30 My Colonel Blamed Me For The Blankets My Own Unit Delivered — He Didn't Know A Fire Captain Had Bought One Back From A Private Warehouse

Audrey spent the night at the state headquarters.

She had been offered a room at the transient quarters. She had accepted it. She had showered. She had eaten a meal that was not an MRE. She had slept for six hours.

At 07:00 the next morning, she put on a clean uniform and walked to the office of the state judge advocate.

The state judge advocate was a colonel named Ricardo Delgado. He was fifty-eight years old. He had been a JAG officer for thirty years. He had a reputation for being careful and for being fair and for not being intimidated by rank.

Audrey walked into his office at 07:05. She saluted. She said, "Sir, Captain Audrey Mills requesting a legal opinion."

Colonel Delgado looked at her.

"Captain Mills," he said, "I have been expecting you. Sit down."

Audrey sat.

Colonel Delgado opened a folder on his desk.

"Captain Mills," he said, "before you ask me anything, I am going to tell you what I already know. I have read the incident report from yesterday. I have read your log. I have read the delivery receipts. I have read the executive officer's memorandum that told you to stop making a fuss about the fourth shipment. And I have read the state adjutant general's written directive that all evidence in this matter be preserved. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then I am going to ask you a question. And I want you to answer it honestly. Yesterday morning, when Colonel Henry Ward ordered you to prepare a patient — I mean a family — for discharge, and when you refused, were you aware that you were refusing a direct order from a superior officer?"

"Yes, sir."

"And were you aware that refusing a direct order from a superior officer is a violation of Article 90 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then why did you refuse?"

Audrey took a breath.

"Sir," she said, "because the order was unlawful."

Colonel Delgado did not react.

"Unlawful how?"

"Sir, Colonel Ward ordered me to release military relief supplies to a family without following the required distribution procedures. He ordered me to sign a distribution sheet that I knew to be false. And he ordered me to release the supplies after I had documented that the shipment was short. Each of those three orders violated a specific Army regulation and a specific federal statute. And I knew — because I had been trained to know — that an order that requires a soldier to violate a lawful regulation or a federal statute is not a lawful order. And a soldier is not required to obey an unlawful order."

"Which regulations and statutes?"

"Army Regulation 30-22, Military Food Service Procurement, paragraph 4-7, requires that every delivery to a military food service facility be signed off by a senior enlisted food service specialist before distribution. Colonel Ward's order required me to distribute without that sign-off. That is a violation of AR 30-22."

"Go on."

"Army Regulation 700-84, Supply and Services in Support of Civil Authorities, paragraph 2-11, requires that relief supplies be distributed in accordance with the county emergency management plan. Colonel Ward's order required me to distribute supplies outside the county plan. That is a violation of AR 700-84."

"Go on."

"Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, Title 21 of the United States Code, Section 331, prohibits the introduction of adulterated or misbranded food into interstate commerce. The blankets and the food that Colonel Ward ordered me to distribute were misbranded — the shipment was short, the inventory was false, and the distribution sheet would have recorded the distribution of items that had not been distributed. That is a violation of federal law."

"Go on."

"Department of Defense Instruction 6025.21, Medical Support for Emergency Relief Operations, requires that all relief supplies be distributed in accordance with the DoD emergency relief plan. Colonel Ward's order required me to distribute outside the plan. That is a violation of DoD policy."

Colonel Delgado was quiet for a long moment.

"Captain Mills," he said, "did you know, yesterday morning, that these regulations and statutes existed?"

"Sir, I knew AR 30-22 and AR 700-84 existed because I had been trained on them. I knew the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act existed because I had been trained on it in the unit's legal briefing. I did not know the specific section numbers, sir. But I knew the principles."

"And you believed — on the morning of the incident — that Colonel Ward's order required you to violate these regulations and statutes?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you believed that, because the order required you to violate regulations and statutes, the order was unlawful?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you believed that, because the order was unlawful, you had no obligation to obey it?"

"Yes, sir."

Colonel Delgado closed the folder.

"Captain Mills," he said, "I am going to tell you something. And I am going to tell it to you in a way that I hope you will remember for the rest of your career. What you did yesterday morning was correct. What you did was lawful. What you did was required by the Uniform Code of Military Justice and by every regulation and statute I just listed. You were ordered to commit a violation of federal law and Army regulation. You refused. That refusal was not insubordination. That refusal was the conduct of a soldier who understood her obligations under the law. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then I want you to understand one more thing. What you did yesterday morning was correct in the abstract. It was also correct in the specific. You were ordered to distribute relief supplies that you knew were short. You refused. You were right to refuse. And I am going to say so in the legal opinion I am going to write this morning. And when that legal opinion goes to the inspector general and to the adjutant general and to the state staff judge advocate, it is going to say that Captain Audrey Mills was legally justified in refusing the order she refused. And it is going to say that any subsequent disciplinary action against her — any relief, any reprimand, any adverse finding — would be a violation of Article 138 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then you are dismissed."

Audrey stood up.

She got as far as the door.

"Captain Mills."

She turned.

"The JAG opinion is going to be dated 20 October. It is going to be on the adjutant general's desk at 08:00 tomorrow. And it is going to be the first document the inspector general reads when he opens this investigation. That is what I am going to do. That is my job. That is what I trained for. But I want to tell you something else."

"Sir?"

"You did not call me first. You did not call the state JAG office. You did not ask for a legal opinion before you refused a colonel's order. You refused the order in the moment. And then you called me. And I want to know why."

"Sir," Audrey said, "I did not have time to call the JAG office. There were eleven hundred families in a gymnasium with no blankets. There were two soldiers from the range support detachment who had been placed in danger by the colonel's order. There was a woman in a stained sweatshirt with a baby on her shoulder and she was looking at me and she was waiting. If I had stopped to call the JAG office, the blankets would have been gone. The families would have been cold. And by the time I had a legal opinion, it would have been too late."

Colonel Delgado looked at her.

"Captain Mills," he said, "that is the best answer I have ever heard from a captain."

He stood up.

He walked around his desk.

He held out his hand.

Audrey shook it.

"Go home," he said. "Get some sleep. Tomorrow morning, the inspector general is going to open his investigation. And when he does, you are going to be the first person he interviews. And the second person he interviews is going to be Colonel Ward. And when Colonel Ward is interviewed, he is going to be asked why he ordered a captain to violate the law. And when he is asked that question, he is going to have to explain why he told his own executive officer to make the problem go away. And I am going to be there, Captain. I am going to be in that room. And I am going to be watching."

"Yes, sir."