Courts Martial

Three Marines who provide security at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., will face drug charges in a special court-martial after an investigation into use of the mood-altering drug Ecstasy at the installation, officials said. The names of the Marines are being withheld until the proceedings are finished, said a statement released by the Marine Barracks in Washington. Officials said they will be charged with possession and use of a controlled substance.

The U.S. Air Force said Capt. Jim Wang will face a court-martial for his role as chief of the crew on the AWACS plane that failed to warn off two F-15s that shot down two U.S. helicopters over Iraq last April, killing 26. Charges against four other AWACS officers were dismissed. The Air Force had earlier dropped charges against the pilots of the F-15s that blew the two helicopters out of the air over northern Iraq.

A Navy flier charged with indecent assault on a woman in the Tailhook scandal lost an attempt Tuesday to avoid court-martial, although military judges found the Navy "careless and amateurish" in the case it brought against him. "The assembly-line technique in this case that merged and blurred investigative and justice procedures is troublesome," said the Court of Military Appeals, the military's highest tribunal. The court ruled, however, that Lt.

A Navy officer will face a court-martial next week in Washington on charges that he raped a civilian co-worker last June, the Navy said Thursday. Lt. Cmdr. Donald Clause, 34, has been charged with rape, adultery, sexual harassment and conduct unbecoming an officer, said Lt. Karl Johnson, a spokesman for the Naval District Washington. The military trial will take place at the Washington Navy Yard. If convicted, Clause could be dismissed from the Navy, jailed, fined and forced to forfeit pay.

A top Navy admiral has decided against courts-martial in the Greeneville submarine disaster but will order the sub's captain to an administrative hearing that will force his departure from the service, Navy sources said Wednesday. In a decision that may be announced as soon as Friday, Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of the Pacific Fleet, will conclude that the deadly collision between the submarine and a Japanese trawler was the result of unprofessional conduct by Cmdr.

Three officers and five enlisted personnel -- all Iraq veterans -- were selected Monday to be the jury in the court-martial of a Marine reservist accused of unpremeditated murder in the stabbing death of an Iraqi soldier. Lance. Cpl. Delano Holmes, 22, could face life in prison if convicted. Holmes and the Iraqi were acting as sentries outside Camp Fallouja last New Year's Eve when they began fighting. Holmes says the fight began when he felt the Iraqi was trying to signal insurgent snipers.

A hearing officer recommended Wednesday that Marine Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani be sent to court-martial for dereliction of duty in the failure to investigate the shooting deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in the western town of Haditha. Chessani, 43, a former infantry battalion commander, is the highest-ranking officer charged in what is the largest war-crime allegation involving U.S. troops in Iraq or Afghanistan. If convicted, he could face three years in prison.

After four hours of deliberations Thursday, a court-martial jury convicted a Marine sergeant of assault and dereliction of duty in a case of brutality toward Iraqi prisoners that led the Marine Corps to revise its rules about treatment of prisoners. Sgt. Gary Pittman, 40, a reservist from New York, faces a maximum of nine months in custody and a bad conduct discharge when the jury meets for a sentencing hearing today. Or he could remain in the corps and receive no jail time.

Two Marine aviators facing courts-martial after their jet severed ski lift cables and caused the deaths of 20 people in Italy tried to hide or destroy a videotape shot during the flight in February, military prosecutors allege. The Marines--Capt. Richard Ashby of Mission Viejo and Capt. Joseph Schweitzer of Westbury, N.Y.--waived their rights to separate military hearings into charges of obstruction and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

The investigation that begins today into the Greeneville submarine tragedy is called a court of inquiry, and the small room where it will take place could pass for a civilian courtroom. But there are distinct differences between civilian and military jurisprudence, and therein may lie the tale of what ultimately will happen to Cmdr. Scott Waddle and his officers and crew.