Editing 82nd Airborne Division (section)

==== Torture and Abuse at Camp Mercury ====
In September 2005, a Human Rights Watch report alleged that residents of Fallujah called the 1st Battalion, [[504th Infantry Regiment]] "the Murderous Maniacs," based on their treatment of Iraqis in detention. According to accounts of 82nd Airborne officers and NCOs, members of the battalion in 2003-2004 routinely used physical and mental torture as a means of intelligence gathering and for stress relief.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Leadership Failure: Firsthand Accounts of Torture of Iraqi Detainees by the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division : I. Summary |url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/us0905/1.htm |access-date=2025-02-15 |website=www.hrw.org}}</ref> According to the report, these battalion members estimated "...that about half of the detainees at Camp Mercury were released because they were not involved in the insurgency, but they left with the physical and mental scars of torture." 

After reporting these abuses yet being ignored by his superiors for 17 months, the Captain took his allegations to three senior Republican senators—[[Bill Frist]], [[John McCain]], and [[John Warner]]—before the Army was finally compelled to launch an investigation. It was only after his report to the senators that action was taken. A staffer for one of them later told TIME magazine that the captain’s claims were “extremely credible.” <ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Zagorin |first=Adam |date=2005-09-23 |title=Pattern of Abuse |url=https://time.com/archive/6919010/pattern-of-abuse/ |access-date=2025-02-17 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}</ref> The 1st Battalion, [[504th Infantry Regiment]]'s torture and abuse of prisoners later inspired the passage of the [[Detainee Treatment Act]], and the anonymous captain was later revealed to be [[Ian Fishback]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-06-10 |title=Soldier Who Wrote of Detainee Abuse Submits Statement on Senator Sessions {{!}} Human Rights First |url=https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/blog/soldier-who-wrote-detainee-abuse-submits-statement-senator-sessions |access-date=2025-02-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610043126/https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/blog/soldier-who-wrote-detainee-abuse-submits-statement-senator-sessions |archive-date=10 June 2021 }}</ref> 

When Ian Fishback passed away in 2021, Senator [[Dick Durbin]] called Ian Fishback a military hero, saying:
{{Quote|text=Major Fishback’s courageous letter shed light on the atrocities that were being committed—shamefully—in the name of our nation. ... After reports emerged from horrific abuses at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, I tried for a year and a half to pass legislation to make it clear that cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of detainees was illegal. Two military heroes, my former colleague Senator John McCain and Major Fishback, turned the tide in this effort.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20211202134803/https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-calls-for-closure-of-guantanamo-bay-in-ndaa Durbin also honored the life and legacy of the late Major Ian Fishback], ''Press Release'', November 30, 2021</ref>|source=}}