Order and discipline

The president used his constitutional position as Commander in Chief of the Armed forces to restore the rank of three accused military personnel, including the rank of SEAL Eddie Gallagher. His completely out of bounds courts martial was filled with JAG misconduct, including the clearly unconstitutional decision of the prosecutors to electronically spy on his defense attorneys. Beyond this outrage – which no one was prosecuted for – these idiots then used an immunized witness who testified that he killed the alleged ISIS victim, and NOT the accused. Gallagher was acquitted of everything except some piddling charge of taking a selfie with a terrorist stiff, which normally would have been handled with non-Judicial punishment, and still had the book thrown at him.

After the acquittal, the JAGs decided to award each other medals. Medals. Not indictments for their eavesdropping antics. Not letters of reprimand for their staggering incompetence. Medals. President Trump got wind of this and had to personally direct that these defective decorations be withdrawn. Fast forward to the restoration of Gallagher’s rank and what happens next? The Naval Special Forces commander, apparently the next day, initiated a proceeding to take Gallagher’s SEAL trident, his status as a special warfare operator.

Here is the most insidious part- Gallagher had already announced his retirement, and was due to be discharged in November. No matter what, Chief Gallgher was never again going to be on an actual SEAL team. Instead, the initiation of this review means that he could not be discharged until the review and all of the associated appeals were complete. So instead of retiring in November, he would perhaps be retiring next spring.  This was pure retribution for pissing off the Obama-era admirals, another example of Obama and his cronies trying to gum up the works.

President Donald Trump needs to announce a reduction in rank for the admiral in charge of the Naval Special Forces Command, for continuing with the punitive measures against Chief Gallagher against orders to the contrary. Contrary to what the Navy PIO had to say, an order doesn't have to be in writing to be an order. Had the admiral mentioned that he wanted something done, and one of his subordinates refused to do so until the orders were in writing, that sailor would have been in NJP and reduced in rank within 48 hours. I know, I did 7 years in the Navy myself. Officers are very unforgiving of what they refer to as "sea lawyers." I think it would be poetic justice to reduce him in rank to Commander, take away his Trident, and then place him in charge of the mess hall at some out of the way jerkwater naval base for the remainder of his career.

Once that is done, Trump needs to demote that Admiral’s boss for failing to maintain control of his subordinate. While he is at it, the PIO of the Navy should be second in command of the aforementioned mess hall, for allowing his command to issue passive aggressive statements disrespectful of the President. The Navy JAG corps likely needs some house cleaning, as well.

If none of that is legally permissible, then they could always convene a GCM for each of the officers above for violating various sections of the UCMJ. Here is an article that kind of touches on the legalities involved.  One thing is for sure- senior military officers are under the mistaken assumption that they have the ability to refuse orders from the chain of command. That is a dangerous state of affairs for a country with a history of a civilian controlled military.