A letter from Rear Admiral Collin Green, the commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command to the commander of the SEAL Teams.
“We have a problem.”
His blistering letter to his subordinate commanders lays out the facts that the problems are not with the individual warriors but the men who lead them.
An observer might look at this as “what is wrong with the SEAL Teams” but the real question is; what is wrong with the leadership that has taken the word of terrorists, politicians and over zealous Navy attorneys or investigators that are selling our brave soldiers out?
And what happened to commanders looking out for and supporting the men under their command?
He relates a story that should break your heart.
I speak from personal experience. In 2009 my platoon captured the infamous ‘butcher of Fallujah’, so well featured in Chris Kyle’s America Sniper movie. We were subsequently Courts martialed by fellow commanding SEALs; Wilske and Richards. 3 of the 8 of us initially charged stood a full courts martials. Everyone was acquitted as we knew we would be, however the damage was done.
No matter what the results, the fact that a military member appears before a courts-martial will always be in their record.
And then he says this:
The system is broken, I wrote about this in all three of my books. Many commanders become bureaucratic monsters with their career in their front sights and not the mission or the men, they forget. Do SEALs get a wrap for being cowboys? Hell yes we do, and that’s because we are the ones that raised our hands to do the job that most don’t want to do and even more can’t do, so cut us some slack if we want to have a few beers in Iraq in between gun fights. I did, and I know a bunch of now high-ranking brass that did because they were right next to me doing it in Baghdad in 2007.
There’s a whole lot more @ Former Navy SEAL's Open Letter to Navy Command: 'SEALs Aren't the Problem, it's the Leadership'
Top Navy SEAL commander writes scathing letter saying the force has a problem in the wake of SEAL scandals
@ Top Navy SEAL commander writes scathing letter saying the force has a problem in the wake of SEAL scandals