US Marine officer in Haditha case leaves service

Source: AP

A Camp Pendleton Marine officer who was accused of failing to investigate the killings of 24 Iraqis by a squad in the town of Haditha has left the service.

Attorney Jon Shelburne says Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani's last day in the Corps was Friday.

Shelburne said Monday that Navy Secretary Ray Mabus recently upheld a ruling that the former battalion commander displayed substandard performance in response to the deaths but should maintain his rank.

Chessani, of Rangely, Colo., was accused of failing to investigate the 2005 killings but a judge dismissed a charge of dereliction of duty.

Read more: http://www.salon.com/wires/allwires/2010/07/19/D9H2GP5O0_us_marines_haditha/index.html

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That would be detrimental to troop morale.

The Marine who was in charge of the squad is still on active duty and awaiting a court martial after his previous one has rescinded on a procedural issue. This LtCol was one of the officers in the chain of command and the one who should have known something was up, however he was not there at the time the incident occurred.

I'm pretty sure that he is getting an other than honorable discharge and will be known for the rest of his life as the Bn CO involved at Haditha, making him radio active in the defense industry.

:(
rocktivity

The Military is still operating under the "up or out" policy, i.e. get promoted OR be dismissed from the service. He is a Lieutenant Colonel, his actions in this matter is grounds for him NOT to be promoted and as such he would have been dismissed from the service after his second denial of promotion. In effect the charge was fatal to his career.

Now there is a shortage of Military personnel within the Military, but that shortage is all in the lower ranks i.e. NOT enough people are enlisting (We need Privates, Corporals and Sergeants NOT Lt Colonels). The US has enough Captains and Lieutenants who want to be promoted to replace all of the field grade officers we have in the Military at the present time (Field Grade officials are Majors, Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels) thus no shortage of Field Grade Officers. Thus in this environment the charge was enough to kill his military career even if the charges were all dismissed.

new job/career?

Ruthless disdain for brown folks is a valuable commodity in the MilInd Complex.

Comes to mind

:patriot:

but why was he not?


You seem very anxious to deny an old-boy network that clearly exists.

Just like infidelity, it is extremely hard to prove he did what he was accused of doing, a cover up, if everyone on the chain of command sticks to their story. However, it is not hard to prove conduct unbecoming and failure to do a CO duty. They hit him with the latter but couldn't get the former, so he gets to retire with a ruined career but gets to keep his pension.

It is a pretty common occurrence that a LtCol who gets into trouble is allowed to keep his retirement. Mainly because the general officer doesn't want to hurt the officer's family who has been counting on that retirement to put the kids through college. Or the wife is entitled to half if they are getting a divorce, so why punish the spouse.

Because there are built-in good-ole-boy protections in the Code of Military Justice.


Keep beating that drum, Gunny.

:patriot:

The UCMJ offers a lot of protection to service members in time of war. It recognizes that the fog of war can be very dense and gives the benefit of the doubt to the service member. To an outsider who is use to a civilian court it might look like an old boy network but it has more to do with the UCMJ itself.

Never been a Gunny, but thanks for calling me one.

I won't be able to convince you because you seem to need to believe in "the System".

You can't convince me because I've seen too much of the Network at work.


Remember Ollie North?

I've been through and around it several times. I understand it and how it is used and can be manipulated. I know how f'd up it is. What looks like a railroading or a cover up to people outside the military, may be a fair and correct decision within the UCMJ framework.

I remember Ollie North, but I was a kid at the time. I can only talk about how I have seen the UCMJ used since OEF and OIF started.

I'll end this now. There's no way of "proving" that this guy will actually benefit and get an entirely new career handed to him by a corporate benefactor. If you wish to believe he'll be sanctioned for his acts, I will leave you to your beliefs.

I know this career officer took one for the team and his reward will be paid in 6 digits a year, for the remainder of his useful life.

Feel free to restate your premise again, but I'm leaving this ride for the roller coaster, now.

Bye.

for them.

His best bet is go into a total different industry and hope no one there remembers the name Haditha.

This isn't My Lai and the same rules don't apply.

