Drumming out Ceremonies: Historical Relic or Overlooked Tool 39 Air Force Law Review 1995

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39 A.F. L. Rev. 47 (1995)
Drumming out Ceremonies: Historical Relic or Overlooked Tool

handle is hein.journals/airfor39 and id is 53 raw text is: Drumming Out Ceremonies:
Historical Relic or Overlooked Tool?
LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOHN C. KUNICH, USAF*
I. INTRODUCTION
Those who watched the television program Branded during the 1960s
will recall the opening sequence of every episode. Actor Chuck Connors,
portraying a United States Army officer during the late nineteenth century,
stood at attention before an assemblage of troops somewhere in the Indian
territories. Military drummers beat an ominous rhythm. Having been court-
martialed for desertion, Connors remained motionless while his epaulets and
jacket buttons were ceremoniously ripped from his uniform and his sword was
broken in two. This drumming out ceremony marked the end of his military
career.
The American military has in fact used various forms of such a
ceremony of ignominy, to coin a phrase. They were generally part of an actual
court-martial sentence, adjudged by a court in a given case, typically in time
of war.
The purpose of this article is to trace the history of ceremonies of
ignominy and to place them within a modem context. The possibility of
reviving them in some form within today's military will be evaluated, with an
analysis of the legal and practical issues this would entail.
II. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
A ceremony of ignominy is intended to focus a unit's attention on the
disloyal, cowardly, or dishonorable nature of the convicted person's behavior.
In wartime, acts of cowardice or treachery sometimes led a court-martial to
adjudge a ceremony of ignominy as a portion of the punishment. As with any
sentence, a ceremony of ignominy has multiple purposes, including the general
deterrence of similar misconduct in others, preservation of good order and
discipline in the military, punishment of the individual offender, and
rehabilitation of the offender. Colonel Winthrop's Military Law and
Precedents' lists examples of what these ceremonies have historically entailed:
*Lieutenant Colonel Kunich (B.S., M.S., University of Illinois; J.D., Harvard Law School;
LL.M., George Washington University School of Law) is the Staff Judge Advocate, 50th Space
Wing, Falcon Air Force Base, Colorado. He is member of the Illinois State Bar.
'COL. WILLIAM WINTHROP, MILITARY LAW AND PRECEDENTS 408 (2d ed. 1920) (footnote
omitted).
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