re Re: SLSL "TSR" "your last summary"

[pynchonoid]

Granted some confusion about who throws the punch that
fells Buttercup's drunken boyfriend, Levine still
appears to have had trouble with the military justice
system, given the reference to his "last summary"
court-martial and his comment, "Don't tell me they're
going to put me in jail. Not again."

I believe it's still true that you have to do
something pretty bad to get put in jail in the US
Army.  Most disciplinary actions fall under Article 15
of the UCMJ, and during my tenure as company clerk in
the Army, where I had the responsibility for typing up
Article 15 documentation, punishments were limited to
confinement to quarters or to the base and garnishment
of salary -- for such infractions as insubordination,
going AWOL, etc.  You had to do something really
criminal to go to jail, at least that was the case at
the three places I served:  Fort Ord (Monterey,
California), Camp Howze (ROK), and Fort Hood (Killeen,
Texas).

It's a detail that doesn't fit well with the rest of
his lethargic, take it as it comes,
hiding-from-life-in-the-Army character, except as a
pointer, perhaps, to depths of rage that bubble up,
unbidden and acknowledged only in passing, almost
beneath mention -- the very 1950s sort of avoidance
that Pynchon mentions in the Intro.

-Doug




=====
<http://www.pynchonoid.blogspot.com/>

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com