Article

2017-06-24 Home Front: Culture Wars

h/t Gates of Vienna
At the end of the week, Mario Manago, 33, will be out of the Air Force after 12 years.

But he’s not just out of a job -- he’s now convicted of a federal crime.

His offense? Being six minutes late to a meeting.

Manago, of Willingboro, was convicted at court-martial March 9 of failing to go to his "appointed place of duty." He was late to a meeting he requested with his commander to discuss his concerns that he was being treated unfairly by his supervisors at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County, according to him and his attorney.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2017-06-24 04:11|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top

#1 ...There's a lot wrong and/or missing from this article, but keep this in mind first: you still have to work pretty hard to find your backside standing tall in front of a General Court Martial, and I guarantee it ain't gonna happen JUST for being six minutes late to a meeting. There will be a lot of other offenses in the record ahead of it, all detailed and explained to an amazing degree. Yes, such things can and have been turned into cudgels against the more-or-less innocent, but it's not common and tends to be a lot more blatant.

BTW, my take - and it's FWIW, YMMV - the guy came stateside from an APS in Japan, where any resemblance to a military unit is purely coincidental. Life is a bit busier and more focused in CONUS, especially at a base that's doing a lot of work keeping the beans and bullets and people moving to the Sandboxes. It's not at all unknown for people to decide they really don't like the Wild Blue Brotherhood after coming back stateside (dealt with a few of those in the day) and

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2017-06-24 07:35|| 2017-06-24 07:35|| Front Page Top

#2 (sorry, pushed the button too soon)try to figure out a way back to the civilian world...only to have their cunning plan come back and bite them in the a$$.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2017-06-24 07:37|| 2017-06-24 07:37|| Front Page Top

#3 If it was a special or general courts martial, he now has a federal felony conviction on his record.

for those not attuned to military culture, the usual process is to offer the individual an Article 15 non-judicial administrative punishment. He/she/it can refuse and take a courts martial. The first level courts martial is a summary, which he/she/it can refuse and progress to a special and finally up to the general courts martial. The penalties increase the higher you go. The latter two involve defense lawyers and the full court room gig. Because the latter two are so administratively intensive, most commands try to avoid doing them except in the cast of the most serious offenses. Thus, one may come to the conclusion, this was a 'self inflicted' wound.

As a side note, in the general courts martial the enlisted person can ask that one third of the board be made up of enlisted personnel. Having been there, I don't recommend it. They are the least sympathetic members of the board. Strangely enough, the most sympathetic board member is often the senior officer, who usually is removed from the board by defense lawyers using their one free challenge.

Posted by Procopius2k 2017-06-24 08:10|| 2017-06-24 08:10|| Front Page Top

#4 ...er... in the case...

Posted by Procopius2k 2017-06-24 08:11|| 2017-06-24 08:11|| Front Page Top

#5 Some are dismissed for publicly minor offenses to cover offensive private behavior. I recall a fellow transferred from the unit for 'toothpick in formation'. It saved him from a barracks beatdown when he was found digging thru his mate's lockers.

Posted by Skidmark 2017-06-24 08:13|| 2017-06-24 08:13|| Front Page Top

#6 ... missing from this article

Read between the lines, Mike.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2017-06-24 11:57|| 2017-06-24 11:57|| Front Page Top

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