Posted on 10/15/2021 3:08:45 PM PDT by Enterprise
That said I want to be clear, and this is my opinion formed from my childhood as a military dependent of a career naval officer, and a four year enlistment myself. I have always deeply believed in the concept of a chain of command.
I have studiously observed it as a civilian in my career, and it has never failed me. It is a concept that works best in a hierarchal relationship, as nearly all professional relationships are in some form.
I say all this to establish what I say here: While I believe that a formal chain of command that is observed by all is the best way to get good results, I have never in my life believed in following it blindly. I have always reserved the right to not observe it if there are moral issues involved.
And in this, while I believe in the Chain of Command and the forms that it should be observed religiously, there are times when a man has to stand up and be counted because NOT doing it would impart such rancid a moral stain on a man's soul that it could not be bourne in the remaining live of an honest man.
And because it is the RIGHT thing to do.
And that is why I support this man. I don't like it if he is or was a Leftist. I don't like it that he insulted and slandered a huge number of people who contributed generously to his defense and support.
But when an egregious wrong has been done, as was done in the pullout of Afghanistan leaving American citizens to fend for themselves, to provide the Taliban with a database of Afghanis who worked with us, to surrender a huge amount of valuable equipment, arms, and supplies to people who mean to do evil to us, and to facilitate the murderous and completely unnecessary slaughter of 13 American servicemen, all for political ends as feeble and stupid as those might be, well...
Yes. He has my support. So, while there is at least some to dislike and disapprove of in him, his public criticism of the incompetent and incredibly craven actions of "Perfumed Princes" who are a disgrace to their oaths they took as Commissioned Officers is not one of those things.
That THOSE people are going to get off scot free is a criminal travesty.
They don’t mess around. At least, they didn’t when I was in the Nav during Vietnam.
Thank you for that. Agree 100%. So does Eddie Gallagher, Bernie Kerik and a host of others.
Outstanding post, and many thanks for your service.
Sentencing is usually same or next day. He also requested bench trial.
What’s a G2?
He received separation papers after his first posting. Note she did not attend court only his parents were there.
This was hard for me to work through, and the very night I was going to donate to his fund, that statement came out. It made me pretty angry, because (I thought) how could he fail to see the people who supported him were almost universally Trump supporters who donated...not because he was pro or anti-Trump, but because he spoke the truth that the administration, media, and military would not:
That this handling of the Afghan mess was not in concordance with the values we as Americans generally hold for the lives of our servicemen and doing what is right for the good of the country.
And LtCol Scheller said those things about the one politician I am pretty sure would have supported him-Trump.
But then I heard Eddie Gallagher talking about it, and he was displeased, but he said (I have to paraphrase here) “This man was under huge stress. I know what stress he has been under, because I experienced it myself. It sounded to me as if when he wrote that, he was ‘having a bad day’. I disagree with his characterization of President Trump, but here at the Pipe Hitters foundation, we don’t support our military members only on their good days. We support them on their bad days too, and we still support him.”
Like I said, I don’t remember exactly what he said, so I had to paraphrase, but...that was the gist of it.
I felt honestly abashed. Chief Gallagher is absolutely right, IMO, and I had to find a way to understand this.
To those we respect and love, that is what we do: Support them on their bad days too.
And I realized I respected LtCol Scheller for speaking out. So my support had to follow.
Do you have to serve 20 yrs to get a pension?
Quite the contrast to the whole Tsarnaev fiasco.
I think him and his family deserve our help....
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-family-of-lt-col-stuart-scheller
Again, thank you for your thoughts.
The guy obviously has some emotional issues he has to work through. We’ve all been supremely pissed off by people in politics and the things they’ve done, and we’ve said things.
The difference is his military chain of command and that he had a world-wide platform, which we don’t have. He spoke too soon after the events. I guess if he had given it a week or two and weighed his options, things would be a whole lot different.
PTSD?
And remember, the current WH intent is to:
1) Fire every service member who does not get vaxxed.
2) Restore the military draft, to include females.
Exactly. And those were the things that I pondered as I wondered how to negotiate my stance on this.
I really tried to imagine what it would be like to have the full power of the government/military coming down on top of you. And he could have PTSD, I don’t know the man. But I will say, the more and harder I considered it, the more embarrassed I became for my own knee jerk reaction, and the more sympathy, even in light of his remarks, that I felt.
My whole life, I never gave a thought to military personnel as liberals, conservatives, Leftists, Rightists, whatever. Never. Granted, I knew Leftists existed, but...like many military personnel, they kept their nose out of politics, like every military person I knew growing up and serving.
It simply wasn’t done. If you were military, you had a job to do that precluded politics. You just did it. If you had political views (and everyone does) you didn’t discuss them except in private conversations.
But over the last 30 years, that appears to have changed. It became open. And military leaders became politically aligned, even publicly so.
Is that typical?
In the UCMJ world, this doesn't strike me as unusual, the rank of the officer involved is really the only unusual bit. Many "trials" are done administratively in a commander's office or conference room.
There was no evidence to be contested, only a few witnesses called and they were easy to track down, and the defendant wasn't trying to contest any of the charges. It could have been drawn out if that was the desire of the command, but in the military, delaying action against insubordination only invites similar action from others tempted by the idea of being insubordination themselves, so you act fast.
I for one am amazed at how many posters get wrapped around the axle about a few brief sentences in all of the things LTC Scheller posted because they chastised President Trump and his family when the story isn't about Trump at all. Scheller didn't want his sacrifice of what was likely a stellar military career to be used as a political prop. He acted out because he saw the entire military being used as a political prop, including by senior officers, and he was sick of it. Everything doesn't have to be a paean to one specific political candidate. Scheller, for better or for worse, fell on his sword to make a point to those officers about what he believed they all swore an oath to uphold.
I thought go fund me stopped his account. That’s when Eddie Gallagher got involved and raised over 2 million.
Yup. He gets to hang on until retirement if he wants. That will be a bumpy three years.
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