U.S. Navy SEAL acquitted of murder in war crimes trial

[Mel52]

OK. thought maybe you could be interesting - bye

Sure I guess I could be I have some stories but like I said I’m not debating anything with anyone it doesn’t matter what I say no matter how logical I’m not gonna change any minds and I honestly don’t care if I do.  

You don’t know anything about me or my opinion about the war and my opinion about the war isn’t what this is about anyway. It’s about the fact that none of us know anything about the Chief Gallagher incident we weren’t there we weren’t involved all we know about Chief Gallagher and his team is what we’ve heard on the news. That’s all I was discussing nothing more. I’m not getting into the political debate about him or the war. I’m just saying that none of us are qualified to judge him if you know nothing about it which you don’t. I’ve been to Iraq and Afghanistan and I can’t even judge the man either way because I don’t know him, never worked with him, and I definitely was not deployed with him when that incident occurred. Whatever actually occurred in reality who knows.

 

 

[Date Masamune]

There are no civilians in Islam? The majority of Muslims are just as abhorred by ISIS as you are. To think otherwise is both ignorant and stupid.
 
The enemy has rules so neither should we? We have the Geneva Convention which separates the civilised from animals. Two wrongs don't make a right.
 
You're either with us or against us? Well if being with you involves condoning some brainless yooha slitting a badly injured prisoner's throat then posting pictures of the body and bragging about his animalistic deed on Facebook, I'm against you. It's a war crime, pure and simple.
 
The US army are famed for their war crimes, Mee Lai, Abu Ghraib, the use of naplalm to name but a few. Interestingly, they particularly favour war crimes against those who can't fight back.
 
 

This is the essence of American exceptionalism. “Do as we say not as we do.” If America doesn’t want to respect the laws of war anymore. accept refugees, etc., then we should simply withdraw from the relative treaties that govern such matters. This won’t happen for obvious reasons.

[Mel52]

Whilst the UN report likely has some errors it claims roughly 40% of civilian deaths and injuries were caused by forces fighting the Islamists. One would assume mostly by bombing, yet your response is sneering. 
 
If you really are an ex member of US Special Forces, do you sincerely think your posts are appropriate?

You know something else what you’re talking about is off the subject but regardless I saw something really bad in Afghanistan back in 2002 involving collateral damage and it’s one of those things that I don’t talk about because it was one of the most horrible things I’ve ever seen in my life. Long story short one of our air strikes bombed a building full of children trying to take out an SA-13 (Soviet era made surface to air missile). We were on an “SR” Mission (Special Reconnaissance Mission) hidden up in the mountains outside of De Rah Wood (I’m sure I probably misspelled the name of the Afghan city) we had 2 inbound Black Hawk helicopters flying in the Direct Action Team to come in and get some real bad guys who used to work directly for Mullah Omar. Mullah Omar used to be the Taliban leader the top guy in the Taliban. There was an SA-13 in plain sight so our team leader called in air support to destroy it a few minutes before the Black Hawks arrived with the other team because an SA-13 can pretty easily shoot down jets and very easily shoot down low flying helicopters so it had to be destroyed. So an F-16 flew in and dropped a bomb on it from 10,000 feet.

Well unfortunately what we did not know was there were dozens of children being held by the Taliban in a small building behind the SA-13 because the Taliban knew we’d destroy it from the air by dropping bombs. The Taliban wanted that to happen to use it as propaganda against us and as a recruiting tool so the children were being hidden inside a small building near the target like human shields not even human shields the Taliban was hoping that would happen. The SA-13 was probably not even operational it was probably just there for show to provoke us into dropping bombs they didn’t even make an effort to hide it, the SA-13 was mounted in the back of a truck.

Well the next morning after the raid when the sun came up we had to go down there and survey the damage and that’s when we made our gruesome discovery which I’m not gonna go into detail about. I was still a pretty junior SF Weapons Sergeant at the time (18B) and that was the worst thing I’ve ever seen to this day even the older more experienced guys were clearly upset about it it was horrible seeing that. It still gives me nightmares to this day. But it happened because the Taliban caused it to happen not us although I couldn’t help but think “one of our bombs did this regardless”. I haven’t told anyone that story in years so there you go you said you wanted to hear something interesting. So it’s not a subject I prefer to discuss with people especially the details of what I had to see that day after the air strike.

