There is a lot more to Gallagher than just this case! He was the subject of an investigation for the shooting of a young girl in Afghanistan in 2010! He also allegedly tried to run over a Navy police officer with his car in 2014 after being detained at a traffic stop. By 2015, Gallagher had acquired a reputation as someone more interested in fighting terrorists and less interested in compliance with rules!
Another accusation was that Gallagher’s sniper work during his 2017 deployment became indiscriminate, reckless, and bloodthirsty. He fired his rifle far more frequently than other snipers who also did not consider him to be a competent sniper! He also took “random shots” into buildings. Other snipers said they witnessed Gallagher killing an unarmed older man and a young girl walking with other girls. Gallagher allegedly boasted about the large number of people he had killed, claiming he averaged three kills a day over 80 days, including four women. Gallagher also was reportedly known for indiscriminately spraying neighborhoods with rockets and machine-gun fire with no known enemy force in the region.
The case was difficult due to the Navy’s slow response to the reports of misconduct. No investigation began for nearly a year after the reports had been filed and by then much of the physical evidence was not recoverable. The prosecution’s case relied on eyewitness testimony, which the defense sought to discredit as merely that of malcontents who disliked Gallagher’s leadership style. The defense also said that Gallagher’s text messages only reflected dark comedy in a stressful situation and that his more outrageous boasts were impossible (such as killing twenty people a day).
A charge of obstruction of justice was brought against Gallagher for alleged witness intimidation. According to the claim, Gallagher threatened to kill fellow SEALs if they reported his actions. The Navy cited his text messages as attempting to undermine the investigation! This resulted in confinement with heavy restrictions on his ability to communicate, later lifted by Trump with no regard for why he was so restricted!
So I am a former two-tour Vietnam vet, a Marine Sgt. and proud of my service. So I am not a basher of the Navy or Marines. But I am going to point out what I think is going on here. As I stated, it took almost a year for the Navy to start investigating. That alone says something. The other problem as I have already pointed out is that he had all kinds of indicators that command should have picked up on but did not! Reread paragraph two! So if he had been found guilty, there would have been questions! Why people who were responsible for him did not know or react to his attitude and the many horrible infractions that were coming up on a regular basis! I hate to believe the following, but I do! The medic who finally came forward and confessed to the killing of the combatant, I believe, was pressured by his superiors to do so and guaranteed immunity if he did! This was done so that questions about why command did not react to multiple reports and charges that would asked if found guilty! So this man was only convicted for posing with a dead man when he had ten charges filed against him. Even two drug charges! According to the original Navy prosecutor, “Chief Gallagher decided to act like the monster the terrorists accuse us of being. He handed ISIS propaganda manna from heaven. His actions are everything ISIS says we are.”
The Navy is thinking about charging the medic with perjury who claims he actually killed this combatant! However, for reasons I just gave, I doubt that will happen, the chain of command up the line will not support this! Trump thinks that this man should have never been prosecuted regardless of his guilt. He was just killing the enemy, and he does not see that honor and integrity were destroyed here! Just the man’s tweets and emails alone prove his guilt by his own admission!
Now Trump wants any medals given to Navy prosecutors, in this case, to be stripped from them! These Navy officers do not get to select who they prosecute. They receive orders then they follow them based on the Uniform Code of Military Justice! So Trump is, as per usual, wrong-minded here! If he understood how all this works as the Commander in Chief, he would never make such a request. But of course, he knows more than anyone in the Navy, the Pentagon, more than all the Generals and Admirals, according to his own words anyway!
The Love Chronicles 