By Colleen Jenkins

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina (Reuters) - Military prosecutors on Tuesday said a U.S. Army sergeant's physical abuse and racial harassment led a young Chinese-American soldier to commit suicide weeks after he was deployed to Afghanistan.

But a defense attorney argued that Private Danny Chen instead took his life out of despair over family troubles and his failure as an infantryman.

The dueling theories played out in a military courtroom in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, far from the base in Alaska where 19-year-old Chen was said to eagerly await his first deployment and the small outpost in southern Afghanistan where he killed himself in October.

Sergeant Adam Holcomb, 30, is the first of eight of Chen's superiors to stand trial in connection with his alleged hazing and subsequent death.

Holcomb, who has pleaded not guilty, faces nearly 18 years of confinement and a dishonorable discharge if convicted of charges that include negligent homicide.

The case has galvanized the Asian-American community in Chen's hometown of New York City and elsewhere, with supporters calling for the military to do more to guard against prejudice. Chen, born to immigrant parents, was the only Chinese-American in his unit.

Despite Asian-Americans comprising just 4 percent of the active duty U.S. military, many of the four officers and six enlisted soldiers chosen on Tuesday to sit as jurors said they had served with people of that ethnicity.

They described a military culture where nicknames are common and often endearing, and soldiers are exposed to suicide awareness training.

But during the opening statement for the prosecution, Captain Blake Doughty outlined a scenario where a leader failed to uphold one of the Army's basic values: respect.

Doughty accused Holcomb of using racially disparaging terms to refer to Chen and another soldier. Holcomb called Chen "dragon lady," "gook," "egg roll" and "chink," and called a young African-American soldier "black boy" and "niglet," the prosecutor said.

Doughty said Holcomb admitted to grabbing Chen out of bed by the arm and dragging him across gravel after the lower-ranked soldier left a water pump on in a shower against orders.

"This conduct over time drove Private Danny Chen to take his own life," Doughty said.

Chen killed himself in a guard tower on October 3, 2011. According to Doughty, Chen told at least two friends that suicide was the only way he could think of to stop the abuse.

But Captain Dennis Hernon, one of Holcomb's defense attorneys, said Chen alone was responsible for his premature death. Continued...