Friday, December 6, 2019

Not quite right

The following paragraph appears in this essay from the Daily Signal:
Other presidents probably would have waited to see what the Trident Review Board did before acting. Trident Review Boards are composed of fellow SEALs, who sit in judgment of fellow SEALs, and decide whether or not to allow their shipmates to keep their Tridents, given the alleged misconduct.
Au contraire. These boards merely make a recommendation. The recommendation goes to the convening authority (Commander Naval Special Warfare Command). That flag officer in turn makes a recommendation to the Navy Military Personnel Command in Millington, TN. The final decision rests there, barring a veto by higher uniformed or civilian authority. Links to the governing rules can be found here.

The Intercept has a story with this paragraph:
Although Gallagher was the only member of SEAL Team 7 to be tried and convicted for posing with the dead ISIS fighter, several other members of his Alpha platoon also posed with the body. Green determined that all of them, including Gallagher, would go before a review board of senior enlisted SEALs in a Navy justice process similar to a civil trial, and be judged as to whether they deserved to keep their Tridents. If the board deemed their conduct unworthy of the SEAL identity, all would be stripped of their Tridents and removed from Naval Special Warfare. The measure would allow Green to send a message that Gallagher’s conduct was beneath the Navy SEALs.
Again, the implication that the buck stops with the board is incorrect. Also, the suggestion that the board process is similar to a civil trial is a reach, as the COMNAVSPECWARINST reveals.

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