COLONEL NATHAN R. JESSUP USMC (Jack Nicholson), in A Few Good Men, was Commanding Officer, United States Marine Ground Forces, Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba. At the time of the narrative, he was about to appear before the Standing Committee of the Armed Services, United States Senate, for confirmation as Director of Operations, National Security Council. And on account of one sub-standard Marine, and a snotty-nosed Harvard-mouthed blackguard wearing a faggotty white uniform, he now finds himself languishing at Fort Leavenworth, convicted of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and conduct unbecoming an officer.The trouble began on 2 August.1991 when, as nearly as anyone ever figured out, Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson fired a shot across the fenceline after his mirror engaged. Again, as near as he could tell, Pfc. William T. Santiago witnessed this. And the importance? William T. Santiago was a chronic screw-up, a namby-pamby, all the things that made him want to puke. The recruiter who accepted this boy as a Marine should have been cashiered. He kept a disorderly barracks, he fell back on runs, and in fact couldn't run from here to there without collapsing from heat exhaustion!On Friday 6 September 1991, someone laid a donkey's mess on his desk. It took the form of a letter from a Warrant Officer Robert C. McGuire, Special Agent, Naval Investigative Service. The letter announced an investigation into an illegal fenceline shooting. Enclosed was a letter from Pfc. Santiago to McGuire. The letter began with a litany of his petty, namby-pamby complaints--and ended with an offer to give evidence on an illegal fenceline shooting that occurred the night of 2 August.Who the f**k was this kid? He had broken the chain of command and ratted on a member of his unit!He immediately summoned his XO, Lt. Col. Matthew Andrew Markinson USMC and the leader of Second Platoon Bravo, 1st Lt. Jonathan James Kendrick USMC Kendrick struck him as a weasel, but he was a good officer. And in the end, he and Jessup saw eye-to-eye on how to run a close-infantry unit. Which Markinson clearly did not.Jessup demanded to know: what were they going to do about this? Markinson made a just-plain-stupid suggestion: transfer Santiago off the base. Why? Because word of his letter was bound to get out, and Santiago would get his *** whipped.Transfer Santiago. Yes, Jessup was sure that was a good idea. He was sure that was the thing to do. Wait! Jessup had a better idea. Why not transfer his whole squad off the base? On second thought, why not transfer the whole Windward Division off the base? Might as well get the President on the line and say they were surrendering their position in Cuba!Oh, no. Jessup told Markinson and Kendrick some hard truths: they had a responsiblity, as officers, to train Santiago. As officers, they had a responsibility to the people of the United States, who paid their salaries and supplied their billets, weapons, ammo and rations, to make sure all who were charged with the country's defense were trained professionals. And so Matthew's suggestion, while expeditious and no doubt painless, was not, in a manner of speaking, the American way.Santiago would stay where he was. They would train the lad. Jessup put Jon in charge. Santiago doesn't make 4.6-4.6 on his next Proficiency and Conduct report, he said, and I'm going to blame you. And then I'm going to kill you. And that was when Markinson blurted out, I think that's a mistake, Colonel. Quickly Jessup dismissed Kendrick, with a suggestion that they do lunch in the O Club. Then he gave Matthew a head-shrinking lecture, along the following lines:1. We're in the business of saving lives.2. Taking a Marine who is not up to the job, and shipping him off to another billet, puts lives in jeopardy.3. Don't you ever again question my orders in the presence of another officer.At lunchtime, Jessup gave Jon a suggestion with the force of an order: have Santiago's squad leader give Santiago what was known as a Code Red--a disciplinary engagement--to remind him of the last time he would ever again break the chain of command.That's when everything went clusterf***ing wrong. Santiago ended up dying!The death occurred at 0037 hours 7 September. At 0300 hours the hospital doctor, Navy Commander Stone, could not certify the cause of death. So Jessup summoned Stone to his office. And explained to him, with the infinite patience of a lower-school phys-ed instructor talking to an errant pupil, that the manner of death would have to be homicide. And therefore, no doubt, a man of Cdr. Stone's intelligence could come up with a cause of death consistent therewith.Stone didn't disappoint. Final Clinical Diagnosis: Pulmonary hemorrhage, as a consequence of runaway lactic acidosis, of a nature suggesting topical poisoning with a rag inserted into Santiago's windpipe.That left the matter of explaining why Santiago was still on the base. So Jessup then summoned Markinson and, in another patient lecture, explained that Santiago was ordered transferred off the base by the first available air transportation. Which was a flight that departed the base at 0600 and arrived at Andrews Air Force Base (now known as Joint Base Andrews) at 0905Q. (The Q for Quebec refers to four hours behind Zulu, which is also known as Coordinated Universal Time, or Greenwich Mean Time). And when Jessup found out that a plane had left at 2300 hours 6 September, Jessup summoned the tower chief and, with a third lecture, explained that no such aircraft ever took off. He had friends at Andrews to show that no such plane landed, either.All that then remained was to arrest Lance Cpl. Dawson and his accomplice, Pfc. Louden Downey, and charge them both with murder. It would be a very simple matter to have them convicted and shipped off to Fort Leavenworth.There. That ought to cover all the bases.Only it didn't.The first hint of trouble came on 10 September, when an order came down from the JAG Division to move Dawson and Downey to the Washington Navy Yard and assign them counsel there! Oh, well. He had friends in Division. They assured him they could assign the case to an inexperienced lawyer who would plea-bargain their sentence to an acceptable length of time that, no doubt, Lance Cpl. Dawson would accept.But on Wednesday 12 September he met the assigned counsel face-to-face: Lt. (jg) Daniel A. Kaffee USN, the son of the famous USAG Lionel Kaffee. Two other