This guy will get a job with some private security company, posted in Dubai or some other corporate-friendly country. In 2 years he'll be entirely forgotten, unless he fucks up under the umbrella of that company and the press, drawn to the *situation*, discovers him again.

The guy has valuable training and a proven willingness to hush things up. He's employable. Probably at 3 times his military salary.

and DoD contracting world. This guy will not be touched by a DoD contracting company because they have to include his name and resume on any contract they apply to State or DoD for. No way is any contracts officer on any DoD or State contract let this guy anywhere near any work.

His reputation is ruined within the DoD and he'll have to figure out something else to go do.

But in the real world, this guy will have opportunities within the covert community.


You're either very naive or you're deliberately pretending there's operative justice in the M/I complex.

No contractor, like the former Blackwater, is going to hire him because the US Government won't allow him to be on a contract. He was a infantry officer, not a intel officer or a force recon or recon officer, so he is of no use to any government intelligence agency, and again with his record and reputation he wouldn't be hired.

No defense contractor, like Lockheed or L3, is going to hire him because you hire the officer's reputation and his relationships within his field and this guy's reputation and relationships are dogshit. There are too many other LtCol who don't have a bad reputation and relationships that they can hire, why hire one that does?

I've covered pretty much ever position that are open to retired officer in the M/I and why this guy won't get hired. So please be a little more specific about what "covert community" you are talking about.

Could he be hired by the company formerly known as Blackwater as a consultant in Africa? I don't think the our government has any legal control of that.

Could Whackenhut hire him as a training officer in Laos?

Could an undisclosed South African company hire him as Operations Officer?

The covert community I speak of isn't some grandiose spy network, I'm talking about interlaced corporate "agreements" that circumvent pedestrian concerns like "law".

You're being obtuse. Perhaps it's the idealism of youth and lack of experience.

This guy is radioactive and nobody's going to hire him in any operational security role (because the next time shit hits the fan somewhere, the whole world will be asking "why did you have the Butcher of Haditha tangentially in the command structure?")

with another self-proclaimed Marine.

Nice.

But just for you, I'll change my avatar back.

All of the companies that have those type of contracts do a most of their business with the US DoD and State. That is their bread and butter and they don't want to do anything to jeopardize that. Do you really think that General Mattis of CENTCOM is going to let any company bring this guy back into any theater with no repercussions?

Could they hire him for one of those jobs? Yes. Will they? Probably not because his reputation is ruined and none of these contractors want to be known for hiring this guy when there are plenty of other LtCol they can hire. This guy is a pariah in the DoD and you don't hire pariahs.

None of the big firms will hire this guy. He might end up some small start up but he would still have the same issues mentioned above.

I think more than likely this guy wants to get away from the defense industry. His reputation is ruined, the Marine Corps just wants him to go away, and he probably wants a fresh start. He still has 20+ years of executive experience that can translate over to private sector work or he can go get a law degree or an MBA with his 9/11 Bill.

You are merely restating your previous arguments.

You are very naive or you have an agenda. Neither will allow you to openly discuss the realities.

Can't imagine why so many people are cynical about the way the United States acts compared to how it talks about its fealty to high ideals of freedom and democracy and responsibility and stuff. Why shouldn't Chessani just walk away with a full pension? He was just . . . incurious, that's all, about 24 dead bodies. Fog of war. Chain of command. Honor. Duty. Hoo rah. Now, let's all wave a flag for the returning hero!

Now, let's all wave a flag for the returning hero!

You mean the guy they just drummed out of the service? Hardly waving a flag.

Like wmbrew said upthread, the UCMJ can look like either a railroading or a whitewash from over here on the civilian side of things (a side I'm very glad to be back on). The squad leader (a Sgt or SSgt I think) who was on site is in jail and will probably spend a long time there. The Lt Col who let the situation get away from him afterward loses his job. He probably deserves worse, but it's hard to prove anything beyond conduct unbecoming.

This person will be in a defense industry position within 12 months, drawing a nice salary from taxpayer-funded military appropriations while receiving his full pension. He will, within five years, be marching in parades, and within 10 years be a grand marshall for a parade. If he has any lingering regrets over his "conduct unbecoming," they will be subsumed soon enough.

I need to make a donation soon anyways.