Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller Freed UPDATE
Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller was released from pretrial confinement at Camp Lejeune, N.C., the service announced Oct. 5, 2021. Scheller was relieved of his command in August after posting a video critiquing military and civilian leaders for failures in Afghanistan hours after a terrorist attack killed 13 service members at Kabul’s international airport. (U.S. Marine Corps)
Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller, the Marine officer who’s videos went viral criticizing US officials who were responsible for the debacle in the Afghanistan, has been released today.
He was being held in the brig at Camp LeJeune, without being charged with any infraction.
He is reportedly facing possible charges of conduct unbecoming an officer, contempt toward officials, disobeying a senior officer and failure to obey an order or regulation.
ChipNASA sends.
Marines to release lieutenant colonel fired, confined for videos bashing US officials over Afghanistan withdrawal
BY COREY DICKSTEIN
A Marine lieutenant colonel jailed last month after Corps officials said he violated a gag order for issuing social media videos disparaging top American officials and generals will be released from the brig, the service announced.
Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jr. was set to be released Tuesday from confinement at Camp Lejeune, N.C., where he’d been held since Sept. 27 after he and his attorneys forged an agreement with Marine Maj. Gen. Julian D. Alford, who leads Marine Training Command, said Capt. Sam Stephenson, a spokesman for the command.
He was held in pretrial confinement last month after posting several videos on Facebook and LinkedIn that were highly critical of top officials over the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Scheller, a 17-year infantry officer who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was fired from his job as the commander of an infantry training battalion at Camp Lejeune on Aug. 27, after posting a video demanding accountability for top military officers and U.S. officials in the hours after a bombing killed 13 U.S. troops in Kabul amid the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan.
In the video that garnered hundreds of thousands of views, Scheller expressed his “growing discontent and contempt for … perceived ineptitude at the foreign policy level.”
In follow-up videos, he accused Marine Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, of dereliction of duty, promised to resign his commission and help “bring the whole (expletive) system down.”
He is the only Service Member currently being punished for the unmitigated disaster that continues in Afghanistan.
Thanks, Chip.
It’s official, Special Court Martial.
I’ll save y’all the trouble. He hit between a Summary and a General, and the maximum penalties are:
-Year-long confinement
-Up to three months of hard labor without confinement
-Forfeiture of two-thirds pay per month for up to one year
-Reduction in pay grade
-Bad conduct discharge (which is only allowable in certain circumstances)
If an officer is found guilty, he or she cannot be dismissed from the armed forces or confined. So there’s that.
Category: Afghanistan, Legal, Marines
IMHO the more the inner establishment tries to muzzle and stifle him, the more damage they will do to themselves, remember that the same inner establishment types tried to do the same to COL David Hackworth after he blew the whistle on the US Army!
We talking Millie?????
“He is reportedly facing possible charges of conduct unbecoming an officer, contempt toward officials, disobeying a senior officer and failure to obey an order or regulation.”
Well,
API ®™ kinda touched on it …
This shit show has just started so, seeing as I’m kinda indirectly responsible, please be orderly, form a line over there…good…good… ajumeoni has plenty for everyone, even Commissar 😁
These guys get hazardous duty pay?
For those who like to cook under pressure……
😉
Love the ‘Fire in the Hole’ whistle.
It attracts customers. It’s makes me giggle every time. EVERY. TIME!.
I first saw these on the Food Network then the Intrawebs and I find it fascinating. I want to know what all the poofed rice/corn products are in all the bags, some look circular and flat like a yarmulke (OY) and other are round and tubular like a baby corm cob poofed.
Makes me want to visit Korea again. BUT not that I don’t drink, it kinds seems pointless.
Looks like something you’d see in the Namdaemun Market district in Seoul as well!
I too like my snack foods with a hint of danger. The #1 seller is Iron Filings flavor. Enjoy your Risky brand popcorn!
Don’t hold your breath on a court martial. Only a tiny handful of flags have ever been subjected to it. None above 2 star level. Finding a jury of peers who also outrank Milley, and have no association or familiarity w/ the accused officer. Well, good luck w/ that.
So far he is the only one to call out the shitbirds that caused this mess other than the hundreds of retired officers.
Well, well, well. Wherever this goes from here will be more than entertaining. It’s got just about everything: undue command influence, mystery, intrigue, great moral questions, and so much more.
Truth being often stranger than fiction, this situation has it all. Has a statue in his honor been designed yet?
