For John, BLUF: Monuments Men? Nothing to see here; just move along.
From the Cornell Law School blog site we have 10 U.S. Code § 902 - Art. 102. Forcing a safeguard. This gives us the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) Article 102:
Any person subject to this chapter who forces a safeguard shall suffer death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.What does that mean?.
Maybe City Life host and one time Air Force JAG George Anthes knows what this means. Or former Army Staff Sergeant and Old Guard Member John Mitchell, from his time in Iraq.
Here is the most likely explanation I have found out on the Interwebs.
Regards — Cliff
1 comment:
from my daze as a First Sergeant.....and recalling some of my UCMJ training at the First Sergeant Academy.....forcing a safeguard is one of those UCMJ punitive articles that is rarely used and as a result...very poorly understood.
A safeguard is a high and mighty term for a posted guard whose duty is to protect a person or place on orders of his or her superior commander. As a posted guard, he is immune to the Laws of War and Laws of Armed Conflict. That is, he is not to be attacked in the performance of his guard duty.
I think that it got its greatest exercise as a punitive article in the Civil War, most likely WWI and WWII when guards were assigned to protect captured men or materiel of the enemy....and for one reason or another....the guard was violated by our own troops to loot or defile what was being guarded.
In nearly 2 decades of being involved one way or another with the UCMJ and its administration....I don't recall anyone being charged or punished under that article.
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