Sergeant Borrows Trouble With Loan From Fellow Marine

His life’s ambition was to be a career man in the Marine Corps. Then one day, Staff Sgt. Terry Mizell made the mistake of borrowing $200 from an underling to help put some food in his family’s pantry.

Now he’s wondering if that decision, asking a subordinate for emergency cash, has ruined his military career and the 12 years he has already invested in it.

A competency review board has recommended that Mizell be washed out of the service for his indiscretion and other concerns about his financial affairs. He should be a better role model for his men, the Marine Corps says.

Mizell, who was born at Camp Pendleton 29 years ago when his father was a Marine, and who joined the Marines himself when he was 17, is appealing the decision to a general.

There were extenuating circumstances, he’ll tell the general, leading to the admitted error of borrowing money from one of the men under his command.

And indeed there are.

Mizell’s is a story about a Marine with a large family trying to make ends meet, a traumatized child and a wife who thinks her husband is getting a raw deal from the Marine Corps he loves. It also is a story about whether the military can mix compassion with its rules.

It goes back to an afternoon last June when his 9-year-old stepdaughter told Mizell and his wife, Bobbi, that the Marine living in the next-door duplex--a neighborhood “good guy” and personal friend of the family--had approached her in the Mizell’s garage, away from the view of a baby sitter, and sexually molested her. A psychologist confirmed the girl’s story after an extensive therapy session.

Three months later, on Sept. 11, that Marine would drive onto a residential street in San Juan Capistrano, put a gun to his head and commit suicide, according to the Orange County coroner’s office.

But, for a month or so, that Marine continued to live next door to the Mizells in the San Onofre housing area in the northern reaches of Camp Pendleton, not far from San Clemente. And, every day, he would sit there on his front porch, his favorite perch after finishing his work shift, and wave to his neighbors, the Mizells.

It drove them crazy, this guy sitting there like nothing had happened, and their daughter frightened to death, the Mizells said.

It wasn’t until a month or so after the incident that the suspect was ordered to live in barracks, away from the Mizell home, as the investigation into the charges progressed.

Meanwhile, Bobbi Mizell had quit her job as a night manager of one of the clubs on base and stayed home full time to watch over her five children, and especially the traumatized 9-year-old whose nights were now filled with nightmares and sleepwalking. The windows were shut, the drapes were closed, and the children spent part of their summer inside the home, trapped in fear, she said.

The Mizells, struggling financially even before Bobbi quit her job, were now scraping for every dollar to feed the family of seven. They sought public welfare relief and were turned down, Bobbi Mizell said. Terry Mizell worked a second job in the afternoons and evenings as a softball umpire for the Orange County Parks and Recreation Department, but it didn’t help enough. Bobbi Mizell’s decision to stay home was helping emotionally but killing them financially.

Finally, one day in early August, Bobbi Mizell called her husband on base and, with panic in her voice, said the cupboard was bare, the kids were hungry and she didn’t have any money left in her account.

Her husband hung up the phone in distress and looked up. In the room was Lance Cpl. Eddie F. Willis, three ranks his junior. He asked Willis for a loan, whatever he could afford. The next day, Willis handed him $200. Mizell was supposed to pay him back in a couple of weeks, but couldn’t scrape the money together until nearly three months later--after he had been reminded of it.

A commanding officer somehow heard of the loan, and it didn’t sit well with him because Marine Corps regulations prohibit--for obvious reasons--superiors borrowing money from subordinates.

Mizell was brought before a summary court-martial, which is an administrative rather than criminal proceeding, to answer the charge that he borrowed money from one of his men.

“I had a lot on my mind, and it was hard enough trying to be a Marine plus trying to keep the family together,” Mizell told the court-martial, according to transcripts of his testimony provided to The Times by his wife. “I was doing the best I could.”

The family psychologist wrote to the Marines that Mizell “responded to his stressful family situation in the best way he could at the time. And it is just that inordinate amount of social stress which I witnessed that needs to be examined in order to obtain a clear picture of Sgt. Terry Mizell’s intentions and actions.”

Mizell was acquitted by the court-martial because his actions hadn’t been deceitful.

Competency Review

But then he was brought before a different administrative panel. This one, a competency review board, deliberated on his “alleged financial irresponsibility” not only in borrowing the money from a subordinate, but also because of the way he handled his financial affairs in general, said Capt. Rusty Cutner of Camp Pendleton’s public affairs office.

Cutner said the Marine Corps could not discuss details of Mizell’s financial affairs nor the charges against him because of laws governing confidentiality of personnel records. “We’re in a peculiar position,” Cutner said.

Bobbi Mizell, however, said the couple were in debt to the NCO club on base even before she quit her job to stay home with her daughter. Checks elsewhere around town had bounced, partly because of a mix-up involving the direct deposit of Mizell’s biweekly paychecks that came out to about $290 after such deductions as housing payments and support for two children from a previous marriage. There was a dispute over whether Mizell had paid another Marine who had fixed his motorcycle. More checks bounced. “Financially, we were in trouble and a half,” Bobbi Mizell said.

The competency review board’s function, Cutner said, was to determine whether Mizell “exhibited professionalism in his behavior as a staff NCO. These staff NCOs are examples to our young troops. This is called leadership, and in the Marine Corps, leadership is very important. Leadership by example.”

