Free Republic

Woke Won’t Win Wars If you had the good fortune to stay away from the news this past week then you missed the sad spectacle of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff going all in on critical race theory (CRT) like some fey, woke academic. Not very long ago, it seemed that the last thing we would have to worry about would be the United States military going the way of commie academia. Welcome to Joe Freakin’ Biden’s America, boys and girls. This trend towards woke sentiments among the higher ranks of the military is disturbing for any...

The nation’s highest military court has thrown out the 2012 rape conviction of a Coast Guard enlisted man because admirals and prosecutors packed the seven-member jury with five women, four of whom held jobs as advocates for victims of sexual assault. In a 5-0 ruling that could change how the military conducts sex abuse trials, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces unleashed caustic criticism of all involved. From the Coast Guard commandant down to an appellate court to the original trial judge, the high court said all contributed to a “stain on the military justice system.” The...

WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, held captive for five years by the Taliban, had a mental-health disorder marked by odd, eccentric behaviors and social isolation when he walked away from his post in Afghanistan in 2009, documents released by his defense team showed. An Army Sanity Board Evaluation in July 2015 found Bergdahl had schizotypal personality disorder, a psychiatric condition marked by unusual fears and beliefs, the inability to form interpersonal relationships and eccentric behaviors. The condition is different from schizophrenia, which is marked by hallucinations and a disconnect from reality.

Three sailors are scheduled for court-martial in Florida this week on charges related to making and sharing videos of female officers and midshipmen showering aboard the ballistic missile submarine USS Wyoming. ~snip~ The episode has been an embarrassment for the Navy as it integrates women into its submarine branch, one of the last communities in the service still largely restricted to men. The Wyoming, based at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Ga., was one of the first ballistic submarines integrated with female officers when the process began in 2011.

Getting a clean conviction of Major Hasan is more important than whether he has a clean face.The court martial of Army Major Nidal Hasan, who murdered thirteen people at Fort Hood, Texas in 2009 and wounded thirty-two others while screaming Allah Akbar, has dragged on too long. If he had been forcibly shaved he would have had grounds to continue the charade and, if eventually convicted, to appeal that conviction for many years. Defense counsel likely tried to inject legal error into the proceedings as grounds for post-conviction appeals. That's what defense counsel try to do when the evidence...

In what must be one of the most outrageous criminal prosecutions in American history, the U.S. military is dragging three Navy SEALs into court to face criminal charges. Their crime: punching a terrorist in the mouth and giving him a bloody lip. The alleged "victim" of this so-called assault is not just any old anti-American, murderous barbarian Muslim terrorist. No, the man who got the schoolyard fat lip was Ahmed Hashim Abed, the same man the U.S. government suspects planned the ambush, murder, and mutilation of four U.S. civilian contractors in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004. After the ambush, terrorists hung...

RICHMOND, Va.—Two Navy SEALs are scheduled to be arraigned Monday in military court on charges that they mistreated an Iraqi suspect in the gory slayings of four U.S. contractors in Fallujah. One of the SEALs is accused of punching the detainee after his September arrest, while the other is accused of lying to investigators. A third SEAL also accused of lying to investigators about the episode will be arraigned later. All three men have men have received an outpouring of support from people who view them as heroes. A Facebook page created to support the SEALs had more than 45,000...

The Navy Seals facing court martial for the alleged abuse of a terror suspect arrested for killing four Americans face up to a year in military confinement, discharge for bad conduct, and forfeiture of two-thirds of their pay for a year, if convicted, according to defense attorneys.

The Navy Seals facing court martial for the alleged abuse of a terror suspect arrested for killing four Americans face up to a year in military confinement, discharge for bad conduct, and forfeiture of two-thirds of their pay for a year, if convicted, according to defense attorneys. Further, their attorneys said that the possibilty that they would not be able to cross-examine their clients' accuser would be grounds for dismissing the case. The accuser, Ahmed Hashim Abed, is the alleged architect of the murder of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. The bodies of the four...

Dec 7 Navy SEALs Courts-Martial PROTEST - Norfolk Virginia SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! Type: Causes - Protest Network: Global Date: Monday, December 7, 2009 Time: 8:00am - 6:00pm Location: Naval Station Norfolk City/Town: Norfolk, VA Description As most of you already know, some of our military’s most elite, the Navy SEALs are under fire from the US Government for none other than bloodying the lip of one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq, the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. Matthew McCabe, Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe & Petty Officer...

