reversehaven

breaking the chain of command
:Monday, December 15, 2008:

out of curiosity, I read about the case of 2LT Li HongYi. Yea everyone knows about it. I'm a bit late in finding out. I guess, unbecoming of a debater huh. I'm so detatched from the news nowadays.

Anyway, i think that the whole emphasis of this issue is wrong. Everything faults 2LT Li for not going through the chain of command. But nobody looked at what's more important. Here we have an officer who is behaving irresponsibly, not being at his post of duty. If say someone attacks us during that window of time (highly unlikely but still possible) can we say that we have one battallion less to defend ourselves with? And despite being reported, that officer was not put in his place with proper punishment. regular or not.

I think what is most unpardonable is the coverup. Nevermind that an officer AWOL'd, but he should be duly punished and put in his right position. Even after a warning, he repeated his mistake. that should not be right! and after this entire fiasco, he was let off with a mere fine. $2500. Can we say that for the numerous men who have committed this same offence.... they could pay this amount and avoid going to DB?

but maybe on the other side of the coin, have some people committed the same offence and been covered up for? should military law be more rigidly enforced? or can there be some slack in cerain cases?

Anyway, now we are talking about a regular. A professional soldier. Someone who is in a high position. commissioned by the president. I guess it's needful to mention that for someone like that, it is imperative that he/she does not neglect his duty. I guess i was most outraged by this. and even more so about the coverup. It's not fair that an officer can commit such a serious crime and only needs to forfeit about a month's or so worth of pay, while other people are punished with DB, having their ORD date shifted later, and so on.

There again, 2LT Li should have covered his own butt by going up the chain of command. He's already been up to an OC who hasn't done much about it, maybe he should go up one by one up the chain of command, just to see how far up the chain of command he has to go before getting an answer. i'm curious to know if we ever did use the chain of command, whether we will receive a satisfactory answer/solution, or is it another case of 'okay i answered. don't like my answer? suck thumb.'

Maybe there's a reason why not a lot of people want to sign on? perhaps things could be done differently in the military......

The reversehaven spoke at 12:45 AM