Marine officer who criticized Afghan evacuation in brig, parents say

A Marine officer who criticized the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is in a military brig for breaking a gag order, his parent posted on LinkedIn. 

Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jr.’s father posted that his son was incarcerated on Monday by the Marine Corps for breaking a gag order over the weekend. 

Scheller was relieved of duty back in August after he posted on Facebook following the terrorist attack at Kabul that killed more than a dozen service members.

In the post, Scheller said senior leaders needed to be held accountable and answer questions.

“The reason people are so upset on social media right now is not because the Marines on the battlefield let someone down — that service member’s always rose to the occasion, done extraordinary things. 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 in the viral post. 

Capt. Sam Stephenson, a Marine Corps spokesman, said in a statement that Scheller is in pretrial confinement at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

The offenses a hearing against Scheller will consider are contempt toward officials, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, failure to obey lawful general orders and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. 

Scheller has yet to be formally charged with any of the offenses, Stephenson said. The time or date of the hearing has not been determined.

“His command seems to be concerned but do not appear to have the tools to support him at this time. Incarceration appears to be their only solution. The lack of ACCOUNTABILITY for the botched Afghanistan withdrawal has caused many issues and stressors for thousands of our Service Members who have asked, ‘WAS IT ALL WORTH IT?’” Scheller’s dad said on the LinkedIn post.

Updated at 11:45 a.m.