Free Republic

Fired Navy Secretary Richard Spencer’s outburst at President Trump in a Washington Post op-ed published Wednesday, calling the president’s handling of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher’s case a “shocking and unprecedented intervention in a low-level review” is in and of itself shocking and unprecedented in several ways. Spencer wrote: “The president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices.” In reality, Spencer is the man who bypassed the chain of command by cutting Secretary of Defense Mark Esper out of his...

In an op-ed published by the Military Times, Sean Gallagher, brother of Navy SEAL Edward "Eddie" Gallagher, blasted politicians and military leaders who say President Trump's interventions in preventing more punitive action against his brother were wrong. Gallagher criticized "military attorneys, indignant Pentagon officials and your typical Washington establishment types" for being hypocritical when it came to good order and discipline. "Their views were mainly the same. The president’s actions were a moral hazard ! What message will it send our troops? What of good order and discipline? I have one question for these people: Where in the hell were...

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper asked for the resignation of Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer on Sunday after losing confidence in him over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq, the Pentagon said. Spencer’s resignation came in the wake of the controversial case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was accused of war crimes on a 2017 deployment. He was acquitted of murder but convicted in July of posing with the corpse of a captive. Esper asked for Spencer’s resignation after learning that he had privately proposed to...