I’m late coming to this thread but the those questions about the day care and who the father was popped into my head as soon as I read the details about Hutchinson.

Just before I PCSd from San Diego to The Philippines, my superior officer was discovered to be having an affair with the wife of a petty officer. I knew the PO and his wife. The PO slashed the tires on the officer’s car and got caught doing so.

My CO suspected I told the Petty Officer. I never knew there was an affair going on. The wife, her name was Jennifer or Jenn was pregnant too at the time of tire slashing. This was all the talk of Balboa the last few weeks I was there. What a mess it was, I never found out what the final resolution was. I didn’t have email so a buddy could keep me informed.

As for CDR’s and 1SG’s, anyone who has been a SSG or higher knows its the 1SG that runs a company. Hell most experienced SGT’s know that. During UCMJ actions the CDR will almost always do what the 1SG recommends. If the 1SG recommends “max em sir” then that is what happens. Problem happens when 1SG’s take this to their heads and think their god or that their word is regulation. Anyhow that is a much longer discussion.

I’ve met many many seniors that get pissed at the guy who knows WTF their talking about. Usually because the senior (incorrectly) assumes that because they have rank that their word overrides regulation / policy / everything else. And when presented with the proper regulation / policy, on the side and in a private manner, they blow up and get pissed. If you want to do something your way, then work to get the reg / policy changed to reflect your belief.

Scamers get caught eventually, it may take time but you can’t cheat a system and not pay a price. But at the same time the leader can not assume everyone is a scamer. You can always tell who the good leaders where by how their soldiers referred to them. Good leaders will find the time to listen when a soldier has a problem and try to identify the root of the problem to resolve it in a quick and efficient manner. Bad leaders will just yell at or ignore the troopers.

He’s going after an anti-military group (actually the group’s original purpose was to shield soldiers from retaliation from their commands) with his rants because their making the military look bad. Of COURSE their going to do that, but who gave them the ammunition to fire? If the unit would of taken care of things properly then the group wouldn’t have the ammo to shoot. Its like being pissed at a snake for biting you when you picked it up. Its kinda what it’s supposed to do. Its like those damn soldiers who b!tch and moan when their given article non-judicial UCMJ (Art 15) that the commands going “after them”. If you wouldn’t do things to give the command a reason to bust you then they wouldn’t bust you. And if they try to bust you without a reason, well that is why the right to a trial by courts martial and the civilian lawyer / congressmen approach exist.

I have yet to meet the guy who actually does the homework and takes the time to learn the system who was hated by ‘most’ seniors.

If you mean a person who thinks he/she knows the system enough to scam it and gets caught, then I agree, most seniors look poorly on the individual, if only because they have long ago ‘been there, done that’.

In GI’s defense, that is because the media is being very selective in what details about her are released. With that in mind, a picture of the situation has to be created with facts that aren’t being hidden.

Media manipulation gives probable cause to rant.

Instead you go into a mini-rant / conspiracy post about the anti-military guys. Well guess what if ~I~ was about to get ramrodded for some BS then the first thing I would do is find the most anti-military left lawyer possible to defend me, and the fact that its for free is a bonus. If you actually looked into it you would see that that specific organization (MLTF) was formed during the era when the US military really screwed its soldiers over and swept lots of crap under the rug.

The fact remains her family care plan failed immediately prior to deployment and she needed time to fix things. This has been stated already. She has also stated that the unit told her “no” on her request for additional time. Fearing that she would be forced onto the airplane and her child taken into CPS she didn’t show up, this also has been stated. Now anyone who’s been a NCO (or Officer) in the US Army knows that wouldn’t happen, but this young SPC obviously didn’t know. Most younger soldiers don’t know crap about how things really work, this is why many seniors can pull BS and use that ignorance to control them. And why most seniors hate the guy who actually does his homework and takes the time to learn the system.

So yes, depending on who your unit CDR / CSM is, it may be a good idea to get a civilian lawyer if it looks like their about to pull some BS on you. If their wrong its guaranteed to prevent them from sweeping it under the rug, and if their really wrong then it’ll ruin their careers and send out a message to the others not to try that BS. And FYI, I’ve personally seen the US Army JAG system ramrod several people. To the point where one of the prosecutors said (after the trial while we had a drink) he knew the guy wasn’t guilty, but the CG wanted to make an example of him. So the JAG guy did his best to get the other guy locked up, and he did. He put away a man he knew was innocent, because the command wanted him to. Remember rarely do the good lawyers stay in TDS (Trial Defense Services), most get offered command JAG positions, which they accept because its better promotion opportunity. Like taking a 1SG position over a BGE staff job.