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October 18, 2003
Nitpicker on Boykin
Nitpicker, who notes that he has served in two branches of the military (and thus probably has a fairly good idea about military regulations), has a good piece on Gen. Boykin and how the speeches he's been giving violate those codes. He also notes that the recent spate of identical letters from several members of the 503rd that were sent to various newspapers around the country are also violations of the regulations as well.
Department of Defense directive 1344.10 says that an active duty military member may not make partisan political speeches and, frankly, this goes double for guys who do it while wearing their uniforms.He also points out that because Boykin's comments could cause a soldier to feel "negatively influenced if [s/he] were a Muslim and my commander said that [s/he] was placing my faith in an "idol" who was not a "real god."," that "he's made it clear that he is not, as the CGSC says, "Army leader" material," as defined in chapter two of the Command and General Staff Course (CGSC) manual.Boykin has embarrassed himself and should be relieved.
But he's not the only one.
As was discovered recently, Army Lt. Col. Dominic Caraccilo, commander of 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, wrote a form letter and then passed it around to be signed by soldiers (and in some cases those signatures are said to not be real) and then sent to American newspapers as letters to the editor.
Where's the harm? The letters were basically pro-soldier, right? Yes, but they were clear violations of 1344.10, too.
Posted by thorswitch at October 18, 2003 03:25 AM
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