In the News
(San Diego Union/Tribune) Special Operations commander in Iraq, Air Force Maj. Gen. Eric Hill said he has lost confidence in the team’s ability to accomplish its mission to defeat ISIS. It should be ‘platoon’, not ‘team’, but never the less, the Air Force is not amused.
A San Diego-based Navy SEAL platoon deployed to Iraq is being sent home early due to a “deterioration of good order and discipline,” according to a U.S. Special Operations Command statement Wednesday.
The platoon is part of SEAL Team 7, the same team that gained notoriety after one of its members, Chief Eddie Gallagher, was acquitted of war crimes charges earlier this month.
The misconduct, which was not described, occurred in the team during “non-operational periods,” the statement says, and “the commander lost confidence in the team’s ability to accomplish the mission.”
The platoon was deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve against the Islamic State.
What the article didn’t state, and what the newsie who wrote it may not have known is that platoon members are broken up after every tour, and those members are reconstituted in other platoons that are training for another mission. So they’re spread out every year (or so) and new people come in on rotation.
I’m not surprised at this. The platoon watched Chief Eddie Gallagher charged with the crime of getting photographed next to a dead jihadi. He’s not the first person who did this nor will he be the last.
There have been a number of SEALs drug through the politically correct ringer for doing precisely what they have been trained to do and for doing what the American public expects them to do. They kill people for a living. I realize that it requires a different sort of person to do these things, sometimes a twisted personality arises, but even in that, it’s what most of America expects. America demands the equivalent of ninjas, Mongol warriors and Vikings of the SEALs. And I suspect that ST7-A ptn just decided to go on strike and do the minimum.
There was no Team Seven when I was in the rackets. Naval Special Warfare has nearly double the operators that it had when I left the reserve component of Naval Special Warfare Group One. Even the demands of a reservist were too much for a young family. I made a decision. But things even then started to slip, and the schism between the mission and the politically correct approach that some took made is a challenge. That situation only got worse.
So modern war in the American way- no women, no booze, no souvenirs, no pictures, ,no hurt enemy feelings, gee, sounds like what every red blooded young man wants… We can kill the raping torturing murderous bastards but God forbid we should hurt their feelings.
Maybe we should just get pajama boy to do the dirty work.
Look, I wasn't even in the military, I was a USAF Seargent/Team Leader.
I don't care what a spec op guy does within the law, but don't tuck off your team and get caught taking trophy pix.
Something was wrong. I don't know what.
But when it becomes public, someone's gotta pay.
I find it hard to believe his team turned on him because he hurt their feelings. If so, the SEALs have gone wrong in their recruiting.
Darn, the mispell for tuck was tick, not the other word it rhymes with.
Thanks for your service LL. As history tend to repeat itself one way or another, I guess there will be a new experience in the future where the progressive liberal inner-city people with political ambitions to turn the US into a socialist paradise with open borders, war will arrive. The sad part is that these people that complains all the time seems to manage to avoid being those places where the heat takes place. Hopefully the future will be different so the socialists will get first hands experience themselves with the problems so they learn to appreciate what others have done for them in the past.
You say Naval Special Warfare has nearly double the operators that it had when I left …
I wonder if that's the problem right there. Or at least a big compounding effect. From the standpoint of someone who has never been in the military, I've always heard the problem with increasing the number of special operators is that so few people have the right mix of abilities, personality and so on that increasing the number would inevitably reduce the quality of the teams.
Could it be the number of guys in the teams has been doubled by including guys who would have washed out before? The other alternative is guys were found who wouldn't have tried before.
Add in the demonstrably more PC leadership these days and I can see getting a mess.
Naturally as "some dood with a blog" I don't know how to fix either of those problems, but I'm interested in your take.
Good points.
And so it will be until politics let's the military do what it's trained to. Break things and kill people.
May I state the obvious? The USA has many enemies, foreign and domestic, that want to "Fundamentally change" i.e. weaken us. With 44, they were able to deeply entrench themselves in the Defense Department. This SEAL business is one manifestation.
Letting my cynical self run free, I wonder how much of our current problems are accidental, or directed malice. Just a few come to mind, the F-35, the Ford catapults and elevators, Army artillery, Littoral Combat slugs, and procuring a new sidearm for the Army. All drain off resources, and all weaken us.
What comforts me is Shillary didn't get elected. An eight year 45 Presidency will turn some of this around, IMO.
Too many operational requirements, not enough bodies, too quick turnarounds, and lowered standards… Sigh…
The PC left have become the war party, oddly, but how will they win wars with a military that's not allowed to do things that soldiers do, like kill people. Perhaps the enemy'll die laughing?
Regardless, the Gallagher story had a bad smell to it. Glad he got off.
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