When you’ve experienced it from my point of view as in actually been there and been part of it then talk to me about your statistics. By the way at military Courts Martial nowadays you’re normally more than likely to be found guilty whether you did it or not especially when it comes to accusations of war crimes. They have zero tolerance for war crimes because they are trying hard to prevent some of the same mistakes made during the Vietnam War such as the My Lai Massacre. I don’t know anything about this SEAL Chief Gallagher so I can’t judge him either way and neither can anyone on here but I do know that he was very lucky to have the news media attention and the support he had otherwise he probably would have been convicted regardless of what really happened whatever that was that happened.

I read some of the posts on here and some of them are pretty closed minded to say it nicely so I couldn’t help but speak up because no one on here knows anything about it except what they’ve heard on the news same as me. I am a combat veteran and a career Soldier with 21 years of service and I can’t even judge this man because I know nothing about him or what happened and neither do you or anyone else on here.

[Mel52]

You know something else what you’re talking about is off the subject but regardless I saw something really bad in Afghanistan back in 2002 involving collateral damage and it’s one of those things that I don’t talk about because it was one of the most horrible things I’ve ever seen in my life. Long story short one of our air strikes bombed a building full of children trying to take out an SA-13 (Soviet era made surface to air missile). We were on an “SR” Mission (Special Reconnaissance Mission) hidden up in the mountains outside of De Rah Wood (I’m sure I probably misspelled the name of the Afghan city) we had 2 inbound Black Hawk helicopters flying in the Direct Action Team to come in and get some real bad guys who used to work directly for Mullah Omar. Mullah Omar used to be the Taliban leader the top guy in the Taliban. There was an SA-13 in plain sight so our team leader called in air support to destroy it a few minutes before the Black Hawks arrived with the other team because an SA-13 can pretty easily shoot down jets and very easily shoot down low flying helicopters so it had to be destroyed. So an F-16 flew in and dropped a bomb on it from 10,000 feet.

Well unfortunately what we did not know was there were dozens of children being held by the Taliban in a small building behind the SA-13 because the Taliban knew we’d destroy it from the air by dropping bombs. The Taliban wanted that to happen to use it as propaganda against us and as a recruiting tool so the children were being hidden inside a small building near the target like human shields not even human shields the Taliban was hoping that would happen. The SA-13 was probably not even operational it was probably just there for show to provoke us into dropping bombs they didn’t even make an effort to hide it, the SA-13 was mounted in the back of a truck.

Well the next morning after the raid when the sun came up we had to go down there and survey the damage and that’s when we made our gruesome discovery which I’m not gonna go into detail about. I was still a pretty junior SF Weapons Sergeant at the time (18B) and that was the worst thing I’ve ever seen to this day even the older more experienced guys were clearly upset about it it was horrible seeing that. It still gives me nightmares to this day. But it happened because the Taliban caused it to happen not us although I couldn’t help but think “one of our bombs did this regardless”. I haven’t told anyone that story in years so there you go you said you wanted to hear something interesting. So it’s not a subject I prefer to discuss with people especially the details of what I had to see that day after the air strike.

When you’ve experienced it from my point of view as in actually been there and been part of it then talk to me about your statistics. By the way at military Courts Martial nowadays you’re normally more than likely to be found guilty whether you did it or not especially when it comes to accusations of war crimes. They have zero tolerance for war crimes because they are trying hard to prevent some of the same mistakes made during the Vietnam War such as the My Lai Massacre. I don’t know anything about this SEAL Chief Gallagher so I can’t judge him either way and neither can anyone on here but I do know that he was very lucky to have the news media attention and the support he had otherwise he probably would have been convicted regardless of what really happened whatever that was that happened.

