Ilario Pantano

Ilario Gregory Pantano (born August 28, 1971) is a former United States Marine Corps second lieutenant. He has also been an author, a television commentator, and served as a Deputy Sheriff in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was a Republican Party nominee for the US House of Representatives in 2010.

Pantano served in the Persian Gulf War, during Operation Desert Storm, and in the Iraq War, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He came to national attention when he was accused of premeditated murder in the killing of two Iraqi captives, during a unit mission near Fallujah, Iraq on April 15, 2004. An article 32 hearing found no credible evidence or testimony for the accusation and declined to prosecute Pantano, dropping all charges. Claiming terrorist threats against his family, he resigned his officer's commission and was honorably discharged. These events and his other experiences as a combat Marine during the Persian Gulf War and in Iraq in 2004 are the subject of his memoir, ''Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy''.

Early life, education and business career

Pantano was born in New York City and grew up in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. His father, Benito, was an Italian immigrant, and his mother, Merry, a literary agent, is a native of Salina, Kansas. He attended the private Horace Mann High School in New York City on scholarship. Following graduation he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served active duty in the first Gulf War.

Following his return to civilian life, Pantano earned an economics degree from New York University. He worked as an energy trader for Goldman Sachs. From 1995 to 1998, he was a member of the start-up team that integrated top-tier investment bank culture (GS) with utility business (BG&E) in Constellation Power, an electricity trading joint venture that was acquired for $11 billion by FPL. Shortly thereafter, he became a movie producer with the New York-based firm The Shooting Gallery, and co-founded Filter Media, a company specializing in interactive television. Pantano married Jill Chapman, a fashion model and entrepreneur who had appeared in ''Vogue Italia''. The couple live in North Carolina and have two sons.

Military service and controversy

First enlistment

Pantano served in the U. S. Marine Corps during the Persian Gulf War as a TOW gunner. Pantano completed Scout Sniper training, and was promoted to Sergeant, remaining in the Marine Corps until 1993.

Rejoins the USMC

Immediately following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Pantano decided to rejoin the Marines. Pantano's apartment was next to a fire station where eleven firemen, four of whom were former Marines, perished in the attacks. He was accepted to Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant upon completion.

He was a popular officer and his superiors described him as the best platoon commander in his battalion. His men reported that they appreciated the extra training drills he put them through. As ''Time Magazine'' reported in 2005, "Pantano prepared his platoon by working the men hard. His men grumbled (enlisted men call officers like Pantano "motarded"—motivated to the point of retardation). But he believed that the more they trained, the fitter they were, the more chance they had of surviving a real war. The effort paid off. In more than 40 combat operations, the platoon suffered one casualty—a shrapnel nick from an incoming mortar round. Then the insurgency erupted. Newly arrived units took more casualties in a few days than their predecessors had in eight months."

Pantano went to Iraq in February 2004 with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines. This was quickly followed by the intense fighting in Fallujah during Operation Vigilant Resolve in April 2004.

Incident, hearing and aftermath

On April 15, 2004, acting on intelligence extracted from captured insurgents, Lieutenant Pantano led his platoon against a compound near the town of Mahmudiyah. As the platoon approached the compound, they saw a vehicle with two Iraqis in it. Pantano ordered his men to stop the vehicle and to have the occupants of the vehicle handcuffed. The vehicle was searched for weapons. Lieutenant Pantano remained with the captives, while the rest of his platoon secured the compound. The compound was deserted, but his men found a cache of arms, including ''"several mortar aiming stakes, a flare gun, three AK47 rifles, 10 AK magazines with assault vests and IED making material"''.

When Pantano learned that the compound contained weapons, he ordered Sergeant Daniel Coburn and Corpsman George Gobles to watch for enemies. He then released the captives from their bonds so they could search the vehicle again more thoroughly. According to a statement Lieutenant Pantano made to military investigators in June 2004, he then used hand signals to order the captives to search the vehicle again. According to Pantano, during the search of the vehicle he felt the Iraqis posed a threat to him. They were talking and Pantano believed they were conspiring together. When they both turned to face each other he shouted "Stop!" in both Arabic and English, and when they did not stop, he shot them. He later stated: "I then changed magazines and continued to fire until the second magazine was empty...I had made a decision that when I was firing I was going to send a message to these Iraqis and others that when we say, 'No better friend, No worse enemy,' we mean it. I had fired both magazines into the men, hitting them with about 80 percent of my rounds."

In June 2004, Sergeant Coburn, whom Pantano had previously demoted, registered a complaint about the incident, triggering a Naval Criminal Investigative Service probe. On February 1, 2005, Pantano was charged with two counts of premeditated murder, and faced the death penalty if convicted.Scarborough, Ryan. ''The Washington Times'', February 25, 2005; reprinted at this url.

On April 14, 2005, Pantano tried to waive his right to an Article 32 pretrial hearing, in an effort to speed the process toward a court martial. Pantano claimed that the government was withholding key evidence and witnesses and according to a statement made by his mother, waived his right to a hearing "in order to get a Military Judge to compel the prosecution to produce witnesses and evidence in his case." The request was denied and the Article 32 hearing was held on April 26, 2005 with Major Mark Winn as the presiding officer.

Prior to Pantano's Article 32 hearing the Department of Defense had maintained that it was impossible to do a post-mortem examination on the corpses of Lieutenant Pantano's captives because they were buried in a cemetery that was in an area that was not under American control. However, shortly before the hearing and a year after the incident itself, the bodies were exhumed. The autopsy report was released the day after the Article 32 recommendation was made and, according to ''The Washington Times'', confirmed Lt. Pantano's testimony that he had shot the men as they approached him.

Pantano's statements

Pantano acknowledged leaving a sign on a car above the corpses that said, "No better friend, No worse enemy," but then returned to remove it after one of his colleagues called it 'inappropriate'. This phrase is the motto of his Marine Corps battalion, and is promoted by his battalion commander as the combat philosophy of their unit. The slogan is also a popular Marine saying popularized by Lieutenant General James Mattis, then commanding general of the 1st Marine Division. In an interview with the BBC
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