http://www.safeguardourconstitution.com/news/update20101214.html
Today at his Court-Martial, Army LTC Terry Lakin pled guilty to four specifications of refusing to obey lawful orders, one of which was then dismissed as duplicative. In so doing, he stood before Judge Lind and over and over told her that he was wrong to have disobeyed his orders, which were lawful.
He then pled not guilty to the most severe charge against him, missing the movement of US Air Flight 1123 on 12 April 2010. His sole defense to that charge will be that he was never ordered to board that flight, but instead that his orders required him to report to Ft. Campbell, KY and did not specify the means of transportation.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2642812/posts
I think he plead guilty because the judge denied him the chance to make his case heard in court.
That having been said Article 66 of the UCMJ calls for an automatic appeal in any case in which the approved sentence extends to death, confinement for one year or more, or dismissal, dishonorable or bad conduct discharge (BCD) of a service member.
So despite assertions by the so called sanity squad that LtCol Lakin has lost all rights to an appeal by pleading guilty, he gets one anyway.