I read some of the posts on here and some of them are pretty closed minded to say it nicely so I couldn’t help but speak up because no one on here knows anything about it except what they’ve heard on the news same as me. I am a combat veteran and a career Soldier with 21 years of service and I can’t even judge this man because I know nothing about him or what happened and neither do you or anyone else on here.

The correct spelling of this Afghan city is actually Deh Ravod and at the time it was a small village I don’t know what it looks like today but probably better because of our Civil Affairs teams improving their living conditions for years

[simple1]

11 hours ago, Mel52 said:

you said you wanted to hear something interesting

Correct. I was hoping you would provide some insight as to why you reject the UN's findings on civilian deaths.

[Mel52]

Correct. I was hoping you would provide some insight as to why you reject the UN's findings on civilian deaths.

I never said I rejected anything I didn’t even read your statistics you really don’t get it that’s why I said replying was a waist of time I’m not gonna change any minds about anything and I don’t care if I do. Regardless if you’re literally trusting anything the UN says well then you haven’t been paying attention for the last 40 years.

[Sujo]

1 hour ago, Mel52 said:

I never said I rejected anything I didn’t even read your statistics you really don’t get it that’s why I said replying was a waist of time I’m not gonna change any minds about anything and I don’t care if I do. Regardless if you’re literally trusting anything the UN says well then you haven’t been paying attention for the last 40 years.

Then why are u posting.

 

Just because u may have been somewhere doesnt mean you know whats going on and why. U made a lot of assumptions based on nothing. Like the taliban placed the kids there. Probably not even a real rocket etc.

 

Assumptions are not usually a good idea.

[Mel52]

Then why are u posting.
 
Just because u may have been somewhere doesnt mean you know whats going on and why. U made a lot of assumptions based on nothing. Like the taliban placed the kids there. Probably not even a real rocket etc.
 
Assumptions are not usually a good idea.

You know what this topic is about Chief Gallagher and thanks for making my point I’ve actually been over to Iraq and Afghanistan multiple times and I’m not even qualified to judge him because I don’t know the man, I’ve never worked with him, I wasn’t deployed with him when the incident he was acquitted of supposedly occurred, and I wasn’t in any way involved in it. So I don’t know anything about it and neither do any of the rest of you self proclaimed experts who have never been there or served in the regular Military let alone in Special Operations. I swear that’s it I’m done with this conversation.

[Mel52]

And I wasn’t assuming anything about the incident I saw that I was describing I was stating facts about it that I know are facts because I was there. I know how we eventually figured out what happened. That was an incident that I actually was involved in and I wasn’t assuming a thing. Chief Gallagher on the other hand I know nothing about and neither does anyone else who wasn’t there when whatever happened supposedly happened unless you were with him there or were somehow involved in the case.

 

 

 

[Mel52]

Then why are u posting.
 
Just because u may have been somewhere doesnt mean you know whats going on and why. U made a lot of assumptions based on nothing. Like the taliban placed the kids there. Probably not even a real rocket etc.
 
Assumptions are not usually a good idea.

And just because you heard something on the news definitely doesn’t mean you know what’s going on either assumptions aren’t usually a good idea take your own advice.

[Mel52]

Good question though why am I posting, there’s no point to it because most people are gonna believe whatever they want regardless of what they don’t know about the situation or based on what they think they know just because they pulled some statistics online or heard something on the news or read about the story so somehow that makes everyone an expert.

 

 

 

 

[simple1]

3 hours ago, Mel52 said:

Regardless if you’re literally trusting anything the UN says 

In fact I posted there may well be some errors in the UN report and asked for your feedback on why you had come to your conclusion. However, it is now clear you were not in Afghanistan for the report's timeline.

 

If you had not bothered to read the report you should have said so at the outset, rather than wasting time with this to and fro. 

[Mel52]

In fact I posted there may well be some errors in the UN report and asked for your feedback on why you had come to your conclusion. However, it is now clear you were not in Afghanistan for the report's timeline.
 
If you had not bothered to read the report you should have said so at the outset, rather than wasting time with this to and fro. 

Well, I probably would have read it or told you that I didn’t read it sooner if I actually cared what it says. I did most of my Afghanistan tours in the early days of the war and Iraq (Northern Iraq Kurdistan) in 2008 through 2009.