Your statement about him being the only one being punished for the mess in the Af is not really accurate. He is going to be hammered for multiple violations of the UCMJ unrelated to that mess. Disrespect for seniors, insubordination, failure to obey a lawful order, doubtless Article 134 will come in there somewhere. He sounds like a closed anarchist to me. Apparently a never Trumper as well.
USMC Steve,
My local congressman in 2016 was a Never Trumper.
He blew his cover, and revealed himself,
when he also ran as a GOP Convention Delegate
in the 2016 spring primaries, on the campaign promise to cast his convention vote for the GOP candidate with the most congressional district votes.
When he won his delegate seat,
and the congressional vote winner turned out to be Trump,
weasel Costello, instead of going to the GOP Convention
(to cast his vote for Trump)
RESIGNED his newly elected GOP convention delegate seat.
(He gave a phony excuse about
spending more time with family and local issues.)
Pennsylvania then went through the gerrymandering fix,
his congressional district was moved east,
putting Costello is more blue territory.
Costello soon gave up, and did not run for reelection in 2018.
He could have put up a fight,
but instead handed the seat over to a Democrat.
So, with all that said and put away…
What do we call a 5 year Trump supporter,
who voted for him twice,
but is now tired of all the bad behavior in 2021?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Costello
Contempt towards officials is something I have had every day for about 40 years now, which is oddly enough just about how long it’s been since I wore an infantry uniform last.
With the kind of people we have as “officials” these days, contempt seems to be the default approach for citizens.
Military personnel are sadly obligated to show respect to those who deserve neither respect or honor.
I do not know Scheller’s full story but as I understand the four charges publicly disclosed they amount to telling to him to shut the fuck up which he did not do so that is the disobeying the lawful order and the fact that while he didn’t shut the fuck up he dared to suggest the fucking mess in our departure was actually a fucking mess that’s the contempt aspect…which is also the conduct unbecoming….
Meanwhile the rat fuck who called the commie bastards running China and offered to betray the United States in the event of a first strike by the US isn’t even going to have to resign….
Scheller’s action may well be wrong, but in scale and perspective seem somewhat less severe to me than the actions of others who will receive zero discipline.
The word Justice in this country has never really meant Justice and shit like this reinforces that notion…different spanks for different ranks means it has nothing to do with the equal application of the law and Justice and everything to do with forcing obedience or compliance.
I agree with you on most of what you say, but this severe view surprises me from you. Now, no question, had POTUS made a lawful order to attack China, and Milley called China to warn them, that’s a big fuckin’ problem.
But that’s not really what happened. Instead, it’s just what happens at the high levels in diplomatic and intelligence circles -and presumably military ones too?- all the time. You tell people -enemies and allies alike- what they need to hear.
China (maybe) needed to be reassured that there wasn’t going to be some unexpected shit going down from a President they perceived as volatile as he was leaving office. Milley told them there wouldn’t be. That is part of his job. And, according to him, he did it at SECDEF Esper’s request.
Had this been some back-channel communication which only Milley knew about, that’d raise a shit ton of red flags (pardon the irony). But this was official US business, and fairly routine, in my opinion.
The only aspect about this that I wonder about is whether the alleged ‘concern’ on behalf of the Chinese has ties to MSS. Just as we were going to reassure them, they weren’t simply going to take our word it. That’s ludicrous.
He called without consulting the president or vice president and he called after consulting with the Speaker of the House.
I’m fairly certain the speaker of the house has abso-fucking-lutely zero command presence while the president and vice president still breathe…
Milley is a turd, he may have been something honorable prior to making it into politics but he’s become a dishonorable turd.
He knew what he was doing was behind the back of his commander in chief at the behest of another piece of shit political tool in Esper, and he still did it instead of reporting to the president.
I’m sorry, but having no faith in your leaders and deciding to bypass them on your way to discuss things with our enemies isn’t much different than what Bergdahl did…
At the request of SECDEF Esper. Should he second-guess a request from SECDEF and go to POTUS? I don’t have an answer to that, but I’d guess no.
And it happened based on intel, not a call with Pelosi:
Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/milley-confirms-he-told-china-he-would-call-ahead-of-us-attack-claims-esper-ordered-calls-based-on-intel
I don’t see this as bypassing your leaders so much as a routine, reasonable task driven by an intelligence concern, and predicated directly on a request from SECDEF, whom Milley reports to.
