Tag: US military

There is a lot to discuss in this article to include the fact that the SHARP training after all these years has been wrong:

How drunk is too drunk to consent to sex?

According to military training aimed at preventing sexual harassment and assault, the answer has been: barely tipsy.

For years, Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Prevention training informed troops that even one drink made a person incapable of giving consent.

In legal terms, that wasn’t true.

The issue has been at the heart of many cases in military courtrooms over the past decade. How many drinks an alleged victim consumed and how much alcohol rendered him or her “incapable of consenting” is frequently disputed at trial.

Now, for the first time, a military court decision has defined the term “incapable of consenting” while overturning a sailor’s conviction for sexually assaulting two subordinates under the influence of “significant amounts of alcohol.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces agreed in a March decision that a person is incapable of consenting when he or she lacks “the cognitive ability to appreciate the sexual conduct in question or the physical or mental ability to make or to communicate a decision about whether they agree to the conduct.” In rendering its decision, the court upheld a 2015 decision by the Navy-Marine appellate court.  [Stars & Stripes]

I read the bold text to mean that if someone is able to communicate that they want to have sex that this is consent regardless of whether they were drinking.  Because of this definition the sailor convicted of sexual assault in the article for having a drunken twosome was released from prison after serving 21 months of a six year sentence.  He left the Navy with an honorable discharge earlier this month.

Here is how the head of a major sexual assault advocacy group has responded to this change:

“There’s that common sense part of it,” he said. “What if you were trying to do a business transaction (with a drunken person)? You’re taking advantage of that guy. He doesn’t understand the intricacies.”

So what if the accused was drinking?  Isn’t the accused decision making ability altered as well?  How is it just the accuser’s ability to make decisions is hampered by alcohol and not the accused?  Anyway I agree with what this lawyer had to say to wrap up the article:

Jack Zimmermann, a Houston military appellate lawyer, said he doubted the case would have a significant effect.

“In reality, it’s going to be very similar to the way it’s been: You look at the words and actions of the people involved,” he said. “The bottom line in these sexual assault cases is that they are going to be won or lost in the courtroom when the complaining witness testifies and the jury believes her or not.”

Even with this new definition I suspect that cases with weak evidence will still get sent to court martial where juries will be left with the difficult job of figuring out the truth of what happened based off of drunken memories.

Over the past two months two US military colonels have found themselves facing a number of serious charges to include sexual assault.  The first one Colonel Shane Tomko has already found himself in jail for violating a pretrial agreement:

A Marine officer facing a general court-martial over allegations of sexual assault has been sent to a county jail for violating the terms of his pretrial agreement.

Col. T. Shane “Rhino” Tomko, the former commander of the Marine Corps’ Wounded Warrior Regiment, was sent to the Rappahannock Regional Jail in Stafford, Virginia, on May 6, said Rex Runyon, a Marine Corps spokesman. Tomko is in the process of being transferred to the U.S. Navy brig in Chesapeake, Virginia, he added.  (………)

Tomko faces charges of abusive sexual contact, fraternization, conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, wrongful possession of anabolic steroids, obstructing justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice and violations of lawful orders, according to the charge sheet against him.  [Marine Corps Times]

According to Marine Corps Life he forcibly kissed a female Marine on the mouth and supposedly said that she was “a hot and intriguing dyke that makes me wish I were a woman.”

Then over in Colorado there is an Air Force colonel who seems to be quite the ladies man when he isn’t being accused of sexual assault:

The former vice commander of the 50th Space Wing, charged with rape, assault, adultery and other lewd acts, will head to a general court-martial in August, according to the 21st Space Wing at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.

Col. Eugene Marcus Caughey, currently assigned to Air Force Space Command at Peterson, was charged Dec.10 with rape and assault at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, after in late 2014 or early 2015 he allegedly used “unlawful force” to hold the victim “against the wall and floor” while committing a sexual act, charge sheet documents reveal. He was also charged with various acts of alleged misconduct — which includes taking photos of his genitals while in uniform — dating back to 2013, according to his charge sheet.  [Air Force Times]

You can read more at the link, but this guy supposedly had six different girlfriends while being married and his defense is that they are spurned lovers.

