Evening star., 1952-11-30

vision alone had 287. Another hac
261. In the rear areas, a logistica
command had 306 cases, many oi
which Stemmed from combat re-
placement units within its juris.
diction
Possibly Conservative.
With this in mind, it's easy to
figure where the 1000 estimate
comes from. This might even be
conservative. since the war began
June Is, 1850. a good II months
before the uniform code, and siz
months have elapsed after the re-
porting period.
AS might be expected, the court
martial rate followed the pattern
of battle. If the intensity in
creased, the rate went up. If il
went down, so did the courts mar.
tial. Consequently, there were
many of the serious charges during
the first few months of the war
the dark days of the Taegu peri.
meter. 1t was high when the Chi.
nese entered the fray in Novem.
ber, 1850. and in the bitter foul
months that followed. The same
was true when Communist forces
struck in April, 1851, and ther
during the United Nations
counterdrive to the north anc
across the 38th Parallel. The story
was repeated at Heartbreak Ridge
and at Old Baldy.
Sometimes, sheer fright was tc
blame. Other times, it was plair
neglect or willful disobedience
The men convicted had beer
warned Of the consequence be.
forehand.
Articles Well Explained.
The articles Of war are explained
to every service man when he first
reports for duty and periodically
thereafter. But. somehow, it didn't
faze some defendants. At trial
time, most were resigned to their
fates. And when sentence was
pronounced. the men seemed re-
lieved that it meant taking them
out Of combat.
Pvt. Mcconnell was tried by q
general court martial for going to
sleep on outpost duty the night OF
November 13, 1851. Later, in his
appeal, he complained he had
been without sleep for 72 hours
He claimed sheer exhaustion. The
Army, however, says he had ample
time to bring up his protests, both
during pretrial investigation and
at the hearing itself. The Army
adds that Pvt. Mcconnell was
found zippered up in his sleeping
bag on night when the enemy
the position.
Said an Army spokesman: "The
fact his sleeping bag was zippered
shut is clean evidence that he did
not drop off to sleep from exhaus-
tion, but deliberately made him
self comfortable for sleep without
regard to the extreme danger in
which he placed not only his two
comrades. but his entire company
. Instead of complaining in
public about the justice in this
case, Pvt. Mcconnell should con-
slider himself lucky to be alive -
Entirely New Board,
In the retrial, Pvt. Mcconnell
can tell his story to a completely
new court board. The civilian
counsel which represented him be-
fore the Court of Military Appeals
charged he was not adequately
defended the first time. It was
claimed two young first lieuten-
ants were assigned to defend him
and on their advice, Pvt. McCon-
nell did not take the stand.
That same advice often is Of
fered by defense counsel in Korea
It's done with good intention, for
at every hearing a mans right is
fully explained to him by the law
member on the board considering
the case. The defendant is told
he has three choices: Cd he can
testify under oath. under which
circumstance, he is open for cross
examination on the stand, (2) he
can testify without taking the
oath and without being ques-
toned, or CD he can remain
silent.
The latter sometimes is the wis
: