Convicted felons

[Gunner C]

After browsing through the Manual for Courts-Martial, I found this tidbit in the UCMJ regarding those who fall under its jurisdiction:

4) Retired members of a regular component of the armed
forces who are entitled to pay.


Oh crap. I better straighten up and fly right.

Yep, if you rob the finance office on the way to the commissary, they'll recall you to AD, try you, convict you, reduce you to E-1, give you a dishonorable discharge, and throw you in the slammer for a good long stretch.

[Cecil DP]

Depends on the level of the court.

BTW, in most commands, the 1st general officer in the chain of command reserves the right to administer UCMJ to his officers.  IOW, if you screw up as an officer, you're gonna get blistered!

Blistered for an OP is being told to resign because the OPR he'll get means he'll never get promoted or a meaningful assignment again. Not like an EM who will actually lose Money and time out of his life. An Officer usually only does hard time for espionage or murder. Otherwise he's discharged. 

[Gunner C]

Not true.  I personally know of five and can sorta remember a sixth.  They did hard time for a number of things.  But truly, they all deserved it.  As I was leaving AD, the "resignation for the good of the service" was becoming a thing of the past.  Good generals were beginning to realize that officers needed to be responsible and answer for their actions.  Some of these guys got worse than an EM would have.  It sent quite a message.

[lordmonar]

One difference to note between EM and Officers when it comes to this sort of thing.....an EM who gets an Art 15 can survive it and continue on in the service.  An O who gets and Art 15 is more times then not, done.  The EM may have gotten busted a rank and lost money...but he can survive.  The O may only get a letter of reprimand....but that goes into his promotion file and he will (almost) never get promoted again.

On the surface it may seem like the EM is getting hosed and the O getting let off with a slap on the wrist....but in the long run it is not usually the case.

The same also applies between a junior EM and a senior NCO.  The SrA with a DUI gets a stripe and money taken from him...the SNCO may only get some money taken...but the SNCO's career is done--thanks for playing.

[Spike]

^ That was absolutely how it used to be.  With the need for Officers, LOR's (if received between 0-1 and 0-3) almost never hurt the career.  However LOR's for the Major is a different matter as there are enough Majors, Lt Colonels and Colonels in the Army, AF, Marines.  I would guesstimate the same for the Navy as well.

When I wrote LOR's for 2LT's it was considered a possible career ender and most likely would get them passed over for promotion to 1LT.  If passed over a second time it was out the door for the guy or girl. 

Now, I know of Officer Courses in TRADOC that had cheaters, thieves and liars, where the officers got LOR's, but had them removed when leaving TRADOC for their first Post.  It was considered a "LT's mistake" and equivalent to a slap on the wrist.