[redgolum]

My boss said there are certain specific times you MUST, but they are when your commanding officer is doing a clearly illegal order (example he used machine gunning orphans).

But yeah. That doesn’t happen.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

Right -- you always have the right to refuse an illegal order. And you always have the right to take complaints up the chain of command. But challenging your superiors publicly is a different issue. It's a career-ender, and I think that's all that would have happened to him had he just done it the one time. Essentially, he's resigning in principle.

But you just can't keep doing that without additional consequences. I imagine he wouldn't have taken too kindly to a Sergeant in his command making similarly public comments about him, nor should he.

[jagusafr]

The maxim is that you disobey an order at your peril. You can try to prove at your court martial that the order was unlawful, but it’s an affirmative defense and the burden is on the “accursed” to prove it.

Colonel, USAF TJAGCR (ret)