"Thanking the Guard Dogs" 25 November 2009 LTC(R) Allen West Greetings to all and I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. I pray that as you come together as families you are in good health and spirit. Regardless of all that is occuring in our Country, we still have many blessings for which we all should give thanks. As I sit here today and prepare for tomorrow my thoughts hearken back to the times when I was not able to be with my family. I think of those days when my family were my Brother and...

SEATTLE, Oct. 26 — Guglielmo Olivotto, an Italian prisoner of war, died with a noose around his neck, lynched at a military post on Puget Sound 63 years ago. Samuel Snow, 83, hopes that people will stop blaming him and the 27 other black soldiers convicted of starting the riot that led to Mr. Olivotto’s death. It was one of the largest Army courts-martial of World War II.This week, a review board issued a ruling that could lead to overturning the convictions of all 28 soldiers, granting honorable discharges and providing them with back pay. The board found that the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three U.S. Marines will be tried on murder charges without the possibility of the death penalty in the April shooting of an Iraqi man in the town of Hamdania in central Iraq, the military said on Monday. Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the top Marine general in the Middle East, decided that Pfc. John Jodka, Cpl. Marshall Magincalda and Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate will face courts-martial in the shooting death on April 26 of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, the Marines said in a statement from Camp Pendleton, California. The three were among seven Marines and a Navy medic accused...

BAGHDAD, Iraq A U-S Army investigator in Iraq is recommending that four American soldiers face a court-martial. The soldiers are accused in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl and the killing of her family. Military prosecutors allege the four soldiers also set the girl's body on fire to hide their crime. Colonel Dwight Warren, the investigator, says in a report that "reasonable grounds exist" for the case to go forward. The report was obtained by The Associated Press from the lawyer of one of the defendants. The soldiers, from the 101st Airborne Division, could potentially face the death...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. Army investigator has recommended that four American soldiers accused of raping a a 14-year-old girl and of killing her and her family face a court-martial, a lawyer in the case confirmed on Monday. Col. Dwight Warren, the investigator in the case, said in a report issued Sunday that "reasonable grounds exist to believe that each of the accused committed the offense for which he is charged." The report was given to lawyers in the case and obtained by The Associated Press from David Sheldon, the lawyer of one of the defendants. The four soldiers of...

Article 32 Investigations Purpose of Article 32 InvestigationsProcedures for Article 32 InvestigationsRights of the Accused  Purpose            The Fifth Amendment constitutional right to grand jury indictment is expressly inapplicable to the Armed Forces.  In its absence, Article 32 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (Section 832 of Title 10, United States Code), requires a thorough and impartial investigation of charges and specifications before they may be referred to a general court-martial (the most serious level of courts-martial).  However, the accused may waive the Article 32 investigation requirement. The purpose of this pretrial investigation is to inquire into the truth...

FORT LEWIS, Wash. (Army News Service, July 10, 2006) – Charges were preferred July 6 against 1st Lt. Ehren Watada of 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, for his refusal June 22 to accompany his unit to Iraq and for actions related to that refusal. The charges arose from an initial investigation conducted in the two weeks since the incident. According to Fort Lewis officials, Watada faces charges for three separate violations: missing movement, contempt toward officials and conduct unbecoming an officer. If found guilty on all charges, Watada faces a maximum sentence of seven years in prison, forfeiture of all...

The Warrior Fund http://www.warrior-fund.org With the recent news regarding the incident in Haditha, and Hamdania Iraq, a group of former and retired Marines decided to take action to ensure that our military men are treated like American citizens and considered innocent until proven guilty. We have formed the "Warrior Fund" as a designated mission of United American Patriots (an IRS 501 ( c ) 3 organization) which is run by Major Bill Donahue USMC (RET). Our goal is to raise funds to defray legal fees incurred by members of our armed forces as a direct result of their service in...

Bremerton -- Seven sailors from the submarine USS Columbus face special courts-martial in connection with alleged assaults and hazing of two fellow crew members. One victim allegedly was attacked over a seven-month period ending in March, when he reported the incidents to Naval Base Kitsap security and to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. His five alleged assailants are charged with various offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The charges include assault, hazing and dereliction of duty, according to Lt. Herlinda Rojas, a Navy spokeswoman. The five sailors range in rank from third to first class petty officer. A...

The pending Court Martial of Lt Bryan Black, an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy, highlights the essential hypocrisy of service academy leadership's modus operandi. The personal honesty and integrity of these leaders is not the issue, rather it is the systemic attitude that allows leaders to focus only on those things that may embarrass the institution, while passing on things that are equally offensive but less embarrassing. In this instance Lt Black was serving as a Safety Officer on one of the academy's Yard Patrol Craft (YP) during a training excursion into the Chesapeake Bay. This young officer appears...