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Interesting news.

By The Armorer on June 3, 2005 | | Comments (22) | TrackBacks (1)

We've discussed this here before. Remember the Reservists courts-martialed for cannibalizing vehicles in Iraq?

Odd way for this to end, not that I have any particular heartburn about what LTG Metz chose to do. However, the author of the piece has it wrong - the verdict of the court was *not* overturned. The convening authority (LTG Metz) reduced the punishment, as is his perogative.

Dayton Daily News June 2, 2005

Officer Can Stay In Military

Court-martial overturned, punishment reduced for Kaus

By Cathy Mong, Dayton Daily News

Maj. Catherine Kaus, the former Ohio Army Reserve commander who served a six-month confinement after members of her unit salvaged parts of abandoned Army vehicles in Kuwait to help carry out its mission in Iraq, said "it was a great relief" to learn Wednesday she would not be dismissed from the military.

Kaus, assigned to an auditing job at Fort Sill, Okla., said her attorney, Phil Cave, informed her that the partial clemency limits her punishment to a reprimand, time served in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Cave learned Wednesday from a military criminal attorney that Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, the theater commander when Kaus was in Iraq, overruled the court-martial in her case and disapproved the 28-year veteran's dismissal from the Army. He also disapproved "contingent confinement," which could have landed Kaus in jail again if she failed to pay the fine on time. The six-month confinement, already served, was approved.

Read the rest, here. (registration required, sorry)

In *other* news from Dayton - an example of concealed carry working...

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Dawn Patrol from Mudville Gazette on June 5, 2005 7:47 AM

Iraq A Little Manly Essay [Dadmanly - in Iraq] Little Manly (aged nine, 3rd grade) was asked to write an essay for the school’s annual Flag Day Essay Contest, and this is what he wrote... "...So until now the flag... Read More

22 Comments

By Barb on June 3, 2005 3:03 PM
I love stories like the Dayton one, except for one thing. Did you notice that there was both a CCP and a "Dayton Firearms Owner's Identification Card"? So - everyone who owns any firearm is 'registered' with the city?? *grrrrrr*
 
By MCart on June 3, 2005 4:18 PM
GRRR... Even worse is the registration for that fascist news site! But still, story worth following up. Thanks for the link. Where on earth did you find it?
 
By SangerM on June 3, 2005 4:45 PM
Man, it's a good thing everybody who ever swiped parts off other units' vehicles didn't go to jail... When I was at Ft. Hood in the early '70s, we swiped everything that wasn't locked down: antennas, radios, spare tires, OVM, etc. In the mid '80s, we borrowed whole vehicles (no kidding, I had one truck on my hand reciept that wasn't on our TO&E and was wasn't even officially Army inventory--long story that one). At some point in my career I borrowed or swiped a conex, a shelter for the back of an M880, tools, a few dozen sheets of plywood, empty ammo cans, tank round crates, and so on. At one point, we went to Seckenheim PDO and loaded up on Tng MOPP suits, metascopes, tape players for our language lab, and so on. None of that was authorized either, though we did make sure to be "signed for it." Of course, every bit of that was for official use (no tongue in cheek), and was almost always required by a supply system that didn't work all that well, a lack of money for parts and materials, or a lack of understanding by TO&E designers about what it took to actually conduct the mission (especially true for platoons built around a spanking new EW system). Was any of that ever done in a war zone? Nope. Would I have done it if I had a mission and could not do it without stealing someone else's stuff? Maybe. Probably, especially if the "losing" unit really didn't need the junk anymore and I did. Personally, I still don't see what's wrong with that, but then, my job was always to figure out how to do the stuff the people in charge dreamed up. Simple cross-leveling of resources. Yeah, That's what it was. I suppose it's just the times....
 
By John of Argghhh! on June 3, 2005 4:56 PM
I figured there had to be more than we ever got in the stories for this to have gone to a court. I'd still like to know the backstory.
 
By Cassandrat on June 3, 2005 5:39 PM
Now *that* really steams me. It's bad enough our troops don't have body armadillos and protection for those humdinger thingamabobs they ride around in, but if you're trying to tell me The Shrub isn't even giving our boys ENOUGH TO EAT AND THEY'RE REDUCED TO *EATING VEHICLES* THEN THERE IS REALLY SOMETHING ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF DENMARK! *** THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!! ***** Where the helk is John Kerry when you need him? This is worse than the rape of ANWAR SADAT or whatever that fuss about the caribou was all about! I'm switching parties. /flouncing off
 
By Neffi on June 3, 2005 5:52 PM
heh nice rant, 'Rat... John has it right- there's gotta be more to the story. If all Klaus did was cannibalize some parts in order to carry out her mission she should be promoted and given a medal... but for that kind of punishment to come down, there had to be something else-
 
By SangerM on June 3, 2005 6:11 PM
Actually, John/Neffi, I figured that too, but what? The what escapes me... To me, anything less than wanton destruction of the abandoned source vehicles or black marketing the parts to other units would be ok, unless maybe the abandoned vehicles weren't really abandoned, and the stuff was taken from storage facilities? I didn't read the artlcle 'cause sometime I really don't want to know the rest of the story. I either end up POd at the bureaucracy or at the individuals. As I wrote, I'm just glad I didn't get caught and the Army wasn't looking that hard... BTW, Cassandra: Funny.
 
