United States v. Anderson

Opinion of the Court

Quinn, Chief Judge:

A special court-martial convicted the accused of three specifications of unauthorized absence and one specification alleging breach of restriction. The accused had a history of similar offenses in his current enlistment; all of them stemmed from marital difficulties and excessive drinking. The court-martial imposed a sentence which included a bad-conduct discharge, notwithstanding the accused had over ten years of Naval service and testified: “It’s the only thing I’ve done all my life — been at sea.”

From the staff legal officer’s post-trial review, it…