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Home Front: Politix

Our father helped found the future Navy SEALs. His vision didn't include Edward Gallagher.

2019-12-04

[USA Today] Edward Gallagher has brought shame to a community our father helped found. Now he is being emboldened to tear down our nation’s premier fighting force by a president who does not understand the consequences of his actions.

Our father, Rear Adm. Draper Kauffman, was the founder of the training school for the Navy underwater demolition teams (UDTs) that became the Navy SEALs. His heroic bomb-disposal actions at Pearl Harbor led to the creation of ‐ and be among the first to survive ‐ "Hell Week," the grueling five-day test of SEAL candidates that continues to challenge the strongest men our country has to offer and is still described as among the most difficult military training in the world.

We can say unequivocally: Dad would have been horrified by the actions of Gallagher and would never have allowed him to remain a part of the Navy SEALs.

GALLAGHER'S SHAMEFUL CASE
Gallagher was accused of heinous war crimes by his peers after a 2017 deployment to Mosul, Iraq. Soon after these allegations came to light, Gallagher allegedly began to sow discord among his team of brothers, attacking their sense of loyalty while remaining blind to his own misdeeds.

His subsequent trial, after which he was acquitted of all but one charge, again left the SEAL community deeply divided, but at least the ordeal was seemingly behind them.

Until last month, when President Donald Trump reversed Gallagher's demotion and ordered that he remain a SEAL, preventing the commander of Naval Special Warfare, Rear Adm. Collin Green, from even starting the formal process of expelling Gallagher from the SEALs: an action that drove an even larger wedge into this politically exhausted group of warriors.

Learn from Gallagher, don't punish him: Navy SEALs have a problem, but it's not my client Edward Gallagher

Dad believed deeply in the chain of command and in honorable service to one’s nation without reward or recognition. We have no doubt that he would have acknowledged Trump’s authority to maintain Gallagher as a SEAL. We also have no doubt that he would have resigned in protest of this debasement of the high standards that elite teams like the UDTs and SEALs must uphold.

Posted by:Besoeker

#8 Just another dose of BABBLING "MALE BOVINE SCATOLOGY SCRIPTOLOGY"! IMO, from another that knows NOTHING of what they babble about!

Posted by: ranture 2019-12-04 10:56

#7 Our father, Rear Adm. Draper Kauffman, was the founder of the training school for the Navy underwater demolition teams (UDTs) that became the Navy SEALs. His heroic bomb-disposal actions at Pearl Harbor led to the creation of ‐ and be among the first to survive ‐ "Hell Week," the grueling five-day test of SEAL candidates that continues to challenge the strongest men our country has to offer and is still described as among the most difficult military training in the world.

This is a kennel's worth of dog shit. I'm not saying SEALs are not bad ass, but this is like a vegan explaining why vegans are vegans.

Please correct me if I am wrong; Kauffman cut his teeth during the London Blitz. UDT cut their teeth during the Guam campaign. The SEAL as we know it is post Vietnam.

Posted by: swksvolFF 2019-12-04 10:50

#6 Trophy hunting as been around forever...

Posted by: Goober Tingle7365 2019-12-04 10:14

#5 remaining blind to his own misdeeds

When one begins to compartmentalize as a survival coping mechanism.

Posted by: Skidmark 2019-12-04 05:30

#4 Is it just me or does this writer seem confused, in a bid to point at some hypothetical standard the good Rear Adm. would have judged today's soldiers.

We also have no doubt that he would have resigned in protest of this debasement of the high standards

I think the man would have resigned long before, when the USA didn't bomb Pakistan for harboring Bin Laden. But how germane is that to our current realities. There's a battle of civilizations on. We can't nitpick and destroy our buddies over trifles like this, the bloody enemy plays football with heads for fuck's sake !

Posted by: Dron66046 2019-12-04 02:14

#3 An old colleague of mine reaffirmed his support for the former USN SEAL saying "Gallagher's only crime was that he failed to kill them all!"

Posted by: Besoeker 2019-12-04 02:08

#2 Please STFU.

Posted by: Uleck Spererong9442 2019-12-04 02:07

#1 Meghan McCain has new pals?

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2019-12-04 01:55

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