At War is a newsletter about the experiences and costs of war with stories from Times reporters and outside voices. In 2019, one of the oldest and most archaic punishments in the United States military — three days’ confinement on bread and water — will be no more. On Christmas Day, my colleague Dave Philipps reported that the Navy’s bread-and-water punishment for the most junior enlisted sailors has been eliminated in a new revision to the Uniform Code of Military Justice that went into effect on Jan. 1. It’s a change long in the making in the United States even though the punishment has been outlawed elsewhere for decades. Once a sailor is promoted to the E-4 paygrade, that of a third-class petty officer, he or she cannot receive the draconian punishment.

Source: New York Times January 04, 2019 15:11 UTC