Marines discharge sergeant for Facebook posts

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Marines discharge sergeant for Facebook posts

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Started 1 year ago by Black Lion
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Black Lion

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Joined: Jan '11
Posts: 16,380

Marines discharge sergeant for Facebook posts

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A sergeant will be discharged for criticizing President Barack Obama on Facebook in a case that called into question the Pentagon's policies about social media and its limits on the speech of active duty military personnel, the Marine Corps said Wednesday.

Sgt. Gary Stein will get an other-than-honorable discharge and lose most of his benefits for violating the policies, the Corps said.

The San Diego-area Marine who has served nearly 10 years in the Corps said he was disappointed by the decision. He has argued that he was exercising his free-speech rights.

"I love the Marine Corps, I love my job. I wish it wouldn't have gone this way. I'm having a hard time seeing how 15 words on Facebook could have ruined my nine-year career," he told The Associated Press.

Gary Kreep, an attorney for Stein, said he would pursue administrative appeals within the Marine Corps but anticipates the effort will be denied. He said he planned to file an amended complaint in federal court.

"As long as he wants to pursue this, we will be supporting him," said Kreep, who is executive director of the United States Justice Foundation, an advocacy group.

The Marines acted after saying Stein stated March 1 on a Facebook page used by Marine meteorologists, "Screw Obama and I will not follow all orders from him." Stein later clarified that statement saying he would not follow unlawful orders.

During a hearing, a military prosecutor submitted screen grabs of Stein's postings on one Facebook page he created called Armed Forces Tea Party, which the prosecutor said included the image of Obama on a "Jackass" movie poster. Stein also superimposed Obama's image on a poster for "The Incredibles" movie that he changed to "The Horribles," military prosecutor Capt. John Torresala said.

Brig. Gen. Daniel Yoo, the commanding general of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, gave no explanation for the decision in a brief statement.

At the hearing this month at Camp Pendleton, Torresala argued that Stein's behavior repeatedly violated Pentagon policy and should be dismissed after he ignored warnings from his superiors about his postings.

A federal judge previously denied a request to block military discharge proceedings against Stein.

http://news.yahoo.com/marines-discharge-sergeant-facebook-posts-181223651.html

Posted 1 year ago #
Black Lion

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Joined: Jan '11
Posts: 16,380

That idiot just threw away 10 years. When will people learn to stop posting their every thought and move on FB. Anyone who served in the military still remembers their oath. If President Reagan was still president soldiers would have respected him as their superior. The oath "I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

Posted 1 year ago #
Black Lion

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Joined: Jan '11
Posts: 16,380

Marine who criticized Obama on Facebook: I wish I could take it back

Sgt. Gary Stein, the 26-year-old Marine who learned Wednesday he would be discharged for his online comments criticizing President Barack Obama, wishes he could take it back.

“People ask me, ‘Would you go back and change those words?’ I would most definitely,” Stein told msnbc.com. “I would articulate my point better.”

On March 1, Stein wrote on a closed forum for active-duty meteorologists and oceanographers that he would say "Screw Obama" and not follow all orders from him, according to Courthouse News.

“Obama is the economic enemy,” he wrote in the post. “He is the religious enemy ... He is the ‘fundamentally change’ America enemy … He IS the Domestic Enemy.”

Five minutes later, another Marine took down his post, but not before someone Stein knew took a screen shot and forwarded the comment to Stein’s superiors.

Stein had already been warned about a Facebook page he had started in 2010, which he named Armed Forces Tea Party.

“They said, ‘All we ask is that you write that the views are not that of the Marine Corps or the Department of Defense,’” Stein said. He said he put up the disclaimer that day.

The Facebook page, which had six moderators, including Stein, included posts about contraception, gays in the military, pundit Keith Olbermann and Obama. One post included a photo of Obama with the word, “Jackass” written underneath. Stein said that was not his post.

Service members are, according to Directive 1344 of the Department of Defense, allowed to express personal opinions on political candidates, but not as representatives of the Armed Forces.

Last month, a three-member military panel recommended that he be booted from the Marine Corps. On Wednesday, Brig. Gen. Daniel Yoo accepted their recommendation that Stein be dismissed for violating military law.

Stein said he repeatedly told Marine Corps officials he would shut down the Facebook page and not speak with the press if they allowed him to complete his contract, which ends in three months, but they refused.

“I think they’re trying to use me as an example,” Stein said. “Senior officers don’t want to hear, ‘You were the person who let this Gary Stein situation get out of hand. I think there might have been peer pressure among the senior enlisted.”

