UCMJ on Christmas Eve

Two weeks back I had three visibly inebriated, underage soldiers come back from a night on the town. The staff duty desk called me at about 1:30 in the morning, and I called the battalion commander to inform him I'd be driving up to Camp Carroll to handle it.

With the military police present, I ordered that their rooms be opened and the soldiers taken down to the MP station for a breathalyzer test. In order to avoid the situation making the blotter report, we took the soldiers down in our personal vehicles.

Once the breathalyzer tests were done, we dropped the soldiers back off at the barracks.

The following week, I compiled the evidence and submitted packets to the brigade's legal section for review. It took a while to get the packets back because of the half-day schedule around the holidays, but we were able to do the first reading on Friday the 19th.

After two days to consult Legal themselves, I called them into my office individually for their punishment. For a "Company Grade Article 15," you can do the following:

• Assign extra duty for 14 days
• Restrict soldiers to an assigned area for 14 days (like staying on-post)
• Forfeiture of 7 days pay, and
• Reduction by one rank (for E4 and below).

For this situation, I gave all three soldiers the extra duty and restricted them to post (though the extra duty would start on the 26th). I also reduced them in rank, which may seem a bit extreme, but an underage drinking incident is a serious matter -- in addition to a mandatory referral to the Army's Substance Abuse Program, a second offense would require me to initiate separation. I didn't want them to think this was a minor matter.

Plus, I wanted everyone in the formation to understand that underage drinking is a big deal, and I felt reduction would be the best way to "get the word out," so to speak. Hopefully, everyone will note that indiscipline has consequences, and maintains the highest standards.

Meting out punishment for indiscipline on Christmas Eve definitely isn't my idea of fun, but it had to be done just the same.