[Mel52]

In fact I posted there may well be some errors in the UN report and asked for your feedback on why you had come to your conclusion. However, it is now clear you were not in Afghanistan for the report's timeline.
 
If you had not bothered to read the report you should have said so at the outset, rather than wasting time with this to and fro. 

Oh and also, I have no idea what conclusion you’re referring to. That was my whole point I’m not drawing any conclusions about this story because none of us know anything about it

[Mel52]

But it’s true the times I was there may have influenced my opinion on the whole thing which I’ve never actually told anyone on here. I haven’t come to any conclusions about anything you’re talking about. I haven’t given my opinion I was just saying no one here really knows anything about what happened in this specific story about Chief Gallagher. And neither do I even though I’ve actually been there before and deeply involved in combat operations.

 

 

 

 

 

[petemoss]

2 minutes ago, Mel52 said:

Well, I probably would have read it or told you that I didn’t read it sooner if I actually cared what it says. I did most of my Afghanistan tours in the early days of the war and Iraq (Northern Iraq Kurdistan) in 2008 through 2009.

My next door neighbour is ex US special forces, now a military contractor. I learned this from his wife as he never talks about his army experiences or his current role. Seems to be the norm for these guys.

 

My father was in the Airborne in the war and in military intelligence in Palestine. He talked very little about his time in the army either.

 

Seems strange to me that someone who has spent 20 years in the army and has done several tours as special forces is so keen to prattle on again and again about his role on an expats website.

 

Sounds just like those special forces guys who drone on about it in Pattaya bars and you soon realise that they've never seen the end of a rifle.

[Mel52]

You know Chief Gallagher was I believe convicted only for the charges of taking the pictures where he supposedly posed with the body. So best case scenario for him is that only his career is over and he might lose his pension worst case scenario for him.

 

Most people who have never been in the military would be surprised how easy it is to be accused of war crimes on a deployment. I’ll admit in SF as well as a Special Mission Unit I was assigned to during the last half of my military career we could get away with things that the regular Army would never get away with, but within reason. And I didn’t say what exactly. When I was assigned to the SMU we had people that were authorized to do certain things with detainees that most people only see on TV and in the movies. But all it takes is for someone to accuse someone else by saying the wrong thing to some little brown nosing JAG Officer (military prosecutor) and then all hell sometimes breaks lose with Article 32 investigations, Army CID investigations (Army Criminal Investigation Division CID), and even if the person is cleared of the investigation it sometimes still stigmatizes them and follows them around for the rest of their career and sometimes just the allegations alone are enough to ruin their career. In the military you never want any kind of legal trouble because most of the time probably 90% of the time you’re gonna lose innocent or guilty especially at a Court Martial. This Chief Gallagher guy was very lucky under the circumstances. From my experience most military JAG attorneys will not even bother taking a case to Court Martial (trial) unless they’re sure they can win, and they don’t care if you’re innocent or guilty they just want to maintain a high conviction rate to further their own careers. That’s why I always despised JAG Officers and most attorneys in general, I always saw them as a necessary evil because they are needed to uphold the law but a lot of them are more concerned about their careers than the law or justice.

 

Not all of them though I met maybe one Army JAG Officer in Afghanistan once who I actually liked and another Army Trial Defense attorney who I actually liked. And the JAG Officer I met in Afghanistan who I actually liked was a pretty staunch, vocal, but moderate Democrat but I still liked him because he wasn’t a bad guy he was actually a decent person for an attorney lol. I don’t care about anyone’s political beliefs I don’t even like politics one way or the other Republican or Democrat. I’m more in the middle politically I think Republicans have some good ideas and a lot of really stupid ideas and I also think Democrats have some good ideas and some really stupid ideas as well. I don’t favor or endorse any political party anymore just because of probably the way my life experiences have shaped the way I think. I used to strongly favor the Republicans but not anymore now I don’t like either political party. Sometimes the way you think changes the older you get and after certain life experiences that have life changing effects on you as I’ve had.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mel52]

I have a funny story about the one JAG Officer I met in Afghanistan who I actually liked. Back then I was an extremely avid runner and so was he. Whenever we were back on the main base on Kandahar airfield I’d go running around the airfield. The dirt road we ran was approximately 10K around Kandahar airfield. Well the JAG Officer was also an avid runner and we’d see each other running out there once in a while and him and I used to talk about running a lot. So we kind of made friends.

