Navy SEAL found Not Guilty of war crimes

[RoadKingLarry]

When I was in the Navy I always heard 'If you're guilty you want Captain's Mast (NJP) If you're innocent, or at least not guilty, you want a Courts Martial.

There is very little that pisses me off more than prosecutorial misconduct -

Gallagher was released from custody in May after the judge in the case said prosecutors obstructed his right to counsel.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/451440-jury-finds-navy-seal-eddie-gallagher-not-guilty-in-war-crimes-case?fbclid=IwAR1cb77R8tNlIjZ5jYuV_D7Ka6GLQU8PPeJzJoccuCJrwRqwJIacf2iJ5nI

My opinion only - In today's politically charged environment the guy may actually be a war criminal and the SEALS that testified against him under immunity may not have been coerced into that testimony by threats of spending the rest of their lives in jail. I don't know but when the prosecutors obstruct his rights to due process by restricting his access to counsel that tells me they knew they didn't have a real case.

[grampster]

You have to wonder about the quality of the senior officers that got their positions during the Obama administration who seemed to promote some very questionable people.

[Perd Hapley]

Of course a white male skates for killing a people of color. BECAUSE TRUMP!!! I am, of course, literally shaking literally.

[MechAg94]

I was only aware of this care because I came across efforts by Navy Seals (current and retired) who knew the guy and thought the charges were ridiculous.  They were also upset that he was rotting in jail for months/years waiting for trial.  I am glad he was cleared on the most serious charges.

I was actually curious what other current Navy Seals think about this.  Aside from the CYA aspects, I am betting most of them know who was making the accusations and testifying against him.  That can't be good for unit cohesion. 

[MechAg94]

https://nypost.com/2019/07/31/trump-orders-navy-to-rescind-medals-from-lawyers-who-prosecuted-seal-eddie-gallagher/
Trump orders Navy to rescind medals from lawyers who prosecuted SEAL Eddie Gallagher

“The Prosecutors who lost the case against SEAL Eddie Gallagher (who I released from solitary confinement so he could fight his case properly), were ridiculously given a Navy Achievement Medal,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

“I have directed the Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer & Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson to immediately withdraw and rescind the awards​,” Trump continued.

Can any of you say what the "Navy Achievement Medal" is?  Who approves that award?

[BobR]

Can any of you say what the "Navy Achievement Medal" is?  Who approves that award?

Navy Achievement Medal has become I went to work and did my job, maybe above expectations. Basically a way to make Junior Officers and Enlisted personnel to be recognized for a job well done. A NAM can be awarded by the CO as long as they are O5 or above. They will often be run up the chain a bit and maybe get a Commodore, Air Wing Commander or lower ranking Flag officer to approve but it is not needed.


All services have an Achievement medal and there is also a joint DoD Achievement medal.

As far as medals go it is pretty low on the tree of personal decorations, yet many people go their entire career without receiving one.

This covers Navy awards of that type.  https://www.public.navy.mil/netc/nstc/NSTC_Directives/NSTC_Instructions/NSTCINST%201650.2C%20-%20NSTC%20Awards%20Program.pdf

bob

[Hawkmoon]

Where on the tree does the Naval Achievement Medal fall relative to the Army Commendation Medal? Higher, lower, or at the same level?

I did a search for "Army Achievement Medal vs. Army Commendation Medal" and came up with this gem:

AAMs are given out for breathing while ARCOMs are given out for you waking up on time.

[Edit to add]According to Wikipedia, the Achievement Medal falls below the Commendation Medal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achievement_Medal

The Achievement Medal is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. The Achievement Medal was first proposed as a means to recognize the contributions of junior officers[citation needed] and enlisted personnel who were not eligible to receive the higher Commendation Medal or the Meritorious Service Medal.

[French G.]

Correct. Navy has a comm too. Nams for E6 and below fogging a mirror, com(NCM) for E-7 to 0-4 for same. Legion of Merit for E9 and O4 and up, unless you're somewhere Sandy, then have a bronze star they pass them out like candy!


