Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military From: GSINCLAIR@VAXC.CC.MONASH.EDU.AU (Geoff Sinclair) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Trials? Message-ID: <13762@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 6 Feb 90 03:42:27 GMT References: <13548@cbnews.ATT.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: Computer Centre, Monash University, Australia Lines: 34 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Geoff Sinclair @vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au In article <13548@cbnews.ATT.COM>, christ@sci.ccny.cuny.edu (Chris Thompson) writes: > What does military law really say about this? Can't an officer legally > give a suicidal order to troops in his/her command (like, charge that > machine-gun)? .... > Seems to me that the trial determines whether they (the troops) > disobeyed orders, but the fact that the mission was dangerous, even > suicidal, has little do do with it. As far as I am aware the limits to the powers of a U.S. Army Officer dealing with subordinates are unchanged since WWII and are close to unlimited. Yes they can order you to jump of a cliff and have you court martialed for disobeying orders, hopefully at the cost of their own careers. Check out two books dealing with the WWII U.S. versus German Army, Fighting Power by M. Van Crevald and A Genius for War by T.N. Dupuy. The German military code had a "mishandling of subordinates" offence and allowed soldiers to complain about their superior officer to their officers' superior, and escalate the complaint to Commander in Chief level if they wanted to. The U.S. code had no such offence and complaints were dealt with by an Inspector General who held advisory capacity only. Also the German soldiers received regular leave, in the U.S army it was at the officers' discretion. Needless to say the books are quite scathing about large sections of U.S. Army man management practice. Geoff Sinclair Internet: GSINCLAIR@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au or GSINCLAIR@vaxc.cc.monash.oz PSImail: PSI%0505235621000::GSINCLAIR