 

Well on our second tour in Afghanistan the 82nd took over Kandahar airfield they replaced the 101st who replaced the Marines who were there first. I was in 3rd SFG at the time and we replaced 5th SFG who was the first Special Forces Group in Afghanistan not including other Special Units. But anyway when the 82nd arrived to Kandahar airfield oooh one day they made what they thought was a big discovery they found a land mine on the dirt road we used to run on around Kandahar airfield. So the 82nd shut it down and said no more running out there.

 

We were like BS, this is Afghanistan the whole country is a mine field. We even found a few land mines right inside our compound on base. They’re everywhere in Afghanistan if you are worried about land mines in Afghanistan you’d be afraid to walk or run anywhere.

 

So we said BS we’re gonna run out there anyway whenever we’re back on Kandahar airfield. Especially me because I took my running extremely serious back then. And it was our second tour in Afghanistan at the time so we had been running around there for over a year at the time by the time we were on our second tour.

 

So I used to go out and mostly run on my own because I was always very fast at the time and I always loved running more than most people even most other Soldiers. I took my fitness very seriously back then. So a few times I’d be out there running and there was this 82nd guy that was working on the airfield who would always try to stop me because it was supposed to be off limits which we didn’t give a damn about. So he’d yell scream and tell me to stop and I’d just ignore him and keep on running. One day I got sick of it and I yelled back at him “F you”. Then a week later we were back on Kandahar airfield again and I was running early one morning in the same area around Kandahar airfield on the dirt road that went around the airfield runway.

 

So that day the same 82nd guy decided that he was gonna get me and he drove out onto the dirt road in a HUMVEE and began driving along side me while I was running. Then he started telling me to stop and get in the truck with him and that we were going to go see the base Command Sergeant Major (CSM). So I replied “F you I’m not getting in the fing truck”. Then he got on his radio and called someone. And I asked him “if you’re so scared of land mines then why the F are you driving on this road following me?” Then he just kept calmly driving along side me and he said to me “oh it’s ok the MPs (Military Police) are on their way”. So I thought to myself for a second and then I decided fine catch me, and I then ran off the dirt road, I then hurdled a short 3 foot high barbed wire fence around the runway, and then I proceeded to run across the Kandahar airfield runway LMAO [emoji23]. Then he stopped his truck and yelled at me to stop immediately and I was gone I just darted across the runway and I got to the other side of the airfield closer to our SF compound. My little short cut cut off about 5 kilometers off of my run because I ran directly across the runway to escape lol instead of continuing to run around the runway on the dirt road.

 

Another funny part of the story is that as soon as I got to the other side of the airfield and back on the road two MPs (Military Police) sped right by me on bicycles headed towards the area I was where the 82nd guy called them on the radio and they didn’t even notice me. So I managed to evade my way back to my compound on Kandahar airfield not running from the enemy but I was running from some 82nd First Sergeant lol [emoji23].

 

Later on that day the guy saw me on base on Kandahar airfield the same 82nd guy and he just grabbed me by the arm and said “YOU AND I ARE GOING TO SEE THE POST CSM NOW!” he was PISSED! I replied to him “LIKE HELL WE ARE AND IF YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR FING HAND THEN I SUGGEST YOU TAKE YOUR HAND OFF ME RIGHT NOW!!!” He immediately let go of my arm and backed down.

