Re: Criminals, post-traumatic stress

drieux H. (drieux@wetware.com)
Wed, 17 Jul 1996 08:20:02 -0400

] At 02:20 PM 7/15/96 -0400, you wrote:
] "I read somewhere that during the Vietnam war criminals (And I am not
] sure what kind of criminals) were given the option of serving their
] sentences by joining the army. I wonder if they fully realized the
] possible dangers of >being in the armed forces."-Karen Kling
]
] I believe this practice went on before Vietnam. During the Korean War the
] older brother of one of my classmates (in Western Massachusetts) was offered
] the choice of a criminal record or joining the Army. He chose the latter
] and ended up with a medical discharge after suffering from frozen feet.
]
] Phil Landon

It should also be known that 'warrent officers'
were so designated originally as they were to
serve based upon a 'warrent' rather than a 'commission'
and hence served at the suffurance of those who
could 'press warrents'.

This of course is NOT the sort of thing one brings up
to one's WO when noting that there were those who's
current service rested upon the fact, as was the
case with 'mort', that he was Standing Up when the
Texas Ranger's Entered the Bar, and thus left the
impression upon the court that he must have 'started'
the fight. Mort would survive two tours in country,
the later as an 'exchange' to keep his little brother
out of vietnam.

So the notion of 'service on a warrent' really DID
precede the vietnam and korean wars, and has been
a time honored method going back to a wide variety
of Native American Groups that would use such
groups as 'the contraries' as an alternative to
having penal colonies....

Clearly if one is going to 'risk all' to break
the law, one might as well do penance in a foxhole.

ciao
drieux