Command Influence: A story of Korea and the politics of injustice

Robert A. Shaines
Outskirts Press (2010)
ISBN 9781432750688
Reviewed by Joseph Yurt for Reader Views (1/11)


In “Command Influence,” author Robert Shaines documents a true Korean War incident that will leave many readers in a state of disbelief and disgust. He tells the story, of which he is an integral part, of George C. Schreiber who was a twenty-five-year-old second lieutenant in charge of an Air Police guard unit in Pusan, Korea. A year earlier, in 1951, he had innocently been teaching fifth and sixth grade children in Brookfield, Illinois. A year later, he was convicted by a general court martial of premeditated murder. That is the incident the book documents, but it is the unconscionable injustice of the event that is the story Shaines tells; injustices that would ultimately involve the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, the President and the Supreme Court of the United States.

A young Air Force lawyer at the time, first lieutenant Robert Shaines was intimately involved in defending Schreiber against the charges brought against him. The author begins his account of the case with the initial investigation by the military, then relays the various stages and details of the ensuing phases leading up to the final outcome. Throughout, Shaines weaves a large cast of characters, with military and legal history, to create an often fictional feel for the story.

While the author’s strong passion with regard to the need to tell this story carries much of the burden of the detailed descriptions of military life and the military legal justice system at the time, there are probably still more details included than some readers will want to process. However, those interested in military history, or who enjoy true accounts of honesty and fairness overcoming corruption, will find this an absorbing read.

While the characters in “Command Influence” aren’t larger than life like those portrayed in the acclaimed military courtroom movie “A Few Good Men,” this book is certainly a most worthy telling of the story of a few good, ordinary men.

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