“The US Marine Corps officer who was relieved of his command for chastising his bosses over the botched Afghan withdrawal has landed in military lockup, his father said.
In a video that went viral on Facebook last month, Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller ripped into military leadership following the devastating suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, which killed 13 US service members and scores of Afghans.
Following the impassioned spiel, Lt. Col. Scheller announced he was resigning his commission and walking away from a $2 million pension after 17 years of service.
He later announced that he was ordered to undergo a mental health screening.
Now, his father told Task & Purpose that the officer is currently in the brig.
“All our son did is ask the questions that everybody was asking themselves, but they were too scared to speak out loud,” Stu Scheller Sr. told the news outlet.
“He was asking for accountability. In fact, I think he even asked for an apology that we made mistakes, but they couldn’t do that, which is mind-blowing,” the elder Scheller said, adding that his son is due to appear before a military hearing on Thursday.” NY Post
Comment: Commissioned officers are not usually placed in pre-trial confinement. The US Marine Corps thinks this man is a flight risk? They think he is a menace to the public? They have sent him to the shrinks because they can’t believe a sane man would have thrown his career away?
German field marshal Prince Rupprecht Wittelsbach said of the British Army in WWI that they were “an army of lions led by asses.” What would he have said of the “leaders” who have treated this brave soul so foully?
I defy anyone to tell me how the leadership of the marines and DoD can torture UCMJ enough to find a chargeable offense in what Scheller did in calling for accountability for the misdeeds of leadership. “Conduct unbecoming …?” Quite the contrary thing. Quite the contrary.
Milley, McKenzie and Austen are to testify before Congress the next two days. Will the Congress ask of Scheller’s fate? pl
https://nypost.com/2021/09/28/lt-col-stuart-scheller-being-held-in-military-lockup/
True leaders are always at the front putting themselves at more risk than their men. The cream is rising to the top, it will not curdle. They’re trying to lock him up because as a free civilian he can run for office. Fortunately he seems to be hardman that will take it and come out stronger, and with men who will follow him.
Is honor now judged to be a mental health condition by the DoD?
That’s what the KGB claimed in the USSR.
“Take me to the brig. I want to see the real Marines.” — Lewis Burwell Puller
Scheller promised to bring charges against a General or two. So now, of course, they need to discredit and destroy him. I’m sure Scheller expected something like this and I’m sure he’s good to go for the fight that lies ahead.
https://www.sofmag.com/lt-col-stuart-scheller-usmc-fired-for-blasting-gens-milley-and-austin-expecting-to-be-court-martialed-is-in-the-brig/
Meanwhile, nothing happening with Milley for violating the chain of command by taking it upon himself to talk to China about what he would or wouldn’t do if an armed confrontation was brewing.
EN
Who besides McKenzie had Scheller said he would charge?
Sir,
I think he was aiming at Milley too. Maybe I just read that between the lines.
Pompeo thought Assange was worth assassinating because he made him and the CIA look bad.
They just put 5 stars on his collar and don’t even know it. Putting people in prison of high morale character…. might as well tamp figurative C4 under your own command center. Should have given him a safe escape route.
The Corps gave him a direct order.
“Effective immediately upon your receipt below, you are hereby ordered to refrain from posting any and all material, in any form without exception, to any social media. In this context, the term ‘social media’ shall be construed very broadly to include any medium by which you may share information with groups of people. It includes more traditional forms of social media (e.g., Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn) as well nontraditional methods one might use to circumvent established social media (e.g., mass emails, group text messages, electronic bulleting boards). You are also prohibited from communicating through third parties or proxies.”
Scheller disregarded that direct order. The Corps threw his ass in the brig. Pure and simple. Before this he was relieved of his command for publicly expressing his views. That shouldn’t have been unexpected. The Corps would have let him complete his 20 doing shit jobs for the next 2 years. They didn’t issue this last gag order until he persisted in publicly expressing his views. He should have resigned his commission with his first statement. Then he could have said what ever he wanted whenever he wanted.
TTG
IMO it was an unjust and perhaps illegal order.
