As far as the two lower enlisted "only following" orders, as a service member, you are supposed to follow "lawful" orders. If a General ordered you to go out and murder 6 children, if you don't follow the order, you of course would not get in trouble, however if you did, you would go to prison. Now, that being said, it is is established in the film, that the Code Red is a form of punishment that is commonplace for that particular unit. With that in mind, you can't expect two lower enlisted soldiers to understand if that in fact is a lawful order or not.
I worked in the Army Jag Corps for years, it is rare to see a "Dishonorable Discharge", that is usually saved for murderers and rapist and such. Since it was proven that there was no intent to harm Pvt Santiago, only to train, I doubt they would have received that discharge classification. Also, they went on trial for murder, so any defense attorney worth his salt could easily get a retrail based on the new evidence and prove they were following orders they believed beyond a shadow of a doubt were infact "lawful" orders and keep their careers. After all, Santiago's death was a freak accident, not intentional.
What got me is how Jessup got arrested. What would normally take place is with the new evidence, an investigation would take place and if the evidence would charges being pressed, he would then possibly be arrested, but he would surely get released until the trail
One more thing, Lt Kendrick is done, we will be prosecuted for perjury and he will get discharged. Probably no jail time, but his career is over.
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