What was the worse advice that you had received from a "Barracks Lawyer"?

TSgt Joshua Copeland
I would have to agree with that. GEN (R) Fogleman's impressive "We are not a one mistake Air Force" speech was key in my case. I do not know if that would endure now.

Although self-inflicted, I would not wish the stress of that situation on anyone. BUT, I am never more grateful for that most important lesson of not just my career, but my life.

What is odd, is that it is often the very folks that benefited from the system of recovery are the ones most hell bent on breaking people over it. As a very young Amn, I had a Chief that had 2 self admitted Art15's but would push for admin discharge of anyone with an Art15 in his unit.

(Obviously not you, are the example of the system working RIGHT)

TSgt Joshua Copeland
This leadership gig is a tough bidness. Lol.

I know that when faced with disciplinary issues, I will always reflect on the facts and my experience from that incident.

The great thing about an Art 15 (if you have one, not recommending them) is that you do have a chance to talk directly to your commander and have others speak on your behalf. If you are a good troop and if you have an intelligent commander and First Sergeant, who aren't afraid of metrics, they have a vast amount of latitude, including canning the whole business -- and I've had commanders do just that over the strenuous objection of the Base SJA -- and that's where an ADC can make significant inroads based on the relationship she or he has with the command element. I always accompanied troops and got some surprisingly good results. I also spent a good amount of time on educating airmen about the five most common ways they get jammed up: Sex, checks, drugs, alcohol and failure to go. My statistical analysis revealed these were the main areas. I'd brief every commander's call I was invited to and I'd do it repeatedly. Hard to prove an offense was prevented, but we (leadership) always have an obligation to educate young troops. My biggest plea was to First Sergeants to never, ever assign a new troop to a room anywhere near a bad troop getting ready to be discharged because those bad troops would always take the new guy under their wing to give "legal advice."

SGT Dave,

That's a good one!

It was one of those things that was small but if I took the stance of not owning up to my shortcomings I knew the message it would send to the leadership. It was my fault and I knew I was in trouble, I would rather "man up" then make excuses or refuse to accept responsibility for my actions.

In the end all my leadership wanted was for me to take responsibility for my bad choices, which I did.

A: You Rebellious???
B: Always own up, unless ordered otherwise, preferably in writing!

PO1 Kyle Crippen, Kyle you know me.  lol  ;)  

I remember when I came in other advice I heard often to get out on was to "come out" as being gay/lesbian or for females to get pregnant and "request separation."

I remember there were a couple sailors who pretended to be having sex and were caught in the bomb farm while doing it (they intended to be caught). At Captain's Mast he asked them why they did that and they told him so he'd let them out. He said something along the lines of The Navy is downsizing, there are tons of good sailors who want to stay in. You could just ask to be discharged and I'd have given it to you to open a billet for somebody who wanted to be there. Anyway another example of bad advice from some sea lawyer.

You mean this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz59tFR2KMs

Not what I was going for, but funny. I had actually forgotten about that show. I guess I should have put AFOSI

MSG Stankovich,

That's a great response. The best thing to do is to "nip it in the bud" ASAP. I remember when I was a SGT, I used to put a stop to that within my team and squad.