Exactly what I was thinking. My brother was 0-3 in his fifth year active in the US Army. What happened to that idea that at some point either you’re promoted again or eased out of the service?
He must have been an enlisted man to start with. My own husband was commisioned after 12 years enlisted service (Navy not Air Force). I’d be surprised if the Air Force doesn’t have some sort of similar enlisted-to-officer program.
Actually, this makes his fall from grace even more depressing, IMO. He wouldn’t (in the Navy, anyway) get the chance at a commission unless his enlisted service had been exemplary.
Thanks, Monty, I knew you’d have the gouge.
Yes, he was prior enlisted, and became an officer.
Hello,
I am in the Navy and I read in Navy Times of a Master Chief that was a Corpsmam, actually a Corpswoman. She was caught selling drugs. She was busted from E-9 to E-1. She was sent to Lenvonworth and lost her retirement. She had so many charges that they busted her down one rank at a time till she hit E-1. Goes to show you that doing the right thing makes life easy. I am at 22 years and about to retire.
Somehow I don’t think your friend is going to make it to retirement let alone if he gets out and stays still have a good career. It would be hard for them to justify a clearance, which I believe most officers have to have to do their duties. Tony
P.s. Foie, You can make E-9 in I think as little as 12 years in the Navy. There was a E-6 that made it in 3 years.
I can’t speak for the modern military, but when I did my service in the late 80’s, there was no above-the-wire cursing, only euphemisms. The euphemisms got a serious workout since apparently the human need for vulgar intensifiers is so ingrained. Although it sounds like juvenile gibberish to the uninitiated, eventually we learned to cower at fusillades like “Doggone it, privates, if I find out who left that doo-doo in the toilet, I’m going to kick their 4th point of contact!”
In-group jargon can be hard to shake, so I suspect that’s what we’re hearing here (although – “poo poo”? Please tell me someone hasn’t woken up and realized the military now sounds like a preschool class).
The dude in question is most likely prior-enlisted (i.e. was an Airman or NCO previously, and went through a commissioning program later). It’s not unknown for 15-year Captains to exist, but they’d have been passed over for promotion to Major twice before, and would most likely be on their way out. G’head, ask me how I know. 
Back in '06, we had a 22-year, AF MSgt (E-7) who was caught AWOL in the Middle East, as well as taking little vacations/bribes/kickbacks for manipulating contracts. He was a warranted Contracting Officer, and he basically carressingly loved up his career. We heard he was quickly pulled, court-martialed, and given 3 months and a reduction to E-1. The guy seriously caressingly loved up some of our construction and material contracts–I frequently wondered out loud how an carbon copy design of a pre-built facility from the same company would waver $250k on a contract price. Digging through my paperwork, I could WAG he burned us all for at least $1.25M, but that’s heresay on my part, and I digress. . .
I’m surprised though, that a drunken Captain of 15 years got 8 months for something fairly stupid, whereas this Master Sergeant only got 3 for intentionally loving up contracts. 
Then again, it reminds me of the time in Bagram, where I saw a Captain, handcuffed in his flight suit, being lead away from the flightline by an A1C carrying a rifle and an ammo box. :eek:
Oh, and nyctea scandiaca: BAH! You beat me to the punch!! 
Tripler
Oh, what fun times!
Fourth point of contact?" What the hell is that?*
*Of course, I was in when at the point where we were [del]graduated[/del] released from basic, we were reminded to “Ask for the butter, not describe it.”
You might want to fact check that load of garbage.
[ul][li]It’s illegal to domino trials of one person. All pending charges must be dealt with at once.[/li][li]There’s no such term as Corpswoman in the United States Navy. Every member of the sole Enlisted Corps in the US Navy is a Corpsman. Additionally, only Petty Officers Third Class and above are Corpsman. A Nonrates is a Designated Striker if a Hospitalman.[/li][li]Depending on the level of court-martial, one may be reduced from the highest rank directly to the lowest Enlisted rate/rank. The number of charges is irrelevant to that fact.[/li][li]The name of the Military Confinment Facility you mention is correctly spelled Leavenworth. Its actual name is United States Disciplinary Barracks.[/li][li]The USDB does not house female prisoners.[/li][li]Loss of security clearance depends on the nature of the charges for which convicted. One may still “resurrect” their career after court-martial and serving one’s sentence.[/li][li]The minimum time in rate as E-8 to advance to E-9 is three years. One cannot advance from E-6 to E-9 in three years.[/li][/ul]
Go ahead. Tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m a Personnelman First Class, United States Navy (Retired).
On top of that, I’m not the only one on this board with an inquisitive nature and the knowledge to do a simple web search.
