173rd Airborne soldier gets four years for break-in on Afghanistan base

173rd Airborne soldier gets four years for break-in on Afghanistan base
By Drew Brown, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Tuesday, May 13, 2008

JALALABAD, Afghanistan — A 173rd Airborne Brigade soldier will spend four years in prison for breaking into an Afghan electronics shop and assaulting an Afghan army sergeant who stumbled upon him and two other U.S. troops as they were committing the crime.

Pfc. Mark A. Fripp Jr., 20, of Beaufort, S.C., also received a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and reduction in rank to E-1 in the May 7 sentencing after being convicted during a court-martial of conspiracy, larceny, housebreaking and assault charges, according to the prosecutor in the case.

Fripp and two other soldiers from Fusion Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, used bolt cutters shortly after 1 a.m. on Nov. 16 to break into an electronics shop owned by an Afghan man at Forward Operating Base Fenty in eastern Afghanistan, said Capt. Eric Hanson, a prosecutor for the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

One soldier stood outside with his rifle, acting as a lookout, while Fripp and the other soldier stole more than $8,000 worth of DVD players, computer hard drives, cell phones, SIM cards and other items including the shop’s cash box, stuffing them into two Army-issue duffel bags, Hanson said.

But as Fripp and the other soldier were looting the shop, Afghan army Sgt. Noor Rahman walked by and ran into the lookout. The lookout tried to distract Rahman, asking him for a light for his cigarette, but the Afghan sergeant heard a noise and spotted Fripp and the other soldier inside, Hanson said.


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