Bizarre Ways to Violate the UCMJ

SOFREP published an article highlighting a few, little-known ways to violate the UCMJ…

The Most Bizarre Ways To Violate The Uniform Code Of Military Justice

Drinking liquor with prisoners

Appendix 2, 896. Art. 96, B states that “Any person subject to this chapter who unlawfully drinks any alcoholic beverage with a prisoner shall be punished as a court-martial may direct,” which was we supposed would be an obvious thing. I mean, if you are guarding prisoners you really shouldn’t be drinking on duty or drinking with the prisoners you are guarding.  We don’t know what incident inspired this addition to the UCMJ, but it must have been pretty legendary.

In this case, the maximum punishment would be three months of confinement and forfeiture of two-thirds pay per month for three months.

Straggling

If you’re struggling to keep up and tend to fall behind or lose your way during marches or runs, then you might be in for legal trouble. As written by Bilecki Law Group, “A service member who becomes separated from his organizational unit during a march, a training exercise, or military maneuver, is at risk of being accused and convicted of “straggling” under Article 134 of the UCMJ. Straggling breaks down the military’s organizational structures, making them susceptible to enemy attacks.”

While stragglers were often just told to hurry up and motivated to march toward their destination by their non-commissioned officers, this could result in confinement for three months and forfeiture of two-thirds pay per month for three months. So to sum it up, don’t get left behind.

To this could be added the grave offense of “malingering” which involved feigning injury or illness to avoid duty or some other unpleasant task.

Jumping Into The Water

This one may seem crazy but it actually has some reasoning behind it.  Life aboard ship can be dull sometimes and it’s easy to imagine sailor A saying to sailor B, “I’ll bet you $5 you won’t jump from the radar mast into the water.  Sailor B takes the bet climbs the 80ft mast and jumps.  The fall breaks both his legs and compresses three of the disks in his back.  Stunts like these were once common enough to require a general addition under Article 143 which covers “all neglects and disorders which are adverse to the discipline and good order.”

We’ve learned many more ways to violate the UCMJ from the “perps” in the Stolen Valor community.

• Punching your Commanding Officer when he orders you to kill women and children.
• Using unconventional, non-issued weapons such as piano wire to strangle the enemy
• Leaving a man behind – common when you are the last of your unit to survive an ambush
• Talking about secret, classified missions on Facebook or Twitter
• Violation of the Black Ops community code of “take it to the grave” secrets
• Refusing an awarded medal because your buddies were worse off than you – this falls under being out of uniform
• Disobeying a direct “Hold Your Fire” order and charging that enemy machine gun nest on your own
• List goes on…

Jumping in the water – amateur hour.

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Stolen Valor