Private that defected to North Korea gets time served, and the Navy solves their retention issues

You’ll remember Travis King, soon to be formerly a private in the US Army, was the boneheaded turd that was supposed to be escorted to the airport to fly back to the states from South Korea. As I recall he was being chaptered out. Somehow he slipped his guard, snuck into a tour group visiting the DMZ, and then just ran across the border into North Korea. For some reason, the United States government wanted him back. We got him a month later, and he’s been sitting in confinement since then, which is about a year now.

Well, Mr. King has pled guilty to desertion and other charges, and has been sentenced to time served with a dishonorable discharge. So he’s got that going for him, which is nice. No word on if his parents are going to be invited to the White House so their traitorous son can be called a hero.

In other stupid news, this article from Military Times on naval aviator retention issues is equally funny. It seems that with the length of a modern naval aviator’s training pipeline, then only get one sea duty rotation out of the way before they’re given a shore assignment. When they come next up for their sea duty, it’s right about the time that their MSO is running out and they leave for greener pastures. Big Navy being what it is has found a great way to keep from having to send aviators back mid-tour. They’re just going to force them to stay. The beatings will continue until morale improves!

Category: "Teh Stoopid", "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Army, Korea, Navy, WTF?