Houndy you've got to get your terminology straight. Pika covered it pretty well in his post.

As for the douchebag he shouldn't have joined. Just because your enlisted that doesn't mean that your going to get a free ride due to religion or race. For example if we went to war with North Korea tommorow, the US Armed Forces aren't going to tell their troops of Korean decent "your exempt." A refusal to carry out your orders can result in anything from loss of rank, time in the brig and even a court martial/dishonorable discharge.

Now I don't know what kind of service record this guy had. However if I was his CO at Hood then I'd have started to become concerned the moment his behavior patterns started to change. In most cases a guy doesn't just suddenly snap overnight. It takes time to get to that point. As a result the real questions become "Did the Army truely know how crazy he was starting to get and if so why wasn't more done?"

Guess all we can do is sit back and wait for more info :-/