Article 134, also known as the “General Article,” states that married service members can and will be penalized for engaging in adulterous acts – and, by extension, single service members who engage in adulterous acts with their married cohorts will also face consequences. Specifically, it lists three “elements,” all of which must be proven beyond reasonable doubt: first, “that the accused wrongfully had sexual intercourse with a certain person,” second, “that, at the time, the accused or the other person was married to someone else,” and thirdly, that “the conduct of the accused was to the prejudice of good order and discipline in the armed forces.”
This final clause is the real clincher, as it were. In my research into this topic, I stumbled across a New York Times article from 1997 that outlined the UCMJ adultery policy very succinctly, saything that “an informal working rule on adultery has developed…do what you want, but don’t do it blatantly and don’t get caught.”
In my time living (and working) on Twentynine Palms Marine Corps base, I have accumulated reams of stories that illustrate this – from people I know, and Chinese whispers from people I don’t know. Anyone with an intimate knowledge from the inside of the military “bubble,” so to speak, probably will also nod their head in agreement when I say that adultery is rampant in the military, in its many shapes and forms. The problem is, it’s cripplingly difficult to prove, and if the act cannot be proven to directly impact the good order and discipline of a chain of command, all too often cases will be avoided like a proverbial plague. I’ve known Marines who have walked away from well-documented adultery cases with little more than a slap on the wrist because, when all was said and done, their cases had little to no impact to unit cohesion as a whole.
So adultery, while very much technically illegal in the US military, is a very complex and oft-evaded law. Its maximum punishment can range from dishonorable discharge to up to a year in confinement in a military brig – but its minimum punishment is, put simply, to sweep it under the rug.
Ultimately, adultery as crime in the military can very easily be compared to the former “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Article 134 serves as a means to punish those whose adulterous acts directly cause tension to, or threaten the morale of, a chain of command or working relationship between service members. In my – or “our,” I ought to say – case, this was very much true. But there are others where units will be too overwrought, too busy, or too disinterested in a case to really take it all the way to court.
Once again – it’s taken me almost two years to fully grasp the extent of my own wrongdoing, and I apologize for any ruffled feathers caused by this admission. I also have to be realistic, for a moment, and acknowledge that waving my story in a few people’s faces and yelling “adultery is bad! Don’t do it!” won’t make the problem evaporate. Servicemembers (and their families) are human, at the end of the day.
But, since you’ve made it to the end of this article, let me only implore you not to make the same mistakes I did – not because it’s illegal, but just because it’s really, really wrong.
