United States Military Personnel

An Army private accused of bludgeoning a fellow soldier to death with a baseball bat went on trial Tuesday as military prosecutors said for the first time that the victim was killed because he was thought to be gay. Pvt. Calvin N. Glover, 18, of Sulphur, Okla., is charged with premeditated murder in the slaying of Pfc. Barry L. Winchell, 21, in July. Before the start of the court-martial, Glover admitted to a lesser charge of unpremeditated murder in hopes of receiving a lighter sentence.

An Army private accused of bludgeoning a fellow soldier to death with a baseball bat went on trial Tuesday as military prosecutors said for the first time that the victim was killed because he was thought to be gay. Pvt. Calvin N. Glover, 18, of Sulphur, Okla., is charged with premeditated murder in the slaying of Pfc. Barry L. Winchell, 21, in July. Before the start of the court-martial, Glover admitted to a lesser charge of unpremeditated murder in hopes of receiving a lighter sentence.

An Army private accused of bludgeoning a soldier to death admitted beating the victim's head with a baseball bat, a fellow soldier testified Monday. Several soldiers have said they believed the killing was an anti-gay hate crime. Pfc. Barry L. Winchell, 21, was perceived as a homosexual by some soldiers in his unit, according to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, the watchdog group for gays in the military. Neither the Army nor Winchell's family would comment on his sexuality.

An Army private accused of bludgeoning a soldier to death admitted beating the victim's head with a baseball bat, a fellow soldier testified Monday. Several soldiers have said they believed the killing was an anti-gay hate crime. Pfc. Barry L. Winchell, 21, was perceived as a homosexual by some soldiers in his unit, according to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, the watchdog group for gays in the military. Neither the Army nor Winchell's family would comment on his sexuality.

Kurt E. Kroeger's Oct. 12 letter ("Military Orders") is incorrect. The Nuremberg trials after World War II enforced the concept of following legal orders and redefined the requirement to question illegal orders. Every soldier receives training regarding following legal orders; and, United States military personnel know that they are obligated to question illegal orders. The fact that the No Gun Ri incident occurred on the heels of WWII and the Nuremberg trials should have made the legality of orders even more evident to the soldiers fighting in the Korean War. Soldiers do have choices and are required to make moral judgments.

The U.S. Boxing team, which had 11 military members--including nine fighters--barred by the Defense Department from attending the Goodwill Games at Moscow, will try to fill the slots but is facing a Tuesday night deadline to locate the substitutes and arrange the paper work, Col. Don Hull, president of the U.S. Amateur Boxing Federation, said Friday. "We have an obligation and are committed to being represented," Hull said. "We'll have to take the next line of boxers.

Inventor Richard M. Diaz says his product is something no briefcase or backpack should be without. Because whether a person is in the middle of fighting a war in Saudi Arabia, caught in an earthquake or simply enjoying a weekend camping trip, Diaz says, one essential accessory is the Personal Commode--a 1-pound portable toilet. Diaz, an entrepreneur from Patton, Calif., was one of dozens of inventors hoping to be discovered at Saturday's Invention Convention at the Disneyland Hotel.

Early on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Lenny Dorf returned from shore leave to his ship, theS. battleship Arizona, docked in Pearl Harbor, just long enough to pick up the $20 he had stashed aboard. At 7:55 a.m., 10 minutes after Dorf left the ship, the bombs began falling from the sky. "The next time I saw the Arizona, it was settling into the sea," he said. "I started crying like a baby."

Belize's newly-elected conservative government is hoping to persuade Britain to make a clear-cut promise for the continued presence of British troops in its only former colony in Central America. Belize won independence from Britain on Sept. 21, 1981, along with a pledge from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that a 1,800-strong British garrison would remain for "an appropriate period of time."

The Supreme Court announced Monday that it would hear a challenge to the Bush administration's plan to try accused foreign terrorists in special military courts, setting the stage for a ruling on whether the Geneva Convention trumps the president in the war on terrorism. The case, to be heard in the spring, will set the rules for the first war-crimes trials for foreign prisoners since World War II.