Article 15, Court Martial, LTC Allen West

[white cloud]

Last edited Mon Aug 23, 2021, 06:20 PM - Edit history (1)

With all of West problem popping lately (Wife DWI)

Some body help me find the answer please.

Allen West was found guilty of torture (1988 Reagan signed UN bill). In lieu of a Court Martial (2003) DOD- DOAI elected to go with a lesser prosecution al (Article 15 Trial).
From what I remember his sentence was:

Fine of $5000 over 2 months
temporary reassigned to another unit in back units
Resign his commission after 17 years of service
dismissed from Army
But he was able to keep his pension and retirement.

?If he had to resign his Commission why is he still using LTC Allen West as his title /name.

Is he legally entitled to keep using LTC?

[FreepFryer]

1. Do you mean a Court Martial? (Nt)

DKos article
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/9/29/1137904/-Allen-West-Had-To-Resign-From-Army-To-Avoid-Court-Martial-He-s-Equally-Unfit-to-Serve-in-Congress

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Dunno for sure, but I doubt it.

[CottonBear]

3. FYI: It's court martial. Your verbal transcription may have spelled marshal. NT

[sarisataka]

4. An Article 15 is not a Court Martial

It is considered an administrative punishment. There is no ability to reduce rank (for an officer, enlisted may be reduced a grade) or dismiss a person from service. The closest civilian analogy would be going before a magistrate for a misdemeanor charge.

His resignation would have been part of the plea deal to avoid a Court Martial. It would still be considered voluntary as officers may choose to resign at any time (with certain limitations)

So yes he is allowed to refer to himself as LTC (ret.)

[white cloud]

7. Thanks for your information

Got it. Sounds about right.

If he had gone Court Marshal he could have been stripped of his commission and not entitled to LTC title?

Allen is trying to run for Gov of TX. He has a lot of skeletons in the closet. Never cared for him. He made a big to do over her arrest and named the female arresting officer and badge number on you tube. Blood test were refused and taken with warrant. Maybe in a couple of weeks they will be back.

[sarisataka]

9. That is correct

There are three levels of Courts Martial and IIRC officers are only tried at the two highest. Under a General Court Martial, the highest level, he could have been looking at losing everything if found guilty. Confinement, loss of rank, pay and benefits would all have been possible.

Given those risks it isn't surprising he would jump on a deal for an Article 15 and agree to resign.

[Chainfire]

5. So, in effect, the service did not consider his crimes bad enough to "throw the book at him."

[pwb]

6. l thought it was a minimum of 20 years for retirement?

Unless he went on disability retirement.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. He may not be retired yet and be spending his last 3 years in a...

backwater somewhere.

If he resigned his commission, what was he busted down to? And what grade will he retire at?

[Farmer-Rick]

10. You resign the commission not the rank.

So, yeah he can still use it.

But it is weird that he got retirement and medical after only 17 years. They use to have an early out program where you could get partial retirement pay and medical benefits if you retired early. Called TERA it ended in 2018. As long as he made it past 15 years he was eligible. But someone way up the chain of command would have had to offer and approve it because that program is really designed to shape the force - like getting too many people in one specialty out of the service. Maybe he had a General on his side.

He could have also done 3 years inactive service in the reserve, guard or prior enlisted that counted towards his 20.

[white cloud]

11. My bad on time in service

Last edited Mon Aug 23, 2021, 06:22 PM - Edit history (1)

Allen join in1982 and forced to retire in 2004 after court martial.
Thanks for all the help on LTC title. It was a question that I have had for a long time.

Also thanks for the spelling of Martial.