Stubborn John

If ever a soldier seemingly set out to look for punishment it was Draftee John Habinyak, 26. In short order he found it. Last week his case suddenly became more uncomfortable for the U.S. Army than it was for stubborn John Habinyak, who lolled in the guardhouse well on his way to becoming a celebrated case.

Soon after John Habinyak, Manhattan waterproofer, arrived at North Carolina's Fort Bragg in July, he announced he had been working for $10 a day, had no intention of functioning for $21 a month. People who had known him at home in Manhattan said he was a quiet, peaceable fellow. Before long he had become a surly nuisance. He spat on the messhall floor, refused to clean it up. He scattered rubbish around his bed, refused to do anything about it. Locked up in the guardhouse, he was taken out to work, refused again.

Perhaps a stupid noncom or officer had got John started on his military career on the wrong foot. At any rate, in the transition from civilian to military life, John had gone wrong, changed from a quiet, useful citizen to a maladjusted anti-social character.

After a sanity test (verdict: sane) Private Habinyak was court-martialed, pleaded guilty to a list of charges of insubordination. Then the court-martial showed it had little more sense of proportion than Private Habinyak. Its sentence: ten years and nine months in prison. Luckily for stubborn John Habinyak (and for the Army), the sentence had to be reviewed by the Secretary of War and the President. This week the War Department announced the sentence had been cut to a more reasonable three years.

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