According to trial transcripts, the recruits broke formation as they entered the creek and were joking and fooling around in the water near the swamps adjacent to the Weapons Training Battalion.
[3][4] The platoon marched along the creek bed, but many strayed into deep water, resulting in the drowning deaths of six recruits:[5] Between 9:00 and 9:20 pm, Captain Patrick called Colonel W. B. McKean, the Commanding Officer of the Weapons Training Battalion, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island.
Staff Sergeant McKeon was initially represented by a Marine Corps attorney; on April 14, his brother-in-law Thomas P. Costello stepped in as his personal legal counsel.
Costello was assisted by another New York lawyer, Jim McGarry, and by Lieutenant Jeremiah Collins, as Marine-Corps-designated defense counsel.
[8] When asked by counsel for the defense whether there were any orders that prohibited using the marshes and swamp areas for training exercises, Colonel McKean answered: "....To the best of my knowledge the only order that relates to swamps has to do with marching down around the area of Elliot's Beach ..."[vague][9] During the proceedings, Costello established that night marches were common exercises.
[10] In his memoir, Ribbon Creek, McKean writes that General "Burger's efforts to deny the practice of night marches into swamps becomes ludicrous when we analyze the argument of his ghost writer, Major Faw."
[11] The Court of Inquiry resulted in four charges, including possessing alcohol on base (as was shown by McKeon having a drink there at about noon), oppressing his troops, involuntary manslaughter, and negligent homicide.
The Court of Inquiry did decide that the detailed directives regarding and prohibiting certain Marine training methods were "correct and adequate" and that McKeon had launched an unnecessary and unauthorized disciplinary action.
Staff Sergeant McKeon was court-martialed amidst a wave of public condemnation over the "brutality" of Marine Corps training.
McKeon was defended by a group of volunteer lawyers from New York City, including his brother-in-law, Thomas P. Costello, Emile Zola Berman, and Howard Lester, along with Marine Corps attorneys Lieutenant Colonel Alaric W. Valentin, Major John R. DeBarr, and Lieutenant Collins.
[12] Berman led the team, as he was a distinguished and successful trial attorney who specialized in negligence cases, but he was also dedicated to preserving the constitutional rights of the criminally accused.
[citation needed] The trial's most dramatic moment, however, was the arrival of General Lewis "Chesty" Puller, the most decorated Marine in the history of the Corps.
He mentioned a similar accident at an Army post in which ten soldiers drowned and pointed out that none of their superiors had been charged and that it had never made headlines the way Ribbon Creek had.
Staff Sergeant McKeon was acquitted of manslaughter and oppression of his troops but was found guilty of negligent homicide and drinking on duty.
"[14] Secretary Thomas further noted the following: "There is no question in my mind that his entire record prior to 8 April 1956 indicated that Sergeant McKeon was a capable non-commissioned officer, dedicated to the United States Marine Corps.
John C. Stevens researched the night march and subsequent court-martial and wrote a book called Court Martial At Parris Island.
The number of DIs assigned to each platoon was increased from two to three, and the role of the DI was reformed to emphasize example, leadership, persuasion and psychology in the process of recruit training.
However, the Marine Corps provided assistance in the making of the 1957 film The D.I., which Jack Webb both directed and starred in as the title character.
The movie depicted a patriotic, pro-Marine Corps point of view on the need for high pressure basic training.
The film was written by James Lee Barrett and was based on his teleplay for Kraft Television Theatre, Murder of a Sand Flea.