As a 30-years USAF veteran, 1955-1985, Col-Ret, soon to celebrate my 90th birthday, this article really hit home. In a related vein, a recent pronouncement by our SecDef Austin caused me to write the following: "Good Intentions...gone awry."
The December 28, 2023 statement by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III of the shifting away o…
As a 30-years USAF veteran, 1955-1985, Col-Ret, soon to celebrate my 90th birthday, this article really hit home. In a related vein, a recent pronouncement by our SecDef Austin caused me to write the following: "Good Intentions...gone awry."
The December 28, 2023 statement by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III of the shifting away of prosecutorial authority from military unit commanders to the “Offices of Special Trial Counsel” is, according to the statement itself: “…the most important reform to our military justice system since the creation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in 1950.” On the contrary, because of its major provision, it has a chance of being the worst “reform” ever related to the UCMJ.
While the new reform is asserted to be only applicable to prosecutorial discretion for thirteen serious criminal offenses, it seriously diminishes command authority and strikes at the heart of a unit’s good order and discipline by arbitrarily removing the commander from consideration as a matter of policy, replacing him with an alternative, overriding decision-making entity under incompletely-defined circumstances. Shades of the “political commissars” of the old Soviet Union or Franco’s Fascist forces!
The Secretary’s statement asserts the reform is intended to “ensure our service members’ access to fair and impartial justice.” That is clearly the proper objective of the military justice system, but weakening the command prosecutorial discretion is a misguided, poorly-conceived way to achieve that objective. Furthermore, the Secretary of Defense’s statement did not clearly limit the offenses which will be excluded from the commanders’ prosecutorial discretion under the new reform. Doubts naturally arise about the fair and impartial application of the reform when one considers the Secretary’s strong views on, for example, the supreme importance of DEI principles. To appreciate those doubts, one need only recall the sad fate that befell Lt. Colonel Matthew Lohmeier, outstanding Air Force Academy graduate and experienced instructor pilot, who was summarily relieved of duty as Commander of the 11th Space Warning Squadron in the new US Space Force, May 14, 2021. As a result, he effectively lost his career for complaining about the progressive indoctrination his subordinates were required to receive and expressing his concerns in a book about how post-modernism and political correctness were adversely affecting the national security of the United States.
The new reform is clearly motivated by good intentions, but its methodology needs to rely on an effective solution, rather than a simplistic, ill-advised one. Otherwise, it will only add to the paving on the road to Hell.
As a 30-years USAF veteran, 1955-1985, Col-Ret, soon to celebrate my 90th birthday, this article really hit home. In a related vein, a recent pronouncement by our SecDef Austin caused me to write the following: "Good Intentions...gone awry."
The December 28, 2023 statement by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III of the shifting away of prosecutorial authority from military unit commanders to the “Offices of Special Trial Counsel” is, according to the statement itself: “…the most important reform to our military justice system since the creation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in 1950.” On the contrary, because of its major provision, it has a chance of being the worst “reform” ever related to the UCMJ.
While the new reform is asserted to be only applicable to prosecutorial discretion for thirteen serious criminal offenses, it seriously diminishes command authority and strikes at the heart of a unit’s good order and discipline by arbitrarily removing the commander from consideration as a matter of policy, replacing him with an alternative, overriding decision-making entity under incompletely-defined circumstances. Shades of the “political commissars” of the old Soviet Union or Franco’s Fascist forces!
The Secretary’s statement asserts the reform is intended to “ensure our service members’ access to fair and impartial justice.” That is clearly the proper objective of the military justice system, but weakening the command prosecutorial discretion is a misguided, poorly-conceived way to achieve that objective. Furthermore, the Secretary of Defense’s statement did not clearly limit the offenses which will be excluded from the commanders’ prosecutorial discretion under the new reform. Doubts naturally arise about the fair and impartial application of the reform when one considers the Secretary’s strong views on, for example, the supreme importance of DEI principles. To appreciate those doubts, one need only recall the sad fate that befell Lt. Colonel Matthew Lohmeier, outstanding Air Force Academy graduate and experienced instructor pilot, who was summarily relieved of duty as Commander of the 11th Space Warning Squadron in the new US Space Force, May 14, 2021. As a result, he effectively lost his career for complaining about the progressive indoctrination his subordinates were required to receive and expressing his concerns in a book about how post-modernism and political correctness were adversely affecting the national security of the United States.
The new reform is clearly motivated by good intentions, but its methodology needs to rely on an effective solution, rather than a simplistic, ill-advised one. Otherwise, it will only add to the paving on the road to Hell.
Richard G. “Duke” Woodhull, Jr.
Colonel, USAF -Ret.
Brevard, NC
4 January 2024