Expensive $500 Bucks

Is it just me or does this punishment seem a little to steep for stealing $500?:

A U.S. Army sergeant received 13 months confinement Monday after pleading guilty to stealing more than $500 by lying about his base housing allowance needs, according to the public affairs office at 2nd Infantry Division.

Mark A. Byrd, of Headquarters and Headquarters Service Company, Special Troops Battalion at Camp Red Cloud, also was reduced to the Army’s lowest rank and pay level, E-1.

Maybe there is more to this story but I can’t help but to think back to the whole 1LT Davis saga down in Osan where he only got two years for crimes far more serious than what this NCO on Red Cloud committed.