The investigation found that Chen had been "racially harassed, teased, bullied, and mercilessly beaten" by his fellow soldiers before he committed suicide on October 3, 2011.

[2] Chen was born and raised in Chinatown, Manhattan, New York City, to parents who had immigrated from Sunning, Canton Province, South China.

[6] Chen was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his living quarters at the base in Kandahar province, Afghanistan.

[8] Military investigators found that Chen was “the target of ethnic slurs, taunts, and insults, and endured physical attacks at the hands of his fellow soldiers before his death”.

[5][10][8] As the first and only American soldier with Chinese ancestry in the unit, he was singled out, endured taunts including racial slurs and insults such as "gook", "chink", "Jackie Chan", "Soy Sauce", and "dragon lady";[11] assigned excessive guard duty to the point of exhaustion, made to do push-ups while holding water in his mouth, and put in a "simulated sitting position" and mercilessly kicked by other soldiers using their knees, among other abuses, bullying, or violent tactics.

[12] On October 3, 2011, the day he died, other soldiers forced him to crawl on gravel for over 100 metres (330 ft) while carrying equipment, as his comrades “mercilessly threw rocks and stones at him without showing any remorse”.

They faced various charges, including assault, hate crime, name calling, bullying, dereliction of duty, involuntary manslaughter, maltreatment, making false statements, negligent homicide, and reckless endangerment.

[16][17] Following a series of Article 32 hearings on March 5, 2012, investigators dropped the most serious charge, involuntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison.

[20] He faced eight counts of dereliction of duty, including failure to promote "a climate in which everyone is treated with dignity and respect, regardless of race" and "to prevent his subordinates from maltreating and engaging in racially abusive language."

He faced charges including negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, communicating a threat, assault, maltreatment of a subordinate, dereliction of duty, and violating a lawful general regulation, which combined carried a maximum prison sentence of up to 17 years and 9 months.

Carden had previously been found guilty of ordering Chen to perform demeaning physical tasks, and calling him racially disparaging names.

After the trials associated with Chen's death, the Army said it was working "to re-examine its policies against hazing and, officials said, double its efforts to eradicate the practice from its ranks.

"[22] An American Soldier, an opera based on Chen's suicide and the subsequent courts-martial, was premiered at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2014.