That's completely false and the opposite of the facts. An Article 15 is offered in lieu of a court martial. If the soldier is offered an Article 15 and refuses it (he has that option), he can be court martialed under the same charges. An Article 15 must meet court-martial criteria before it is proffered. The fact that the soldiers accepted the Article 15 means that the charges were rock solid. If they were not, all one would have to do would be to refuse the Article 15 and walk away with no court martial and no additional punishment. What the Article 15 does is save time and money. Both sides win. The government saves the cost and time of a trial and the soldiers get a lesser punishment than they would receive if they had gone to trial.
Yes but they should have, had the charges been totally true, gone to a courts martial.
They are handing out article 15s over here for smoking while walking for God's sake. The Army wimped out....