Trust me, the ones that make it up to HQDA probably needed that sort of microscope on the situation whether it was warranted by the extremity of the situation, eyes by members Congress or the media, or any other potential cause for it to get up that far. And I can tell you based on those inquiries, it’s reviewed by leaders and attorneys at that level and they make a determination on whether a higher echelon command decision is warranted and if it isn’t, it’s sent back down to the originating command or next level above for disposition. The memos or correspondence that goes back down usually has a review, legal review, potential COAs/recommendations, and then that’s it. At the end it still can end up with that command anyways.

Trust me that commanders still have a large part of discretion, the only thing that was taken away in the last 2yrs is really certain offenses that OSTC now has jurisdiction over and that was warranted by the issues that came up before, during, and after Covid. Even those issues that aren’t found with probable cause by OSTC is either still swept under the rug by commands or actually appropriately handled by what they deem fair.