ABC news reported it a bit differently…quoting the Woodward book…
Milley believed the president suffered a mental decline after the election, agreeing with a view shared by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a phone call they had Jan. 8, according to officials. Milley also asked senior officers to swear an “oath” that Milley had to be involved if Trump gave an order to launch nuclear weapons, according to the book.
In the statement Wednesday, Milley’s spokesman said Milley had conferred with the senior officers about nuclear weapons protocols “to remind uniformed leaders in the Pentagon of the long-established and robust procedures in light of media reporting on the subject.” Butler, the spokesman, appeared to be referring to news reports of the Jan. 8 Milley-Pelosi phone call. Butler did not address whether Milley had insisted he be part of the nuclear weapons procedures.
I’m not a Trump voter, never liked that guy.
My position isn’t predicated upon any concern about Trump, it’s about a situation where someone whose position has zero command authority making decisions he isn’t actually authorized to make regardless of what Esper asks or doesn’t ask him to do. His job, in Milley’s own words, is to simply advise.
If he truly believed the President was unfit there are steps to take. He didn’t take them, he went another route.
If in Milley’s own words his job is to advise the President why didn’t he? He went around the President and used Esper as an excuse. If he truly believed Trump had no intention of attacking the Chinese why didn’t he tell Trump that the Chinese thought we were going to attack so Trump could also reassure China?
The whole thing smells like a giant turd, and the more you try and ascertain where the smell is coming from it always comes back to Milley.
If he truly was concerned about Trump’s mental condition, it seems to ol’ Poe that the first call he should have made was a back-channel call to the White House physician, a Navy commander, expressing those concerns and requesting the professional medical opinion of a uniformed physician, thus keeping the matter “in-house” and “apolitical” so to speak.
It would certainly have carried fewer suspect overtones than conferring with the nation’s leading exemplar of full-blown Trump Derangement Syndrome.
But then Milley didn’t bother to do that, did he? Which pretty much confirms to ol’ Poe that his motivation was indeed political.
Certainly wasn’t implying you were a Trump apologist, or that it would even matter if you were. This is simply about whether this was ‘business as usual’ or an extraordinary, unilateral action by the CJCS. I agree, Milley has zero command authority. No disagreement there. But I think your view of it is colored by the early, dire-sounding headlines vs the reality of the situation. If Milley acted unilaterally, that’d be a big concern. If he acted alone, that’d be a concern. If he intended to actually warn China of an imminent attack -vs merely tell them he would- that, too, would be a huge concern. But in reality, from what I’ve read, Milley was on a call with Li … along with fifteen others from the US government, including members of State, and the logs were shared with the IC: Source – Jen Griffin from Fox News: https://twitter.com/jengriffinfnc/status/1437994304849514498 And Milley’s role apparently took place as a reassurance after Esper had lower-level people make similar calls in the preceding weeks to the initial call: Source: https://www.axios.com/mark-milley-woodward-trump-crisis-bb8a80b1-3e3a-492b-934a-99825cc6ef7f.html And finally, in the same link above, one source familiar with the call broadly characterized his call as more along the lines of, “We’ll both know if we’re going to war… there’s not gonna be some surprise attack and there’s no reason for you to do a pre-emptive strike.” I’m pretty sure we don’t want China getting antsy due to bad intelligence and launching a pre-emptive strike, no? So, this didn’t begin with Milley -the initial calls were earlier in the month, prior to his involvement- and he did it at the request of Esper, because China was freaking out about intelligence they were consuming suggesting we were going to attack them. Why didn’t it go to POTUS? I guess that’s a fair question. I wouldn’t think it necessary, to be honest. Does an ambassador need to double-check with POTUS if a host country asks if we’re about to nuke them? I’m inclined to think any such ‘pause’ in answering wouldn’t exactly make someone feel reassured. They invariably say “No, no.. we have no… Read more »
It was reported that ONE of the calls was on request from SECDEF.
I think that’s incorrect. There were more than two calls in total, just two that it seems Milley was on. The SECDEF, Esper, started the calls back in early October, based on China’s concerns. It was done several levels below Esper, and didn’t involve Milley.
Later that month, and again in January, Milley was involved, presumably because it offered even more reassurances – whether that’s because of his position or a connection with Li is unclear, but those calls had over a dozen other people from the US government on them, including someone from State.