General Milley and the flag officers of the deep state, along with the political geniuses of the left, are sending a message to all that political loyalty to the Party and her ideology is the primary characteristic looked for in the officer corps. Real men of courage and honor are the Victors of Kabul. They are Loyal and True. On a related note Ensign Biden’s coke peddler was never imprisoned, nor was Ensign Biden ever asked to testify about the individual who damaged the combat effectiveness of the JAG, of which he, and especially his brother – as Joe always reminds us -, were such effective members.
Milley is testifying before congress. I can’t wait to hear someone ask when Milley first called his Chinese counterpart to find out just the they were doing in that lab in Wuhan. He did call them for that, didn’t he?
Just a clarification, Hunter Biden was a Special Duty – Public Affairs Officer (1655).
Scheller is being charged with Article 88, Article 90, Article 92, and Article 133. If I were the convening authority, not sure I would want to refer him to a GCM. Might try a Special, but even that would result in some bad press for the USMC.
scotts
Can an officer be tried by a special?
An officer cannot be tried by a summary court martial, but he can be tried by a special.
Lysias Interesting I served on many Specials before lawyers were required but don’t remember an officer tried at a Special.
The good Lt Col is going to go to an Article 32 hearing. IMO, the Corps is giving him an out w/ the psych eval. If it is found that he has some PTSD or something similar then they probably will not proceed to court martial and it all gets dropped at the Article 32 hearing and swept under the rug and quickly forgotten. If Scheller continues to talk, well then, you know, that’s the mental condition talking. Pay it no mind. He may even be afforded an opportunity to be medically retired with benefits. Ball is in Scheller’s court – or maybe not. The Corps may force the medical retirement even if Scheller resists. Corps saves face/did the “right thing” in the public’s eye.
I bet they’ll throw the contemptuous words article of the UCMJ at Scheller.
Boy, I would love to be the lawyer defending Scheller. This has all the earmarks of a historic case.
Lysias
IMO saying that you will charge someone with something will not meet the elements of proof for Article 88.
That’s part of why it would be a historic case.
Lysias
They could try to nail him under the General Article but IMO that would fail
The underlying issue is the compatibility of Article 88 with the First Amendment.
Lysias
Yes. There is a lot of hypocrisy about Article 88. Clinton was routinely referred to out of civilian presence as “the punk.”
Lysias,
There may be no defense for an officer in the last 15 or so seconds of this statement he published on Ytube, in which he threatens to “bring the whole system down”. This is the one that got him the gag order he disobeyed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR7jBsR0D10&t=495s
I see him as a combat officer of multiple deployments who can not accept it was “all for nothing”. It’s a hard, hard thing.
In his first tape he opines that if the civilian leadership rejects the advise of the military then the military advisors MUST resign. How can the system of subordination to civilian control exist in that condition? It can’t. Nevertheless, this is not what has him in serious trouble now.
I hope they agree to drop charges if he accepts psychological counselling. He’s had a lot of deployments and has plausibly blown a fuse. A combat officer with his deployments deserves a second shot at his pension and benes. God knows many who have done less are going to get them.
Mark Logan
He should do no such thing. Admit he is a psycho? Maybe you need evaluation. Saying he will bring down the system is not a chargeable offense under any punitive article.
Publicly calling on blue collar civilians to rally around him to bring the whole effin’ system down, as he did in that last 15 seconds I referred to, is chargeable conduct unbecoming.
I see no other viable way for him to keep his benes, which he may not want a the moment but that could change.
Mark Logan
“blue collar civilians” What a snob thing to write!
“Blue collar” wasn’t mine. I quoted Scheller there.
Mark Logan ok. You should have put quotes around it.
There have always been people who have risked everything to denounce what was wrong, especially in face of governments gone rogue, corrupt or in the verge of nascent dictatorship.
There have always been people who, whatever it happens, always found their swallowing capacity big enough to justify whatever it happens, fought zilch, and then enjoyed the rightsand freedoms won out of the sacrifice of those who risked everything.
For this, enjoy your tranquility!
Then , glory to the heros! But, your glory is not of this world….
