FWD: Special Forces vet shoots intruder, gets court martialed.


Subject: Special Forces vet shoots intruder, gets court martialed.





Retired Green Beret shoots intruder, gets court martial

BREVARD, Jan. 19, 2008 – Retired Army Green Beret Smokey Taylor got his court martial this weekend and came away feeling good about it.

Taylor, at age 80 the oldest member of Chapter XXXIII of the Special Forces Association, was on trial by his peers under the charge of “failing to use a weapon of sufficient caliber” in the shooting of an intruder at his home in Knoxville, TN, in December.

The entire affair, of course, was very much tongue in cheek. Taylor had been awakened in the early morning hours of Dec. 17, 2007, when an intruder broke into his home. He investigated the noises with one of his many weapons in hand.

When the intruder threatened him with a knife, Taylor warned him, then brought his .22 caliber pistol to bear and shot him right between the eyes.

“That boy had the hardest head I’ve ever seen,” Taylor said after his trial. “The bullet bounced right off.” The impact knocked the would-be thief down momentarily. He crawled out of the room then got up and ran out the door and down the street. Knoxville police apprehended him a few blocks away and he now awaits trial in the Knox County jail.

The charges against Taylor were considered to be serious. He is a retired Special Forces Weapons Sergeant with extensive combat experience during the wars in Korea andVietnam.

“Charges were brought against him under the premise that he should have saved the county and taxpayers the expense of a trial,” said Chapter XXXIII President Bill Long of Asheville. “He could have used a .45 or .38. The .22 just wasn’t big enough to get the job done.”

Taylor’s defense attorney, another retired Weapons Sergeant, disagreed. He said Taylorhad done the right thing in choosing to arm himself with a .22.

“If he’d used a .45 or something like that the round would have gone right through the perp, the wall, the neighbor’s wall and possibly injured some innocent child asleep in its bed,” he said. “I believe the evidence shows that Smokey Taylor exercised excellent judgment in his choice of weapons. He did nothing wrong, and clearly remains to this day an excellent weapons man.”

Counsel for the defense then floated a theory as to why the bullet bounced off the perp’s forehead.

“He was victimized by old ammunition,” he said, “just as he was in Korea and again inVietnam, when his units were issued ammo left over from World War II.”

Taylor said nothing in his own defense, choosing instead to allow his peers to debate the matter. After the trial he said the ammunition was indeed old and added the new information that the perp had soiled his pants as he crawled out of the house.

“I would have had an even worse mess to clean up if it had gone through his forehead,”Taylor said. “It was good for both of us that it didn’t.”

Following testimony from both sides, Taylor was acquitted of the charges and was given a round of applause.Meanwhile, back in Knox County, the word is out: Don’t go messing with Smokey Taylor. He just bought a whole bunch of fresh ammo.

##Tribune Editor Bill Fishburne is a member of the Larry Thorne Chapter XXXIII of the Special Forces Association.

Hank OrtegaPA/C Ret.
Tiger Force Medic 68-69
Tiger Force Web site: http://www.tigerforcerecon.com/
1/327 web site: http://www.327infantry.org/
101st Airborne Div Assn: http://www.screamingeagle.org/

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is what sociopaths regard as humor: the fact that a man threatened with a gun then survived being shot at in the head, and the shooter was "prosecuted" for not murdering him.

Anonymous said...

Sorry my friend,even as a 'lefty' I'm hard pressed to call a man that shoots an intruder IN HIS HOME a 'murderer'.

The joke itself is pretty dumb, but so is the suggestion that (potentially) killing an intruder by an 80 year old man could rise to the level of murder.

Anonymous said...

OK, Captain Semantics. We'll just call him a "man who tried to kill someone."

Anonymous said...

I voted for Obama, and will do so again. I'm also quite left leaning with regards to social causes and polital activities.

That being said, I would have used either a 9mm or .45 cal.

When you theaten someone by breaking into their home...dying by being shot is certainly a consequence that should be expected.

gruaud said...

I have no problem shooting an armed intruder.

That's why I didn't comment earlier.

Anonymous said...

If it does not begin w a .4 ....forgetaboutit....

Anonymous said...

Sooooo, this so called 80 year old man received a "court martial" for shooting a man, even though this 80 year old isn't on active duty.

Le sigh.

The jackasses that wrote this shit know nothing about the military. If they did, they would know that only active duty personnel are subject to UCMJ and court martials (unless they committed a crime on active duty, then they can be recalled to active duty for a court martial. This applies to retirees, Reservists, and National Guardsmen who served any active time). As a veteran, I see right through this bullshit. The authors of this piece need to leave veterans the fuck alone.

 
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