The Ribbon Creek incident occurred on the night of April 8, 1956, when Staff Sergeant Matthew McKeon, a junior drill instructor at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, marched his assigned platoon into Ribbon Creek, a swampy tidal creek. The incident resulted in the deaths of six United States Marine Corps recruits. McKeon was found guilty of possession and drinking alcohol on duty and of negligent homicide.
Incident
On April 8, 1956, at approximately 8 pm, Staff Sergeant Matthew McKeon, a combat veteran of World War II and the Korean War, led Platoon 71, his assigned platoon of 74 recruits, on an extra exercise to Ribbon Creek. According to a doctor's testimony given at his trial, Staff Sergeant McKeon was not intoxicated or under the influence of alcohol at the time of the exercise. McKeon led the platoon toward a swampy tidal creek on Parris Island, near the Marine Corps recruit depot, and conducted an exercise in the creek. McKeon entered the water first. According to trial transcripts, the recruits broke formation as they entered the creek and were joking and fooling around in the water near the swamps adjacent to the Weapons Training Battalion. The platoon marched along the creek bed, but many strayed into deep water, resulting in the drowning deaths of six recruits: Private Thomas Curtis Hardeman Private First Class Donald Francis O'Shea Private Charles Francis Reilly Private Jerry Lamonte Thomas Private Leroy Thompson Private Norman Alfred Wood
Investigation
Between 9:00 and 9:20 pm, Captain Patrick called Colonel W. B. McKean, the Commanding Officer of the Weapons Training Battalion, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island. The captain reported, "We're in trouble. There are a bunch of recruits coming back to building 761 and it seems that the DI has been marching them through the swamps. I'm going down now to investigate it." The colonel responded, before proceeding further to the effect of, "Lock up the DI. Send to sickbay those that need it. Get the rest of them policed up and call me back as soon as you know the number of that platoon and the battalion."
On April 9, a Court of Inquiry was convened to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the marching of platoon 71 into Ribbon Creek. The proceedings began the next day. Staff Sergeant McKeon was initially represented by a Marine Corps attorney; on April 14, his brother-in-law Thomas P. Costello stepped in as his personal legal counsel. Costello was assisted by another New York lawyer, Jim McGarry, and by Lieutenant Jeremiah Collins, as Marine-Corps-designated defense counsel. There had been no specific prohibition against entering the creek, as Colonel McKean (who had ordered the drill instructor's initial confinement) notes in his memoir, Ribbon Creek. When asked by counsel for the defense whether there were any orders that prohibited using the marshes and swamp areas for training exercises, Colonel McKean answered: "....To the best of my knowledge the only order that relates to swamps has to do with marching down around the area of Elliot's Beach ..." During the proceedings, Costello established that night marches were common exercises. In his memoir, Ribbon Creek, McKean writes that General "Burger's efforts to deny the practice of night marches into swamps becomes ludicrous when we analyze the argument of his ghost writer, Major Faw." McKean confirmed this practice by asking about eighteen Marines assisting in the search of Ribbon Creek that night if they had ever marched into the swamps at night; his answer had been that a "clear majority" of them had done so.
The Court of Inquiry resulted in four charges, including possessing alcohol on base (as was shown by McKeon having a drink there at about noon), oppressing his troops, involuntary manslaughter, and negligent homicide. McKeon was also charged with drinking in front of a recruit.
Staff Sergeant McKeon was brought before the court the following day. At first, he was classified as mentally and "emotionally stable" and "a mature, stable appearing career Marine." The Court of Inquiry did decide that the detailed directives regarding and prohibiting certain Marine training methods were "correct and adequate" and that McKeon had launched an unnecessary and unauthorized disciplinary action. It was proven that McKeon had consumed several alcoholic drinks the afternoon before the night march, but it was confirmed that he was not under the influence of alcohol when he led the recruits into the creek. The recommendation was that McKeon be subject to a court-martial.