Army officer convicted at first known COVID court martial
1LT Mark Bashar
US Army First Lieutenant Mark Bashar, a former Air Force NCO, has been convicted by a judge at a special court martial for failing to follow lawful orders. His crimes? Not wearing a mask indoors and, now this is the big one, showing up to work! The monster. All hail Pfauci, for he is The Science™.
From Military Times;
An officer who formerly served as the Army Public Health Center’s headquarters company commander was convicted by a special court-martial Friday of two specifications of violating lawful orders to comply with COVID-19 mitigation measures at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
1st Lt. Mark Bashaw was found guilty of refusing an order to telework and reporting to his office without submitting to a COVID-19 test or otherwise furnishing a negative test result, according to installation spokesperson Amburr Reese. Those mitigation measures were required of unvaccinated troops at Aberdeen.
Bashaw, a former Air Force NCO and father of three, was also found guilty of failing to wear a mask indoors. The trial concluded Friday. His listed attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent via social media.
The military judge who oversaw Bashaw’s trial opted not to punish him. However, the conviction gives Bashaw a criminal record that may impede future employment opportunities.
“After a careful consideration of the evidence, a military judge exercised lawful authority not to adjudge punishment for 1st Lt. Mark Bashaw,” Reese said in a statement to Army Times. “Receiving no punishment at a court-martial is not without precedent.
“While the Army does not categorize court-martial convictions as felonies or misdemeanors, many civilian jurisdictions treat a conviction in special court-martial convened by military judge alone, which this one was, as a misdemeanor,” Reese added.
Col. Yevgeny Vindman, the top lawyer for Army Communications-Electronics Command, which oversees Aberdeen Proving Ground, tweeted that he was “proud” of the “first in the nation conviction.”
Wait a minute. “Colonel Vindman” is “proud” of this conviction? There’s something about that name….
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", Army, WTF?
Screw folks in our own ranks and then wonder why morale and retention suck.
Yeah.
So no punishment. Does that mean the LT is remaining in the Army and continuing his career? If so then why bother with the court martial?
His career will continue until he’s a “non-select” for promotion to Captain. He’s probably looking at a “referred” OER for his current evaluation period, which will pretty much kill his career.
He should have reported to work in MOPP Level IV. If you want to take precautions, why not go all in?
I ain’t saying nothing but last year after the pandemic was in full swing, I took this photo.
You guys get jokes.
The purge continues.
Vindman? Is this the brother of “Il Douche Vindman”? If so, figures that he is proud.
Yes, he is. It explained a lot when I saw the last name.
And this couldn’t have been handled with an ass-chewing and left at that?
(Whatever one’s opinion on all this, WTF?)
I see the CDC is reinstating mask requirements for public transportation. Airlines are eagerly reinstating masking….oh, wait.
Yeah, there are two Vindmans. Gotta be a hell of an officer and lawyer to revel in a penalty-less conviction.
Brilliant. Money well spent. The LT’s OER will be interesting.
Referred OER. Probably be a career killer.
“My body, my choice” unless an arbitrary bunch of huwite men with whom I agree force you to do things I like because the idiot box told me those opinions are righteous. If you disagree with us we’ll starve your kids by ruining your career, you f king monsters!!! /s off
There is no breaking bread with these tyrants and its up to Americans to suffer the slings and arrows by reminding these clowns exactly where they stand, for now, only allowed by the patience of Good Men.
“My body, my choice are only for the lib demorats. I heard carmela harris saying that about the abortion thing going on but she never mentioned “My body, my choice when it came to making everyone get a chi-com virus shot.
-Dog, some of us Good Men are rapidly running out of patience for these tyrants. The Tree is parched and is in dire need of a watering. Saw a headline at 0Gawd30 this morning showing Hitlary at a gala function, unmasked, surrounded by her lackey worker bees that were masked.
Da, comrade, is Mask of Obedience!
With her plantation house ni**er (in the idiom of that particular demographic) in close attendance to the train of her gown:
Jonn, wherever you are, please forgive ol’ Poe for posting that bitch’s face on your website…
Col Yevgeny Vindman said he’s PROUD of the ‘first’ in the nation conviction? Man, fuck that dude AND his brother…with a fire house.
Wait…scratch that. They might both enjoy it.
Their mother must be so proud of her boys.
Fuck him, his horse and his hound dog sideways with the same broken toilet brush.
“However, the conviction gives Bashaw a criminal record that may impede future employment opportunities.”
Meaning he’ll never see Captain’s bars.
This should never have gone to Court Martial. An old Top Sergeant I had once said, “We need more fistfights behind the barracks and less Article 15s.” I tended to agree with him. But, those days are decades gone now.
A career ruined by some Commander’s power trip over someone refusing to be a Branch Covidian!
Everything in that article is stupid except the no-punishment part. I’d be embarrassed to be associated with any part of that goat rope, even the US Army on my chest.
FAUCI IS MY GOD AND “THE SCIENCE” IS MY BIBLE!!!
Mask up and save me from teh COVID, Boomers!!!
OK, I’ll take the contrarian position.
Unless an order is unlawful, last time I checked obeying same is not optional for members of the military. That’s true for officers, NCOs, and troops.
The man appears to have violated more than one verbal order. While we may think the orders in question were stupid, they were not unlawful orders. Regulating conduct and required uniform – and prescribing place of duty – is in fact within a commander’s scope of authority.
As an officer, the man was IMO severely out of line. He chose the wrong hill on which to make his career’s last stand, and IMO got off light.
I wish him the best in the civilian world.
Concur. While I understand and agree with his reasoning, I can’t support his tactics.
The LT has a combined 17 years in service. He was an E-7 in the AF before accepting his commission to the Army.
Ought to be something about the name, brother of the twit that failed to follow the orders of the former CIC and somehow escaped prosecution. Now we’ll see if the equal protection clause works and the conviction is tossed..