Jessica Lynch Poses for Hustler

Cafe Society
81

Speaking as someone who served in the U.S. miltary, a barracks and a base are not the same thing as some have implied. A barracks is a housing facility on a piece of land called a base. A barracks would be analagous to the sleeping facilities of a boarding school. I wouldn’t call it a place of business unless your business requires a lot of snoozing and card-playing.

I can’t speak from personal experience about inter-fraternal military sexual hijinks, but this story relates a strip show provided to the troops on an army base in Vietnam. We thought it was VERY professional at the time.

82

dropzone, maybe you’re not paying your employee Lynch to run around half-naked, but she’s my employee too, and I’m not paying my employee to go fight in an unjust, stupid war. So let’s just say that your tax dollars were paying for her fighting time, and my tax dollars were paying for her half-naked time, and call it a day, okay?

This is such a trifling issue. Why does anyone care about it?
Daniel

83

Truth be told, I’d rather pay her to go around half naked, too. (lascivious :wink: ) Or when she’s feeling better. THAT’S a worthwhile use of my tax dollars.

84

Ahem–the JAG (now in the Naval Reserves, rather than active duty) down the hallway tells me that, once again, I am in the right. Quoting him directly:

Isn’t violating an article of the Code of Military Justice that actually can result in your discharge just a tad unprofessional? :rolleyes:

This particular JAG served for five years on active duty and has one year in the reserves. He chiefly works on cases in which a serviceman or woman is being court martialed for their naughty behavior.

85

It’s certainly not a trifling issue when scads of enlisted men and women like Atrael and Lynch think it’s perfectly OK to violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice. I realize this might not seem like the most important part of it, but they had a choice about whether or not they enlisted. If Atrael and Lynch don’t agree with military law, well, perhaps they should’ve just stayed home.

86

It’s certainly not a trifling issue when scads of enlisted men and women like Atrael and Lynch think it’s perfectly OK to violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice. I realize this might not seem like the most important part of it, but they had a choice about whether or not they enlisted. If Atrael and Lynch don’t agree with military law and/or can’t conform their conduct to it, well, perhaps they should’ve just stayed home.

87

I’m starting to feel like I have no life, but the JAG just volunteered this tidbit:

Turns out that military law is actually harder on Lynch than I was.

88

By the way, military rules and regs don’t make a whole lot of a distinction about behavior on or off military property. You are pretty much subject to the rules 24/7, as they say. Even in your home which you pay for, with money given to you by grandma.
dropzone, I don’t know how to break this to you, but you don’t get to be anyones boss unless they actually work under your direction. Sorry, buddy.
The idea that Jessica Lynch, or the guy at the local fire station, is somehow your employee is ridiculous. You have no more control over what they do than you have over what brand of milk I buy.
My boss. :stuck_out_tongue:

89

Sounds like a Great Debate!

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=223230

90

Is the military definition of “indecent exposure” different from the civilian definition? Because in the civilian definition, it’s only indecent exposure if you’re showing off to folks who don’t want to see it. Is it safe to presume that the other folks at the party were perfectly willing to see her unclad?

91

Has to be in pubic, er, public too.

92

after reading all of this here is my theory.

a. there was a poker game in the barracks.
b. jessica ran out of pennies, matchsticks, m&m’s, what ever.
c. poker became strip poker.
d. because jessica has “a few boobies” pictures were taken.
e. you have to record things like “a few boobies” for posterity.
f. the pictures fell into the wrong hands.

93

I’m truly impressed that none of my usual sources of naked celebrity photos has managed to get their sticky fingers on these yet. After all, it’s been almost two days since the story broke. Even Googling “Jessica Lynch nude” doesn’t give me any porn sites while “Cokie Roberts nude” gives four links on the first page!

94

I guess it must be different, because the JAG looked into the question and his answer was that she would be guilty of this crime. Sorry, I let him do the research since he knows better than I do.

But since he’s dealt with indecent exposure cases in the military before, I trust his judgment.

He told me he once had a case in which a group of enlisted men and women went to a strip bar together. An enlisted woman decided to participate in Amateur Night. She was charged with indecent exposure under the Code of Military Justice. So whether others wanted to see it or not apparently isn’t an element of the crime.

95

From here, a military case.

General population?

96

Right–but read the whole thing together. This includes a kind of “general population” that could be found in “privately-owned homes.”