Soon there will not be space enough on Earth to jail all the “prisoners of conscience”…
Where will they place us? In the outer space?
A quarter of the population in Spain, half the population in France, half the population in Italy, half the population in Germany, most of population in Bulgaria and Romania, half the population in the US….
If he has political aspirations it’s the best move he could possibly make. Sure, he has to pay for it in full right now but once that is done look out. The Great Resetters would not know what hit them. There is a massive front of Combat Veterans out here just waiting for a Leader with integrity to unplug us from this crony machine.
Besides article 88, Scheller will be charged with article 90: Willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, article 92: Failure to obey an order, and article 133: Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. His first video got him relieved of command. What he said after that is probably what resulted in charges. The written gag order only applied to social media. He could still write letters to the Marine Corps Gazette, Leatherneck and Marine Corps Times. He could still stand on the foot of his driveway and vent. I think it’s hard to claim the order to stay off social media is an illegal order. He still had First Amendment freedoms. He probably doesn’t in the brig.
TTG
Why are you against this guy? Want to see him crucified obviously. I have another Lefty friend who managed to retire from the army as a major even though she was in the first womany class at WP. For her the government can do no wrong. Would you feel the same if Trump were president?
I don’t want him crucified. I bet most of the USMc brass don’t want him crucified either. It’s bad all around. After the Article 32, he may just be allowed to resign or referred for a psych eval, maybe even offered a medical discharge. He’s not nuts, not at all. No more than Smedley Butler. But Butler had the good sense to retire before making his speech and writing his book.
The Afghan mess is a bipartisan cock up. It was Trump who approved the articles of capitulation to the Taliban and wanted all troops out by 15 January, everyone else be damned. Both Presidents were right to get out. The generals wanted to stay in indefinitely. It was bound to end in a strategic defeat
TTG
He has already proffered his resignation and they won’t let him out preferring to nail him up. They will regret this. This reminds me of of the marine O-6 in “Full Metal Jacket” who tells a reporter that all he expects from his marines “is corpse like obedience.” Is that what the Jesuits taught you?
Corpse-like obedience? “Kadavergehorsam” was a phrase in the old German military.
Lysias
Oh bullshit! you have a link? Wehrmacht officers were trained to think for themselves.
That was the Prussian army. In the Austrian army, the highest decoration went to someone whose disobedience of an order led to a victory.
Lysias He was the crown prince of Bavaria.
Looking it up, I see Kadavergehorsam was a term applied to Prussian militarism by its enemies.
Lysias
I don’t care what the enemies of the German Army said. I know a lot more about that army than you do.
pl,
Where was this outrage when Vindmann spoke his mind over Executive malfeasance? He refused to exhibit corpse like obedience to Trump. At least he said his piece in front of White House lawyers and Congressional committees rather than in a Facebook rant.
TTG
Vindman was not charged with anything, was not dismissed from the service and was allowed to retire in grade with his retired pay and benefits intact. At the time of his voluntary retirement he was on the selectee list for the resident course at the US Army War College. He received the Legion of Merit upon retirement.
Funny that Lysias provided a link to the entomology of “Kadavergehorsam” and it first referred to the Jesuits. Specifically Ignatius Loyola’s words “Qui sub Obedientia vivunt, se ferri ac regi a divina Providentia per Superiores suos sinere debent perinde, ac si cadaver essent.”
Those who live under obedience ought to allow themselves to be carried and ruled by divine providence through their superiors, just as if they were a cadaver.
The words of a former soldier.
TTG
“entomology?” You will have explain that to me.
I was looking for the word etymology, word origin, rather than entomology, the study insects. I guess Mrs. Malaprop must be in my family tree. Who’s that stand up comic that based his whole schtick on malaprops?
Corpse-like obedience? “Kadavergehorsam” was a phrase in the old German military.
That’s wrong, Lysias, the compound was popularized during the German late 18th century culture war ( Kulturkampf), led by (Prussian and Protestant) Bismarck in his larger fight against the Catholic Church. It’s based on an older anti-Jesuit conspiracy theory or propaganda. In 1872 the Jesuit order was forbidden in Germany.
