Marine Faces 'Other Than Honorable' Discharge Over Anti-Obama Facebook Comment

ABC ^ | 04/15/2012 | MARISA TAYLOR

[safetysign]

A federal judge on Friday rejected Sgt. Gary Stein's injunction to halt a military tribunal's recommendation that he receive the discharge following anti-Obama comments he made on a private Facebook page in March, according to court documents.

Stein, 26, has maintained a webpage for the last two years about the armed forces tea party group he founded, including a disclaimer that the views were his own and didn't reflect those of his employer.

But according to his attorney, Stein never ran into any trouble until last month, when he wrote: "Screw Obama. I will not follow all orders from him."

[Da Coyote]

Hey Barack O’Quota Baby...just remember that that marine made the mistake of saying openly what virtually all of our military thinks of your sorry illegal *ss.

[jersey117]

Obama’s not fit to shine this Marine’s shoes.

[The Sons of Liberty]

He knew the rules. He clearly violated them ...

Hey, didn't I hear someone at Nuremberg say the very same thing?

[Little Ray]

I don’t want see a jarhead thrown to the wolves, but posting something bad about your Commander-in-Chief on Facebook is not the brightest decision one can make. It definitely qualifies a “career altering decision.”

[FreeAtlanta]

I also want the next president to overturn the injustice done to LTC Lakin.

Can you imagine if - even Romeny - were to casually make the statement in a press conference, "the first week of my administration, I will reinstate all benefits to LTC Lakin and expunge the injustice done to his record." The left would go apoplectic. Mittens wouldn't have to say anything for or against the eligibility issue, but it would instantly be up in front of the public. Arpaio's findings would be front and center. Mittens could just say, I am not discussing the presidents eligibility. It is a decision that each American has to consider when voting in November. :-) I can hope and dream, right?

[napscoordinator]

Guilty, but not OTH. Discharge for sure, but general only.

[MtBaldy]

“Nonsense. The rules are clear, and he knew what they were. He blew it.”

I actually applaud him for thinking it. I think it’s possible a 2nd term Obama might try to become President for Life. On the other hand Obama, legitimately or not, is CIC and you can’t publicly announce your intention to disobey your superior officers.

[FrankR]

Facebook is a lot like obama...assuming a lot of power it doesn't really have; if the members looked at it carefully, they'd probably ditch facebook in droves.

Now we read stories like this, in addition to the stories about potential employers demanding applicants' facebook password and using facebook as a tipping point in the hiring process.

My wife's employer wants her to make their firm a "friend", so that all of their [advertising] posts to her will pop-up on all of her friends' pages. I don't know if that is actually illegal, but it sure sounds like it.

I have had to "hide" posts from some of my friends because they dominate my board with minutia that I could care less about. Some do 20 or 30 posts per day which drives the posts I really would like to see completely off the page.

Facebook is turning into a monster, and I don't do twitter at all. But I still see everytime someone's girlfriend makes them a cake, or sweeps the backyard, or other crap that is meaningless. I have denied "friendship" to several people that I know will totally dominate the wall.

I keep it only to be able to keep up with my grandchildren who live very far away.

[Candor7]

Just imagine HOW MANY servicemen and women harbour identical sentiments. IMHO they form a majority.

[HamiltonJay]

Absolutely. Like it or not, he violated not only the rules, but showed insubordination. I may agree with this guy politically,and he is free and should morally disobey any order he feels is unlawful or immorral. However, that doesn’t mean he won’t have to face the consequences of doing so.

Screeding on facebook wsa not bright at all. I don’t see how any military tribunal could rule anything but this in this case. Unless they wanted to throw him in the brig instead.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Stein is an idiot and after only making it to Sergeant in nine years deserves to be RIFd for that alone. He’s a s***bird.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Stein is a Marine, genius.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Agree.
When you put on the uniform, you accept the discipline.

[Chainmail]

Cute, very cute, my draft-dodging friend.

[TheOldLady]

Click his tootsies!

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[TheOldLady]

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[Ratman83]

IIRC they tried him under a section of the UCMJ that is for Officers, but he is only an NCO so I think they are just using him as a scapegoat. He stated that he would not follow orders and then clarified it to state that he would not follow illegal orders. That is a proper statement for an of our service personnel to make.

The military brass is trying to give cover to the POS in the White House and to cover their own butts also.

[xzins]

Article 88 definitely doesn’t apply. Maybe they can stretch Article 89 since the President is the Commander in Chief. I don’t know.

If the Sergeant used a government computer or gave any impression whatsoever that he was speaking as a Marine and not as a citizen, then he was in violation of other provisions that have nothing to do with article 88.

[Not A Snowbird]

We’re free to think it all we want, and grouse about it amongst friends at the bar out in town. But that’s as far as it goes.

[Not A Snowbird]

Article 134 would apply.

I’d love to know what paragraph of the separations manual they are going to use for his discharge.