A NAM for officers of that rank is pretty much saying at least you tried. I have six Nams, all for doing my job. Should have been more really. I am only interested if I see an E5 and below with a NCM or better, or any enlisted Marine with a bronze star.

[Hawkmoon]

A NAM for officers of that rank is pretty much saying at least you tried. I have six Nams, all for doing my job. Should have been more really. I am only interested if I see an E5 and below with a NCM or better, or any enlisted Marine with a bronze star.

I have two Army Commendation Medals from one tour in Vietnam. I always figured they were for not getting myself court martialed ... but it looks good on a resume. (I was an E-5)

(The actual orders read something like, "For meritorious conduct in the allied counter-insurgency effort blah blah blah")

[RoadKingLarry]

30 years ago  NAM was some better than the participation trophy it has become .
You actually (most of the time) had to have done something of note and it was already political.
When I did my shore duty tour as an instructor myself and another instructor pulled of a minor miracle and saved Uncle Sam a serious amount of cash and saved the command from some serious loss of face. We got put in for a NAM. Command came back "resubmit end of tour" at end of tour command came back "should have been submitted at time of achievement".
I did earn one for a special ops deployment a few years later though.

[Devonai]

I was awarded the Air Force Achievement Medal twice.  Once for driving a bus (I'm dead serious) and once for simply doing my job with a high accuracy rate (I average 5-6 processing errors out of 7000 receipts per year).

[Andiron]

My old unit gave a mess guy a NAM for cheerfully serving chow.  Not exactly worded that way,  but close enough to not matter.

[French G.]

The problem is that if you don't get those BS NAMs you stand out. I successfully ran four shops and forty people of two services on a deployment. No end of cruise award because the ship XO had instituted a strict numbers policy on awards and they used my quota for an end of your for someone else on the theory of get me in ten months or so for my end of tour award. Well, let me tell you what a navywide selection board sees between the lines of a wonderful eval with no award to substantiate it. So, it's a self propagating mess. Much as I predicted the volunteer service medal would be. That is practically required to advance now. Right about the time I began to steadfastly refuse to put any community service in my write ups.

[just Warren]

I was awarded the Air Force Achievement Medal twice.  Once for driving a bus (I'm dead serious) and once for simply doing my job with a high accuracy rate (I average 5-6 processing errors out of 7000 receipts per year).

Maybe it's just because I'm weird but I think the bus one is kind of cool.

[Hawkmoon]

There is no logic or consistency in the military. While I was stationed in Maryland, before they caught up with me to send me to Vietnam, we had a staff sergeant E-6 -- a draftee, so he was only on a 2-year term of service -- who rotated back from 'Nam with about 6 months still to serve. He was a COOK! A draftee cook made Staff Sergeant (not Specialist) E-6 in eighteen months. Go figure.

[MechAg94]

https://www.carlhigbie.com/2019/08/former-navy-seals-open-letter-to-navy-command-seals-arent-the-problem/
Former Navy SEAL’s Open Letter to Navy Command: ‘SEALs Aren’t the Problem, it’s the Leadership’

This is a good read is you have a few minutes.  It isn't that long. 

I speak from personal experience. In 2009 my platoon captured the infamous ‘butcher of Fallujah’, so well featured in Chris Kyle’s America Sniper movie. We were subsequently Courts martialed by fellow commanding SEALs; Wilske and Richards. 3 of the 8 of us initially charged stood a full courts martials. Everyone was acquitted as we knew we would be, however the damage was done.

Same with Eddie Gallagher. While the Navy said “the system worked and you were acquitted” the process became the punishment. It destroyed careers, separated families and cost too good loyal soldiers tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. Is that justice… or fair for someone willing to die for their country who makes less than 60,000 dollars a year?

The brass of today has forgotten that they trained us to be war fighters not politicians. We are rough around the edges, scrappy, many of us love to party, sometimes arrogant and occasionally impulsive but we get the damn job done and that should be the most important thing. So, Admiral Green, the way you and your commanders have “made an example” out of good men who serve honorably is the real problem. You treat allegations as convictions WITHOUT evidence.