‘Prejudicial to Good Order’

If an officer “is borrowing money from a subordinate, it is prejudicial to good order within the Marine Corps. You can understand why,” Cutner said.

The review board decided that Mizell wasn’t setting the right example. So two weeks ago, it recommended that Mizell be reduced by one rank, from staff sergeant to sergeant.

But the implications went far beyond that. If a Marine is not a staff sergeant by his 12th year, he is not offered re-enlistment. Mizell’s 12th anniversary comes up early next year.

Because it generally takes four years to advance from sergeant to staff sergeant--even if you’ve already held that rank once--there’s virtually no likelihood that if Mizell is busted to sergeant, he’ll be back to staff sergeant in time. And that means his Marine Corps career is finished.

And before the loan incident, he had been told that he was on a waiting list for promotion to gunnery sergeant, his wife said.

General Makes Final Decision

The competency review board’s recommendations now go to Mizell’s regimental commander, Col. H. P. Pate, who will make his own recommendations, Cutner said. The final decision will be made by the commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, Maj. Gen. James J. McMonagle.

Mizell already is planning his own appeal to the general, his wife said. Mizell declined to discuss the matter with The Times, saying he feared repercussions from his superiors, although Cutner said the man is free to speak on the issue if he wants.

Bobbi Mizell, however, is seeking publicity on behalf of her husband “because this time the Marine Corps is messing with the wrong woman.”

The military, she said, has “left us picking up the pieces. Well, excuse me, but I don’t appreciate the mess they’ve made for me and my family.

“If this molestation had happened off base, and the guy wasn’t in jail, you could pick up and move somewhere else and get away from him. But you can’t do that when you’re in military housing. So I had to quit my job to stay with my children, and one thing led to another.

“I’m bitter and mad and I have every right to be. I’ve seen my husband--a good man, a good Marine--shot down.”

Bobbi Mizell provided photocopies of her husband’s performance evaluations. One sheet, the Marine Corps’ equivalent of college transcripts for each assignment given him, is marked with nothing but “excellents” and “outstandings.”

In a performance review, a lieutenant colonel wrote of Mizell: “He is respected by his subordinates and is always willing to accept their suggestions. He pays very close attention to detail and will not accept performance short of perfection. He thrives on responsibility and approaches a task with great determination.”

A handful of Marines, including some of his superiors, wrote supportive letters to both the court-martial and the competency review boards.

Mizell “carried himself well, was professional, displayed bearing and was loyal to his Marines and the command,” a first sergeant wrote.

Described as a Leader

And a first lieutenant wrote: “He has been a leader to all the troops under him, an example-setter, and one who works to accomplish any mission he is given. I know SSgt. Mizell has had some financial and family problems, but he has overcome them whilst maintaining his bearing and professionalism. SSgt. Mizell is a highly competent Marine and should be promoted.”

Those references contradict the characterization of Mizell by his immediate boss, according to a letter in Mizell’s personnel file, also provided by Bobbi Mizell.

The competency review board was requested by 1st Lt. M. E. Prowell, Mizell’s boss in the special services office of the 11th Marine Regiment, who wrote to Col. Pate: “I have not once been impressed with his behavior and attitude as a SNCO (staff noncommissioned officer). I feel that SSgt. Mizell fails to meet the minimum standards of general value expected of a Marine SNCO.

“I have counseled SSgt. Mizell at different times and for a variety of reasons. These range from lack of supervision of the troops, financial irresponsibility, setting an example as a leader, honesty or lack of, refereeing baseball on Marine Corps time, and military appearance.

“As evidenced by his appearing before the regimental Commanding Officer, for office hours, wearing ‘slept-in’ cammies with a large paint stain (and) his recent misdealings with troops, it’s obvious that these counselings did not lead to appreciable improvement.”

Prowell also faulted Mizell for not repaying financial loans from the Navy Relief Society, loans which eventually became outright gifts. “In my eyes, he (Mizell) knows the system and has abused it to his advantage, and as a consequence, caused a disadvantage to other needy Marine families. These actions throw discredit upon the professionalism of the Staff Noncommissioned Officer ranks,” Prowell wrote.

8 Dependents

But G. M. McCain, executive director of the Navy Relief Society, wrote a “to whom it may concern” letter noting that Mizell has eight dependents--two children from a previous marriage, his wife and her five children from her previous marriage.

“On a staff sergeant’s pay, it is very difficult to support this size family,” McCain wrote. The relief organization loaned Mizell money and “ . . . it was discovered that, apparently due to no fault of his own, he had no capability to repay.” The loan repayment papers were torn up, a “not uncommon” practice, McCain wrote. The loan-turned-grant “should not reflect upon the integrity” of the recipient, he added.

Bobbi Mizell said her husband’s love of the Marine Corps has soured but that he wants to remain a Marine. He has retained a civilian attorney to aid in his appeal.

Cutner, the Marine Corps spokesman, said he is unsure when Maj. Gen. McMonagle will decide Mizell’s fate. In the meantime, Mizell is teaching his specialty--artillery--to younger troops.

The investigation into the sexual molestation closed with the Marine suspect’s suicide.

Bobbi Mizell has returned to work at a base club, as a night manager. And her daughter continues to receive psychotherapy.