Navy CNO Finds His Balls; JAG Astonished

h/t Daily Timewaster

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson

It has been awhile since we could deliver some good news about the military in general, and the Navy in particular. This story warms the cockles of our cold green amphibious heart.

After a years-long string of bad news, finally a ray of sunshine for Big Blue: their CNO has testicles:

(SAN DIEGO) “Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson today dismissed all charges in the case of Lt. Jacob Portier,” a Navy statement said Thursday. “Richardson took this action in the best interest of justice and the Navy.”
Cmdr. Jereal Dorsey, a Navy spokesman, said the decision came from Richardson, not from President Donald Trump, who this week rescinded medals awarded to prosecutors in the Gallagher case.
Richardson also ordered a full review of the Navy’s Judge Advocate General Corps.
“Recent events indicate a need to review the leadership and performance of the (JAG) Corps,” Richardson said in a memo.
Richardson said the review should address training and professional development, with an “evaluation of the JAG Corps officer career progression and community values for promotion selection and detailing,” the memo said.

The lead prosecutor in the Gallagher case, Cmdr. Chris Czaplak, was removed before trial after a judge ruled that his efforts to track defense attorney emails amounted to misconduct and violated Gallagher’s constitutional rights.
Lt. Cmdr. Jacqueline Pau, the CNO’s spokeswoman, also said late Thursday that Trump had not ordered the move, and that Richardson acted on his own to restore confidence in the military justice system.
“The judicial system is not broken, but let’s let this review play out,” she said. “We will be transparent with what we find. We understand it’s important to maintain the trust and confidence of the American people.”
Richardson has also stripped the authority to prosecute Petty Officer 1st Class Corey Scott away from Region Legal Service Office Southwest, which previously prosecuted Gallagher and were set to prosecute Portier. Navy authorities had floated the possibility of prosecuting Scott for perjury after he testified that he, not Gallagher, killed a wounded ISIS fighter in Iraq.

Navy Region Southwest spokesman Brian O’Rourke said he could not comment on the case.
“The news came as a surprise,” he said.
 

Let me break this news down to those who never served, in civilianese.

1) Obozo is not the president any more.

2) Fabulous Ray Mabus is not the SecNav any more. Ass Carter is not SecDef.

3) The Navy has decided to begin a return to warfighting, rather than Social Justice Warfare.

4) The prosecutors in the cases of Gallagher, Portier, and Scott , in particular Cmdr. Czaplak, are about to receive blisteringly brutal OERs, at the direction of CNO, that will force their retirement in short order, and had best begin updating their resumes and looking for life with some corporate shyster firm immediately. Their days in uniform are about to draw to a hasty end. Their early retirements will be feted with rotten eggs and fruit, to a metaphysical certainty. (Prosecutor Czaplak should have a court martial of his own for "conduct unbecoming" dangled in front of him, just to make things interesting. It would do much to curb the excess stupidity of the JAG corps, and the officers of the Navy in general. The prospect of a federal conviction, making him unemployable for life, would be a fitting end for such a miserable excuse for a man.)

5) The JAG commands, at every level, that awarded (since-rescinded, by order of the President)  Navy Achievement Medals to the prosecutors in the Gallagher case just retired as well, whether they know it or not. The review will give them about 60 days to get their shit in one bag, and get off their respective bases, without getting sliced and diced officially. The brighter ones will put in their retirement papers immediately, and leave skidmarks getting away.

6) There are about to be a whole lot of openings in the JAG Corps for bright young civilian lawyers who want to serve their country, and the Navy, rather than do SJW at their expense.

7) Those openings will be created by the 50-200 abrupt departures of people previously and foolishly promoted to their positions by officers who thought their job was to ruin the Navy rather than defend America.

8) The JAG tail is about to find that the Navy is the dog that wags that tail. And it's going to sting, and leave quite a mark when they get done administering that reminder, as it should. The only pity is that CNO cannot order keelhauling of derelict officers.
The fun part is that he can professionally ruin people in large swaths, by order.
His hatchet men, unconstrained by wrath from above, are about to set to that task with a vengeance, and the shrieks from even Congress will not avail in what's about to happen.

THIS is how you run a military branch, kids.
The message has been sent, and received, by All Hands, that the bullshit of the Obozo Era is over.

Military justice, much like military intelligence, is generally an oxymoron. But occasionally, the angels land on the scales of that justice, and it works out all right in the end.

Hopefully, CNO Richardson will not stop there, but let this opening salvo ripple, before setting the Navy back on task with a purpose, and cutting loose the deadweight accumulated by a disastrous prior administration. And, looking at world events, not a minute too soon.

And, yet again, my epicaricacy knows no bounds.