The military, regardless of branch, is constricted by certain guidelines and laws that don’t exist outside. They do not go out to wreck lives. They are battling several fronts...discovery of the truth in order to carry out the law, and the Left that will do anything to smear them. The carrying out of the JAG’s mission is as complex as any, and therefore makes for bureaucracy.
Men and women put themselves in jeopardy because we raised our hands and took an oath to protect against enemies both foreign and domestic.
You should be proud of your son. You state that you are more concerned about him being falsely accused rather than insurgents and IEDs. The possiblity of him being involved in something that would bring false accusations is slim. However, should it happen, he would know the truth. I would rather suffer a few years of “trashed” reputation because those that matter to me would know that truth as well. Insurgents and IEDs can kill.
Please congratulate your son, and give him all our best wishes!
Former US Army Sgt.
Thank you for your service. I am, indeed, very proud of my son’s decision.
I will grant that it’s better to be a Ray Donovan asking “where do I go to get my reputation back” than a young soldier asking where he might go to get back his eyes/limbs/life. That does not diminish the fact that these accused men and their families were put through a grinder (not unlike the Duke Lax players) because someone in that vast bureaucracy wanted to earn points in the JAG system or above. It’s disgusting. The military cannot claim to be defending against the smears of the left if they will readily turn around and allow their own to be trashed. The behavior of the USMC in this instance was anything but honorable (and I am very prejudiced in favor of the USMC).
While these Marines and their families may know the truth, that is small comfort while their reputations are being trashed in headlines across the country (and by a certain former Marine serving in Congress), their finances depleted, and precious years of their lives stolen from them. Typically a scandal garners page one headlines for months or years, while the retraction barely earns a retraction on page D-34. This is truly something they will have to live with for the rest of their lives.
The JAG and other officers who prosecuted this as far as they did deserve demotions. The General’s big ‘oops’ is not too impressive. NO sympathy here for those in charge.