Commanders meet, discuss discipline

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jordan Castelan
  • 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany --  Commanders from the 86th Airlift Wing, 435th Air Ground Operations Wing and 521st Air Mobility Wing gather for the quarterly status of discipline meeting scheduled to take place Jan. 30 here in the legal office.

The status of discipline is a way for the three wing commanders to gain insight on how disciplinary actions are handled by their squadron commanders and first sergeants.

"The Status of Discipline provides an opportunity for commanders and their first sergeants to discuss previous disciplinary actions over the past three months, to cross feed future possible plans of actions and to brief the wing commanders on disciplinary routes," said Capt. John Bone, 86th AW Judge Advocate chief of military justice.

The cross feeding of ideas between the squadrons also aids in providing an equal understanding and breakdown for future incidents previously not dealt with.

"For those involved, having an opportunity to ask how certain situations have been handled previously can make all the difference," said Bone. "There are also calls to the judge advocate asking for the (judge advocate general's) ideas for routes to a solution."

Privacy is ensured when previous actions are being presented.

"During the briefing all names are withheld," said Bone. "The only time information besides, unit, violation and disciplinary actions taken are made public is when the case is a court martial."

Although no one plans on getting in trouble, service members should know that steps are being taken for fair discipline.

"We want the base populace to know that their chain of command does not follow through with the status of discipline meeting for arbitrary reasons," said Col. Bill Ward, 86th Operations Group commander. "As a group commander, the status of discipline meeting provides and an informational standing point to base decisions, not just off my experiences but that off the entire chain of command."

Ramstein had a total of 223 Article 15's, 154 administrative discharges and 19 court-martials last year.