Anyone have an answer to my question no one else has asked?

I'm not a military expert, but I believe that Court Martials are used for a great many discipline issues some of which are rather petty in the grand scheme of the military universe.

I know during WWII while my father was serving in the Navy in the Pacific, he was court martialed because as a journalist for the ship's newspaper he insisted on keeping a pencil in his pocket.

The captain was a man of rigid ideas.

My father was acquited. The court martial board agreed a pencil was necessary for my father to perform his assigned duties.

Noddy
Noddy, idiots are to be found everywhere.

BBB

BBB--

But the military keeps paperwork on (and by) idiots. Dealing with their own, the Armed Services are proud of Rule by Law.

Re: Anyone have an answer to my question no one else has ask


When you consider that items that most of us consider "normal day-td ay" happenings can be Court Martial offenses in the military it isn't all the surprising. If you are in the military you face a Court Martial for showing up late for work (or for showing up early!), wearing the wrong shirt to work, wearing the wrong color socks, bouncing a check, having a broken tail light on your car, calling someone a jerk, your hair being to long, etc, etc, etc... I saw someone get one because someone was sending spam to his e-mail account!

Normally those are all very minor offenses but there are a lot of officers that have their heads so far up their butts that they think bringing people up on charges is "fun".

Nit-pick.

The plural of Court Martial is Courts Martial.

Seal Point
Seal Point, picky picky---go to your room!

BBB

1 in 200 seems VERY reasonable to me. Forgive me if I did my math wrong.

BBB--

Seal Poet has an ear for language--and a memory for usage. "Courts" is the noun. "Martial" the adjective.

At this point in time I'm glad we have only one army.

18,000 court martials a year is an enormous number. I have no idea what the hell is going on in the military that so many court martials are the norm.

But I find it interesting that no one blinked when Rumsfeld uttered that number -- no one reacted at all.

Don't they even get court martials when they have affairs with other members of the army? Or does that have to do with a lower rank hob nobbing with a higher rank?

In any case, when you consider what they get court martialed (don't know if that is the right grammar, seal could have a felid day on my post) for all those things it is not that surprising they have so many of them.

Actually, I didn't any pay attention to the number. I was just thinking that one would think that something that big would rise to the level of concern over all the other reports stacked on his desk. But I forget, he didn't see the pictures yet so he didn't get the "full impact" no wait, he didn't see the tugabu report until later either as the other guy beside him was quick to point out. apparently all the lower rank people in the chain of command just felt it was necessary to tell the higher ups that some abuses have been reported and it is being investigated leaving out the "scope and scale" of the abuses back in Janurary.

It reminds me of when someone commits a crime and they get ready to tell their spouse or someone close to them and that someone stops them so that when the police ask them questions they can honestly say they don't know anything. I don't believe they ever would have admitted to the scope and scale at all had it not come out, at least not until they could find a way to spin the tugabu report to have a less impact. However, it is hard to spin pictures that the whole world has seen. (those are just opinions, I feel like sharing with those who might feel the same way)

As we speak right now Rumsfield is asking for $25 billion more dollars. I don't think they should give it them. I know I will be accused of not supporting the troops, but if they stop giving them money they can't be over there.