Should military personnel who commit crimes on non-military property be prosecuted by local law enforcement?

Answer 1

Yes, absolutely. When I first enlisted in the Army, they had open posts, which operated under what was called concurrent jurisdiction. What that meant was both the federal and state authorities had jurisdiction over the post, meaning that you might do something on post which wasn't a crime under the UCMJ, but was under state law, and you could be prosecuted by state authorities. One example given was if a soldier was to have sex with a 16 year-old. Under UCMJ, it isn't a crime - the federal age of consent is actually 16 - now, the chain of command would rip you a new one if you did, but for this hypothetical scenario, that's not being taken into account. Since it was an open post, the state also had jurisdiction, and, in that particular state (New York, as my duty station at the time was Fort Drum), the legal age of consent was 17, and the state could have prosecuted someone in that scenario. It works the other way, as well. Ontario was a popular weekend destination. The age of consent there, I was told, is 15. So a soldier might have sex with a 15 year-old in Ontario and break no Ontario law. However, the UCMJ applies to a soldier at all times and in all locations, and, if they were reported to the military police, they would be arrested and prosecuted under the UCMJ.