April 14th, 2021
By Ty Ross
By now, most have probably seen the video of Sergeant First Class Jonathan Pentland, a Ft. Jackson, SC drill instructor, and his hostile interaction with a young black man walking in the neighborhood.
While the video is certainly shocking, what it isn’t is surprising. Not these days anyway.
Being originally from Charlotte, NC, about 90 miles north of the largest basic training facility in the country, I’m pretty familiar with Columbia. My mother, a retired Army First Sergeant, did her basic training at Ft. Jackson and was a drill instructor herself at the base. Unlike many areas in a state that leans red, Columbia is more liberal and split almost evenly among racial lines.