JAG officers accompanied him: Lt. (jg) Samuel Weinberg USN (a Jew boy!), assistant counsel; and Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway USN, Special Counsel for Internal Affairs. (And what a babe!) Jessup asked Markinson and Kendrick to join him. At Jessup's suggestion, Jon Kendrick took the three JAG officers on a tour of the barracks (and Santiago's barracks room), and then they all gathered for lunch out in the open air.There Jessup quietly said he had ordered Santiago transferred off the base, at 0600 7 September, six hours too late as it turned out. But this Galloway wanted to make trouble. She uttered the phrase Code Red as if it were something to be ashamed of. And here was a strange thing: Kaffee was lead counsel, but Galloway outranked him by two grades. In the middle of her trying to ask whether Code Reds still went on at Gitmo, in violation of a CINCLANT directive, he said, She outranks you, Danny. I'm going to tell you something, and listen up, because I really mean this: you're the luckiest man in the world. There is nothing on this earth sexier, believe me, gentlemen, than a woman you have to salute in the morning...of course, my problem is, I'm a colonel, so I have to take cold showers until they elect some gal President, heh, heh, heh. And when Galloway still pressed, he turned frosty: Take caution in your tone, Commander. I'm a fair man but this f***ing heat is driving me absolutely crazy. He then went on to explain that Code Reds were an invaluable part of close-infantry combat training, so if they went on without his direct knowledge, so be it. He ran his unit like he ran his unit. He dared her to investigate him and reminded her sharply that he ate breakfast three hundred yards from four thousand Cubans who were trained to kill him.And then suddenly Kaffee, no doubt trying to prove himself worthy of Galloway's favor, asked him for a copy of the transfer order. Jessup shrank Kaffee's head a llttle, saying, You gotta ask me nicely. Which he did.The JAG officers went back to the flight line and boarded their plane Stateside.Not long after that, Matthew went UA. Jessup never saw or heard from him again.Imagine his surprise when, nearly two months later, a f***ing subpoena landed on his desk! Did this have anything to do with word he'd gotten that Matthew had taken his own life with the nickel-plated .45 from his full-dress uniform?He wore utilities on the plane and packed his Class A dress uniform, with shaving kit and a change of clothing. He made three phone calls. He thought nothing of this. Nor did he have any apprehension when the prosecuting officer, Captain Jack Ross USMC, swore him in.Lo and behold, Lt. Kaffee actually challenged him with those details of his trip. Then he got to his point: Santiago's barracks room, with its full inventory, was still shipshape except for the evidence of a struggle on his cot and desk. And the comms office had no record of any phone calls Santiago might have made. In other words, Kaffee was saying Santiago was not being transferred. Still, Kaffee had not a shred of evidence to suggest the transfer order was not what it purported to be.Jessup waited for Kaffee to question him further. Kaffee stood mute, like a bump on a log. So Jessup got up from his chair. That's when Kaffee told him to stop where he was and sit down--and definitely did not treat him with the respect due his rank. So Jessup said, I would appreciate it if you would address me as 'colonel' or 'sir.' I believe I've earned it. The court repeated, Defense counsel will address the witness as 'colonel' or 'sir.' I don't know what the h**l kind of unit you're running here, Jessup began.And the court cut him off: ...And the witness will address this court as 'Judge' or 'Your Honor.' I'm quite certain I've earned it. Take your seat, Colonel. Jessup still tried to brazen it out. But Kaffee then got to the inconsistency he couldn't finesse: why did he issue two orders? Why did he order Jonathan to call a meeting of the men and tell them Santiago wasn't to be touched, and then order Santiago transferred? Jessup tried to fall back on a second explanation: Santiago was a substandard Marine. He was being transferred... But that was no go.And then Kaffee accused him flat-out of ordering a Code Red, then cutting those guys loose when it went bad.The prosecuting officer and the judge, outraged, shouted at Kaffee that he was in contempt of court. But Kaffee plowed on: COLONEL JESSUP! DID YOU ORDER THE CODE RED?!? The judge further shouted, You don't have to answer that question! I'll answer the question! shouted Jessup. He'd had enough of this. He was going to tell the Harvard mouth exactly what a command decision was.He explained that they lived in a country with walls, and those walls had to be guarded by men with guns. He explained that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives--and Jessup's existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to a man like Kaffee, saved lives. He reminded Kaffee that deep down in places he didn't talk about at parties, he wanted and needed Jessup to stand on that wall. He had neither the time nor the inclination to explain himself to a man who rose and slept under the blanket of the very freedom he, Jessup, provided, and then questioned the manner wherein he provided it! He would rather Kaffee just say, Thank you, and went on his way, or else pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, Jessup did not give a d__n what Kaffee or anyone else thought he was entitled to!Kaffee asked again--twice-- DID YOU ORDER THE CODE RED?!? YOU'RE G_D-D____D RIGHT I DID! he roared back.What happened next, he could not at first comprehend. He heard the court-martial members dismissed, and an Article 39A session begun. He heard that prosecuting officer reading him the Rights as per Miranda v. Arizona! He was being charged with a crime!HE WOULD RIP KAFFEE'S EYES RIGHT OUT OF HIS HEAD, AND P**S INTO HIS DEAD SKULL! KAFFEE HAD F***ED WITH THE WRONG MARINE! He lunged at Kaffeee, but a squad of MPs restrained him.Finally he said, You know nothing of how to defend a nation. All you did was weaken a country, Kaffee. That's all you did. Sweet dreams, son. Don't call me 'son,' said Kaffee. I am a lawyer, and an officer in the United States Navy. And you're under arrest, you son-of-a-b**ch. The witness is excused. Jessup couldn't even bring himself to pay attention to the trial of himself, and of Lt. Kendrick, that followed. Show less «