[SZonian]

Not Navy, retired AF, but IMO they made a smart move. Under Non-judicial punishment they have very little in the way of legal protection. They basically confess to the “crime” and are then summarily punished by the commanding officer.

It’s a way of avoiding the court proceedings if it’s not very serious in nature. This sounds like a purely political move on the commanding officer’s part or he may have standing orders that this type of incident be handled.

Any NAVY/MARINE folks are more than welcome to correct my post.

SZ

[MNSlim]

I hope your insight proves to be correct!!!

[browardchad]

The most stomach-churning part of this is that they've managed to turn SEAL against SEAL:

"Another three SEALs — two officers and an enlisted sailor — have been identified by investigators as witnesses but have not been charged."

[markomalley]

I agree with you 100% and have seen this one before. (Ret AF also)

These Seals obviously have a hyper-sensitive commander. In order to protect himself, he likely tried to give them Article 15s (which only require a nominal amount of review...just to make sure the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed on the paperwork). And I’d bet he never figure that the Seals would not sign.

It’s most likely that, had this case not been picked up by a news outlet, it would have dropped. But now that it has made the news, they will have a really hard time doing so. The lefties won’t allow it (another way to get those “baby-killers”)

What happens next is that they try to give these guys a summary court martial (which is like a podunk municipal court before a judge only). Not much better, but at least somebody independent of the commander is looking at the case. They may decide to accept that; but it is just as likely that they refuse the summary court and demand a special or general court martial...

If the Seals do demand a special or general court martial, I hope that Fox News has a real good reporter available to sit in on the proceedings (except in the case of national security, courts martial are always open to the public). I bet that this could be a barn-burner...a chance to expose some totally ineffectual politically-correct leadership.