Maj. Michael Armistead, a Marine Corps spokesman at Camp Pendleton, could not confirm whether this negotiation took place.

Stein, an Arizona native, has been a Marine for nine years and was deployed to Iraq from 2005 to 2006. Although he regrets his post, he still believes his online activity should be protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. Still, he said he would caution other service members to think before posting their opinions.

“I’m not telling them to zip it up or shut up; be conscious of what you post,” he said. He said he believes the Marine Corps should clearly rewrite the rules for social media in the wake of his dismissal.

In a phone interview Wednesday, Stein sounded tired. A former weather forecaster, he lost his security clearance and started working as a scheduler on a rifle range at Camp Pendleton. He said his wife’s grandmother died Tuesday night and he was diagnosed Monday with a throat disease. He said the Marine Corps is waiting to discharge him so that he can go through treatment.

“It’s been a rough day,” Stein said. “I’m disappointed. Not only in the Marine Corps, but in myself.”

Watch US News videos on msnbc.com

He said he plans to go through treatment and tend to his wife and 4-year-old daughter. He has been a licensed real estate agent for two years; last night he posted a house for sale on his personal Facebook page.

He also wrote on Facebook that he would not accept racist or vulgar posts.

“I will ban you and you will never be on the page again,” he said.

And he said he has also apologized to the president.

“If he was in front of me right now, I would salute him, say, ‘Yes, Mr. President, No, Mr. President,’ and when I walked away, I would still disagree with his policies. But those are two separate things.”

Posted 1 year ago #
Black Lion

senior member
Joined: Jan '11
Posts: 16,380

bump...

Posted 1 year ago #
Black Butterfly

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Joined: May '11
Posts: 8,696

Tamron Hall said it best because of all places, when you are in the military...you are American!

"It used to upset me, now it makes me sad, to see people use patriotism and our troops as a pawn in their political argument. Because I know personally, growing up in a military family, the sacrifice that is made on a daily basis. The troops aren't red and blue. They're not black and white. They're not male and female. They are Americans! When they put their uniforms on, they are Americans. And that's a fact."

Posted 1 year ago #
stubborn bubble

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Joined: Jan '11
Posts: 8,123

You go BB...

Posted 1 year ago #
Black Butterfly

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Joined: May '11
Posts: 8,696

Thanks SB and this is one time where I truly feel it doesn't matter who the POTUS is....regardless of your politican affiliation. Sames applies to Republicans and Democrats etc.

Posted 1 year ago #
bovril1a

core member
Joined: Jan '11
Posts: 877

This muppet was counselled at least twice but continued his crap.

When you are in the services you SERVE, you give up a swathe of rights because your role is to give and follow orders, to do tasks that no otherwise sane individual or group would contemplate.

This country, like all the other Western countries has a military that is subservient to the civilian authority and when a (relatively) senior NCO starts this crap it leads directly to questioning the legitimacy of this pact between the military and the populace.

Real simple, "Soldier....get up and soldier"

Posted 1 year ago #
Black Butterfly

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Joined: May '11
Posts: 8,696

Preach bovril1a! So true!

Posted 1 year ago #
Beach Baby

senior member
Joined: Dec '10
Posts: 8,595

This guy must have been extremely young when he joined the Marines. It says he is 26, but he served for 9 years. He must be almost 27 and he must have enlisted the day he turned 18.

Posted 1 year ago #
Checker

senior member
Joined: Apr '11
Posts: 6,267

All I can say is GOOD, and for all the right reasons!

Posted 1 year ago #
Black Lion

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Joined: Jan '11
Posts: 16,380

Agreed...The military is supposed to be apolitical for a reason...

Posted 1 year ago #
gg_OK

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Joined: Dec '10
Posts: 1,083

“Obama is the economic enemy,” he wrote in the post. “He is the religious enemy ... He is the ‘fundamentally change’ America enemy … He IS the Domestic Enemy.”

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While I pretty much agree with this, those in the Armed Forces are NOT supposed to speak out against their CIC, regardless of how pathetic he is. I doubt that he would have been discharged, though, under any other President besides this thin-skinned crybaby they have now. This Marine has given more to this country than Obama EVER will, yet he loses all his benefits just because he spoke his mind....which he shouldn't have done, but c'mon, Obama is gonna get paid by the taxpayer for the rest of his life, and he'll NEVER be the honorable man that this Marine is!

Posted 1 year ago #

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Marines discharge sergeant for Facebook posts

Marines discharge sergeant for Facebook posts

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