Posted on 12/11/2009 7:09:41 PM PST by jazusamo
The highest-ranked Marine accused of bungling the military's response to the slayings of two dozen Iraqi civilians after a lethal 2005 roadside bombing displayed substandard performance, but he should not be demoted, a three-member Board of Inquiry ruled Friday.
The military board said it will recommend to the secretary of the Navy that Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, with 22 years of service and three tours of duty in Iraq, be allowed to retain his rank and not be demoted to major.
"It's been a long four years, but it hasn't been a miserable four years," Chessani told the North County Times after the decision was announced inside a Camp Pendleton courtroom. "A lot of good has come out of it, and I praise God and am thankful for all the people that have stood by us."
During the administrative hearing, which began Dec. 2, the board heard witnesses describe what happened in the city of Haditha, Iraq, on Nov. 19, 2005, and how Chessani responded to the civilian deaths.
The incident drew international condemnation and prompted a harsh critique of U.S. troop conduct in the Iraq war.
The Iraqis were slain by a Camp Pendleton squad as the troops hunted for the people responsible for the bombing that killed one Marine and injured two others. Chessani and his subordinates deemed the deaths regrettable, but the result of a legitimate combat action.
Prosecutors argued that Chessani was derelict by failing to accurately report the number of deaths and not ordering an investigation after learning several women and children were among the dead.
That failure resulted in a propaganda coup for the Iraqi insurgency, Lt. Col. Sean Sullivan argued in closing statements Friday morning.
(Excerpt) Read more at nctimes.com ...
Kudos to Muise, he was impassioned and dead on the mark.
The Haditha case has been persecution from the time the charges were filed due to an anti-American reporter and a loud mouthed politician that does nothing unless there’s something in it for him.
Absolutely agree and any real Marine knows it. The prosecutors in this case stretched the truth and made factually incorrect statements knowing it when they made them, those that did should be given their walking papers.
He’s definitely a loser, Race. Like you say, he’s repeated inaccuracies and untruths throughout this case for over three years. Anyone can make a mistake but after an inaccuracy has been pointed out a person with integrity corrects their mistakes.
The same prosecuter that rifled through Major Dinsmore's files and took the evidence Dinsmore was using to defend the accused?
The same asshat that turned Cpl Mendoza against his squad by giving him a job as his driver and made his immigration problems go away?
I thought he'd gone back to Chicago to finish his patent on Colonblo(r), Chicago's 1st voice activated colon cleaning device (so simple a Kenyan could use it).
Yep, Lt. Col. Sean Sullivan, one in the same.
Seems they're scraping the bottom of the barrel for prosecutors.
“...failed to provide as detailed and accurate a report as possible.” This is lame.
So the “OPREP-3 SIR” (Serious Incident Report) which I’m sure was composed at the Regiment level and signed off by the Regt Commander to go to Division and Force Commanders and info’ing CMC didn’t “provided as detailed and accurate a report as possible.” ?
The “OPREP-3 SIR” should not have gotten out of the Regt much less the Division.
LtCol Chessani was a scapegoat for the “Perfumed Princes” at Division/MEF and those at HQ USMC.
>> Some Scuttle but - Thoughts are that the Sec Nav will overrule the Board’s recommendations, demote Chessani and find him with misconduct.
Would that be the final judgment?
"A Different Christmas Poem"
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
" So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."
( I don't know if anyone's seen this before, but here's the message that goes with it);
PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as you can?
Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S. service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.
LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq
Aw, boats. It’s been a long time, but that was worth waiting for. I’ve seen it before, but haven’t been able to read it in quite a while. It’s been a couple years since I’ve been able to tackle much that had the power to make me cry. Just didn’t dare. Thank you so much, it was time to read it again.
We experienced the loss of a son many years ago. The prospect of losing another one, spending four years with one in harm’s way and a couple Christmases without him was more difficult than I can describe.
I just began a new tradition, giving him some of the most beautiful angels I could find to put on his Christmas tree to honor those that watched over him.
Thanks for posting this, boats.
Like Ma it’s been awhile for me too but it’s more than appropriate now, it’ll be going out to my address book.
Merry Christmas to the both of you and your families, near and far.
Thank you, 4wb. I hadn’t seen this version before. Great reminder of our responsibilities back home.
Only in the "aye" of the beholder. ;-)
I put them up on the hutch shortly after we moved here and never put them back in their box.
We're surrounded by mature cedar and fir trees, and from my perch in the loft am watching the 1st snow.
Prayers for your sons, together forever in that big heart of yours.
The main thing is the panel found no misconduct. My take on the substandard performance is the panel is splitting hairs and are trying to satisfy the brass above them who’ve made it pretty clear they want a piece of LtCol Chessani.
Check Saoirise’s post #52, scuttlebutt from the hearing at Pendleton. Talking to my son last night about it and he wasn’t too sure Mabus can override a BOI and demote Chessani but wasn’t positive.
Xzins has stated it well about not providing a detailed and accurate report that it’s BS because it was not only in a combat zone but their were multiple combats going on and Chessani did make his superiors aware of what happened.
Yep, it's tough to miss that obvious head scratcher. Theories abound. Mine is that these three nincompoops got together in their deliberations and wondered what bone they could throw to the prosecutors. So they came up with this lame and fabricated "substandard performance" horse manure. It's disgraceful no matter how you cut it.
Chessani has been removed from the field of battle and therefore the enemy has been handed a victory by the Pentagon.
Sullivan is something else entirely (picture school yard bully for a visual), but his main role he is a lackey for the higher ups in DC. He’s reviewed all the evidence and in his gut he has to know that trying Chessani’s case is a travesty, that fact that he still moves ahead and guns for Chessani shows how wicked he is, and how much the PC slugs are applying the screws to Sullivan to get a conviction for the alleged “massacre”.
Well said...Sullivan is an officer who doesn’t understand the meaning of Duty, Honor, Country.
Am I correct in thinking that if Chessani is not satisfied with the verdict in non-judicial punishment that he can then request judicial punishment. IOW, he can enter back into the court martial route as his choice.
So, if the SecDef refuses this recommendation and goes for a demotion, then Chessani does have a fall back, but I doubt I’d take it, even if it were available. Better the devil you know, than the one you don’t know.
The bottom line for me would be getting myself out of the power of these evil men.
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