By MCart on June 3, 2005 6:25 PM
...Body Armadillos.... Can someone reset my breaker? I can't reach it...
 
By John of Argghhh! on June 3, 2005 7:20 PM
Cass? I found your little seven-compartment weekly med thingy? The one with the cute little *blue pills* for Friday untaken?
 
By Cricket on June 3, 2005 7:56 PM
And it is unspeakable that they have to eat VE-Hickles when they have those tasty MREs. Neffi, how did your onion relish turn out? I forgot to ask on another hijacked thread, and I figgered this was okay.
 
By Justthisguy on June 3, 2005 8:21 PM
Gee, I kinda always thought that military regulations were just that, administrative conveniences to help point the soldiers this way or that way, not moral and ethical dictates carved in stone! I mean, the regs are there to help you do what you joined up to do, not to hinder that? Military regulations are not, I think, the same as laws we have in civil society. As long as the soldiers remember, and honor, the oath they swore to protect and defend the Constitution, I'm willing to wink at slight violations of silly regulations.
 
By John of Argghhh! on June 3, 2005 8:25 PM
Exactly wrong, JTG. An officially promulgated regulation has the force of law among those subject to the UCMJ.
 
By Justthisguy on June 3, 2005 8:37 PM
Umm, I meant, uh, morally, maybe? The military society is an artificial one, at least in this country. Created by the Constitution and Congress. I think I read somewhere that the French do it differently (please don't hit me), that is, strictly military wrongdoings go to courts-martial, ordinary crimes are prosecuted in the ordinary courts. And...! I don't know how many times I've read about military folks violating regulations in ways minor to major, who have, well, sometimes won important battles by doing so. As Nelson said when putting the telescope up to his blind eye, "I really do not see the signal."
 
By Yankee Sailor on June 3, 2005 8:47 PM
Glad to see there's at least one guy with stars on his collar that stands up for his troops. Still, knowing the little that I do, I think the good Major probably should have been let off with time served.
 
By John of Argghhh! on June 3, 2005 8:52 PM
I don't know about the French, but you are correct in the others - which makes the backstory about what went on with Kaus and Co. even more interesting.
 
By Justthisguy on June 3, 2005 9:16 PM
Yep, JoA, I'd like to read the backstory, too, except that maybe I wouldn't, it being prolly all sordid and nasty and emetic. It's just that the regulations for the governance of the Armed Forces, as authorized by the Constitution and made by Congress, are not so much moral, as they are practical. Looking out for the Constitution of the United States of America trumps all other considerations, I think. Some people seem, to me, to think that looking out for people employed by the Government of the United States of America trumps all other considerations. I dislike those people.
 
By GunTrash on June 3, 2005 9:30 PM
Re Dayton gun laws. I lived in the general Dayton area for about 20 yrs, left in '01 before OH finally got CCW. But, I'm not surprised Dayton has an additional permit for concealed carry. The city council there for years was leftist Democrats. Only recently have Republicans made inroads. And the Dayton Daily News is strictly a left wing rag. Glad to be back in KY, I've got a concealed permit, but anyone (other than felon) can carry a pistol in their glove compartment, even without a CCW. permit.
 
By Barb on June 3, 2005 10:00 PM
GunTrash ... I took it that the CCW was only for carrying, while the other was for simply being a gun owner - thus my dissat. I need to find out more about it.
 
By me on June 3, 2005 11:32 PM
skirt those pesky fascist registration sites: www.bugmenot.com thank me later.........
 
By me on June 3, 2005 11:32 PM
skirt those pesky fascist registration sites: www.bugmenot.com thank me later.........
 
By Mythilt on June 6, 2005 8:50 AM
The Dayton Daily News a left-wing rag? Please, rags at least have some usage. The DDN is so far left that I wouldn't use it to housebreak a pet or line a bird cage...might poison the pets. I live in the suburbs of Dayton, and am not at all surprised at the requirement for a second permit...there is a reason I avoid the city, and anything that might lessen that reason of course must be discouraged.
 
By lvncenturion on June 6, 2005 4:08 PM
I'd love to see the good Major's ORB. I wonder how that six months confinement shows up: USDB, Ft. Leavenworth KS, Inmate?