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I don't you missed much there, Andy. He was something of a scalawag from what I've heard. Probably collected quite a few Article 15's. Do officers get Article 15's, or just Good Conduct and Commendation medals?

I know they get busted, though. And in a big way sometimes. I just now happened to recall my squadron commander when I first got to the Azores. I signed in at the orderly room and the First Shirt took me through to meet the commander. I don't remember his last name, but his first was Captain. The First Sgt. was named Paine; most fitting, too; he lived up to it.

Anyway, that was the first of only two times I saw the commander. Less than a month later I was again in the orderly room when he came out of his office toting garment and duffle bags. And blow me if he wasn't sporting three stripes on his sleeves. He rather meekly said so long to the orderly room staff and shoved off to the terminal to fly Stateside for discharge. Apparently he'd been passed over for Major three times and was busted to E-4, just two ranks above me. Of course, his monthly pension was probably equal to six months of my base pay at the time.

Do you recall such a thing happening to anyone you knew? I really felt embarrassed for the guy. I would have given him my stripe if it'd made him feel better. It was only worth about $10 extra per month to me. Besides that, I was the only one-stripper on the whole base at the time and everybody looked at me, saying "Ah, ain't he cute!"

They sent you to the Azores? Who did you, ah, antagonize.

The Portuguese, for the most part.

Actually it was a great (zany) assignment, which to fully appreciate you'd have to read Joseph Heller's Catch-22. But, in brief, it was (and is) an Air Force base with 1800 personnel but only one plane, a T-39 used for two mail runs a week to Spain. A naval air station with 1200 personnel and some 30 aircraft, but no ships. An Army transportation unit comprised of 800 personnel, no artillery or armor, a few 4X's and 6X's and a couple dozen ships. And finally, 50 marines with only M16's standing guard over an ammo dump belonging to the Navy.

Four branches of service on a base roughly 3 x 5 miles on an island measuring 11 x 18 miles, situated 880 miles off the mainland. Military discipline was entirely non-existent; no saluting due to the difficulty in recognizing four brands of insignia. The one exception being the AF brigadier, since everyone knew a star when they saw one. Oh, and one AF captain who was a real A-hole, having begun life as a slick-sleeve, risen through the ranks and went to OCS. But apart from that pair, life was very much like Bill Murray's unit in Stripes.

I'll leave it to you to picture the scene at the Service Club during the six-hour Happy Hour sessions on Friday and Saturday nights.


The only level spot on the island:

They get something similar, but it'snot generally referred to as an Article 15. It's more likely to take the form of an oral request for a letter of resignation of commission or a very strong suggestion that a transfer of station should be requested ASAP.

That Captain who got busted down to EM ranks had nothing to complain about. If he was a 20-year man, he'd draw a captain's pension even if he was discharged as an E-2. I knew a Master Sergeant who had been awarded a direct combat commission during his participation in WW II. He reverted to enlisted rank after the Big One was over, not because of any misdemeanors but because there were no openings for Majors in his branch at the time. He had a choice -- get out or go back to not being saluted any more. Wise man, he chose to take the bust and wait out his time to retire as a Major.

Wise man, indeed. Master Sgt's don't have it so bad. It's not like he had to pull KP or police the grounds, was it? Good compensation for foregoing salutes and admittance to the OC. I don't know what a M/S in the Army is equivalent to in USAF (which is E-7) but even at that grade he'd have it pretty good as compared to a Spec 4.