Commanding Officer Whitelist Application
Personal InformationByond ID? senjx
Player Name You Use Most? Joe Beasley, also known as Joe 'JB' Beasley
Make a list of links to all of your ban appeals as well as whitelist and staff applications (both accepted and denied) submitted within the past year. For appeals, provide an additional ban reason and the appeal’s verdict next to the link. None to provide.
Have you received any bans in the last month? Yes
What is your timezone in UTC? UTC-04
What is your discord username and handle? senjie#1573
Basic Questions & StoryWhat do you think is the job of a Commander? The Commanding Officer is the person directly responsible for the command of a military unit, whatever it may be. In the USCM, the Commanding Officer aboard a ship is directly responsible for the operations of the ship, its crew, weapons and systems. The CO represents the top of the chain of command, ensuring that their subordinates are performing their tasks in an acceptable fashion, and either guiding, assisting or taking over when needed.
The Commanding Officer is also an representative ambassador to the interests of the United Americas and the United States Colonial Marine Corps, and thus must act as such at all times when required as either a combat commander, a mediator, diplomat, logistics specialist, battlefield support cordinator, and many other duties depending on the situation at hand. Commanding Officers are required to be ready for anything, and thus their cadre is composed of well-experienced, flexible and reliable officers who have proved themselves to their service.
A good Commanding Officer will make sure that their orders are being carried out by their subordinates, that their logistics and support elements are working as intended, that all operational objectives are met under their command, and to ensure the safety and well-being of their men and women by minimizing risks in combat operations to the best of their abilities. The Commanding Officer is ready to take over any position in the ship, and may even need to deploy alongside their men to inspire them and to personally make sure that their orders are carried out.
Why do you want to be a Commanding Officer? I want to be a Commanding Officer because I believe I am up to the challenge. It is a position with a large amount of responsibility as they are directly in command of their ship and the men and women that crew and man it. I enjoy taking leadership positions, either low level as a Squad Leader or a Departmental Head, or in the senior level as either a Staff Officer or acting as the Executive Officer.
I want to be part of the Commanding Officer cadre to properly represent the values that a Commanding Officer of the United States Colonial Marine Corps would have. Hard-working, cunning, thorough and protective of his men, the law, the constitution and country. I intend to be, and as many people have seen through my actions as a Commander, a CO with a hands-on approach to make sure everything is running smoothly and by the numbers. I understand that I cannot get my hands on everything, and that micromanagement is not what a Commanding Officer would do.
Instead, I will guide my subordinates through coaching, teaching and mentoring, assisting them and taking their duties over if need be to ensure that the combat operation does not suffer through unnecessary bottlenecks and inefficacies. I intend to represent a natural leader, one that takes his job and duties seriously, keeping the men and women under my command informed at all times of the operation's status. I like taking a serious, roleplayish stance when I am leading, mirroring those that you would find in an actual infantry unit commander though with the added characteristics of being an enlistedman that has been in the thick of it, that went through Officers Candidate School through merit, rather than joining right away from a college-level degree. I understand that many people will not see things the way I do, and I accept it, letting others choose their own level of enjoyment in the operation while also catering to those who seek a more serious aspect to the Almayer.
Provide a short story of your Commanding Officer.
ExperienceHow familiar are you with command positions? I am very familiar and comfortable with command positions. I have been playing since 2019 and thus the following hours do not mirror my actual playtimes due to several resets inbetween.
Executive Officer 30.3 HOURS
Staff Officer 25.4 HOURS
Squad Leader 20.9 HOURS
Chief MP 4.3 HOURS
Chief Medical Officer 2 HOURS
Chief Engineer 0.9 HOURS
Approximately how many hours do you have as Executive Officer (XO) at the time of writing this application? 30.3 hours as mentioned previously.
How familiar are you with Department Head positions? Though my playtimes for department head positions do not reflect, I am familiar and feel very comfortable with any position. I can very easily switch roles between rounds and operate as efficiently as one another.
How familiar are you with Marine Law and Standard Operating Procedure? Military Police 20.6 HOURS
Familiar enough with Marine Law, SOP and CO precedents to understand the nature of them, their meanings and the punishments for not following them. I play the role of Chief of Military Police handling appeals, making sure that all of my subordinate MPs follow ML and SOP correctly, and that arrests are made with backing evidence that proves guilt beyond the shadow of a doubt. I often take on random names when I do this to appear as a neutral party, as I like to be fully impartial with every appeal, arrest and situation that I go over.
ScenariosWhen do you believe a Battlefield Execution should be used? I believe the Battlefield Execution clause is too extreme for my taste, and while I understand the need for such a clause, I would like to use any method of de-escalation before even thinking of executing a fellow marine as it takes somebody out of the operation permanently without a chance to return. There are some who actively seek opportunities to execute people when there are other alternatives. I am not that kind of person for the reasons entailed above, and much prefer either talking, debating, disarming, imprisonment, transfer and even establish a drumhead court before a battlefield execution.
That said, if there is someone who is insistently and undoubtedly endangering the proper flow of the operation either through sabotaging critical areas of the ship or that is conspiriring with others to usurp or overthrow the command structure, then a Battlefield Execution is one of the many tools at one's disposal to deal with the threat, though I would much rather like to de-escalate such a situation to begin with by going through the proper channels and procedures except when time is of the essence and any threats to the command structure would mean certain doom for the operation.
Under what circumstances do you believe it is legal to pardon a prisoner? Pardons are a necessary part of Marine Law as they empower the Commanding Officer to release an imprisoned marine from the Brig. These powers, however, must not be used lightly.
There are some who believe that their positions in the Almayer give them special statuses to go against Marine Law and to go out of their way to negatively impact the operation and the people behind it, especially those who like to take Squad Specialist, Squad Smartgunner and such positions to use it as leverage when being arrested. I wouldn't pardon anybody who uses said excuse to commit crimes onboard the ship, as I see it as a clear case of blackmail, as those slots are held to a higher standard even if the lack of their presence in the operation impacts it somewhat.
However, there are cases where pardons are a good tool to use when dealing in cases where the letter of the Marine Law was broken, but the spirit was not. Such a case could be Damage to Government Property, as there are people who, out of necessity rather than malice, break windows and open airlocks to retrieve mission critical equipment such as medical vendors. I would use a pardon to clear them of said charge if the Marine offered an apology to the department whose structure was damaged as to me that is the most important part behind such an action.
Another such case would be with Insubordination. There have been cases where Marines have refused to follow an order that would otherwise have gotten them or their comrades in unnecessary risk, that would've surely incurred bodily harm, that would've brought consequences to the USCM or that simply were illegal and have been brigged for. I would apply a pardon to cases where it is clear the Marine had the best intentions and interests in their own lives, the lives of their fellow Marines and the interests of the USCM.
In contrast, there are crimes I would consider completely unacceptable and unbecoming of a Marine. Murder or Attempted Murder, Sedition, Desertion, Animal Cruelty, Sexual Harrassment, Prevarication and Illegal Confinement are crimes that mean bodily, psychological or other types of harm to their fellow marines or to the command structure and thus may not qualify for a CO pardon as I see no way in which there are clear intentions where the offending marine had any good will behind the crimes listed.
ConfirmationsDo you understand that any player - even donors or staff members - can have their whitelist status revoked should they break our Server Rules or Roleplay Guidelines? Yes
Do you understand you cannot advertise or promote this application on any platform, including Discord? Yes
Do you also understand that you may not edit this application 1 hour after it has been posted? Yes