A Pentagon official recognizes that doing the right thing can be hard, but what he wants service members to understand above all is that the War Department has their back.
The Gateway Pundit spoke to Stuart Scheller, who serves as Senior Adviser to the Under Secretary of War for Personnel and Readiness, or USW(P&R). The former Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel once faced charges for publicly voicing his criticisms, which called for accountability of senior military leadership over the disastrous 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal. As fate would have it, he was subsequently selected to lead an Afghanistan Task Force earlier this year.
A few months later, Scheller was brought further into the folds of the current administration to focus on reforming the process of officer promotions. On July 20, he shared on X War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s commitment to “fair, transparent, colorblind, and merit-based processes to select and promote the best officers to lead our men and women in defense of our Nation.”
In addition to the significance of accountability and meritocracy, lethality is also a key issue for the Afghanistan and Iraq war veteran. He acknowledged that the military has lost some of its finest warfighters and support staff due to the now rescinded 2021 COVID-19 shot mandate.
Thousands of service members were discharged or forced into retirement from the military for objecting to the unlawful shot, and Scheller is hopeful many of these individuals will continue to seek to return to service. “I’ve engaged in this process voluntarily to help do the right thing,” he said.
While former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin tyrannically enforced an illegal shot, Scheller said, “Secretary Hegseth—with the full weight of the Department of War—is committed to getting this right.”
Scheller praises those who had the moral courage and/or religious conviction to stand up against Austin’s illegal mandate. He explained, “We need people in the ranks who are willing to challenge leadership who have historically remained silent during clear, immoral, and unethical behavior.”
“Everything that the War Department can do to knock down barriers, incentivize, and encourage these types of morally strong people to come back, we want to do that.”
Scheller disclosed that he “sympathizes with many of the service members,” sharing a detail that many might not be aware of. He is currently navigating the Board for Correction of Naval Records (BCNR) process to seek an upgrade of his own discharge after facing repercussions for speaking out about the shortcomings of the deadly Afghanistan withdrawal.
Through the experience of facing court-martial and more, he said he understands “what it’s like to have the full weight of the government come at you.” It’s incredibly challenging for the individual facing it, and it also puts a strain on their family. “My career ended three years short of my retirement, and for people who refused the vaccine, it did something very similar, so it was hard for me on a human level not to relate to all of this,” he offered.
Although the Department of War has issued several memos regarding the reinstatement of service members kicked out over COVID-19 shot, he mentioned that another memo is expected in the weeks ahead.
“It will continue to incentivize and encourage service members to come back and fill in our ranks,” said Scheller. And while the number of individuals seeking reinstatement is lower than he anticipated, the USW(P&R) Senior Advisor is hopeful “the numbers will continue to go up as this process gets refined.”
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