Just what the young Marine Sergeant does not need "more press" when he should be trying to avoid the limelight. After being counseled by his superiors last week SGT Gary Stein actually pulled down his Facebook page titled: Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots which one of his admirers promptly put right back up.
Sgt Stein has stated that he is doing this as Gary Stein and NOT as SGT Stein of the Marine Corp, there is only one problem with that, while you are in the military you serve 24/7 365 days a year, who are never not free from the military, even off duty you are subject to the laws of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) which has many rules about speaking out about politicians, laws beign contemplated in Congress etc, someof the rules are pretty far out in the woods so to speak. Uniformed members are NOT allowed to campaign for any candidate while in uniform.
There is a major difference when members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are giving testimony to Senate and House committees on items like the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't tell, torture, etc, they are required to testify and to give unfettered advice, they owe it to the American public to give their best advice not what the White House wants them to say, or what the Secretary of Defense wants them to say, but their own opinions on whatthe policy will do to the military as they see it. That is different than shooting off statements from the bleacher seats. Which is what this face book page is a "bleacher seat" and a marine Sergeant is not a four star General testifying to Congress.
Tea Party Marine Sticks by His Guns in Fight With Government and Obama
Attorney Eugene Fidell, a senior research scholar who teaches military law at the Yale Law School, said that while military brass tend to "avoid creating martyrs" regarding issues of free speech, Stein should seek legal advice.
"This young man should consult an attorney," Fidell told FoxNews.com. "He's tempting fate here. But that's the territory. You can do it, but you may pay a penalty."
Free advice from an attorney even, who specializes in military law.
Camp Pendleton spokeswoman Maj. Gabrielle Chapin told FoxNews.com last week that the Marine Corps had not filed charges against Stein. She said Stein was not disciplined, and he received the same "one-on-one mentorship and guidance" provided to all Marines.
Camp Pendleton officials on Wednesday referred inquiries to the Department of Defense, which did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Stein says he's confident he will not be reprimanded by the military, but he acknowledges that his outspokenness may hurt his military career. He insists that his participation in the Facebook group remains as a civilian.
"It was written by Gary Stein," he said. "People need to understand this. When I post something on the Facebook page, it is as Gary Stein and has nothing do with the Marine Corps and has nothing to do with Sgt. Gary Stein. As long as I'm coming to the people as Gary Stein, then I'm OK."
No, he's not he is and will be SGT Gary Stein according to this article until July 2012 and everything he does is as Marine SGT Gary Stein. That is just a fact of life, he signed the contract to enlist, and one of the non-no's is you will not speak ill of the President of the United States otherwise known in the military as the Commander in Chief the highest ranking official in the military.
Tea Party In The Military; A New Danger To Democracy
By doing so Sgt. Stein is breaking long standing policies about active duty military members and partisan activity. Here are a couple of quotes by Sgt. Stein from the TMP article
"People in the military need to be heard," the group’s prime organizer, Gary Stein — a Marine Corps sergeant stationed at Camp Pendleton in southern California — told TPMmuckraker in an interview. "Our opinions do count."
Many people in the military "feel like they can’t speak out against Obama or Congress," said Stein. "The armed forces should have a little bit more say than we think we do," he said.
Snip
My oath was to the Constitution, not to the politicians, and that oath will be kept. I wont’ "Just follow" orders. There is at this time a debate within the ranks of the military regarding their oath. Some mistakenly believe they must follow any order the President issues. But many others do understand that their loyalty is to the Constitution and to the people...
This is troublingly close to the thinking of the "Oath Keepers" who have published a list of orders they believe would be unconstitutional and are pledging not to follow. The Oath Keepers cast a wider net by including police and firemen in their recruiting efforts.
from "e canada now" Camp Pendleton Marine Speaks Out Against Obamacare
A Camp Pendleton Marine has sparked a free-speech debate among his 400 fans on Facebook with his anti-Obama remarks. Sgt. Gary Stein posted comments critical of President Obama’s health reform bill on his Facebook page and then took the comments down after he was asked by his superiors to review directives about military personnel being involved in political activities. A cable news channel asked Sgt. Stein for an interview to explain his views on the new health care laws.
Sgt. Stein recently relaunched his Facebook page afer taking it down temporarily. A marine corps representative stated that Sgt. Stein was asked to review Pentagon directives on political activities by military personnel to make sure that he was not breaking any of his military obligations.
