what military were you a member of? In mine, you cannot receive a ishonorable Discharge without the court martial. Period.
US Army, details not forthcoming.
I pointed that out, or thought I did - but that does not in any way prevent them from holding the courtmartial over something pathetic and ridiculous, by NO means does it.
Our unit's first run-in with the UCMJ was the kid in 1st platoon who got a summary Article-15 for
LEAVING A WINDOW OPEN.
Mostly cause the Sarge wanted to 'make an example' at the time, and he was handy, convenient, and expendable.
The worst you can receive in a special court martial(IE your commander), is a bad conduct. While not good, it's not as bad as a DD. It takes a full general court martial to give a troop a DD. Generally only done when they really, really want to hang the person out to dry.
Or when the person in question knows the charges are bogus, and tries to actively defend themself.
Think, if the Sarge and the CO have it in for a troop, just how hard is it to cook up a bogus SCM, which they control the procedure of, they control the evidence submitted to, etc etc.
In some cases, the troop, knowing how bogus the charges are and not realizing just how far down a hole they've been dropped by the hilariously-named UCMJ, has it kicked up to the full thing in an attempt to escape a corrupted venue, a mock trial held and controlled by the very people that brought the bogus charges.
Unfortunately, most of the troops that do so have no idea of the level of butt-covering that occurs past the rank of E-5.
That's why there's JAG and CID... who's motto oughta be "
Wellph.. it's too late to do anything NOW...."
(Right, Revdisk? lucky you...)
And this does happen, and it does happen for really stupid reasons, up to and including office politics and eliminating other officers in your own chain of command to clear your own path for promotion.
As for the sexual conduct stuff, well, it's called an illegal order for a reason, and I haven't seen any reason to believe that severe action wouldn't be quickly be taken if any female reported that stuff.
Now? maybe... then ? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... Riiiiight.
Depends on your unit too, I guess, nothing short of outright murder in front of civvie witnesses would have gotten OUR command staff in trouble, *nothing*.
In anything resembling the modern military, you could be an avowed satanist, and still be fine
Whatever you're smoking, pass left willya ?
Regardless of what POLICY is, the reality of service is often a little different, when your Sarge suggests, actively encourages, and then turns a blind eye to an after-dark assault because of your beliefs, that reality sets in.
By pure luck I got the drop on those three morons and they were too scared after that to do anything, but I've NOT forgotten that incident, by no means.
Our unit chaplain wanted my head on a plate at any opportunity and wasn't at all shy about letting that be known.
Of course, he also felt I maybe didn't belong there because of my allergies.
I'm allergic to intolerance, dogma, and bovine excretement.
-K