 

But he knew I was SF and he reported me to my Commander who luckily liked me and he didn’t care. So nothing happened to me. The guy also informed our JAG Officer the one I actually liked and instead of recommending an Article 15 he actually stood up for me. Plus my Team Sergeant liked me as well and they never would’ve supported UCMJ action against me especially not for regular Army 82nd BS. A few weeks later I ran passed the JAG Officer who was also running out there in the same restricted area (restricted by the 82nd not us). He was the only JAG Officer I ever met who was down to earth most of them are not and most JAG Officers are all about screwing people over to further their own careers. In the regular Army I never would have gotten away with that but in SF we pretty much did whatever we wanted within reason. We were known for coloring outside the lines and flat out breaking stupid rules like I did whenever I ran out there in the restricted area. We would find land mines out there all the time in areas that were supposedly cleared of mines. Especially after the rainy season after no rain for months then suddenly after a hard rain which is rare in the desert suddenly we would find land mines in places we walked every day, because the moisture in the ground would cause erosion and a lot of old land mines probably going back to when the Russians occupied Afghanistan would just kind of pop up out of the ground. Then we’d either call in the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Unit to come take care of it or if we were on a small Fire Base somewhere we’d just have our own SF Engineers dispose of it themselves the 18 Charlie SF Engineer because one of their jobs is dealing with explosives more than the rest of us.

 

But I could have gotten in trouble over that I was lucky although that little rule I broke was a long way from being a war crime that was more like maybe an Article 15 punishment worst case scenario. But no one cared because we were SF and we didn’t follow the 82nd’s stupid rules. So I have just as many good stories and funny stories as I do sad stories. A lot of people in the conventional Army especially the 82nd were extremely jealous of us in SF.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mel52]

Anyway the only thing I was mad about that day was that dude screwing up my run that morning and forcing me to cut it short because I needed to escape before the MPs arrived LMAO [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

 

 

 

 

[dick dasterdly]

Thanks Mel52 for an object lesson on how to completely derail a topic with endless, narcissistic stories ☹️.

[Mel52]

You know another rule we used to break was whenever we were on Kandahar airfield if we were running low on supplies or bottled water or whatever at night we’d very sneakily break into the 82nd or the 101st’s or by 2003 10th Mountain’s supply cage and just steal whatever we needed using a little 4 wheeler to get in and out quick without getting caught. I often got nominated for that “duty” because at the time I was still the junior guy on the team. We never called it “stealing” we always jokingly referred to it as “I acquired these items”. Sometimes I’d have to bring a set of bolt cutters to cut their lock. We’d also drink beer once in a while at night as long as we knew we were not gonna be doing anything which was a violation of general order number 1 in a combat zone but we could get away with it. But in Iraq when I was assigned to the SMU we were actually allowed to drink as long as we were not prepping for a mission or something else. In Afghanistan we’d drink with the Germans a few times because the Germans always have the best beer obviously. We drank with the New Zealand SAS once they hated being confused with Australians by the way lol. We had lots of different country’s Special Ops Forces nearby us in the compound. After Iraq I went to Tokyo Japan in August 2009 which was when I first got exposed to this area of the world and my wife’s a Thai citizen and a United States Permanent Resident. So that’s when we first started visiting here in Thailand to visit my wife’s family and that’s when I decided that I wanted to retire here.

 

So we broke our share of rules but like I said above within reason and those things were a FAR CRY from a war crime.

 

I have to be honest though IF Chief Gallagher actually did kill a wounded ISIS fighter as long as that’s all he did I truly don’t care. But I don’t know what happened in this case and I don’t know if there’s more to the story than what I know or not. And if anyone tries to tell me there is more to the story I’d probably ask what news channel you heard that on if I really felt like responding to it. Because if you heard it on the news it must be true right lol [emoji23].

 

 

 

 

 

 

[petemoss]

4 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:

Thanks Mel52 for an object lesson on how to completely derail a topic with endless, narcissistic stories ☹️.

There's no stopping him! 

[Mel52]

Well, unfortunately for some if they even think Chief Gallagher was guilty he must be regardless.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mel52]

There was one questionable thing we did. On my last tour in Afghanistan in SF we smuggled back the prosthetic leg of a Taliban Commander who we killed on a combat operation. His name was Haji Satar among many aliases and he was a real bad guy. He was well known for murdering 4 German Red Cross workers by beheading, German Red Cross workers if I remember right they were German but regardless he was definitely not a nice guy he was the type of enemy that we really wanted to get.

