Orders?

[Guest guest]

Dear List:

In the persecution of Myers: " The prosecutor called Myers' refusal

insubordination.

" It's a matter of discipline,'' Capt. Breven Parsons. " We don't get to pick and

choose our orders.''

The issue here is rights--Constitutional rights.

United States v. Stuckey, 10 M.J. 347 (1981), the Court of

Military Appeals, the highest civilian court to which service

members may

appeal (now called the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed

Services)

held, " The time is long past when scholars disputed the

applicability of the

Bill of Rights to service personnel. . . . [T]he Bill of Rights

applies with full

force to men and women in the military service. . . . "

I ask you; what is more important Freedom of Speech, Due Process, and a host of

other basic rights or the military's mindless demand for all service men and

women to take the Anthrax vaccinations?

Consider the alleged assault and battery on the sailor on the USS Constellation.

Isn't it strange that the Navy tolerates criminal assault on one of its own

while judicially planning to punish the victim of the assault? Isn't it also

strange that the Navy demands strict obedience to an order to take a vaccine,

while totally disregarding the direct order of the CNO to be

" non-confrontational " when offering the vaccine.

" We must not trample on American lives and liberties in the name of preserving

them. " (Sec Def, Cohen). This statement should be preserved, since it is

probably the only intelligent thing he has had to say in recent memory.

Captain Parsons should consider what is happening to good order and discipline

while the military leadership is " picking and choosing " which orders they want

to obey. Violating the Constitution is the most egregious form of law breaking.

G. Gowan, jgowan@...