97

Jessica Lynch was on the Today show this morning. She is a lovely young woman, unusually pretty. She did not strike me as being particularly discerning, but I remember how much difference a few years can make between the age one would be starting college and the age at which one would be finishing. Some of these things might explain some of the differences in her experiences and in someone elses’s. Perhaps “the sister at sea” is better gifted with sound judgment and good impulse control.

It was the army doctor’s who told her parents about the rape. That is only one part of the experience that she doesn’t remember but for which there is physical evidence.

I still haven’t figured out exactly what it is that has so many people so angry at Jessica Lynch. Is it that she wore non-regulation thong panties? Is it that her breasts were exposed to others in a photograph? (If so, how many people were present?) Is it that she exposed her breasts on government property and in violation of military law (gasp!)? Is it that she was captured by Iraqis? That her leg was damaged? That she fought against amputation? That she was raped? That she’s has blocked out part of her experience? That no one knew where she was for nine days? That the Pentagon filmed her rescue and made her into a hero when others were more deserving? That she has gotten a lot of attention? That she was given $1,000,000 for her story?

I hardly think that Jessica Lynch has gotten a free pass in the last year. But if you want to know how much more leeway people generally grant to a 19 year old veteran of combat duty as opposed to a 26 year old law school graduate or paralegal or SCJ – I would say probably quite a bit.

One point that I beg to differ with you on, but I will not argue about after stating my opinion. Jessica Lynch was not a professional soldier. That would imply that she was planning on a career in the military. At the very worst, she and others were behaving inappropriately in army housing – not in a workplace. Therefore, she does not fit any definition that I can find of behaving “unprofessionally.”

98

Well, I don’t know if you count me as one of the angry ones but as far as cutting slack is concerned I’m enough of a pig to cut more for cute, young blondes than I do middle-aged guys and “enlightened” enough to regret it.

99

I can’t blame you, Zoe, for not wanting to debate this–I’m sick of it myself, and this is my last post on the matter too.

But here’s what I don’t get about your post: we’re only expected to behave in a professional manner if we’re intending on staying in a particular job for a long time?

Before leaving for boot camp, my sister took a job for a couple of months as a cashier at Target. By no means a career for her. But she showed up every day and obeyed the rules they set down for her.

Which would accord with this definition of “professional” found at Merriam-Webster.com:

Now, the tough thing for enlisted folks is that the military doesn’t just ask them to behave while at work. The military rules its members’ behavior 24/7, regardless of where they were. Like I said, it’s tough, but Lynch, Atrael, and others knew this when they signed up.

Lynch broke the law of the military. She could’ve gone to prison or been discharged for what she did. (Incidentally, she also had a relationship with another enlisted person (her now fiance), even though she knew it was against the rules about fraternization.) It seems clear that she didn’t take these laws and rules very seriously.

Also–are you really arguing that if a person doesn’t intend to make their long-term career in the military, that it’s no big deal if they don’t follow the rules and/or don’t take their performance seriously? Nice military we’d have then. My sister’s only in for four years, but she takes the rules seriously because that’s the mark of a good employee who wants to do a good job. Call it “professionalism” or something else, but it’s generally expected of every person in every job.

I could care less about her thong panties, or that she showed her tits off in pictures. What I’m upset about is that so many people here seem to think it’s OK for an enlisted woman to break the law and that it doesn’t reflect in any way on her character because she’s “too young to know any better.” I find this offensive and disturbing for so many reasons, including:

  1. It doesn’t give 19 year olds nearly enough credit. The 19 year old females I know and have known (including the young female recruits I met through my sister) were far more savvy than that.

  2. People seem to think it’s OK for military personnel to break the rules and laws they agreed to follow. This seems to be because people consider the law “prudish.” I find it kind of prudish myself, but it’s still a freaking law.

  3. The number of people who think that this incident doesn’t bear on Lynch’s professionalism is astounding to me.

100

To tell the truth, had all the elements of this incident been the same, but the actor been a man (Jesse), I’d feel the same. Except for the lust part. ;), and that the other party goers were women.
I disagree with the J.A.G. that this incident was indecent exposure for several reasons, one of which is that the general public wouldn’t reasonably be expected to observe the “act” in the privacy of the quarters. A more minor question is whether exposure of breasts, and only womens breasts, is specified as indecent in the UCMJ. I couldn’t find it. Was she covering her nipples?
One thing for sure; She needn’t give a damn what any of us think. :stuck_out_tongue: