Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
over the strong objections of DoD and some in Congress. Most of the objections were to prevent incidents like the one you cite; that and the bending the rules on Posse Comitatus.

The Hernandez incident is sterling example of what happens when the government tries to garner political and propaganda points instead of doing things right. DoD and the service got vindicated but that didn't help Hernandez. You did note that Hernandez fired first -- getting shot at, even with a .22 gets one's attention -- and that several investigations resulted, correctly IMO, in no punishment for the Marine. Sad and unnecessary for all concerned.

In the event, the ROE were changed not only on weapons use but on deployments in general for such purposes. Essentially, no Active Forces are routinely deployed (the ARNG is not subject to Posse Comitatus restrictions unless Federalized) and those that are operate only in a support role.
I am originally from Texas, and was living there at the time this happened. I remember it getting a significant amount of attention from the statewide media.

The way I remember this being reported, and I could be wrong, the people in the town said they had no idea that there were Marines around running some kind of border surveillance missions.

Since dead men tell no tales, nobody will ever know how Hernandez viewed the situation. If it was me, I probably would have thought it was a coyote (the four legged kind) out there stalking my goats, or maybe a real illegal alien up to who knows what. If so, I can see how he would think squeezing off a .22 shot might do the trick. I think that is generally a bad idea, though; I've never fired a weapon in my life when I wasn't 100% sure exactly what I was shooting at.

Actually being in a gunfight with some Leathernecks probably never occurred to him. And I can see how the Marines hearing bullets come in their general direction decided to shoot back.

If we aren't either invading Mexico, or repelling an invasion of the Mexican army, this just seems like a bad idea to me.