@cplenge,

Precisely. All too often we forget that there are two careers and lives at stake in one of these situations. Thankfully I have not had to deal with a sexual assault under my command or when I was a PL (knock on wood…), however being an MP for over a decade I have seen a couple of them. Over the course of my career, there have been 8 that I have had to either help investigate or had close relation to (platoon member, one guy who lived next door in the barracks, etc.). It’s not PC to say, however 3 turned out to be unfounded, while 2 were complete fabrications. Now this is my own experience, and I’m sure that across the force the average is more 38% founded/ prosecuted accusations. However in each and every case I saw where the accusation was unfounded or false, the “suspect’s” career was done, reputations destroyed. One guy did 30 days in Mannheim! As for the 2 accusers who made false statements? One was allowed to ETS without any legal punishments (the one who sent the guy to Mannheim), and the other PCS’d without UCMJ action. Like I said previously, we need to prosecute 107 violations far more than we do.

Some would argue that it would prevent victims from coming forward, so they wouldn’t think of prosecuting a 107 (no, seriously… this was why I only was assigned as IO once in GTMO). I say not prosecuting 107 violations to the full extent of the UCMJ perverts the system and allows for more erroneous or malignant accusations without consequence.

Sorry, off topic… I’ll get off my soap box, but I honestly think false accusations, made knowingly and with malice, should be prosecuted at the same level of fervor as we do the accusation itself.