CSM sentenced for wearing/claiming fake medals. What do you think of his penalty?

SPC Richard White - bear in mind, however, the CSM will be serving the remainder of his military career as a SSG. THAT stain will last far longer and will have a more lasting impact than six months in the slammer.

Still not enough of demotion as far as I am concern. What a joke, he still will be allowed to get a decent retirement while doing things that we have all fought hard with others who have never served who attempted to steal valor all the time. What is worse, he was in a position where he should of known much better, and to add insult he was in NCO not an Officer where one could use that as an excuse.

SFC William Laws - Depends on what the sentence said. Without reading the decision, I'm willing to bet the sentence adjusted his retirement pay to that of an SSG as well.

It was sarcasm, the editor of the article just seems to be trying to add additional damage, any Soldier adding fradulent ribbons for recognition is entitled to time behind bars, if only they administered this very same passion to those Stolen Valor pukes that get caught throughout the nation. smh.

Jail time wouldn't necessarily be a deal breaker for me, in this circumstance. I would be willing to lower that to 60 days of extra duty, out there pulling weeds and such. It wouldn't be to humiliate him per se, but to serve as a visual reminder to all of the lower enlisted, as well as the NCOs who were under his charge, that actions do have consequences, and rank doesn't mean anything if you violate the oaths you swore to uphold. How many Soldiers under his scope did he have out there in suicide vests, picking up trash, painting rocks, etc? You know as well as I do that in the military, whether it is formal or not, rank hath its' privileges, like company commanders and 1st Sergeants getting their own parking spots and such, but we should all have equal accountability under the UCMJ. Honestly, for things like this, and many more, the higher your rank, the stiffer your punishment should be. Everyone expects Privates to screw the pooch. It is what happens when you take some fresh-faced kid and put him into a mans' world; there is a learning curve. Not with substance abuse and the like, but with smaller things like overspending, being tardy, etc. But you very rarely see Privates trying to walk around with fake service stripes, medals, and the like. They KNOW it is wrong. They KNOW their chain of command, from their TL to their BN CO should know what they are authorized, and they will get hammered if they try to pull some PX Ranger s**t. This man was a Command Sergeant Major. Knowing better was his JOB. I mean, it is a running joke in the Army that CSMs are straight Nazis about uniform violations, people walking on their grass, etc. This has its' place in military tradition, and lends itself to having a disciplined force, but when they are the ones faking it, it sets a precedent. This is why I believe he should have gotten hammered during these proceedings. You have to be extreme in a case like this, otherwise you begin to lose even more control of your Soldiers.