Category: Army News

USAToday reports that Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley says that he wasn’t aware that recruiters were told to apply for waivers for recruits with mental problems until he read the USAToday article on Sunday and that he has rescinded the memo.

Milley, appearing before reporters, said the Army rescinded the memo because of an article published Sunday by USA TODAY.

He maintained that the policy on considering such waivers had not changed but had been delegated to a lower level for approval.

Milley said the Army had done a “terrible” job explaining the policy. He credited USA TODAY for bringing the issue to his attention.

“There wasn’t a change in policy,” Milley said. “There cannot be a change in policy by someone who doesn’t have the authority to change policy. I know it sounds circular.”

General Milley met with Senator John McCain on Tuesday and guaranteed him that Milley would write a letter explaining the policy. McCain had expressed his displeasure with the policy shift;

The change drew immediate fire on Capitol Hill, as Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, upbraided the nominee for the Army’s general counsel Tuesday.

“If you took a poll of this committee right now I doubt if you’d find a single one who would be approving of this practice, which we now find out about reading the daily newspaper,” McCain said.

Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the committee from Rhode Island, said he agreed with McCain’s concerns.

Thanks to Bobo for the link.

Bobo sends us a link to the news that Major General Ryan Gonsalves’ promotion to Lieutenant General was held up because he mistreated a Congressional staffer, according to Stars & Stripes;

Gonsalves, who was considered to be in contention to serve as the next head of U.S. Army Europe, is now serving as a “special assistant to the commanding general, III Corps.”

“General Gonsalves was substantiated for a failure to treat a Congressional staffer with dignity and respect,” the Army said in a statement. “That finding is currently under review to determine what, if any, further action will be taken.”

The Army did not provide additional details about the nature of the incident or the congressional staff member who was involved. Gonsalves could not be reached for immediate comment.

Unless the facts of the case include some sort of physical abuse, I’d have to respond with “So f’n what?” Only Congress would complain about an aide’s abuse and attempting to destroy a general’s career. Last time I checked, a Congressional aide doesn’t outrank a general.

The social media and the media is chocked full of accusations from the Left and the “Never Trump” crowd that Bergdahl didn’t get any jail time because of President Trump’s ill-considered comments during the Presidential campaign. Bergdahl’s lawyers even blamed Trump for the decision.

For example, Peter Bergen, CNN analyst writes;

Finally, the judge said he would also weigh prejudicial statements made by President Trump about the case as a mitigating factor. The military is very sensitive to the issue of undue “command influence” in the military justice system.

When he was a candidate, Trump often called Bergdahl a traitor who should be executed, and just last month when he was asked about Bergdahl, the commander in chief said, “I think people have heard my comments in the past.”

Even though his own comments proved to be a factor in the judge giving Bergdahl leniency, Trump didn’t hold back in criticizing the decision Friday. On Twitter, Trump said the judge’s decision is “a complete disgrace to our Country and to our Military.”

The New York Times adds;

Ironically, Mr. Trump’s comments may have contributed to the decision not to sentence him to prison. After Mr. Trump seemed last month to endorse his harsh criticism from the campaign trail, Colonel Nance ruled that he would consider the comments as mitigating evidence at sentencing.

With the sentence still facing review by General Abrams and military appellate judges, Mr. Trump’s post-verdict comments on Twitter seemed to bolster efforts by the defense to have the sentence thrown out on appeal, some military law experts said, on the grounds that the president had unlawfully influenced the case.

I guess everyone is forgetting that the investigating officer, Major General Kenneth Dahl recommended that Bergdahl avoid jail time, over two years ago, according to CNN’s own reportage;

Though Bergdahl was not duty-bound to comply with the investigation, he did so and submitted to a day and a half interview. Bergdahl did not exercise his right to silence at the start of the interview, Dahl said.

Dahl said he didn’t “believe there is a jail sentence at the end of this process.”

So Colonel Jeffrey Nance was only conceding to the investigating officer’s recommendations when he left a jail sentence out. That makes more sense to me than a watered-down sentence because of a presidential candidate’s comments during a political campaign.

By the way, Marine Robert R. Garwood was convicted of collaborating with the North Vietnamese and he didn’t serve any jail time either after his 1981 conviction.

CBS News reports that military judge Colonel Jeffrey Nance decided that Bowe Bergdahl will serve no jail time for his walkabout from his base which resulted in five years captivity by the Haqqani Network of terrorists.

Army Col. Judge Jeffery R. Nance said Bergdahl will be dishonorably discharged and have his rank reduced to private. He issued the ruling Friday after nearly two weeks of sentencing proceedings that included testimony by Bergdahl’s former comrades. Bergdahl, 31, was held by the Taliban for five years before being released in a prisoner swap in 2014.

