Tales of justice, trials and the military

There is an old expression, “that sometimes there just isn’t any justice.” I actually experienced this in Vietnam.

In the military, sometimes soldiers get in trouble and face court martial, the military form of a trial.

In the military they have the trial counsel, prosecutor and the defense. Once I was trial counsel for a soldier accused of hitting an officer; it was my first case and I wasn’t too good, but I won the case and he was convicted.

Then I was on defense, this is where the above comment comes into play. I had a soldier who got drunk, stole an Army truck, went to a bar in Saigon, waving a loaded rifle in the bar. He was arrested by the MPs. At trial, I got him completely off, because when arrested, he wasn’t read his “rights." But he surely was guilty.

Then I had the case of a soldier going to sleep on guard duty in a foxhole.  My defense for him was that day, he had been driving a truck for a whopping 18 hours, then had to go on guard duty, and of course, he dosed off and was caught at it.

I even asked the judges to put themselves in the soldier’s place. “Could you have stayed awake after driving a truck for 18 hours?”I asked. I said he is not a super human, etc., but it was to no avail, he was convicted, sent to Guam to spend six months in the brig, and then had to return to Vietnam to complete his tour. In this case, “no justice.”

Roger Gregory is a Vietnam veteran, serving in the 1st Infantry Division, and is business owner in Priest River.