The military is a unique organization, people will not like hearing this but they are basically the perfect socialist society paid for by American taxpayers, they have the best healthcare available as they shoukd consider they put their butts on the line daily for serving this nation, but this also extends to their family members. The military bases they serve on on perfect little societies, they have complete wood working shops with all the needed tools to build anything, automotive shops to rebuild their cars, paint shops to repaint them again complete with all tools needed, gyms, swimming pools, bowling alleys with cheaper rates than regular town lanes, Officer and NCO clubs for recreation, Recreation centers with discounted tickets available to almost every place you can think of from Disney World to Six Flags to discounted vacation packages to resorts world wide, Hawaii, Florida, Italy, Germany, South Korea and the list goes on.Most with rates based on your pay grade Officers pay more than senior NCOs who pay more than lower ranked enlisted men. Go snow skiing in Colorado or snorkeling in the carribean all subsidized by the taxpayers.
But you trade a lot in exchange for this treatment, you write a check with "your azz" on the amount line, and it may get cashed at some point during your enlistment contract, in thus you then give the "ultimate sacrifice" your life, and your family gets visited by a notification team telling them on when and where you gave your life in service to this nation.
I imagine if they had the internet during the Vietnam War, there would have been a lot of SGT Gary Steins because they had a complaint they were drafted by their friends and neighbors, SGT Stein like everyone else serving today enlisted under their own free will.
What changed between the time SGT Stein enlisted and today, we as a nation had an election and this time a Democratic candidate was elected, instead of Senator John McCain Republican from Arizona, we now have a black man from Chicago named President Barack Obama, who has done nothing more than keep a lot of his campaign promises.
Many of which are more favorable to the military than most democrats are happy with, more predator strikes in Pakistan killing senior Al Qaeda leaders, spending a million a day keeping soldiers in Afghanistan, surging from 35,000 troops in Afghanistan to nearly 100,000 troops, with a goal of removing them in 2011, he also is on track to get the 100,000 troops in Iraq down to 50,000 by September 1, 2010. He has frozen all other government agency budgets except DODs war funding, and he has increased the budget of the Veterans Administration, he gave veterans a VA Secretary that is fighting for them instead of sticking it to them as Sec Nicholson was known to do.
His most recent showing of goodwill to Vietnam war veterans was to make presumptive hairy cell luekemia, ALS and Ischemic Heart disease from exposure to Agent Orange, 40 years after Vietnam ended, how many veterans have died from these medical issues in the past 4 decades and they were left with nothing, their widows and children left with nothing from the VA, why did it take 40 years to admit a link to the toxins in Agent Orange? Veterans should praise the appointment of General Shinseki as the new VA Secretary, he is moving to modernize the claims process and taking it from the paper heavy files used since WW2 to an entirely digital process making it easier for compensation claims to be transmitted from the local VA regional Office to Washington DC for the Board of veteran Appeals or to the Court of veteran Appeals which should cut months if not years off the entire appeals process, some of which now can take a decade or longer.
He has authorized hiring more than 2000 new claims raters, which should help reduce the veterans waiting time for the processing of their veterans compensation claims, from medical issues, to college aid, home loans and DIC claims for surviving spouses when the veteran dies.
Soldiers have always complained, about chow, about pay, not having enough time home with their wives or girlfriends. The Army I was in we did not have the time or will to complain about the President or what Congress was doing, normally the Stars and Stripes did not cover it, and the Armed Forces television network if we had it available was showing reruns of I Love Lucy, or Bonanaza or the Rifleman, we did not see Glenn Beck, Bill Oreilly, Sean Hannity, Karl Rove, Rachel Maddow, Keith Olberman, Ed Schultz, or any other flame throwers, maybe life was easier back then, the "Leave it to Beaver days" or as some put it "Father Knows Best".
SGT Gary Stein should think of his wife and his 2 year old daughter and go back to who he was 2 months ago, a Marine Corp Sergeant with a a bright future, this new life he has created for them is not in "their best interest" has he hurt his chances for future promotions? That is pretty much a given, is he in danger of being held accountable for his political activities, it's looking like a good chance that will happen, especially with Fox news pushing him to the front and basically daring the administration to take any type of action against him. Is Roger Aisles going to give him a decent job to care for his family after they hang him out as a target?
While you are in the military you are not your own man you belong to Uncle Sam it has been that way since 1775 and it will not change, while in service all members are subject to the laws of the UCMJ they have to be otherwise we will devolve into other nations where the military controls the government and we can NOT and must NOT allow that, civilian control must be maintained.
I am a disabled veteran who served during 2 wars, Vietnam and Gulf War One, my family has served since 1775 on my fathers side of the family,my son has already enlisted on the delayed entry program and enters basic training in June 2010. I served under both republican and democratic Presidents when we enlist we take an oath to the nation not to a President, you obey the orders of all of those above you not just the Presidents you like.