Thought for the day
April 26, 1999
Today, Air Force Captain Joseph Belli's career came to a final, screeching halt. He plead guilty to disobeying orders and fraternizing with an enlisted person (whom he later married, but the problem began because he was married to someone else at the time.)
This case never would have made headlines if not for two other recent cases of adultery. In one, Lt. Kelly Flinn, the first female B-52 pilot was "allowed" to resign rather than face punishment for an affair she was having with the husband of a female airman. In this case, the crime was less serious because the other party was NOT an enlisted person. And because she did not repeatedly refuse to obey orders. (It also didn't hurt her case to have lots of angry women's groups lobbying on her behalf!).
The other major case was no less than the President of the United States. But receiving oral sex in Washington DC isn't a crime (it *IS* in some states). So what Ken Starr tried to do was to either get President Clinton to admit to it, thus helping Ken's coconspirators on the Paula Jones lawsuit. Or, and this would have been the real plum, get the President to lie about it under oath. Fortunately, Mr. Clinton is a lawyer too, and was able to walk the knife's edge between admitting a stupid, harmless mistake and sending himself to jail.
So what of poor Capt. Belli? The military has very strict rules about sex. It is a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) to have any form of sex except "straight" penis-vagina penetration WITH YOUR SPOUSE. If you do anything else, it's a crime! (really, even if you do it with your own wife/husband!) But what's even worse, the military seems to insist on following orders and regulations and if your commander gives you a lawful order, you disobey at your own peril. Capt Belli got off EASY. He could have received 20 years confinement at hard labor (yikes!)
"Gee," you say, "isn't that mean? Come on, it's true love!" OK, the Capt had it in his power to make his activities legal (in the eyes of the USAF). All he had to do was divorce his wife and either do one of three things to resolve the officer/enlisted fraternization conflict.
None of that appealed to him. I'm sure he loved her and all, but resign his commission? Anyway maybe he thought it wouldn't come to that. Well, in military terms, he got a slap on the wrist (only a couple of weeks in jail) and a discharge that will haunt him for the rest of his life.
So what is different between a Captain disobeying orders and the President receiving oral sex from (another) civilian. Easy, neither the President nor Ms. Lewinsky are subject to the UCMJ because they are civilians.