Marine Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller, who made waves after posting a video demanding accountability over the war in Afghanistan during the disastrous withdrawal in August, announced on Facebook right before Christmas he has been officially discharged from the Marine Corps, but that does not mean he'll be quiet.
Scheller said he will be going on a media tour to explain why he did what he did and what experienced in the aftermath, starting with appearing on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on January 4:
"I was released from the Marine Corps today, Thursday, December 23rd, 2021. I am filled with mixed emotions. I would like to sincerely thank the Marine Corps for forging me into a man. And from the bottom of my heart, I’d like to thank all the Marines who served, led, bled, and suffered alongside me the past 17 years...Out of respect to my senior leaders, I haven’t done a single interview since this began. But now it’s my turn."
In the post, Scheller explained his "defeats after demanding accountability" which included:
"I was relieved of command, slandered as homicidal/suicidal by the USMC’s public affairs team, ordered to get a mental health evaluation, lied about in the investigation by my “friends”, denied my legal right to prefer charges against another service member beholden to the UCMJ, imprisoned under the false pretense of ‘flight risk’, left without basic items in prison for five days, offered a legal deal while held illegally in jail (you can’t be placed in pre-trial for a special court-martial), slandered again when my medical records and investigation were released to the media, fined 5K dollars, called a narcissist in my letter of reprimand, kept under a gag order for over four months, denied the ability to request mast twice, given the lowest characterization (General under Honorable Conditions) allowed by the plea deal, and lost my retirement."
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He further thanked those who donated to him and his family while he was dealing with the resulting legal battle.
Scheller said in the initial video from August he knew the risks he was taking by speaking out over the handling of the war in Afghanistan, but he felt someone needed to speak up.
"The reason people are so upset on social media right now is not because the Marine on the battlefield let someone down...people are upset because their senior leaders let them down and none of them are raising their hands and accepting accountability or saying, 'We messed this up,'" Scheller said.
"I'm not saying we've got to be in Afghanistan forever, but I am saying: Did any of you throw your rank on the table and say 'Hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone,'" Scheller asked. "Did anyone do that? And when you didn’t think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say 'We completely messed this up.'"
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