You mean the civilian side of the story? Nah, he’s not kidding; I’ve known a female guard at Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo, and another male guard at Soledad who told me stories that made you cringe about the fear and violence in prison. HidingfromGoro, is just telling it from his side, which I had long suspected, was much worse. IMHO, there’s no disputing his description was by far the darkest set of postings I’ve ever read about prison life. Absolutely visceral. :eek:
The fourth point of contact is know to Army paratroopers as the buttocks. If you are interested, the first three are the balls of the feet, the calf, and the thigh. The fifth point of contact is the pull-up muscle (IOW the armpit area)
SSG Schwartz
I have read the biography of General Chuck Yeager a lot lately. At one point when he was a more junior officer overseas, they had a wild party that damaged a lot of a bar. He and a few others paid for the damages that night. The Colonel got a call the next day and threatened court-martial proceedings and started to pursue them. A General back in the U.S. who oversaw the entire group, relieved him of his duties and ordered him back to the U.S. ASAP. That sounded bad but it turned out that procedure protected Yeager from court-martial. Like everything, it can be quite political and it may not take much to destroy a military career.
Yeah, gotta be more to it. I’m thinking “burglary” reduced to “walking in wrong house”.
The closest I ever got to being in a brig was when another clown and I had to go to the one on Adak to fix the heating system. While we were there, the Marines brought in this poor Coastie who looked like Gomer Pyle in Full Metal Jacket. In spite of us being there, they frog-marched him up to the ‘redline’, made him strip naked and forced him to lean WAY out and lean against the wall. That doesn’t sound too bad, but try standing so far from the wall that your arms are hyperextended and supporting your body weight.
They then dumped his seabag out on the floor, shouting at him the entire time about what a complete SCUMSUCKING, BUTTFUCKING BUCKET OF SHIT FAGGOT he really was. The last we saw of him was the Marines chasing him and his armload of clothing into the cold showers.
I was a bit of a fuck-off in the Navy up until that point. It cured me. That was in 1970, and I retired in 1990 with five gold stripes on my sleeve (20 years good conduct).
Indeed I meant the civilian side. The military side was acceptable, apart from the idiotic thing about not masturbating.
I was a military clerk, and in my unit there was one private who was in and out of there regularly due to drug usage (and I have to conducted the urine test for him…eek)
AFAIK, the moment you are court-martial, you will be brought to the provost (which is just next door to my company line, though it is walled off by a concrete fall which looks like WWII fortification); once you get in, you go back to the life of a recruit - head shaved, ranks stripped etc. Think of it as boot camp, but 100x worst.
From looking through some public bulletin [available in the army intranet], it seems that some of the MP were having a bit of fun with the inmates too; Not work-safe, so I just leave it here; Anyway, the bulletin is to point out that the MPs were punished for what they did, so it is something really way above the top.
According to the private (mentioned in first paragraph), there is solitary confinement, reserved for the worst of the worst.
How much time you spend inside there is dependent on what you did. A two-week stay won’t amount to much trauma - that private went AWOL once and got in there for two weeks. One guy here stole a rifle out while supposed to be on guard duty, took it to a major shopping mail, and have plans to kill his ex-girlfriend. I do not wish to speculate what will happen to him inside there.
The euphemisms in the SA thread you’re referring to weren’t written that way by the poster. It was explained earlier in this thread that the SA message board automatically changes “fuck” to “gently caress”, among other changes, when displaying the thread contents to unregistered guests. HidingfromGoro actually wrote “shit”, but the board shows you “poo poo” unless you’ve given the SA folks $10.
[QUOTE=Monty]
Some points:
[list][li]Prisoners serving a sentence in a military prison are not officers. They are reduced to the lowest Enlisted pay grade at least for the duration of their incarceration.[/li][/QUOTE]
Monty,
I was under the impression that officers cannot be reduced in rank as a result of a court-martial. Is that not correct?
Zev Steinhardt
I’ll second this impression, even though I may have a cite to back it up. Let me dig . . .
Tripler
Capt, (prior Section Commander), USAF
The Manual for Courts-Martial does have the following:
That’s the way it appears in the MCM. Anyway, a court-martial’s sentence of a commissioned officer can be commuted to reduction to any enlisted grade.
You know, it really wouldn’t kill the Armed Forces to put all the legal information (UCMJ, MCM, Pay Manual provisions) in one place. I can’t find a workable site about commissioned officer’s pay status while imprisoned. It might be in the MCB but that’s a pretty lengthy tome.
Just thought of something else. How ironic it would be if I’ve fallen for one of what I call “military myths” all these years!