We always thought Dean Cain was the hottest hump to play Superman ever (at left). But then we didn’t know what was going on in an Army barracks in Virginia.

Seems there was this group of troubled soldier boys at Ft. Eustis who were advised by their drill sergeant to shake off their post-traumatic stress with a little Superman play-acting.

Except the Superman the drill sergeant was thinking of was an all-boy porn version, and the way his therapy worked was that the solider would don a spandex Superman costume and the good sergeant would… well, I believe we scholars of such things would call it genitorture.

Popbitch give us all the filthy dish:

Army Staff Sergeant Edmundo F Estrada of America’s Fort Eustis barracks was always prepared to go beyond the call of duty for his trainees. When one of the young soldiers told him he was depressed after losing his training status, Sgt Estrada went out of his way to help.

He suggested role-playing, a technique that he had used previously to help soldiers with “their self-confidence” and “to alleviate depression.”

So the sergeant and trainee acted out scenes from a porn movie, featuring Superman weakened by Kryptonite and subjected to sexual torture, The soldier dressed in a Superman outfit while Estrada performed sexual acts on him.

Sadly it obviously didn’t cure the depression — Sgt Estrada is about to face trial.

The Associated Press picks up the story in a somewhat more sober vein:

A drill sergeant at Fort Eustis is accused of forcing a male trainee to dress as Superman and submit to sexual acts, according to court documents.

Army Staff Sgt. Edmundo F. Estrada, 35, of Hampton, faces charges of indecent assault, having an inappropriate relationship with a trainee, and cruelty and maltreatment of subordinates … He is scheduled to appear April 17 in a military court.

According to a search warrant affidavit filed in Hampton Circuit Court, officials began investigating Estrada in August after a soldier reported Estrada mistreated and sexually assaulted him…

“Estrada would verbally describe a sexual act of torture, relating to the pornographic movie, and (the victim) was to respond in a sexual manner by moaning,” the affidavit said. The soldier also said he eventually was forced to “dress in a ‘Superman’ or similar outfit” while Estrada performed sexual acts on him.

The soldier reported he felt if he didn’t obey the requests, “Estrada would negatively affect his reclassification efforts.”

Soldiers from Estrada’s previous unit reported Estrada told them to shed their shirts “so he could photograph their bodies in order to document physical development,” the affidavit said. Others described being ordered to “dress up and pose in spandex and then told not to mention it to anyone.”

This all makes perfect sense to us. The boys were stressed. The drill sergeant was simply using all the psychology he had learned in junior college, with the visual aids available to him.

Nightcharm petitions the President to grant Sergent Estrada a Christmas Eve pardon as he will surely do for convicted felon Scooter Libby.

Like Scooter, the drill sergeant was only doing his job. Unlike Scooter, Estrada was making love, not war.