp. Russ Grabb, who had been seconded to the new unit, was struck that the initial military investigator was so inexperienced and didn't secure or examine the death scene.
Insp. Grabb couldn't fathom how Mrs. Wheeler was treated in the aftermath.
She wasn't treated the way I would like my wife to be treated if I was killed in that setting, in that situation."
There was another twist. A senior officer in Master Cpl. Wheeler's unit, who testified at the 1997 board of inquiry, came forward and changed his story. The officer originally testified that he was not in command of the fatal war-game exercise -- that there was, in effect, a command vacuum. In his new testimony, he admitted that he was in charge the day Master Cpl. Wheeler died.
This new evidence threw most of the 1997 inquiry into doubt, especially the finding that Lt.-Col. Lapeyre was somehow responsible. Insp. Grabb began a perjury investigation of the officer, but would not lay charges. Insp. Grabb wanted to go even further.
"Insp. Grabb considered the possibility of charging the (Canadian Forces) as an organization," the ombudsman's report states. Insp. Grabb eventually backed off, realizing he didn't have the evidence.
Almost a decade after the fatal accident, Lt.-Col. Lapeyre and Mrs. Wheeler brought their complaints, independently, to the military ombudsman.
Mr. Marin's report concludes that Lt.-Col. Lapeyre was "treated in a profoundly unfair manner" by the 1997 board of inquiry and that it rushed to blame him without giving him a chance to respond. The ombudsman concluded that he is "deserving of acknowledgment and apology at the highest level."
The report found that Lt.-Col. Lapeyre initially erred by calling for only a summary investigation when Master Cpl. Wheeler died, but that didn't warrant his subsequent mistreatment by the system.
As for Master Cpl. Wheeler's widow, the report concludes she was treated in an "insensitive" and "unfair" manner.
But the ombudsman also found that the Forces have made great strides in the way survivors of those killed in action are treated.
The parents of a private killed in a September 2002 training accident at CFB Petawawa lauded the "exceptional compassion, honesty and helpfulness" of officers who broke the news.
When four soldiers were killed in Afghanistan by an American pilot in the 2002 friendly fire incident, next of kin were notified by senior officers, two of whom were generals.
For Mrs. Wheeler, such changes in the way the military handles bereaved families did not come soon enough.
"The minute the service member is deceased or injured or basically out of commission and out of work, you are done. The door is shut, the key is turned, and you are done," she told the ombudsman.
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Mike Blanchfield
The Ottawa Citizen
Thursday, January 27, 2005
1 | 2 | NEXT >>
The Canadian Forces ombudsman will recommend compensation for the widow and the commanding officer of an infantryman killed in a freak training exercise on an Alberta base almost 13 years ago.
The recommendations are among the 34 contained a sweeping 383-page report by military ombudsman Andre Marin that is to be released today into the death of 29-year-old Master Cpl. Rick Wheeler, who was run over by an armoured personnel carrier during a war games exercise at Canadian Forces Base Suffield in April 1992.
Master Cpl. Wheeler's wife, Christina, had to fight for six years for information about her husband's death, and eventually had to go public with her concerns.
The original military police inquiry blamed her husband for his own death. Master Cpl. Wheeler was playing dead in a war game, and a summary investigation said he should have simply gotten up and gotten out of the way.
"She was left feeling alienated, abandoned, a feeling no family member of a soldier who dies in the service of their country should feel," the report states.
Master Cpl. Wheeler's commanding officer, retired lieutenant-colonel Jay Lapeyre, was also unfairly held responsible for the death after a board of inquiry -- sparked by Mrs. Wheeler's public complaints -- re-examined the death five years later.
Mr. Lapeyre's reputation "was harmed as a result. ... He was a man who, in what should have been the high point of his career, was depicted as having mismanaged an exercise in which one of his soldiers had died."
The Defence Department, in response to the report, has urged Mrs. Wheeler and Mr. Lapeyre to file claims and says they will be treated "sympathetically."
In the report, Mr. Marin calls on the chief of defence staff to personally ensure that Mrs. Wheeler is compensated "so that she and her family can put an end to this lengthy saga."
The findings of the ombudsman's report could have ramifications for another high-profile military investigation that is to issue its report soon: The board of inquiry into October's fatal fire aboard the submarine HMCS Chicoutimi, which claimed the life of 32-year-old Lieut. Chris Saunders.
An investigator and lawyer from the ombudsman's office travelled to Glasgow to consult with the Chicoutimi board of inquiry when it was convened a week after the incident.
In addition to compensation, the ombudsman's report on Master Cpl. Wheeler's death recommends that military police be properly trained in the latest investigative and forensic techniques, including properly preserving accident scenes and separating key witnesses for interviews. They should also have independence from the chain of command.
The report concludes that it will never be possible to know why Master Cpl. Wheeler died because the original investigation of his death was badly botched after being left in the hands of a junior military police officer.
Many of the ombudsman's recommendations have been adopted by the Forces, the report notes.
Others, including a recommendation that the system be more sympathetic and helpful to families of deceased personnel, have been phased in as the military culture evolved.
"It is always good that lessons are learned, but particularly unfortunate that lessons are so often learned by hurting others," the report states. "That is what happened here."
Ms. Wheeler had to fight for six years to get information about her husband's death, including applying for documents under the Privacy Act, which were only given to her in a highly censored form. She was spurred on because she found it ridiculous that her husband was blamed for his own death.
