Lieutenant Colonel Scheller in the Brig

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The Marines are lean and mean. No healthcare providers of their own, always supported by Navy. Ditto chaplains. Navy folks serving with the Marine Corps often exercise the option to wear USMC uniforms.

We could use a chaplain right about now to tame the incipient snarknado. (She says with a dollop of snark herself.)
 
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I completely understand wearing a uniform and disparaging command having consequences. I know nothing about the Lt. Col. I have no dog in the fight. But jailing him without charges seems a bit sketchy. The timing seems to align with nationally televised hearings.

He candidly admitted he was aware this could cost him his job.

Are there no provisions for a uniformed service member to say "hey, what the hell this is absolute crap and people are dying needlessly" without being thrown in the brig? The entire world is watching this debacle and I have yet to talk to a single human that doesn't have questions and is distressed about how this happened.

The world seems to be upside down. We talk to the Taliban and take their marching orders to leave the country and we leave our people behind.
 
LurkingQuietly said:
Are you saying that the Marines don't have "Corpsmen"? They're always Navy? Well then the answer to your question is yes, I didn't know that. It must be hard to always be the smartest guy in the room, bless your heart.
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Ignoring your attempt at dissing me, I provided a little light reading.


I was an Independent Duty Corpsman, unique to the USN compared to all the world's militaries.
www.wearethemighty.com

Why an Independent Duty Corpsmen isn't your standard 'Doc'

Navy corpsmen are well-loved. Grunts and sailors know that they can count on the corpsmen to be there to aid doctors in providing me…
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Navy Corpsmen are among the military's most decorated groups.
www.wearethemighty.com

23 heroic Navy corpsmen who earned the Medal of Honor

U.S. Navy corpsmen are part of a tradition that predates the American Navy itself. The heroism of these 23 men earned them Medals of Honor.
www.wearethemighty.com www.wearethemighty.com
 
LurkingQuietly said:
So a Navy resource wearing a Marine Uniform may not necessarily be Marine? This is confusing.
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Precisely. HMs in USMC camo still have US NAVY written on the uniform… but that is nearly impossible to read except up close. You can differentiate by the rank insignia on the collar.

I met a corpsman who had “earned” the right to wear the USMC LCpl rank on his uniform in lieu of his seaman rank… that confused me even more.
 
Skipper07 said:
Precisely. HMs in USMC camo still have US NAVY written on the uniform… but that is nearly impossible to read except up close. You can differentiate by the rank insignia on the collar.

I met a corpsman who had “earned” the right to wear the USMC LCpl rank on his uniform in lieu of his seaman rank… that confused me even more.
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Just call ‘em “Doc.” Then you can confuse the Navy MDs in the immediate area.

Trust the Navy to always have its own special nomenclature and customs.
 
I think people are letting politics tint their view of the issue.
Members of the military do NOT appear in the media in uniform discussing political issues. Including social media. Heck, even to appear on a national news program in uniform to discuss a non political event my COC was involved and I got briefed by the PAO on the boundaries and had to strictly stay between them. When asked a few political questions I “blocked” and gave non political answers.
Recently, I participated in an aviation safety seminar that involved a member of the Coast Guard. He was not in uniform, cleared what he would say with his PAO, and every one of his slides had a disclaimer that he was not appearing as a member of the Coast Guard.
LTC Shelley messed up and he is not a hero. We don’t want members of the military involved in politics. It has happened from time to time over our history, but each time we’ve tacked back on course.
 
LurkingQuietly said:
So why wasn't Vindman held accountable?



Seriously???? 90 and 92 are a real stretch since the order was to stop telling the American public we have/had no idea what we were doing. And 133, the withdraw brought dishonor to the entire military. Oh....but I'm glad someone was held accountable (Lt Colonel Scheller)
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From my commander perspective, 90/92 are nowhere near a stretch, he clearly crossed those lines. I chose 133/134 as well. I honestly didn't think about Article 88 but re-reading the article, he clearly violated it as well. If I read the article from the USMC, it appears he has been charged under Articles 88, 90, 92, and 133.

And the order was to cease and desist all social media postings. That's a lawful order. He willfully violated that. Game.Over.
 
flieger83 said:
From my commander perspective, 90/92 are nowhere near a stretch, he clearly crossed those lines. I chose 133/134 as well. I honestly didn't think about Article 88 but re-reading the article, he clearly violated it as well. If I read the article from the USMC, it appears he has been charged under Articles 88, 90, 92, and 133.
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What Articles of the USMC did Lt Col. Vindman violate? I also seem to recall someone lying to congress.

My problem here is the unequal application of the law for political purposes. If we can't agree on that, we're in big trouble.
 
flieger83 said:
From my commander perspective, 90/92 are nowhere near a stretch, he clearly crossed those lines. I chose 133/134 as well. I honestly didn't think about Article 88 but re-reading the article, he clearly violated it as well. If I read the article from the USMC, it appears he has been charged under Articles 88, 90, 92, and 133.

And the order was to cease and desist all social media postings. That's a lawful order. He willfully violated that. Game.Over.
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Anytime you suspend someone's constitutional rights, you need to be really careful. I think you need to determine the impact on military discipline that any particular social media posting could have. Lt Col. Scheller post seemed to be purely political. Could the advent of social media make it time for the Supreme Court to revisit 1st amendment rights of our citizens in uniform?
 
LurkingQuietly said:
Anytime you suspend someone's constitutional rights, you need to be really careful. I think you need to determine the impact on military discipline that any particular social media posting could have. Lt Col. Scheller post seemed to be purely political. Could the advent of social media make it time for the Supreme Court to revisit 1st amendment rights of our citizens in uniform?
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It wasn’t political. It was against the rules, and he knew it.

I am more concerned with the veracity of his words.
 
flieger83 said:
And the order was to cease and desist all social media postings. That's a lawful order. He willfully violated that. Game.Over.
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That seems like an overly broad order, potentially illegal. Technically, the order forbid him from wishing people "happy birthday" or posting NFL scores on Facebook. I don't think that would pass any sort of 1st Amendment scrutiny.
 
raimius said:
That seems like an overly broad order, potentially illegal. Technically, the order forbid him from wishing people "happy birthday" or posting NFL scores on Facebook. I don't think that would pass any sort of 1st Amendment scrutiny.
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My point in an earlier post. If he was to wish Adolf Hitler a 'happy birthday', that might cause some military disipline issues, and the order would probably be upheld in court. Other than something like that.......it seems poliltical.
 
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