You know, sometimes the regulations in place just do not account for reality.

In 1944, an Italian prisoner of war was found lynched following a night of rioting at Fort Lawton in Seattle.

Forty-three black soldiers were tried in one of the largest courts-martial of World War II. Of those, 28 were found guilty of rioting and sentenced to as many as 25 years in prison.

In late October, the Army's Board of Corrections of Military Records ruled the trial was ''fundamentally unfair and improper.'' It said the soldiers should be given honorable discharges and compensated. About a week ago, one of the men, Samuel Snow, got a check.

For $725.

The Army said that was the amount he would have been paid between the time he was convicted and the time he was released from prison about 15 months later.

The compensation, says Rep. Jim McDermott, is far less than Snow deserves. The amount -- based on Snow's wages at the time of $50 a month -- was not adjusted for inflation or to reflect any interest for the 63 years the Army withheld the money.

The regulations, of course, do not anticipate a situation like the one in this case. It rarely takes six decades to correct a miscarriage of justice like this one. But the Army has to follow the regulations in place, and so it acted properly -- as McDermott certainly knows.

Were, then, does justice lie? With McDermott and his congressional colleagues. I'm sure that special legislation can be written and passed to arrange for appropriate compensation in this matter -- as a matter of justice, not special favor.

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Posted by: Greg at 10:56 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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