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The executive officer reads the recommendation, but himself recommends a more severe punishment, knowing that the commanding officer will reduce it to appear to be a good guy. At least, that’s what I did as an executive officer. Here’s how I handled Mast when I was a commanding officer.
First, Mast was very formal, in dress uniform, with everyone present, the leading petty officer, the division officer, the department head, and the mean old Chief Master-At -Arms. I made them all attend for two reasons. First was to remind them there had been a failure of leadership, or this case wouldn’t have come to Mast. Second was to impress upon the miscreant the seriousness of the situation.
If the accused were a first-time offender, I would bend over backward to dismiss with a warning. If you dismiss with a warning, it doesn’t go into the record, and the sailor is still eligible for gold hash marks. And many of the first-time offenders were sufficiently impressed with the seriousness of the proceeding so they never came back.
If an accused came back again, the informal discipline of enlisted upon enlisted having failed, and our having failed to impress him sufficiently with the formality of his first appearance at mast, I would take a little of his time and money.
If he came back again, I figured we didn’t sufficiently get his attention. I assigned him to three days bread and water, or as we said, “cake and wine.” After not-so-gentle treatment at the hands of the Marine guards, as soon as he came back aboard, I would talk with him. “Son, you didn’t really enjoy that, did you? Life could be better. It’s up to you.”
Some cases are outside the military justice system. There was an American Indian, the ancient traditions kind, who went into the desert and fasted to become a man. The Navy, in all its wisdom, made him a fireman. He kept getting into fights in the engineering spaces. Why? Here’s this guy attuned to nature, surrounded by hot, steaming machinery, not a glimpse of growing things. I managed to get him an administrative discharge rather than punishing him.
Here is the best evidence of mitigation and extenuation I ever heard at the 100 times I was at Mast. The first-time offender, a good sailor, had been written up for being over two hours late.
CO: “And what do you have to say for yourself?”
Offender: “Well, sir, I’ve never been in trouble before, and getting back to the ship on time is important to me, so I set the alarm clock two hours early.”
CO: “And then what happened?”
Offender: “Well, sir, I made a mistake. I reached over to turn off the alarm.”
CO: “How could that have been a mistake?”
Offender: “Sir, I had to reach over a redhead.”
CO: “Dismissed, with a warning.”
Nowadays Mast must be much different, because there are women sailors and women commanding officers. I don’t think, “Sir, I had to reach over a redhead,” would hold much sway over a woman CO. And I, being of the Southern Gentleman type, would have a very hard time sending a lady to three days of “cake and wine.”
Note:
Captain Carson, then an ensign, was assigned to Whetstone (LSD-27) for his first duty station. He was CIC Officer. He was only aboard for a year, being transferred to the staff of COMPHIBRON THREE. Twenty years later he was assigned to command USS Thomaston (LSD-28), with the next highest hull number. He retired in 1985.