[Fitz]

the military has been a cesspool of oxygen thieves in leadership for some time now.

[Devonai]

Maybe it's just because I'm weird but I think the bus one is kind of cool.

Yeah, it depends on your perspective.  To me, it was just another bus run that is far removed from my primary duties.  To the Air Guard, it's ZOMG above-and-beyond stuff.

It's been a few years, so the finer details have been lost for me, but the gist of the story is that about 150 Army dudes were deploying and had a stop-over at my base.  It was a contract flight and the aircraft was just supposed to stop for fuel and servicing.  We farm out our poop truck service to Signature, so they send their equipment over only to find out the lavatory service controls on the plane are busted.

As the hours tick on, leadership realizes the aircraft isn't going to be fixed until the next morning.  Our base doesn't have barracks, so now they are scrambling to find these 150 dudes accommodations for the night.  We rallied together as many busses and drivers as we could and convoyed them to Hartford.  I got home at 2300, only for a 0330 wake-up to go pick them up.  Plane fixed, mission over, forgot all about it until a year later when I got the AFAM.

[Hawkmoon]

Yeah, it depends on your perspective.  To me, it was just another bus run that is far removed from my primary duties.  To the Air Guard, it's ZOMG above-and-beyond stuff.

It's been a few years, so the finer details have been lost for me, but the gist of the story is that about 150 Army dudes were deploying and had a stop-over at my base.  It was a contract flight and the aircraft was just supposed to stop for fuel and servicing.  We farm out our poop truck service to Signature, so they send their equipment over only to find out the lavatory service controls on the plane are busted.

As the hours tick on, leadership realizes the aircraft isn't going to be fixed until the next morning.  Our base doesn't have barracks, so now they are scrambling to find these 150 dudes accommodations for the night.  We rallied together as many busses and drivers as we could and convoyed them to Hartford.  I got home at 2300, only for a 0330 wake-up to go pick them up.  Plane fixed, mission over, forgot all about it until a year later when I got the AFAM.

^^^ Great story.

Makes me think I should have gotten one for the time at Edgewood Arsenal (Maryland) when the First Sergeant sent me and the duty driver to Baltimore late one night to retrieve one of our doofus motor pool mechanics who had gone AWOL. His family was from Baltimore, so we figured he was either at home or at his girlfriend's house. We rolled the dice, hit the GF's place first. I went around back, duty driver (in uniform) knocked on the door, and I caught the doofus as he ran out the back door.

We drove him back to Edgeweed and from there it was up to the Top. Case closed.

Never occurred to me that I should have gotten an award for taking a ride in a van.

[Fitz]

i got an arcom once for getting vomited on

BNCOC phase 1 (right before it became ALC phase 1)...

NCO in the DFAC got a chicken nugget lodged in his throat. No sound whatsoever. Turning blue, etc.

got behind him, did a HORRIBLE heimlich maneuver (too high, cracked his sternum first go). After a few tries and some repositioning, the food came out. But it wasn't like it is in the movies where it hilariously flies across the room and lands in someone's drink. Instead he merely vomited on my arms. LOL

[MechAg94]

https://news.usni.org/2019/08/05/navy-moving-ahead-with-unprecedented-review-of-jag-corps
Navy Moving Ahead With Unprecedented Review of JAG Corps

The 60-day look will probe individual JAG training, unit-level training, organization of the JAG Corps, and the officers’ career paths.

It will also put a focus on legal advice lawyers give their commanders “with a particular focus on consistent delivery of the complete spectrum of legally available options with a risk-analyzed operationally informed legal assessment.”

In particular, officials singled out the unlawful command influence (UCI) from senior JAGs over the case of Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Keith Barry. Barry was convicted of a rape charge in 2015, but the conviction was overturned by a military appellate court when it found that the Navy’s top lawyer, Vice Adm. James Crawford, had pressured officials on the outcome of the case.