These two colonels are of course innocent until proven guilty, but regardless they are quite the embarrassment for the US military.

I wear New Balance running shoes and the claim they are not durable by the Pentagon I am highly skeptical of considering how the various shoes I have wore over the years have held up just fine:

Now the Pentagon has stepped into more procurement quicksand, this time here in Lawrence, where it touched off a war of words with the New Balance footwear company, the Lawrence City Council and U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Lowell, by alleging the company’s athletic shoes are not fit for military duty. The company is not allowed to sell shoes on military bases, which it says will cost it the sale of many as 225,000 pairs to recruits and soldiers annually.

 

It was a snub heard ’round the world, sparking allegations that the Department of Defense prefers shoes made in Vietnam and Malaysia rather than in American hometowns like Lawrence, and amplified by New Balance’s decision to retaliate by taking up arms against President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership. The trade pact would lower tariffs on goods imported from 11 other nations, which New Balance says would flood the market with cheap foreign-made athletic shoes.

 

Rob DeMartini, New Balance’s president and CEO, said he agreed not to oppose the trade pact in exchange for assurances from Michael Froman, the Obama administration’s top trade official, that he would ease the impact by helping the company get a Defense Department contract to produce up to 225,000 pairs of athletic shoes a year for military recruits and soldiers. That never happened, the company said, then unleashed its attacks on the trade pact after years of reluctant silence.

 

“I’m definitely not a defense appropriation or procurement expert, but in the seven years I’ve been working on this, I’ve seen nothing but a bureaucratic nightmare, where middle managers at the Pentagon are making decisions that affect real jobs and real lives in America,” said Matthew LeBretton, a New Balance vice president. “There’s something really wrong with the system.”

 

LeBretton refuted DoD allegations that New Balance shoes are too expensive, noting that the company offered to supply the shoes at cost in an effort to keep its assembly lines humming and its supply lines full. He also disputed Pentagon claims that the test shoes it provided were not durable; published reports say the shoes were given to just six service members who were asked to run 30 miles over two months and then fill out a questionnaire.  [The Eagle Tribune]

Here is probably the most troubling statement in the whole article:

“If the Defense Department wants to make an argument that they want to buy non-American goods, that’s one thing,” Smithberger said. “But what a company’s political position is should have no bearing on whether they would get a contract or get a fair hearing and an ability to compete. It’s definitely improper.”

You can read more at the link.

In a Trump Presidency a big change for the military will be that General Officers will no longer be allowed to talk to the media:

If he becomes commander in chief, Donald Trump won’t let military generals speak to “the dishonest press,” out of fear they’ll spill national security secrets.  “I don’t want them saying things like ‘our nation has never been so ill-prepared.’ Even though it’s true, I don’t want the enemy knowing that.”“A general should not be on television,” the Republican front-runner told a crowd of supporters during a rally at Carmel, Indiana, on Monday. “I don’t want our generals on television. I will prohibit them.  [Military Times]

You can read more at the link.

Below is a really good read in today’s Korea Herald that I recommend reading in full.  It is about the history of mixed raced children in South Korea fathered by US military servicemembers.  These mixed race kids definitely had a hard life growing up in South Korea.  Of particular interest is the role that Korean brokers played in trafficking women into the sex industry.  It makes me wonder if these were the same brokers who trafficked women to Japanese soldiers during the Japanese colonial period?:

Jang is one of some 40,000 mixed-race Koreans born in South Korea from 1955-1969, many of whom were born to American soldiers who were temporarily stationed here. Many of the Korean women who gave birth to such mixed-race children were those who were trafficked by Korean brokers to work as prostitutes for the U.S. military.