This wasn’t an officer gone ‘rogue’ – this was sensible diplomacy, via military leadership, within the proper channels.
If someone really needs the blame for this, which I don’t agree is the case, it seems more like Esper, who set up all three calls, no?
LC, you know quite well that frequently it is the appearance and public perception of an event that ultimately becomes lasting public narrative and in this case that is particularly true.
State Department and other civilian employees of government are expected to be conducting back-channel communications with their counterparts in foreign governments. It’s in the job description.
That is obviously not the public expectation with top military leaders as public outrage to the Milley situation clearly demonstrates. Foreign policy is perceived to be the exclusive domain of civilians whether or not that is the reality.
No question, Milley was sandbagged by Woodward to help sell his book. Whether or not that was due to his own indiscretion, his admitted intrigues with such a polarizing politician as Pelosi clearly were, and were just as clearly, foolishly unwise.
Milley would have been far wiser to stay far away from Pelosi and other rabid anti-Trumpers but, based on other accounts I’ve read, I believe he was just TDS infected as she was and foolishly jumped right smack into the middle of this political briar patch.
All that said…nothing is going to happen to him.
VOV – don’t badmouth the American justice system! We have the best system money can buy!
It’s just a matter of hiring the right Attorney who will defend you in Court right down to your last dollar!
They put him in the brig to keep him off of the internet.
Essentially. And as far as his not getting off the internet himself (I follow him on LinkedIn – he kinda kept going after many people suggested he stop), that was sort of an unforced error. He made his point – a couple of times. He could have probably kept his pension if he had not tried to make that the hill he died on. I wonder what his long therm plan is. My Household 6 would not have appreciated loosing half of my O6 pay per month simply because I kept hammering away at the powers that be once the point was made.
I really want to know what his wife thinks about all this.
Seeing’s how the last ol’ Poe heard, his Go-Fund-Me account has Two Mil and is still climbing, she’s probably not too upset. Not to mention the likely book and movie deal.
Think about how such infamy affected the post-military success of another Marine Lieutenant Colonel:
Oliver North…
Well, it kinda did work. for a minute. Not so much for anyone else with an opinion. Interested to see what course of action he takes on whatever ‘deal’ was made to get him out. May hafta make a giant bowl of the ChipNASA Explode-O-Matic popcorn.
He already wants to go, just let him go.
Oh great arbiters and admins of TAH,
The type and quality of discussion above is what brought me to this blog, and keeps me coming back: reasoned, measured, educated, with a sprinkle of Chip humor.
This opinion is only valid as of my time stamp though. Day ain’t over.
“…reasoned, measured, educated, with a sprinkle of Chip humor…
The usual discourse until you-know-who blows in and blows it up…😖😖😖
Day still ain’t over. And if I hafta eat my words, I like Zaxby’s sauce.
My last duty station was USNDC Portsmouth N H. Although I was an exterior guard I had friends in interior guard section. We never had a man of this high of stature as an inmate during my time there. I wonder what the LeJeune brig guards thought of him and how he was treated by them.
In a photo taken when they took him in, there were three Marines on him while escorting him to the calaboose. Musta been really worried about him making a break for it.
Got this from Mil Times article today
Scheller has been charged with Article 88 (contempt toward officials), Article 89 (disrespect toward superior commissioned officers), Article 90 (willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer), Article 92 (dereliction in the performance of duties), Article 92 (failure to obey order or regulation) and Article 133 (conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman),
What, no Article 134? Those slackers.
Did you read what this klowne said about everybody except George H.W. Bush, whom he considers a genius ???
This moron is one of the reasons the military is as fucked up in the upper echelons as it is.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2021/10/05/marine-jailed-for-slamming-pentagon-brass-over-afghanistan-to-trump-i-dont-want-or-need-your-help-n1521887
If GHW had a pair, he would have let Stormin’ Norman take out Saddam and his Republican Guard, and there would have been no need for the Iraq invasion in 2004. Then we could have completed the mission in A-stan at less than half the cost in blood and treasure.
I believe GHW declined to invade Iraq specifically to avoid the power vacuum and subsequent mess that was created by our invasion in 2003. The mission in 1991 was liberate Kuwait, nothing more.
Smart money would be for Higher to quietly let this go and hope it blows over. Continuing to persecute this Warrior just insures that he will be the Commander of the Red Dawn Patriot Forces that arise when “We, The People” show just how much contempt we have for the domestic enemies of Our Republic.