Really, are you surprised?

The prosecution asked for 14 years and Nance couldn’t even give Bergdahl a day.

I’ve been waiting patiently for news out of the Bergdahl sentencing hearing that would indicate that the Army is tired of the BS and has decided on a sentence, but the defense has droned on about poor Bowe. A mental health doctor testified yesterday that Bergdahl suffers from PTSD that he caught before he joined the military from his childhood. His childhood PTSD has been exasperated by his treatment as a POW, according to ABC News;

The doctor also provided insights into Bergdahl’s way of thinking, saying that while he’s intelligent, he is also “naive.”

Morgan compared Bergdahl to a child who jumps into things without thinking about the consequences. Bergdahl wants to do the right thing but doesn’t always know the right way to go about it, Morgan said.

“Once [Bergdahl] gets an idea that makes sense, he wants to do it,” Morgan said, adding later that Bergdahl knew walking off of his Army post “would get him in trouble.”

During his examination, Morgan administered five separate tests on Bergdahl to determine if the soldier was trying to fake a mental illness.

Bergdahl passed every test but one, which Morgan said is designed for civilians — not prisoners of war — and could explain why Bergdahl tested so highly on the probability for malingering, or faking an illness.

“The fact that they don’t see something wrong doesn’t mean there’s not something wrong,” Morgan said.

“People with mental health illness are not dumb,” he added.

The article continues with testimony from a woman who runs a cat rescue shelter in San Antonio. Apparently, while Bergdahl was there, he brought her 24 cats – she calls him the “Cat Whisperer” and offered him a job.

NBC News says that an intelligence agent described Bergdahl as a “Goldmine” of information on the Haqqani network during his debriefing in the days after his release;

Amber Dach, who spent 16 years in military intelligence, was the primary analyst assigned to Bergdahl’s case for the five years after he disappeared. She described how eager he was to help intelligence officials at a hospital in Germany days after he was returned to U.S. authorities. Although his voice was weak and raspy, he helped authorities and even drew diagrams in his downtime to bring to his next debriefing session.

Dach and another official who debriefed Bergdahl testified that his time in Germany was extended partly so he could offer additional time-sensitive intelligence.

“He was very motivated to just download all of the details that he recalled,” Dach testified. “It was a gold mine. It really reshaped the way we did intel collection in the area.”

Bergdahl testified on his own behalf and broke down during his testimony, according to another NBC News link;

In an unexpected move, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl took the stand in his sentencing hearing Monday, breaking down several times and apologizing to those who were wounded while searching for him after he abandoned his post in Afghanistan.

“I was trying to do something good and it turned bad,” Bergdahl said, reading from a statement at the beginning of his testimony. “My words alone can’t relieve the pain. … I think about what I did every day for the last eight years.”

Well, see, here’s the thing – Bergdahl went AWOL. He left his post in the face of the enemy. He caused other people to sacrifice their own well-being because of his actions. He might have been a “gold mine” of intelligence, but only because he walked straight into the arms of the enemy. He may suffer mental issues, but because of his own actions when he consciously left his weapon on his bunk and walked out of his compound and into the arms of the enemy.

He may be contrite about his crimes, but there was malice aforethought, when he sent his personal belongings home to his parents in the days before he walked into the arms of the enemy. His intentions are irrelevant – he didn’t discuss those intentions with his mates, who would have been able to convince him not to walk off his post and into the arms of the enemy.

There are no mitigating circumstances, other than the fact that Bergdahl, the cat whisperer, is a selfish goofball. He deserted his unit in combat because a private first class thought he knew better than his experienced combat leaders. Bergdahl disregarded the harm he would cause to his mates for some sense of superiority.

The Associated Press reports that Army Colonel Jeffery Nance, the judge in the Bergdahl trial, has rejected the defense lawyers’ claims that remarks by President Trump during last year’s campaign will taint the fairness of the sentencing.

The judge did say, however, that he would consider Trump’s comments as a mitigating factor in the sentencing. Other mitigating and aggravating factors that he could consider include Bergdahl’s mental health and serious wounds to service members who searched for him.

According to NPR, Colonel Nance said;

However, Nance said he was “completely unaffected” by Trump’s remarks. The judge stressed that he was close to retirement and had no plans to seek a higher military position. He says that under the circumstances, the public would have no reason to lose faith in military justice.

Nance had wide discretion on Bergdahl’s sentence — he could potentially sentence him to anything from no jail time to life in prison. The president’s comments, he says, could have some bearing as he determines the sentence.

Shannon Allen, the wife of National Guard Master Sergeant Mark Allen, who was wounded while searching for Bergdahl and was permanently disabled from the head wound, is expected to testify today in the closing hours of the sentencing hearing.