 

So long story short we killed him on the mission and we brought his body back to Kandahar airfield for DNA analysis to make sure 100% that he was the right bad guy which he was. Turned out that he was also HIV positive by the way. So we kept his prosthetic leg not really a big deal.

 

He was such a high value target and such a bad guy that someone I worked for wanted to bring his prosthetic leg back to put in the trophy case back at our headquarters on Fort Bragg. But legally there’s no question about it that’s considered a war trophy which is illegal and that’s why we had to smuggle it back to the states in a storage container.

 

That’s nothing compared to what Chief Gallagher was accused of, what we did probably would have just been a slap on the wrist had we been caught. In SF we could get away with little things like that but in the regular Army no way. War trophies are illegal but it technically wasn’t a war trophy because it wasn’t like any of us were going to take his prosthetic leg covered in his tried up blood home it was to be kept at the Battalion headquarters only. You could maybe say we were very wrong in doing that but I really don’t care. It’s very difficult to understand what goes on over there unless you’ve been there no matter how many stories I tell. And I definitely do not talk about everything because there are some things that I am not allowed to discuss and there are other things that I just prefer not to discuss. But I’ll talk to people about it if we get into a deep conversation sometimes. Anyway regardless of what I think about the military justice system Chief Gallagher was acquitted of the most serious charges. You got OJ Simpson walking around free so why not Chief Gallagher.

 

 

 

 

[petemoss]

38 minutes ago, Mel52 said:

There was one questionable thing we did. On my last tour in Afghanistan in SF we smuggled back the prosthetic leg of a Taliban Commander who we killed on a combat operation.

Jackanory, Jackanory........

[Mel52]

You know during the beginning of my 3rd tour in Afghanistan we heard about some ODA from either 19th or 20th SFG I forget which one who got caught trying to smuggle some poppy seeds and some AK-47s back to the states when they were on their way back home. Now those guys I don’t feel sorry for them no matter what punishment they received because the majority of us from SF are better than that. I was in 3rd SFG but I worked with guys from 20th SFG in Afghanistan and the guys I knew at the time from 20th Group seemed like good dudes. There are always some bad apples no one is perfect I know I’m not. Although if I told half the stories I have I would really piss off all of the extremists on this forum. Anyway point being there are some lines you just don’t cross and killing innocent people especially women and children are definitely one of the lines you do NOT cross ever at least not on purpose. Defending my homeland and people was actually a real thing for me believe it or not. I don’t know what Chief Gallagher did or did not do though I’m still not judging him because I don’t even know the dude.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[evadgib]

1 hour ago, Mel52 said:

You know during the beginning of my 3rd tour in Afghanistan we heard about some ODA from either 19th or 20th SFG I forget which one who got caught trying to smuggle some poppy seeds and some AK-47s back to the states when they were on their way back home. Now those guys I don’t feel sorry for them no matter what punishment they received because the majority of us from SF are better than that. I was in 3rd SFG but I worked with guys from 20th SFG in Afghanistan and the guys I knew at the time from 20th Group seemed like good dudes. There are always some bad apples no one is perfect I know I’m not. Although if I told half the stories I have I would really piss off all of the extremists on this forum. Anyway point being there are some lines you just don’t cross and killing innocent people especially women and children are definitely one of the lines you do NOT cross ever at least not on purpose. Defending my homeland and people was actually a real thing for me believe it or not. I don’t know what Chief Gallagher did or did not do though I’m still not judging him because I don’t even know the dude.

 

[Scott]

The personal testimonials are interesting and informative, however, they are not particularly on topic.   Let's stick a little closer to the topic.  

 

[Mel52]

Hopefully Chief Gallagher is enjoying his victory in court because at most Courts Martial you’re more than likely to be convicted whether you did it or not. His acquittal is a victory for all Special Operations Forces and a nice middle finger to all terrorists. Good for his Jury I myself am extremely happy about it. His acquittal is another great day for America. [emoji2]

 

 

 

 

 

[Rimmer]

A post discussing moderation has been removed