 In November 1963, he was court-martialed for gambling, usury, possession of a personal firearm on base, and for threatening another Marine over a $30 loan ($ in ), for which he had demanded $15 in interest.Sentenced to 30 days of confinement and 90 days of hard labor, he was demoted from lance corporal (E-3) to private (E-1).While awaiting his court martial in 1963, Whitman began to write a diary titled "Daily Record of C. J. Whitman".