Follow The Rules.

Posted 28Aug18.

“How careful do you have to be in the military to avoid getting court martialed?”

I’d love to say that it is fairly easy to avoid being court-martialed in the military – follow the rules, just like civilian life, and one would be hunky-dory.

However, for some… it ain’t that easy.

Pulling from the division in which I spent most of my career – the 25th ID out of Schofield Barracks, HI – one finds that the same laws commonly broken by civilians are the ones being violated by service members.

From “May 2017 – March 2018 Court-martial Roll Up:”

“…Three specifications of assault consummated by battery…”

“…Wrongful possession of child pornography…”

“…One specification of sexual assault of a child…” (These two… yeah, it makes my skin crawl and blood boil.)

“…Absence without leave… wrongful use of marijuana… wrongful use of cocaine… wrongful appropriation…” (I cannot help but wonder if there is a “rightful” use of either… but that is my snark seeping.)

To give a bit of perspective, that’s 13 out of 16,472 Active Duty Army personnel stationed in Hawaii as of 31 Mar 18. Since it can be a bit difficult to find the corresponding numbers for the City and County of Honolulu, I have to go off the 2016 numbers for violent crime: 627… out of an estimated population of 988,650 (I hateusing different data points, but it’s late and I find the difficulty in finding reliable information bothersome.)

There are folks out there who are much better with math and able to provide a ratio, but you get the point: it’s as easy to be careful to avoid a court-martial in the military as it is to avoid becoming a felon in the civilian world… just don’t break the rules.