Marc Hall slides
IVAW member Marc Hall, the Stop Loss rapper, slides off with virtually no punishment after he threatened to shoot his superiors back in December, according to the Associated Press;
The dismissal for misconduct means Spc. Marc A. Hall will avoid criminal charges but lose all military benefits earned over at least four years of service, including an earlier tour in Iraq.
Army spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Bloom said Saturday that top brass decided to discharge Hall instead of taking him to trial in part because he admitted his guilt.
So Hall makes out fine, while I’m sure some of his fellow soldiers are weighing the consequences of their own adherence to Army policy. Yeah, he lost his benefits, but he was facing 15 years in prison for communicating a threat – in fact he’s communicated threats several times – and we all know how his (NLG) lawyers will eventually coerce the VA in to giving the former mechanic back his benefits.
Bloom said that Maj. Gen. Terry Wolff signed off Friday on a plea deal for Hall to admit guilt and be discharged from the Army instead of face trial in Baghdad, as military lawyers requested.
I understand the Army’s reluctance to make a big deal out of this, but it will bite them in the ass. They don’t need to hear it from me, they know.
Thanks to Sparky for the link.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military issues
This is the next-to-worst case response, short of just letting him skate. The brass is sending a clear message that anyone can threaten their chain-of-command if they don’t like an order, etc. What next? Threatening the cooks because you didn’t get an extra order of SOS at breakfast? Good order and discipline, my ass. They could have done that by sending a clear message: Dishonorable Discharge, RIR to E-1, loss of all pay and benefits, and make it all clear as day. Dude got off light.
Sounds like his detailed JAG counsel negotiated what the Army calls a chapter 10, which means OTH in lieu of court martial. From my experiance, the NLG crowd has never heard of a chapter 10 and many commands won’t offer it, which means that detailed JAG or a civilian attorney with actual military experience is much better than anything coming out of the NLG.
The NLG thus far has shown themselves to be highly incompetent in any case they tackle. They are cause driven, not client driven.
I’m against Stop-Loss, but I think this kid fucked up when he mailed that song to the Pentagon. I don’t think this will lead to any great meltdown. I doubt your average Soldier has even heard about this or will even care.
The worse thing is the anti-war movement will use this as an example to other Soldiers they try to sucker in and use for whatever cause they are after.
Adding to what Casey said…
And the anti-war movement will likely use him and his “music” to further advance their bullshit.
Hell, Carl Webb will probably be falling all over himself trying to be this guy’s manager and get him a record deal.
Any decent NCO knows that you come down hard on discipline problems like this or you will have more problems in the future.
I think pushing him out is the right answer, just a few months too late. They should have knocked him down and kicked him out before it became such an issue. This would leave them more time to go after people who deserve to be in the military even less, like Army Sergeant..
As the expression goes, “Pour encourager les autres,” or “In order to encourage the others.” Or, in a more modern vein, “You can either serve as a shining example, or a horrible warning.”
@VTWoody, you have no idea how true that is. She seems like a nice gal, but she is getting out of the Army on less than honest pretenses in order to keep sucking a paycheck after she’s gone.
Marc Hall, despite what varying opinions are on him, I feel that this young guy will get his music and his issues, in regards to his PTSD, used to draw in more money for dishonest groups like IVAW, ISO, VFP, and others.
A couple of weeks or so ago I talked to an IVAW board member face to face. I won’t tell people the content of that conversation because I have a good reason to believe that what he said is probably true, it was just a trick to see what info they could get out of me in regards to IVAW’s Titanic sized leaks. Instead of just asking me outright and being honest in his questions.
I will tell you that after hearing what he had to say I ended the conversation with a polite “Go f*ck yourself.”
Now he slanders me by calling me narcissistic, egomaniac, and psycho. While he is right on the first two counts, I am not a psycho. What incredible thin skin these people have… and a complete lack of integrity.
The army shows very regularly how it lacks any balls at all on this kind of crap.
First Gulf war: A crack troop postal clerk refuses to do her duty because she didn’t sign up to be shot at, just to go to college. Army lets her slide. Nothing at all happens to her other than she is out of the army with good paper.
Then a crack troop army doctor refuses to do her duty, is allowed to leave the army with good paper.
These are only two instances where the correct call was prison and a Dishonorable Discharge. Yet the powers that be in the army decided to simply make the people go away quietly and everyone notices it and observes a trend that continues to this day.
What the hell army? If you can fight wars so well, how about reading the UCMJ and APPLYING IT WHERE NEEDED?
“Whose”, Carl. Surely you have time to get educated…….
Aww ROS, yer just pickin’ on Carl because he has shown his true colors.