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Contributors
J.F. Kelly, Jr. - Contributor
J.F.
Kelly, Jr. is a retired Navy Captain and bank executive who
writes on current events and military subjects. He is a resident
of Coronado, California. [go to Kelly index]
 Nightmare
On 32nd Street
The Court martial-lite of Petty Officer 3rd Class Pablo Paredes…
[J. F. Kelly, Jr.] 5/17/05
Friday the
13th of May was an appropriate date for the public to read
about the
verdict and sentence of a Navy court-martial
convened in the case of Petty Officer 3rd Class Pablo Paredes,
who refused to board his ship, USS Bon Homme Richard, for its
scheduled distant duty deployment last December. His sentence
for intentionally missing movement, a serious military offense,
was reduction to Seaman Recruit plus two months of restriction
to the Naval Station at 32nd Street and three months of “hard” labor
to be served concurrently. No brig time. No dishonorable discharge.
This, obviously, is not your father’s Navy.
The San
Diego Union-Tribune,
reporting on the trial, described those in the courtroom as “slightly shocked”. I would
describe the reaction of those of us elsewhere in the military
community in somewhat stronger terms. “Stunned” and “outraged” come
to mind. I’ll think of others after I get over this attack
of nausea.
Victor Paredes, father
of the sailor (I cringe at honoring him with that title) was
quoted by the Union-Tribune as saying, “I’m
so confused. I don’t know what it means.” He is not
alone. Many of us who served are wondering, also. Has the Navy
gone soft on traitors or has a military judge gone soft in the
head? Paredes said that he refused to board his ship because
he felt that the war in Iraq was unethical. Will the slap on
the wrist he received encourage others to miss movement also
because they have decided that their government’s military
operations are unethical? You know the answer.
Talk show hosts have
branded Paredes a coward. I don’t
know whether he is or not. His duties aboard the amphibious assault
ship weren’t likely to place him personally in harm’s
way. As it turns out, in fact, the ship was diverted to humanitarian
duty in Indonesia. He certainly is a grandstander, though, inviting
the media to witness his shameful and traitorous behavior on
the pier in front of his shipmates and their loved ones who came
to bid them a tearful goodbye as they sailed away on their country’s
business.
His actions and defiance
of military authority were a slap in the face to his shipmates,
his service and his country. Moreover,
they constituted a serious threat to the good order and discipline
that is utterly essential in military units. The insults and
damage inflicted by his actions were compounded by the leniency
of the military judge’s sentence. One wonders if the judge,
a relatively junior JAG Lieutenant Commander, appreciates the
implications of all of this.
While the anti-military
and anti-war crowd seek to make Paredes a hero of their movement,
a few other military malcontents will
inevitably get the idea that it is no huge deal to abandon their
duties if they decide to disagree with national policy or military
operations. Apologists for Paredes argue that it’s the
duty of every service member to follow his conscience. This,
of course, is a deliberate distortion of the responsibility of
a service member to decline to execute an illegal order and to
promptly seek direction from the next available senior officer.
The burden is upon the former to prove the illegality of the
order, by the way.
Nothing in the Uniform
Code of Military Justice gives service members the right to
abandon their duties because they disagree
with the nation’s defense policies or military operations.
Can you imagine the chaos that would occur if service members
could pick and choose which wars or campaigns they would support
and which they would not?
In over thirty years
of naval service including ten distant duty deployments, the
most difficult times for me were not the
operations themselves but rather the ten times we had to say
goodbye to our loved ones as we left for deployments ranging
in length up to seven months. It’s an awful feeling knowing
that you won’t see your wife and children for a long time.
Most civilians, including the misguided fools who applaud Paredes’ actions,
haven’t a clue how that feels.
Parades made a media circus out of that somber but proud day
when his shipmates hugged their loved ones goodbye on the pier.
Because of his despicable actions, he does not deserve to wear
the Navy uniform for one more day. What he does deserve is an
immediate discharge that accurately reflects the dishonor he
has brought upon it. He also deserves the contempt of all patriotic
citizens.
As for the military
judge, Lt. Cmdr. Robert Klant, perhaps he could tell his version
of this sorry story in a future episode
of “JAG”, that popular TV show that has many of its
viewers actually believing that it reflects the real Navy. tOR
copyright
2005 J. F. Kelly, Jr.
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