User:Geo Swan/Joseph Hickman

__NOINDEX__ See User:Geo Swan/Stale drafts

Joseph Hickman is an American soldier who reported a cover-up around the first three deaths at Guantanamo. He was one of four guards who reported that, at 7:00 on June 10, 2006 -- hours after three Guantanamo captives died -- he and the other guards who had been on duty were ordered to participate in a cover-up. He descibed being addressed by Colonel Michael Bumgarner, the commander of the Joint Detention Group, the camp's Guard force, told the guards the men had choked themselves on rags, but that the press would be told that the men hung themselves using their bed sheets.

Military career
Hickman joined the United States Marine Corp in his home town of Baltimore, when he was 19 years old, in 1983. He was selected to serve in the Marine Protective Detail for President Ronald Reagan. Hickman served a four-year enlistment in the Marine Corp.

After al-Qaeda's attacks of September 11, 2001 he re-enlisted -- in the United States Army. He was demobilized in 2007, at the rank of Staff Sergeant. In May 2006 he was recognized as "NCO of the quarter", at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

Between his enlistment in the Marine Corp in the 1980s, and his enlistment in the Army in the 2000s, Hickman worked in the field of private security, and then as a private investigator.