#because adultery is still a crime under the UCMJ

[glassesmcfancyhair]

I find it hilarious that my ex filed for divorce while deployed. Sir, I have all of your shit in my possession.

[glassesmcfancyhair]

Real quick, and sorry to hijack the post, BUT!

Let’s talk fraternization regs for one quick second.

I think where a lot of people get bogged down is the idea of chain of command.

When they’re both at the SGC and Sam is on Jack’s team, he is her supervisor (and probably her rater.) Since Jack is the commander of SG1, he probably has UCMJ authority over his people. Which in this case just means Sam, because Teal’c and Daniel are probably listed as civilian contractors.

Now! Jack’s assignment to ‘Washington’ - this complicates things. Does the show establish that he’s working outside of SGC? Not clearly. A multi-star command (like the SGC) could be spread out over a large geographic area. Some organizations have representatives that work primarily in DC. For instance, if he was promoted to become the SGC’s Vice Commander (a distinct title from Deputy Commander), his duties could include representing the SGC. However, what this means is he still works for SGC, just not in Colorado. Which means he and Sam would still be in the same chain of command, but now he isn’t her direct supervisor.

If Jack is technically no longer working under the auspices of the SGC, he could still have a lot of undue influence over Sam’s career - generals have a lot of clout, y’all. (For more reading, look up General Petraus and how long he got away with some of the shit he got away with. Or Jeffery Sinclair. Or Wayne Grigsby.)

The term the military likes to use for this kind of thing is ‘inappropriate relationship’. This could mean anything from adultery (still a crime under the UCMJ) to having consensual sex with a subordinate to having a non consensual relationship with a subordinate to having a relationship with a subordinate of the same gender to having a relationship before your divorce is finalized.

Back to the point: their relationship would be ‘inappropriate’ for as long as Jack has the ability to influence Sam’s career in any direction.

But!

Under current UCMJ regs, Sam and Jack could skip over to a courthouse tomorrow and get hitched with zero penalty. The problem comes when they get asked to prove that there was no inappropriate relationship leading up to the marriage license.

Military rules are fucking wild, guys.

Hello, with Washington being the only option aside retirement how it's fit with Jack and Sam relation? Because for the writters they are together at this point so I guess it's not against the reg anymore? Or they just don't give a f*ck anymore?

Hello Anon,

well, their relationship was never confirmed onscreen, so the writers didn’t have to deal with such questions.

For all the S/J shippers, it’s quite clear they found a way around the regs. Maybe they were allowed to start a relationship when Sam was at Area 51 and out of the direct chain of command. Maybe the president owed them. Maybe everyone turned a blind eye when Jack threatened to leave the program if they wouldn’t allow it. (Jack was very valuable for the Stargate program).

Whatever the solution, it obviously worked for them and to our satisfaction.

Since you are so curious and have so many question which I try to answer but will probably fail, I invite you to a group of Stargate fangirls over on Discord.

We are writers, artists, readers, general goofballs, and shippers.

Here’s the link: https://discord.gg/Hpd8BhTj

The invitation is valid for 24hrs before it expires. 

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Join us and talk about Stargate SG-1, Sam/Jack, or other topics.