The families respond I

Several relatives of soldiers killed at the battle of Wanat on July 13, 2008, have contacted me to express their unhappiness about the Army’s recent decision to rescind letters of reprimand to officer who oversaw that fight.

The families respond II

Here is another comment from a parent of a soldier lost at Wanat. I do not regard this as bellyaching. These people deserve, at the very least, straight answers. Instead I think their grief is intensified by what they regard as a Pentagon runaround.

Three officers given letters of reprimand for the deadly July 13, 2008, battle in Wanat, Afghanistan, have been exonerated and the letters withdrawn, the Army announced June 23. Gen. Charles Campbell, who recently relinquished command of Forces Command and is preparing to retire, “withdrew, cancelled and annulled” the adverse administrative actions after reviewing findings from a Central Command-directed investigation and hearing from the three officers themselves.

Navy Times reports that:

A Navy nurse is facing a court-martial Wednesday for allegedly stealing high-priced skin care products and allowing sailors to administer Botox injections in violation of Navy rules.

And here is the follow-up from Kate Wiltrout in the Virgina Pilot:

A Navy nurse who served as manager of the facial plastics clinic at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center pleaded guilty Wednesday to giving patients free Botox injections, violating procedures for ordering tens of thousands of dollars worth of pricey skin care products and selling them directly to patients. Lt. Nancy M. Loving also pleaded guilty to giving out hundreds of dollars worth of “free” Obagi and Clarisonic products the clinic received as bonuses from retailers – and stealing $256.50 by depositing a patient’s check into her own account. Capt. Tierney Carlos, a military judge, fined Loving $2,000 and ordered she be docked $2,400 in pay for three months. She agreed to resign her commission.

The Navy Times reports that:

The skipper of the frigate John L. Hall was fired Tuesday morning for hitting a pier roughly one month after taking command.

United States v. Cossio. You may remember Cossio who was present fairly frequently on CAAFLog with at times pithy and at other times rather in-your-face commentary. Here is an order in regard to his current petition with AFCCA for a writ of error coram nobis.

Navy Times is reporting a virus:

The Coalition of Sailors Against Destructive Decisions, a grass-roots effort started in early 2009 by a chief and a few petty officers in Norfolk, Va., is now Navy-wide.

The Army has charged an Illinois National Guardsman in Afghanistan with possession of child and adult pornography, and his family has come to his defense, arguing that he was the target of a personal vendetta.

Army Times reports. This is an ongoing case that started because the kids mother sent him a photograph of a child. In the photograph you can apparently see her crack.

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Thanks to CAAFLog here is a link to an article about the Walker retrial at Quantico. (Unofficially, I’m told the case may be completed by 5 February.)

A former Marine sitting on death row for the last 16-years after being convicted of murdering two colleagues in 1992 may be re-sentenced to life in the brig after an appellate court set aside his initial death sentence last year.

Marine Corps Times reports.

They have a panel of 13 members. They began with 15 members initially assigned to the panel. After the voir dire process they had excused a total of 28 prospective members for one reason or another. Military law requires a minimum of 12 members in a death penalty case. And they must be unanimous in voting for death. Walker already has an approved premeditated murder conviction. So the issue is whether he will be sentenced for the one already approved, or will he be convicted of the second murder and thus sentenced for two.

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The results of a second investigation into the deadly battle at Wanat, Afghanistan, in 2008 could lead to action being taken against Army leaders involved in the operation that has come to symbolize the perils of underestimating enemy and terrain in the Southwest Asian nation.

Honolulu Advertizer reports.

I’m losing the battle on the increasing informality of dress in courts-martial. Even the Marines have now made chucks the uniform for court. But, so far we haven’t gone this far:

At one point yesterday, Colonel Mario Dutil, the chief military judge of the Canadian Forces, asked crossly, “Why not a Tilley hat, cargo pants and a Columbia shirt?” Col. Dutil was hearing the first of a slew of pre-trial motions in the second-degree murder prosecution of Captain Robert Semrau, the soldier charged in the Oct. 19, 2008, death of a severely wounded Talib. Yet just as in the civilian world criminal trials can descend into flights of goofiness, so can military ones, and that is pretty much what happened here yesterday. The first on the defence list of seven motions was an application to vary the court-martial administrative instruction about dress, that is, what the participants should wear in court.

The Globe & Mail reports.