As Former SEAL Receives Medal of Honor, a Controversy Is Reignited

[Judi Lynn]

Source: New York Times

As Former SEAL Receives Medal of Honor, a Controversy Is Reignited



President Trump presented the Medal of Honor to Britt K. Slabinski, a former member of SEAL Team 6, on
Thursday.Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

By Emily Cochrane
May 24, 2018

WASHINGTON — Britt K. Slabinski, a former senior chief petty officer of the Navy’s elite SEAL Team 6, received the Medal of Honor on Thursday for his leadership during a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002.

In a brief ceremony at the White House, President Trump highlighted Mr. Slabinski’s courage and selflessness in helping rescue a member of his unit in waist-deep snow after their reconnaissance team’s helicopter crash-landed during a Qaeda gunfire and grenade attack known as the Battle of Robert’s Ridge.

Mr. Slabinski, the 12th living service member to receive the award for service in Afghanistan, remained solemn and silent during the nearly 30-minute ceremony, but Mr. Trump offered words on his behalf.

“Britt wants the country to know that for him, the recognition he is about to receive is an honor that falls on the whole team,” Mr. Trump said, after asking former members of the mission in attendance to stand.



Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/us/politics/medal-of-honor-slabinski-trump.html

[dae]

1. K & R

[sandensea]

2. A treasonous draft dodger trying to use a Navy Seal to wrap himself in the flag some more.

How nice.

[JoeOtterbein]

3. A bit more from the article:

Some military officials believe the award for Sergeant Chapman — who would be the first recipient from the Air Force to be recognized with the Medal of Honor for valor in war after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — was sidelined in part by officials who want to strike the fact that he had been left behind.

[RandomAccess]

4. And the controversy is -- ???

Yeah, I could go to the link, but I kinda object to link bait like this. Give us a nugget, at least. THEN we can go to the link if we want. Not all of us can afford to subscribe, you know.

[Jedi Guy]

5. Apparently...

The guy who got the medal today was in charge of the team, and they were engaged on a mountain. They wound up leaving a guy behind, thinking he was KIA. Drone footage later showed him fighting alone for an hour after the team left. He killed two attackers before being killed himself.

So the controversy is whether or not this guy knew his teammate was actually alive when he gave the order to retreat.

[RandomAccess]

7. Thank you very much

[blkyank1]

11. A little bit more....

A bigger picture controversy is that the mission itself was hastily planned and under-resourced due to assets like Delta Force (who had vast mountain warfare expertise) being diverted to preparing for the Iraq Invasion by the Rumsfeld Pentagon, and not being fully committed to supporting Delta operations in Afghanistan. (This was December 2002 and the invasion was in April 2003)

The overall commander there was a Delta officer and he was supposed to support a large airmobile operation
by the 101st Air Assault and 10th Mountain, Divisions to clear out a valley with heavy Taliban presence.

The Delta commander was supporting this operation by providing teams of snipers who would go into valley ahead
of the op to locate the enemy. Because it was such a large area to operate in, Delta ran out of its own sniper teams
so they had to use SEAL Team 6 sniper teams. The SEALs were Tier one like Delta Force, but they didn't have the vast
expertise Delta had in alpine operations due to being a maritime special mission force.

Basically, its alleged that the firefight that killed the Airman may have been a result of putting those SEALs.(elite as they were)
in a bad position by having them undertake a mission they ideally should never have been assigned because they had not
trained for it (In that type of environment) and that another Delta unit could have handled, were they not diverted to
preparing for an Iraq invasion the Bush Administration already felt imminent 5 months before the Iraq War started.

[dalton99a]

6. Another one:

Mr. Slabinski completed nine overseas deployments and 15 combat tours before retiring in 2014. He has also faced scrutiny over accusations that as a command master chief petty officer of SEAL Team 6’s Blue Squadron a few years after the firefight in Afghanistan, he gave guidance that allowed every man to be killed in a village that was targeted. He denied the accusations, and the squadron was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

[RandomAccess]

8. Thanks.

Very problematic event, wasn't it?

[samir.g]

10. He's a hired murderer, plain and simple.

If that is anywhere near true.

[malthaussen]

12. The SEAL team left a man behind.

Sean Naylor's Not a Good Day to Die, which is about Operation Anaconda, has a chapter on the incident.

Basically, the SEALS air-assaulted into a hot LZ, and the attached AF SIGINT specialist was knocked out during the ensuing firefight. The team leader visually checked that the AF Sgt was down, did not observe him breathing, and concluded he was dead (without getting any physical confirmation, like trying to get a neck pulse). There was a lot of stuff flying around, the team was taking casualties, and the retreat was ordered, leaving the AF Sgt behind. It turns out he was not dead, and fought on solo for some time before he was killed.

-- Mal

[RandomAccess]

13. Thanks

Tragic

[keithbvadu2]

9. Good thing he was not captured.. Dotard would have ridiculed his service.

[Achilleaze]

14. Yes, Comrade Casino* often mocks America's soldiers

* aka republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief