On bases sprinkled along the East and West Coasts, Navy SEALs were trying on Monday to go about their business and not be distracted by the high-level drama over one of their own that was roiling Washington, according to six active duty SEALs on both coasts.
Members of the elite commando force were still swimming through dark bays to practice planting mines, storming the narrow steel halls of ships in training raids, and rappelling from helicopters onto the bucking decks of speedboats — in other words, they were doing the extraordinary things SEALs normally do to prepare for deployments.
The SEALs, often regarded as the most elite special operations group in the armed forces, endure grueling training to strike from the air, land, or underwater. The force attracts the “common man with uncommon desire to succeed,” as the official SEAL ethos says, and it prizes aggressiveness and ingenuity in battle.
“The SEALs are built to withstand turbulence,” said a SEAL officer who, like other serving SEALs interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. “Someone gets hurt, someone dies, the mission goes forward,” the officer said. “They are mentally prepared to stay focused.”
Even so, high above them in the chain of command, the imbroglio over what to do about Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, the SEAL platoon leader at the center of a high-profile war crimes case, has widened rifts between military leaders and the White House and cost Richard V. Spencer his job as Navy secretary, after President Trump intervened in the case to protect Chief Gallagher from the Navy’s efforts to eject him from the SEALs. And the fallout is likely to be felt across the elite commando force and beyond.
Veterans across the country who have followed the events have had a range of reactions to the developments as well, some criticizing the president’s intervention in military discipline and others faulting the Navy for its handling of Chief Gallagher’s case and for pushing back against the president’s wishes.
Here are some of the ways that veterans and active duty service members are responding to the tumult over the Gallagher case and the president’s intervention.
Serving SEALs see the drama as a harmful distraction.
Though opinions of President Trump and of Chief Gallagher vary widely in the SEAL teams, six SEALs on active duty at various bases said there was general agreement among their comrades on one thing: The unusually public tug of war over the chief has been an embarrassment and an unwanted distraction from their broader mission.
“I’m trying to make sure all my guys are safe and successful — I can’t worry what is going on at the White House,” said one senior enlisted SEAL.
They said the talk in the highbays where SEALs gather before and after missions has inevitably turned to Chief Gallagher and what should happen to his Trident.
Some said it was reassuring to see a president be willing to defend a SEAL who may have done something regrettable in the confusion of combat. Others worried that Mr. Trump’s intervention would encourage rogue operators to try to escape accountability by sidestepping the chain of command and appealing directly to the White House.
The SEALs said they had sensed opinion shifting against Chief Gallagher in recent weeks because of how he campaigned for clemency on social media and Fox News. Even those who were ambivalent about the allegations against Chief Gallagher viewed his public criticism of Rear Adm. Collin Green, the commander of the SEALs, and the chief’s insulting remarks on television about a fellow SEAL chief as way out of line.
“That’s not who we are, and no one in the teams wants to see it,” said an enlisted SEAL. “Forget the movies and the books about SEALs — most of us are silent professionals. We want to be ghosts. All this exposure keeps us from doing our job.”
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‘This has started the conversation we needed to have.’
An enlisted SEAL on the East Coast said there might be a silver lining in all the attention on the Gallagher case, because it was finally casting a light on problems that the SEAL teams had kept hidden. He said a rogue element in the SEALs had been operating as if rules and standards did not apply to them, and that too often, SEALs who were overly focused on loyalty have covered up for one another.
“This has started the conversation we needed to have about accountability,” the SEAL said. “It should be on all of us. We should acknowledge our own failure and have the courage to deal with it appropriately.”
Other serving SEALs said the commando force had been feeling the indirect effects of the Gallagher case for months. In the wake of the chief’s arrest and other high-profile scandals, Admiral Green vowed to redouble enforcement of discipline and standards, right down to haircuts, grooming and uniforms.
Allowing SEALs leeway on things like beards and hair length had been seen as a signal that commanders trusted their judgment. “That they’re cracking down shows that trust isn’t there any more,” one enlisted SEAL said.
‘Most guys just want him to shut up and go away.’
Eric Deming, a former master chief petty officer who retired from the SEALs in 2016 after 19 years in the force, said on Monday that he had spoken to several active-duty SEALs in recent days, and all were dismayed over how a single discipline case had dragged the entire organization into a Washington political knife fight that, no matter the outcome, would erode trust and confidence in the force.
