Military Injustice Blog (MIB) -- MARINE DOWN!!

Corporal Guillermo A. Douglas

S.L.A. Marshall wrote, in the book Men Against Fire that "an infantryman attacking with his unit was suddenly alone when he dropped to the ground in the face of incoming fire." Nowhere is that more true than when the enemy is a military JAG acting under the mantle of command authority.

You'll read below of the extraordinary exploits, recent and not so recent, of Marnies supporting Marnies. One must wonder why is it then, when attacks come from unethical or corrupt Navy-Marine Corps JAGs, warrior Marines cower and run leaving "every man for himself."

The Special Court-martial (SPCM) of Corporal Douglas is illustrative.

On 15 September 1998 Corporal Douglas was tried by a SPCM convened by the commanding officer, Headquarters and Service Battalion, Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia. He was convicted, contrary to his pleas, of three specifications of making false official statements (violations of Article 107, UCMJ). Douglas was sentenced to a bad-conduct discharge (BCD), confinement for 30 days (reduced to 10 days) and reduction in pay grade to E-1.

Douglas has struggled ever since trying to survive carrying the anchor-weight of a federal conviction as reported in his DD-214 discharge papers.

Statements made by the Corporal Douglas were neither false, nor were they official. Charges leveled against Douglas were without merit, and even a cursory reading of his case evokes outrage; more evidence of a military justice system gone haywire.

When Corporal Douglas appealed, he was abandoned by the Navy JAG assigned to assist. She, as other Marines, left Douglas laying in the high-grass, helpless, with no hope of surviving the punishing incoming fire.

We have a Marine down!!

Corporal Douglas has sought help from Congressman Don Sherwood and Marine Corps Commandant Jones to no avail.

General Jones can provide remedy and relief by causing Corporal Douglas' immediate return to active duty, calling for a full investigation into the circumstances of his SPCM, and then taking corrective action to ensure we don't lose another Good Marine to an institutionally corrupt military justice system.

Semper Fidelis isn't just a concept called upon to save the lives of "Legends of the Corps." If it doesn't work for the "Mud Marines," it doesn't work at all.