Punishment for Osan AB Air Force Lieutenant who “Strangled” Korean Taxi Draws Criticism
An Air Force lieutenant got in struggle for “strangling” a Korean taxi driver:
A U.S. Air Force 1st lieutenant assigned to the 51st Fighter Wing at Osan Air Base was reprimanded in February for strangling a Korean national after a night of drinking, according to a recent discipline update.
The lieutenant “grabbed a Korean National taxi driver’s neck while riding in the taxi after 1 a.m., the curfew time for U.S. forces in Korea,” Capt. Rachel Salpietra, a 51FW spokeswoman, told Task & Purpose.
Task and Purpose via a reader tip
The driver declined to press criminal or civil charges and accepted a voluntary settlement from the service member, Salpietra said, adding that alcohol “appears to have been involved” in the incident.
The article was headlined that he strangled the taxi driver, but grabbing his neck with no charges filed is quite different. Nevertheless the lieutenant was given an Article 15 and the punishment shared in an email that was headlined as “strangling” a taxi driver.
This caused people on the popular Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page to complain:
A senior airman found guilty of larceny for stealing a blanket was reduced in rank to an E-3 and forced to forfeit $1,116 in pay a month for two months.
Another senior airman found guilty of stealing a blanket and jacket was reduced in rank to an E-3 and slapped with 45 days restriction. (….)“What I’m going to take from this is if you get cold, strangle a Korean national,” wrote one Air Force amn/nco/snco reader, “but whatever you do, DON’T STEAL A EFFING BLANKET.”
The difference is that the two airman robbed a Korean store for those items. So what is worse grabbing a taxi driver by the neck while drunk past curfew or willfully robbing a store?
The other thing to remember is that the airman can likely recover career wise from their discipline, the lieutenant on the other hand has his career ended since any promotion board will see the Article 15 and reprimand.
I don’t know the specifics (context is everything), but an article 15 is career ending for an officer. He’s just an Lt. He will have to find another job very soon.
Officers who get drunk off post and miss curfew should be fired anyway. Poor judgement involved here looks silly. In the sir it could easily mean dead GIs.
In the AIR, I mean, sorry.
General Larry D Welch, the 12th Air Force Chief of Staff, had an Article 15 as a young lieutenant for riding his motorcycle through the O Club.
Everyone knows today’s AF isn’t as forgiving, but this is one example where someone can recover and go on to do great things.
honestly, who hasn’t wanted to strangle a Korean cab driver.
“In the sir it could easily mean dead GIs.”
You are absolutely correct.
A night of heavy drinking, HIV positivity, and two gay officers… “in the sir” could be fatal.
Flyingsword has a good point. And I realize everyone makes mistakes. I just think that, with the current political climate, officers and gentlemen would refrain from acting like junior enlisted on their first pass…
I’ll bet the LT forgot his(?) reflective belt, and that’s what precipitated the whole sordid tale.
Other things aside, this small slice of how the military metes justice is troubling.
Two standard curfew violations but the 4 only gets a rep. the 3 gets a rep and 45 days restriction. Why? Either the punishment is completely uniform of if you’re going to vary it, the reasoning should be harsher the higher, not the opposite. It’s a simple infraction and they mess this up so it’s only going to get worse from there.
Moving on to the mid-tier we have 2 thieves, the one who only steals a single item gets hammered with over $2000 in fines, loss in wages of another $2200+ by demotion, and a rep.
The 2nd thief does the same thing + 5-fingers a 2nd item, while getting the same demotion and loss in wages they do not get the 2k fine but instead receive 45 days of semi-freedom. So steal more to get punished less?
Lastly the drunk who violates curfew and commits battery; 30 days restriction, no demotion, no fine. For putting hands on someone while out in violation of the precious curfew. That’s the same punishment the 3 got for simply violating curfew.
I refuse to entertain the guff about reps being career ender’s for officers because that’s similar to people saying “If you want to do graphics you need a Mac, they’re much better for graphics.”
It’s a line of shit that people like to repeat that sounds plausible and makes them appear knowledgeable on the subject but is nothing more than an unsupported suspicion. There are no quantitative studies on how reps affect O’s any more or less than E’s. No tracking devices affixed to offenders to see how things pan out, just an overall guess that it hurts them more and dead-end’s their careers.
The Loouie would have been better off if he just Raped and sexall azzaulted a service-member or civilian. They say rape is a crime of violets too.
Everyone knows today’s AF isn’t as forgiving, but this is one example where someone can recover and go on to do great things.
Today the General would not have made Captain.
I’m not saying it to “appear knowledgable” It is simply a fact.
We could wait a few years and see how this guy is doing if you want proof.
I’m curious as to why the SrA who stole a blanket AND a jacket got a lighter sentence than the one who stole just a blanket.
BTW, an Air Force Staff Sergeant is an E-5, and a Senior Airman is an E-4.
Liz seems to appear more knowledgeable about this…
..not sure what it is…
😎
Cyber raspberry at Smokes. 😛