Fordham Veteran's Writing Project - The Court Martial of PFC Roundtree

The Court Martial of Pfc Roundtree

I entered the post brig for my first meeting with Pfc Roundtree.   As the only available 2^nd Lieutenant at Ft. Leonard Wood at the time, I was assigned as his defender for a court martial in which he was charged with assaulting an officer.  With no legal background or experience, plus no instruction in how to proceed, I assumed the first logical step in his defense would be to meet with him to get his side of the story.  At the brig, I was ushered into a cell like room, with a narrow slit of a window, pale green walls, a grey metal military issue table and two chairs, one on each side of the table.  Eventually, Pfc Roundtree was brought to the room by a guard.  As the guard left, he locked the door leaving us alone.

Introducing myself to Pfc Roundtree, we shook hands before we sat down across from each other at the table.  I noticed that he had a strong grip, with very large hands and long fingers appropriate for a man who must have been six five or taller.  He was a black man from Georgia and although he had a slight air of distrust of me when we first met, he was soft spoken, polite and had a delightful southern drawl.  I, on the other hand, felt small, unprepared and embarrassed with the task of asking him about the alleged assault.

After some small talk and going over with him the schedule for his court martial, we both seemed a little more relaxed.  I finally asked him what had happened leading up to the incident. He talked about how he had gone off post to a local bar called Miss Bobby’s, just outside the main gate of Ft. Leonard Wood and, losing track of time, had been running late getting back on post.    He began describing a situation in which the Army officer had approached him and started reprimanding him about being late to return to the post.   He said that the officer was in his face and would not accept his explanation.   I could see that he was reliving the incident and was becoming agitated.  His eyes wandered, his body tensed up and he began shifting in his chair.

I then made the mistake of asking him to explain to me what he recalled doing to the officer.  He suddenly jumped up from his side of the table, and towering over me, grabbed me around the neck, pulling me to my feet.  I could feel his large hands completely circling my neck and all I could think of was that he was going to choke me to death, and I had no way of calling out for help.  After a moment or two he let me go, relaxing his grip on my neck and recovering his composure.

It took me a moment or two to recover my composure as we returned to our chairs.  Although Roundtree’s demonstration was not intended to frighten or harm me, I was flustered and felt somewhat unhinged as the interview continued.

The court martial of Pfc Roundtree was an agonizing procedure during which I was given a binder, whose sole purpose was to walk me through his defense.  As the rushed court martial proceeded, I was flipping pages in the binder trying to keep up with the inevitability of the outcome, but trying to help Pfc Roundtree who was obviously being represented by an uninformed dolt.

Military justice was served and Pfc Roundtree was convicted.