That’s were the cadaver part of the nounn derives from. …
TTG,
“articles of capitulation”
That’s some nice sophistry. Our senior officers had years to plan for an exit. That’s the same group, along with State and all the intel agencies, that spent years telling us how great and capable the Afghan army was. The readers here all knew better because it was discussed in detailed with people practiced in the military art including yourself and our host.
“It was bound to end in a strategic defeat”
No. That is an excuse to coverup for the corrupt politicians who failed us all. A JROTC class could have done a better job planning that exit than these people. The generals involved should have all been fired.
Neither Trump nor Biden held the Taliban to any of the conditions laid out in the Doha Accord. They both wanted out. Period. For a year Trump removed troops and ignored the corrupt government in Kabul as long as the Taliban didn’t attack our troops. Both that government and the Afghan Army knew their days were numbered. That the DoD and the IC couldn’t see this coming over the year and a half after the Doha Accord, is a massive failing.
Yes it is a strategic defeat. The Taliban are in charge. That was the inevitable end game of the Doha Accord/articles of capitulation. What kind of pollyanna thinking are you employing to see any other ending?
In a previous video he cryptically posed in front of a chess board with a trompowski attack set up. A trompowski attack is an opening power move where
Condottiere
Something missing?
pl,
In comparing the treatment received by Vindmann and Scheller, I was referring to the outrage from Trump supporters. They thought Vindmann should have been blindly loyal to the President and kept what he heard and suspected to himself rather than speak his conscience. It’s a far cry from the wild support Scheller is receiving for speaking his conscience from those same Trump supporters.
The Army treated Vindmann right, much to the chagrin of many Trump supporters. The Marines and especially Scheller are now in a real bind, also much to the chagrin of those same Trump supporters.
TTG
I am not a Trump supporter although his supporters appeal to me daily for my help in various ways. I am deeply Conservative and liked many of his policies if not his manner. I thought Vindmann should have declined to testify at the hearing on the basis of our code of not stabbing the boss in the back but I thought that the Army treated him and his brother correctly. I think the treatment being given to Scheller is excessive. The USMC and whoever is backing them look like petty tyrants. They should have let him resign and depart.
Served there for several years in multiple locations including Bagram. I fought them, I negotiated with them and I even saved a few. They just want to organize their life by the Koran, literally. The good LTC asked the right question. Why did we abandon Bagram which was fully defensivle with a minimum number of troops, provided a secure airport, massive facilities for refugees, a fully equipped hospital, aircraft maintenance facilities, before we evacuated those we wanted to evacuate? The answer is obvious….Biden wanted to say we were completely out by 9-11 for political purposes. And no the outcome would not be the same. The Taliban need us. Afghanistan’s population has doubled in the last 20 years despite massive refugee outflows. There is not enough food or potential to grow food. A simple continuation of the lease on Bagram would have been easy to negotiate. They need the money. If we simply agreed to let them run AFG according to their desires with judicial amputations, stoning, suppression of women, polygamy etc. and we left them alone they would leave us alone. And Bagram could have been our embassy and exit route for those who wanted to leave and it would carry the implicit threat that if things got too crazy we would be back. Thanks to Bush and Biden (who got all the Democrats on board with the invasion) we entered a bad marriage. For the sake of the 20 million children we should have tried to make it a decent divorce. That is on Joe Biden who disregarded his generals who were chosen to be politically malleable yes men in the first place. Watching them twist the truth and dissemble in Congress makes my stomach churn. Joe Biden has had a problem with the truth as long as he has been in politics so that is expected. Biden has never had a real job with responsibilities and consequences if it is not done properly.
He has been released from confinement on the basis of a deal among him, his lawyer and the CG of USMC Training Command. My SWAG would be that deal is that he shut his mouth until they accept his resignation,
Scheller
IMO he will be convicted on one or more charges by the Special CM and sentenced to do prison time. So far as I know an officer cannot do prison time and therefore they will dismiss him as an officer and he will serve time either as a private E-1 in a military prison or in a federal prison as a civilian prisoner.