Free Republic

The military could seek to formally punish service members for refusing to use another service member’s preferred pronouns under existing policy, according to military experts. A 2020 Equal Opportunity law opened the door for commanders to subject someone who refuses to affirm a transgender servicemember’s so-called gender identity to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) for charges related to harassment, Capt. Thomas Wheatley, an assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Such a move would likely infringe on a servicemember’s constitutional rights to uphold their conscience, but it might not...

IDF lookouts who had warned their commanders that they were concerned about the situation along the Gaza border in the months before the October 7 attack were told to stop bothering them and even threatened with a court-martial, N12 reported on Saturday. According to the report, the lookouts warned that they had seen unusual training and other actions taking place next to the border, with more and more people suddenly getting near the fence in the months leading up to the attack. The lookouts felt that they weren't being heard; one of them decided to go directly to a senior...

A federal judge has voided the court-martial conviction of former Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who left his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was then captured and held by the Taliban for five years. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton on Tuesday issued a 63-page ruling granting summary judgment in favor of Bergdahl, who was convicted after pleading guilty in 2017 to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. Walton argued that Bergdahl was denied a fair trial because the military judge who presided over the court martial, Jeffrey Nance, failed to disclose that he had applied to the executive...

A federal judge has voided former Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's court-martial sentence and subsequent rulings on the case by military judges, setting up the possibility that he could request a reinstatement of rank or change of status for his dishonorable discharge. Senior Judge Reggie Walton, of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., issued an order Tuesday that partially granted the federal government's motion to dismiss the Bergdahl case. But Walton ruled in favor of Bergdahl's argument that the Army judge in his case failed to disclose a possible conflict of interest -- that he had applied for a civilian...

A U.S. National Guard soldier deployed to the Texas border by the Biden administration is seen in a video unlocking a border barrier gate to allow a large group of migrants to enter. The soldier is not a member of the Texas National Guard deployed by Governor Greg Abbott, officials stated. A video tweeted by Fox LA reporter Bill Melugin shows a female soldier opening a gate in a border fence near Eagle Pass, Texas. The date on the video is May 15, shortly after the end of the CDC Title-42 migrant expulsion protocol.

The nation's top military official has apologized for taking part in President Donald Trump's walk from the White House to St. John's Church for what eventually turned into a controversial photo op after authorities had used pepper balls and smoke canisters to disperse largely peaceful protesters. "I should not have been there," said Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a prerecorded video commencement address to National Defense University. "My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics."

A US Army medic 'enraged' by the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has gone viral over her TikTok blasting national leaders for treating 'women like second-class citizens'. Sgt. Rahasenfratz, in a now-viral rant, questioned how she is supposed to 'defend the Constitution and country' when policy shows it doesn't 'give a rat’s a** about me.' The medic, whose first name is unknown, just renewed her contract with the Army last month. She argued that removing federal abortion protections with have an 'unintended consequence' of lessening the retention rates for female military members who already have 'extremely limited...

An Army officer and former health official was convicted last week of flouting Covid-19 rules in the first-known court martial of its type, officials said. The officer, 1st Lt. Mark Bradshaw, who had served as an Army Public Health Center headquarter's company commander at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, was convicted in military court April 29 of refusing an order to telework and reporting to his office without submitting to a Covid-19 test or otherwise furnishing a negative test result, according to the Army Times.

You just can’t make this stuff up. In Biden’s America a creepy Vindman twin will oversee the court-martial of an American soldier who refused to comply with COVID-19 testing and masking requirements. The Defender reports: An Army lieutenant in Maryland is facing a court-martial for his refusal to comply with COVID-19 testing and masking requirements. The case, United States v 1LT Mark C. Bashaw, will be heard on April 28 – 29 at the Army Public Health Center (APHC) at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The defendant, 1st Lt. Mark Bashaw, is being charged under Article 92: Failure to Obey an Order....

Lt. Col. Scheller was issued a letter of reprimand and a forfeiture of $5,000 worth of pay for one month after pleading guilty to all charges in his Court Martial hearing at Marine Base Camp Lejeune on Thursday.

The U.S. Marine who posted videos on social media criticizing military leadership and the Biden administration’s withdrawal of military assets from Afghanistan pled guilty to all charges during a court-martial hearing at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina on Thursday.Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jr. has pled guilty to all six misdemeanor-level charges, including willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, dereliction in the performance of duties and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.Scheller was freed from the brig last week where he was being held for violating an agreement to stop posting criticism on social media.

