Marine demoted for leaving post to be with son

[ShooterDSH]

PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. — A Marine staff sergeant from New Jersey who disobeyed a superior officer should be demoted to sergeant, a three-member military panel decided at a court-martial Wednesday.

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[hankhoffman]

Sounds to me like he should have requested help for his son. Just taking off is not the answer. I would think that his Commander would have found a way to help him out.

[madittenber]

It seems like part of the story is missing. He could have contacted Red Cross that could help intervene. I wonder what his commanding officer was thinking as well. I am sure he knew there could be consequences for disobeying a direct order.

[ShooterDSH]

Well, regardless of the reasons, he was still guilty of disobeying an order, and thats almost impossible to get around!! I agree, he should have tried something else.

[hmxsgt]

Ya def. he should have at least notified his senior officer, maybe he could have at least gotten permission to leave for the day, then from there requested emergency leave from there. I do think there is some shit missing here though.

[gunga55]

It does suck getting demoted but that some times is the price you must pay. I think that there is a whole lot more to the story as a recruiter you work in small teams and the other guys will cover for you. It isn't a he didn't show up for formation type thing.

[innersanctum]

Seriously? Your 10 year old son or daughters says he/she is going to commit suicide and you would stay at work and continue to try to make quota? How effective are you going to be if something like that happens?

Quote from the article:

“There is no confinement. There are no fines or forfeiture of pay and there was no discharge from the Marine Corps, just the reduction” in rank, Antoine said.

So no fines or forfeiture of pay but he takes a pay cut for reduction in grade and now possibly faces service limitations and is forced from the Marine Corps....not to mention he gets a bad FITREP....

[ShooterDSH]

He was lucky thats all that happened, and seriously, he disobeyed an order!! The Corps us to be about discipline, guess thats changed, too!!

If they knew the child had been showing signs of depression after his father began working longer hours, then thats when they should have gone for some type of help!! How about the fathers who are on the front line!! Should they send them home, if their child threatens suicide??

[hmxsgt]

He was lucky thats all that happened, and seriously, he disobeyed an order!! The Corps us to be about discipline, guess thats changed, too!!

If they knew the child had been showing signs of depression after his father began working longer hours, then thats when they should have gone for some type of help!! How about the fathers who are on the front line!! Should they send them home, if their child threatens suicide??

Better yet maybe they should just leave.

[hmxsgt]

Seriously? Your 10 year old son or daughters says he/she is going to commit suicide and you would stay at work and continue to try to make quota? How effective are you going to be if something like that happens?

Quote from the article:

“There is no confinement. There are no fines or forfeiture of pay and there was no discharge from the Marine Corps, just the reduction” in rank, Antoine said.

So no fines or forfeiture of pay but he takes a pay cut for reduction in grade and now possibly faces service limitations and is forced from the Marine Corps....not to mention he gets a bad FITREP....

Literally it would have taken what a minute at most to notify someone. Marines have relatives that die and they have to get permission to leave. I agree he would have been non-productive, but I also know that in this case they would have let him go work it out