Even the most green recruits get drilled on the first general order of the US Army: I will guard everything within the limits of my post and quit my post only when properly relieved. And in case that doesn’t get followed, the Army has a third general order: I will report violations of my special orders, emergencies, and anything not covered in my instructions to the commander of the relief. Violating those general orders could put an enlistee in a court-martial for an Article 92 violation and at risk for some time in the stockade.
So what does it say when a former four-star general and the penultimate civilian commander of the Armed Forces abandons his post without proper relief or notification of the chain of command? The White House refuses to hold Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to any disciplinary standard, let alone the standard that the Pentagon demands of its service…