The Marine Corps has filed six charges against Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller over his passionate attack on the leadership mistakes that marked the debacle of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Scheller will face a misdemeanor-level special court-martial, according to Fox News. The charges were referred by Maj. Gen. Julian D. Alford, and came a day after Scheller was released from the brig at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. Scheller ripped into senior military leadership in a series of videos and posts that began on the day a terrorist attack killed 13 U.S. service members in Kabul. He noted in his final Facebook...

Marine Corps officials at Camp Lejeune, N.C. ordered a court-martial for Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, a 17-year veteran who released several videos and social media posts sharply criticizing senior U.S. government and military leaders over operations in Afghanistan.He has been charged with six violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice: contempt toward officials; disrespect toward superior commissioned officers; willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer; dereliction in the performance of duties; failure to obey an order or regulation and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.The charges were referred to a court-martial on Wednesday by Maj. Gen. Julian Alford, who...

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley didn’t tell then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo or White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien about his calls with China’s military during the final months of President Donald Trump’s administration, according to a report. Pompeo and O’Brien also were unaware of any intelligence that China might suspect a Trump-ordered US attack, as was reportedly the reason for unusual assurances... ..Mark Esper, secretary of defense at the time of the October call, reportedly was aware of the pre-election outreach to China. But Christopher Miller, the acting defense secretary at the time of...

All US service members must get their Covid-19 vaccine as soon as possible now that the Pfizer-BioNTech jab is fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). More than 800,000 service members out of around 1.4 million still need to get their shots, according to Pentagon data. Those who haven't gotten a shot face a wide range of punishments if they don't, from sitting down with a doctor to have the 'risks' of refusing explained all the way up to a court martial. Military law experts say it is possible that a service member who refuses could be dishonorably...

All US service members must get their Covid-19 vaccine as soon as possible now that the Pfizer-BioNTech jab is fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). More than 800,000 service members out of around 1.4 million still need to get their shots, according to Pentagon data. Those who haven't gotten a shot face a wide range of punishments if they don't, with the most severe being an investigation and court martial. Of active duty forces, 68 percent are fully vaccinated and 76 percent have at least one dose, according to Pentagon press secretary John Kirby. Data is less...

Joe Biden’s emergency Afghanistan press conference Monday accomplished exactly the opposite of instilling confidence in the American regime, by neither promising accountability for this catastrophic failure nor releasing a plan to stabilize the situation, reassure our allies, and recapture at least some deterrence against our watching enemies. This is a disaster with evil consequences that will reverberate long and far.The lack of accountability worsens the debacle by teaching Americans, our friends, and our foes that things this grossly incompetent will happen again. As Ben Domenech pointed out Monday, “Whoever Biden doesn’t fire, their performance Biden believes is acceptable. If this...

One factor in a bunch of Americans opting for Donald Trump in 2016 was his promise not to start a new war in the Middle East — but the D.C. establishment secretly kept troops in Syria, and lied about it to the president.Defense One, a subsidiary of The Atlantic, came out with a story last week about a man named Jim Jeffrey. If you haven’t heard of him, don’t feel bad, but he’s pretty important in Washington, D.C. Under his fancy title, he’s been appointed to oversee the U.S. fight against ISIS and what are supposed to be the limited...

Jim Jeffrey, the United States’ retiring Special Representative to Syria and the special envoy in the fight against the Islamic State, confirmed Thursday that he and other senior administration officials routinely misled President Donald Trump on troop levels in the Middle East. Jeffrey, speaking to Defense One, explained how despite Trump’s stated promise to withdraw America from endless Middle Eastern engagements, he was able to convince the president to commit to keeping between 200 to 400 troops in the region in 2019 to “secure” oil fields held by U.S. allies and other strategic positions. (RELATED: Trump Performs ‘Near Total Decapitation’...

General Mark Milley, another Never-Trump general and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, fired off a warning shot to President Trump during a speech on Wednesday. Via CNN: “We are unique among militaries. We do not take an oath to a king or a queen, a tyrant or a dictator. We do not take an oath to an individual. No, we do not take an oath to a country, a tribe or religion. We take an oath to the Constitution. And every soldier that is represented in this museum, every sailor, airman, Marine, Coast Guardsman, each of us will...