A federal judge has granted a third request for additional time to file a brief in an appeal for Timothy Hennis.

Janes has a report on the USS SAN ANTONIO court-martial — Defect-ridden USS San Antonio should not have sailed, court martial told

The court martial of a US Navy officer accused of negligence following a fatal small boat accident focused as much on design flaws in one of the navy’s newest ships as on the officer’s history as a leader.

Stars & Stripes reports:

An Air Force staff sergeant who advertised his baby-sitting services to the Kaiserslautern military community and touted his compassion for children in an online forum pleaded guilty Thursday to multiple counts of raping and molesting three young girls in his care over the last year.

Air Force Times has a little more on the Colonel Roop saga.

Life in the 11th Wing, by most accounts, was simply miserable when former Col. Jon Roop was in charge. He threatened senior officers with their careers. He stood inches from lower-ranking airmen, attacking them so viciously that some broke down in tears. He dropped the F-bomb for effect.

The defense does not plan to present any evidence when a military hearing resumes next week for the Army psychiatrist charged in last year’s deadly Fort Hood shootings, the lead defense attorney said Tuesday. John Galligan said the government had offered “no surprises” in presenting its case against Maj. Nidal Hasan during two weeks of testimony in October.

Army Times reports.

An Army sergeant accused of masterminding a plan to kill Afghan civilians for sport used manipulation and intimidation to lead other soldiers into acts of unspeakable cruelty, an Army prosecutor told a military hearing Tuesday. But the defense attorney for Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs said the government has no physical evidence against the 25-year-old from Billings, Mont. — only the statements of other soldiers, many of whom also are charged in the case.

Kate Wiltrout at Virginia Pilot reports on a command response on the USS SAN ANTONIO case.

For Lt. Cmdr. Sean Kearns, the outcome of last week’s court-martial is crystal clear. Kearns, former executive officer of the troubled amphibious transport dock San Antonio, was found not guilty of criminal negligence related to the death of a sailor who drowned last year in the Gulf of Aden. For the man who opted to send Kearns to trial, the ramifications of the case are more murky.

Admiral Harvey presents an interesting contrast between legal and criminal responsibility for a senior officer, and the maxim that a captain should go down with his ship. While to XO may have been acquitted as a matter of criminal law, it appears that he is guilty as a matter of Navy philosophy of command responsibility.

The XO of USS SAN ANTONIO

has chosen to go to a court-martial on charges he was negligent on the day a sailor was lost at sea last year. If convicted, Lt. Cmdr. Sean D. Kearns, now assigned to a staff job at the U.S. Navy’s Second Fleet headquarters in Norfolk, would be the second person publicly reprimanded for a role in the death of Petty Officer 1st Class Theo-philus Ansong on Feb. 4, 2009. The San Antonio, an amphibious transport dock ship that’s the first of its kind, was operating in the Gulf of Aden and preparing to transfer sailors to another U.S. ship nearby. Ansong, 34, was in an 11-meter rigid hull inflatable boat that flipped while it was being lowered by crane from the San Antonio into the water. Three sailors were thrown from the small boat; two were rescued. Ansong’s body was never recovered.

The former CO received a letter of reprimand in May 2010 at flag mast.

The defense counsel has said that the defense will be based on a known design flaw in the ship which:

made lowering a small boat into the water more challenging than on other classes of ships, such as destroyers. There are now five San Antonio-class ships in the fleet. “We are aware that they are encountering the same problems and difficulties,” he said. After Ansong’s death, the Navy rolled out a series of changes in how ships in the class should change their standard operating procedures when dealing with small boats, he said.