Many fathers simply went back to the U.S. and never returned. Mothers relinquished their children, as many of them had no financial means to raise them, while suffering from severe social stigmatization for being sex workers. Most of the children were adopted into American families. For those who remained in Korea, like Jang, life was filled with a sense of alienation, racist attacks and longing for her birth parent.  (………)

To this day, Kang doesn’t know if her father died that day or simply decided to leave her mother for good. After her father went missing, Kang’s mother had a number of live-in relationships with American soldiers, who supported her financially.

Her mother soon started working as a dancer for the U.S. military, moving from one base to another. Kang lived in almost every Korean city that had active U.S. military bases, including Dongducheon, Osan, Paju, Pyeongtaek and Uijeongbu. During these years, Kang witnessed many teenage daughters of sex workers being trafficked or forced to work as prostitutes by their mothers’ pimps and brokers.

“Those brokers should still be tracked down now and jailed. … It’s not too late,” she said.  [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link.

It seems to me if anyone should get in trouble its the policeman who drew his weapon simply because a service member tapped his beer bottle and made the foam run out:

American troops involved in a bar brawl with Filipino policemen face possible disciplinary sanctions in an incident earlier this month that the Philippine military says has no bearing on ongoing large-scale combat exercises by the treaty allies.

Philippine military spokesman Capt. Celeste Frank Sayson said the April 2 scuffle in western Palawan province was a misunderstanding that was settled amicably. A Youtube video showed one of three Filipino policemen drawing a pistol during the confrontation.

The U.S. military said in a statement that “any potential misconduct of U.S. service members is completely unacceptable” and will be dealt with by the troops’ home unit. It did not give details of the incident nor identified the troops involved.

While off duty American troops appreciate the opportunity to experience the local culture while training in the Philippines, the U.S. military said it “demands high standards of conduct from service members at all times, and takes all incidents involving potential misconduct very seriously.”

Sayson said the incident would not affect Balikatan, referring to the name of the joint military exercises by U.S. and Philippine troops.  [Associated Press]

You can read the rest at the link.

Drink/drive limit toughened on US military bases in Japan, in line with Japanese standard: https://t.co/aK8MyPkc68 pic.twitter.com/0BQioioflO

— Erik Slavin (@eslavin_stripes) March 28, 2016

“A Profile” is a continuing series of articles here on the ROK Drop that describes each of the different US military installations in Korea and the corresponding “villes” outside of the gate.  You can learn more about these locations at the below links:

• Bosandong Ville In Donguducheon
• Camps Casey, Hovey, Nimble, Mobile, Castle, & Kwangsa-ri
• Camps Kyle, Sears, Essayons, LaGuardia, & Falling Water
• Camp Mobile
• Camp Mujuk
• Camp Page
• Camp Red Cloud
• Camp Stanley
• Korea Training Center (KTC)
• The “TDC Ville”
• Teokgeo-ri Ville
• Uijeongbu
• Western Corridor Camps
• Western Korean Demilitarized Zone
• Yongsan Garrison, Camp Kim, Camp Coiner, Camp Jackson & Camp Market

Note: If anyone wants to contribute an article to this series feel free to send it to me using the “Contact” link above.  If it is of high enough quality I will publish it here on the ROK Drop.  I would particularly like to publish articles about camps that are now closed.  If you have served on a now closed camp and would like to share your thoughts and pictures of your time on the camp please write an article and send it to me or post it in the Forums.

Wee Sung-ho (R), president of the Korea National Defense University (KNDU), and Frederick Padilla, president of the National Defense University of the U.S., shake hands after signing a memorandum of understanding in Seoul on Feb. 24, 2016, for academic exchanges between their institutions. The agreement covers exchanges of teaching staff and students, conducting joint studies and sharing of research findings. (Photo courtesy of KNDU) (Yonhap)

The frightening and contradictory ways that Donald Trump would lead America’s armed forces. https://t.co/T7worzhzfQ pic.twitter.com/TGtzIYi9cf

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) February 5, 2016