The 1997 board of inquiry that cleared Master Cpl. Wheeler of all blame also pointed the finger at Lt.-Col. Lapeyre, a finding that would eventually be reversed six years later when the board of inquiry's findings were formally amended.
Master Cpl. Wheeler's death was also the subject of an investigation by the military police's National Investigation Service in 1999 and separate administrative review board ordered by the chief of the army in 2002.
A 'sorry story of missteps, insensitivity'
System has improved since bungled probe into soldier's death, ombudsman says
Mike Blanchfield
The Ottawa Citizen
Thursday, January 27, 2005
1 | 2 | NEXT >>
The freak accident that killed Master Cpl. Rick Wheeler in 1992 resonated through the Canadian Forces for 12 years.
Master Cpl. Wheeler was playing the role of a dead "enemy force" soldier in a war game at CFB Suffield in rural Alberta on April 7, 1992, when an armoured personnel carrier, part of the fictional opposing force, drove over him, crushing his skull and internal organs.
Master Cpl. Wheeler was initially blamed for his own death. His commanding officer, Jay Lapeyre, was also blamed. The Forces withheld information about his death from his widow. The scene of his accident was trampled and a key witness changed his testimony years later.
Over the years, a series of internal military investigations has tried to make sense of the tragedy, but closure has yet to come to those involved. At one point, a veteran RCMP officer seconded to the Forces' new National Investigations Unit, considered laying criminal charges against the entire military establishment, apparently out of frustration.
"As stories go, this is a sorry one, a tale of missteps and misjudgment, of inattention and insensitivity. Fortunately, it is also largely an historic story -- things have improved appreciably and the CF has learned from hard lessons," says a sweeping report released today by Forces ombudsman Andre Marin.
Rick Wheeler, a Digby, N.S., native, was a 29-year-old father of two daughters who had been in the Forces for 10 years prior to his death.
Lt.-Col. Lapeyre ordered a summary investigation of the death, not a board of inquiry such as the one ordered into the death of Lieut. Chris Saunders, the 32-year-old sailor who died in October's submarine tragedy on board HMCS Chicoutimi off the coast of Ireland.
A junior military police officer initially investigated Master Cpl. Wheeler's case. The RCMP was content to leave the case to the military.
Mrs. Wheeler would have to fight the system for information, eventually receiving a three-page summary of a 50-page report into the accident only after she made a formal request under the Privacy Act. The synopsis blamed Master Cpl. Wheeler for not getting out of the way of the APC.
Five years later, Mrs. Wheeler went to the media with her story and the publicity sparked a full-blown board of inquiry.
Master Cpl. Wheeler was cleared of causing his own death, but Lt.-Col. Lapeyre was blamed for being indirectly responsible. In a press release, the army pointed the finger at Lt.-Col. Lapeyre -- without naming him -- and another officer, who was identified as being in charge of the exercise. Lt.-Col. Lapeyre launched a privacy complaint that he had been unfairly blamed and had not been given a chance to defend himself.
The complaints sparked yet another investigation in 1999, this time by the military's National Investigation Service.
RCMP Insp. Russ Grabb, who had been seconded to the new unit, was struck that the initial military investigator was so inexperienced and didn't secure or examine the death scene.
Insp. Grabb couldn't fathom how Mrs. Wheeler was treated in the aftermath.
She wasn't treated the way I would like my wife to be treated if I was killed in that setting, in that situation."
There was another twist. A senior officer in Master Cpl. Wheeler's unit, who testified at the 1997 board of inquiry, came forward and changed his story. The officer originally testified that he was not in command of the fatal war-game exercise -- that there was, in effect, a command vacuum. In his new testimony, he admitted that he was in charge the day Master Cpl. Wheeler died.
This new evidence threw most of the 1997 inquiry into doubt, especially the finding that Lt.-Col. Lapeyre was somehow responsible. Insp. Grabb began a perjury investigation of the officer, but would not lay charges. Insp. Grabb wanted to go even further.
"Insp. Grabb considered the possibility of charging the (Canadian Forces) as an organization," the ombudsman's report states. Insp. Grabb eventually backed off, realizing he didn't have the evidence.
Almost a decade after the fatal accident, Lt.-Col. Lapeyre and Mrs. Wheeler brought their complaints, independently, to the military ombudsman.
Mr. Marin's report concludes that Lt.-Col. Lapeyre was "treated in a profoundly unfair manner" by the 1997 board of inquiry and that it rushed to blame him without giving him a chance to respond. The ombudsman concluded that he is "deserving of acknowledgment and apology at the highest level."
The report found that Lt.-Col. Lapeyre initially erred by calling for only a summary investigation when Master Cpl. Wheeler died, but that didn't warrant his subsequent mistreatment by the system.
As for Master Cpl. Wheeler's widow, the report concludes she was treated in an "insensitive" and "unfair" manner.
But the ombudsman also found that the Forces have made great strides in the way survivors of those killed in action are treated.
The parents of a private killed in a September 2002 training accident at CFB Petawawa lauded the "exceptional compassion, honesty and helpfulness" of officers who broke the news.
When four soldiers were killed in Afghanistan by an American pilot in the 2002 friendly fire incident, next of kin were notified by senior officers, two of whom were generals.
For Mrs. Wheeler, such changes in the way the military handles bereaved families did not come soon enough.
"The minute the service member is deceased or injured or basically out of commission and out of work, you are done. The door is shut, the key is turned, and you are done," she told the ombudsman.
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