“No one I’ve spoken to is happy with how Eddie handled this,” Mr. Deming said of Chief Gallagher. “He could have handled it like a quiet professional. If the facts are on his side, he should trust in a board to make the right decision. Instead he chose to go make a spectacle of himself. Most guys just want him to shut up and go away.”
‘He did eight combat deployments. He deserves better.’
Ed Hiner, a retired Navy lieutenant commander who served in the SEALs, said that many serving and retired SEALs like him were celebrating Mr. Trump’s intervention on Chief Gallagher’s behalf, and posting about it in a private Facebook group called 5326.
“It’s about time,” he said. “From the beginning, Eddie was denied the presumption of innocence. And when he won at trial, the Navy tried to get back at him. He did eight combat deployments. He deserves better.”
Mr. Hiner said he visited Chief Gallagher regularly when the chief was in the brig awaiting trial.
‘If you see war crimes and you’re going to report them, watch out.’
Elliot Ackerman, a Marine veteran, novelist and journalist, said he saw a bad precedent in the way the Gallagher case has played out.
“All of us have served and have gone to great pains, risked our life, risked the lives of our comrades, in order to uphold the values of this country, which include the fact that we hold ourselves to a higher standard when it comes to war and the law of war,” Mr. Ackerman said. “And the idea that none of that matters at the end of the day is a slap in the face to all of us.”
Referring to President Trump’s clemency for Chief Gallagher and pardons for two soldiers involved in other war crimes cases, Mr. Ackerman said, “That these people will be trotted out as heroes is a moral injury to every veteran.”
“When you look at the way the Gallagher case came into being, his teammates were the ones who reported him,” he added. “So the message it sends very clearly is, if you see war crimes and you’re going to report them, watch out.”
One veteran saw a double standard on clemency.
Joe Kent, who recently retired after a 20-year career in Army Special Forces and Army Special Operations, said he supported Mr. Trump’s actions in pardoning two soldiers involved in war crimes cases and protecting Chief Gallagher from sanctions by the Navy. And he contrasted the reaction to those moves with the reaction to President Obama’s decision just before he left office to commute all but four months of the remaining sentence of Chelsea Manning, the Army intelligence analyst who was convicted of leaking classified information in 2010 that revealed American military and diplomatic activities around the world.
There was “zero political grandstanding from the senior ranks of the D.O.D. or the intel community” over that move, Mr. Kent said: “I don’t remember anyone throwing a tantrum over Chelsea Manning.”
But now, he said, “if you’re a career government guy, and you virtue-signal or try to take the high ground against Trump, now you get to be the golden boy” and be showered with praise.
“Gallagher literally had his day in court and was acquitted, and for the Navy to now be like, ‘How many more pounds of flesh can we get out of this guy?’ seems really vindictive,” Mr. Kent said, adding that he was glad Mr. Trump had stepped in.
Military leaders ‘are just going to hide things’ from the president.
Daniel Pannunzio, who said his 40-year Army career included service in Vietnam and the first Gulf War, worried that the president’s interventions would undermine military discipline: “People are going to say, ‘Rules of engagement? I’m just going to ignore them, because Trump will give me a pass.’”
He said he thought commanders would start trying to avoid presidential interference by staying off his radar. “It’s going to drive a lot of things underground that Trump is never going to hear about,” he said. “And I think the senior commanders within the services are just going to hide things from him. Or they may elect to not even take action.”
Before passing judgment, walk in a warrior’s boots.
Jeff Eggers, a retired Naval Special Warfare officer who served on the National Security Council during the Obama administration, said that it was important to trust the process that the military has in place for dealing with potential war crimes, and to not judge cases from a distance:
“We’re asking our forces to be extremely well behaved on the rules of engagement, and on the other hand to be extremely violent and lethal when we need it,” Mr. Eggers said. “Because it is difficult and because it is a dynamic that is always in tension, there are always going to be mistakes and the need for accountability.”
“You don’t want to judge those actions unless you’re incredibly well-informed and knowledgeable about the particulars,” he added. “Part of why we give our armed forces a significant level of respect is because they do these difficult missions, and then hold themselves accountable to a difficult and elevated standard.”
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How SEALs and Veterans View the Trump-Navy Tussle Over Gallagher - The New York Times
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