John Murtha's Arrogance

Here is an item from Fox News.  It is about Representative John Murtha's Chief of Staff acting in a high handed manner toward the Representative's most recent opponent, who lost by 16 percentage points.  The Chief of Staff, John Hugya, appears to have threatened Mr William Russell that the new Army Secretary would call him back to active duty and court martial him.  As Lieutenant Colonel Russell is now retired a court martial would require us as taxpayers to fund LTC Russell's time on active duty.

The charge suggested by Mr Hugya would be "campaigning while on active duty."

This threat to LTC Russell was also communicated to LTC Russell's former commanding officer, Colonel Gregory Ritch, who confirmed it to Fox News.

Children, don't we have better things to do?

Sure, if Candidate Russell campaigned while on active duty it might be a violation of some regulation.  The show stopper is the US Constitution, which would have forced him out of uniform, if he was still on active duty, if he had defeated Representative Murtha.

A roommate I had in F-4 training was the first Black to graduate from VMI (or was it VPI?).  About four years after graduation he was still in the Air Force, sitting alert at Hahn Air Base, in Germany.  Because of his success the board at his old school elected him to be one of their number, which was an appointed office of the Commonwealth of Virginia. A big deal and a smart move at a time (about 1969) when we were working hard to overcome past prejudices. However, when it hit the base newspaper the base JAG (Judge Advocate General—lawyer) spoke up and said that this officer was no longer an Air Force person, due to the Constitution.  That was a problem, in that F-4 Back Seat Pilots (PSOs, as we were known) were in very short supply for sitting alert and it was going to be a big burden on his squadron mates.  There was some quick action and things were fixed, but it shows that those little clauses in the Constitution can quickly trip up the unsuspecting.

Regards  —  Cliff