Astronaut Arrest Info

[W2R]

What? Did you read the word "doesn't"?

Obviously I didn't communicate very well. My comment was meant to agree with yours. Murdering her rival was an action that was really over the top, in my opinion. Sorry!

 

[Zoocat]

Obviously I didn't communicate very well. My comment was meant to agree with yours. Murdering her rival was an action that was really over the top, in my opinion. Sorry!

Ok, now I get ya!

 

[poboy]

 

[Nords]

If I remember correctly the Greeneville case didn't involve a deliberate act. Is that true? Doesn't that make a difference in military justice? The astronaut's actions were deliberate but involved a personal matter. And she is not in the military (correct?), so why would the government have any right to take her pension?

True, only gross negligence. While it does make a difference in military justice, I'm not trying to compare the charges. I'm just saying that people died and and a formal court of inquiry was held yet it still wasn't considered "bad" enough to put a guy through a court martial. So I doubt that they'll do anything to CAPT Nowak because nobody died, despite the evidence that she may have been contemplating murder.

If The astronaut's actions were deliberate but involved a personal matter. And she is not in the military (correct?), so why would the government have any right to take her pension?

She's still on active duty, just stationed at NASA instead of commanding an air wing or flying a Pentagon desk. She still "competed" for promotion against all the other naval officers in her year group, although admittedly the astronaut part of the fitness report tends to give one a boost in the competition. Much as her pending punitive letter of reprimand would knock her out of the competition if she was foolish enough to hang around.

It was a personal matter, true, but it was against a junior officer who was hypothetically under her in the chain of command. So although it's technically a military matter, it's also a huge tabloid hairball that would have Jerry Springer & Geraldo Rivera drooling on the floor, to say nothing of Montel Williams (USNA '80). No one in Navy Public Affairs wants to see pit-bull lawyers like Charles Gittins (USNA '79) or Eric Seitz defending her in a court martial or trying her case in the press. MegaNavy just wants her to go away fast.

As an O-6 with nearly 22 years of service she's eligible for a pension of roughly $51K/year (the calculations look at the top 36 months of pay, and I'm estimating that value instead of calculating it) plus a COLA and $40/month TRICARE health insurance. Mental health treatment is covered, too, with just a $12 copay per appointment!

 

[2B]

The NASA spin machine is gearing up to help her and minimize the perceived scandal. There have been several sympathetic stories in the past day in the Houston press (don't know if they went national). She was a "compassion officer" for the family of one of the astronauts killed when the shuttle broke up. The husband of one of the dead astronauts was interviewed (he works for NASA). She stayed with the family for days following the event. She, of course, managed to prevent any potentially nasty press statements an upset family may have made in that period. He said the Orlando police are fabricating the attempted murder charge plus she couldn't have wanted to hurt anyone.

 

[wabmester]

Everybody knows:

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

But I've never considered the military implications before. Seems like there are two lessons here:

1) Most of our active soldiers should be scorned women. We'd be kicking ass.

2) Once they're back home, don't scorn a woman with military training.

 

[Nords]

2) Once they're back home, don't scorn a woman with military training.

After two decades of marriage I've concluded that's wise advice. But hard to miss...

 

[JohnEyles]

Once they're back home, don't scorn a woman with military training.

After two decades of marriage I've concluded that's wise advice. But hard to miss...

I recall hearing some wise-ass say something like this when the whole idea
of women in the military was being debated - something like "anyone who
thinks women can't fight as well as men, must have never been married".

And everybody remembers this one:

Dick Armey when asked "If you had been in President Clinton's place would
you have resigned?"

Armey's reply:
"If I had been in the president's place I would not have gotten the chance
to resign. I would have been lying in a pool of my own blood, looking up,
and listening to my wife ask, 'How do you reload this son of a bitch'?"

 

[Brat]