When Rohan Coombs joined the Marine Corps, he never thought one day he would be locked up in an immigration detention center and facing deportation from the country he had vowed to defend. . . .

The estimates are of about 8000 non-U.S. citizens enlisting to serve in the U.S. armed forces in any given year.

Most immigrants serve with distinction. The Center for Naval Analyses, a federally funded research and development center for the Navy and the Marine Corps, found that non-citizens are far more likely to complete their enlistment obligations successfully than their U.S.-born counterparts. Coombs was one who did not make the grade. He spent 10 months in the Persian Gulf and lost friends to combat, he said. After the war, he felt depressed and anxious. His family was far away in New York, and he said “whining” to fellow Marines didn’t seem an option. Instead, he got involved with drugs, and he got caught. In 1992, he was court-martialed for possession of cocaine and marijuana with the intent to distribute, and was given 18 months of confinement and a dishonorable discharge. He continued to struggle with drugs.

And he’s awaiting deportation proceedings. The article sets out a push to get non-U.S. citizens who have served a special status which would limit their deportability.

A US special forces member suspected of having accidentally killed a British aid worker held hostage in Afghanistan could face disciplinary action, officials said Thursday.

Reuters reports that:

Col. James Pohl, the presiding officer at Hasan’s hearing, denied a request from Hasan’s lawyers to delay the Article 32 evidentiary hearing to determine if a military court-martial is warranted until November 8.

Air Force Times reports:

A terrified civilian worker begged a 911 dispatcher for help as gunfire and screams rang out during a deadly rampage at Fort Hood, according to a recording of the phone call played Wednesday at a military hearing to decide if an Army psychiatrist accused in the attack should stand trial.

UPI reports:

More than 100 witnesses have been called to testify at the hearing, including the 31 other people wounded in the attack and the two Fort Hood police officers who shot Hasan four times, CNN said.

The Sacramento Bee has more on the California National Guard cases, begun by a whistleblower.

Master Sgt. Toni Jaffe was known as “the M&M lady” because she decorated her office cubicle with keepsakes of the confection’s advertising characters.

Talking of whistleblowers, Air Force Times reports:

The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from a former Mississippi Air National Guard colonel who alleged other officers retaliated against him for revealing corruption.

The unemployment rate for veterans rose slightly in June, to 8 percent overall and 11.5 percent for Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans, a sign that expanding programs aimed at helping veterans find work are not working in a stagnant job market. June employment statistics released Friday by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics show the overall unemployment rate for veterans rose slightly from 7.8 percent in May. Still, the unemployment rate for veterans remains lower than the overall national rate of 9.5 percent.

For military justice practitioners I think it’s useful to think of these numbers as an additional bad sign for those leaving active duty under less than honorable discharge circumstances.

The Air Force Times also reports:

Married to a second lieutenant, the woman couldn’t help herself. She vented. She gave up a good civil service job and her husband was a staff sergeant, steadily climbing the enlisted ranks, when they decided he should go to Officer Training School. He excelled. She pinned on his bars in December. Now, he’s out of a job, one of 28 junior officers getting kicked out because they either haven’t started their initial skills training course or didn’t finish the training. By year’s end, the service will cut 6,000 airmen — enlisted and officer — because so few are leaving on their own due to the recession. The number of officers, second lieutenants to colonels, targeted for discharge is 1,373.

Note the reference to the job market.