Expert: MARK A. HOWELL - 10/23/2009

Question
My son is a nuke in the navy for almost 3 years now.  Back in July, while on leave, he got in a fight with a room-mate.  My son left the apartment and the other guy called the police.  The room-mate is ex-navy with a dishonorable discharge.  A police report was sent to my son's ship.  He was sent to mast 2 weeks ago and was given 45 days restriction, 45 days extra duty, his nuke status was taken away and he was reduced from E5 to E4.  The CO was on leave at the time and upon returning decided to have my son discharged.  Is there anything he can do?  He loves the Navy and is very upset.  And what is the point of an investigating officer if they don't investigate? There were 2 witnesses, friends of my son's, and they were never questioned.  The man that filed the charges is now in a different state and in rehab for drug abuse.  They told my son at mast that he was lying and they believe the police report 100%.  We are a Navy family, my father and my husband, and are very upset.  Thank you for your time

Answer
Sandi,
You son has access to free legal aid and he needs it right away.  He needs to visit his JAG office and request defense counsel.  With the right help he should be able to beat these charges, and by no means should he try to defend himself.  Discharge is awfully harsh punishment for the incident you've described.  The CO must've been given some poor advice or he's just an idiot.  A good commander always tries to rehab a person before casting them aside as a lost cause.
Let me know how it goes for him.
Colonel H