Military discipline has to be fair, rapid, and often brutal, or there will be little esprit des corps, or inclination to go forward against fire, or other dangerous task or duty.

Far too aften I have seen it degenerate to a petty squabble between a senior and a junior.

We were working beside some British troops from the South Cerney Barracks, when the Colonel had his driver drive him home for the night. The rest of the unit stayed on exercise at RAF Farnborough. The driver stopped off to see his girl, on the way back, thereby using some twenty ounces of petrol, for which he was charged with stealing by use, and lost a stripe as punishment. Somehow I don't see the point of this, as he wasn't supposed to be anywhere else, for the entire evening and only had to turn the Rover in and turn in himself.

As an American, I declined to comment on the issue at the time, but I thought it unfair back then too.

Dave