{"id":65898,"date":"2019-08-01T20:05:59","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T20:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/08\/01\/seal-boss-to-force-we-have-a-problem\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T12:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:47:14","slug":"seal-boss-to-force-we-have-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/08\/01\/seal-boss-to-force-we-have-a-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"SEAL boss to force: \u2018We have a problem\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Months after a Pentagon review<\/a> came back with an \u201call clear\u201d for Special Operations Command<\/a>\u2019s ethics and professionalism training, the head of Naval Special Warfare Command<\/a> declared in a memo to his sailors that something is still not right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEAL commanders have until Aug. 7 to report issues and give recommendations on how to fix them, according to a July 25 letter from Rear Adm. Collin Green that was leaked to Navy Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a problem,\u201d wrote Green in bold black print that he also underlined for emphasis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of our subordinate formations have failed to maintain good order and discipline and as a result and for good reason, our NSW culture is being questioned,” Green wrote. \u201cI don\u2019t know yet if we have a culture problem, I do know that we have a good order and discipline problem that must be addressed immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green admitted that as Naval Special Warfare\u2019s commander he owns the problem, but told his commodores that \u201cyou also own it” and proposed scrapping the current \u201cconsequence management approach\u201d to instilling discipline” to take a more \u201cproactive approach” to misconduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter came the day after news broke that a spec ops commander in Iraq booted a SEAL Team 7 platoon <\/a>in the wake of a boozy Independence Day party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“All Department of Defense personnel are expected to uphold proven standards and to comply with laws and regulations,\u201d read a SOCOM statement released July 24. \u201cAlleged violations are thoroughly investigated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two days earlier, Navy Times broke a story about an investigation into SEAL Team 10 operators<\/a> who had been using cocaine, fudging their urinalyses with clean samples and generally flouting the Navy\u2019s controlled substance regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never once got piss-tested on deployment or on the road, where I was using most often,\u201d one of the six busted SEALs said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, an ongoing Navy probe to catch the culprit who catfished<\/a> women into sending nude photos is shining a light on the normally shadowy world of SEAL Team 6, one of America\u2019s most secretive commando units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And although he was exonerated of all war crimes charges by a panel of his peers, the recent court-martial trial of Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward \u201cEddie\u201d Gallagher included witnesses testifying about a cowboy culture inside Alpha Platoon, SEAL Team 7, with their 2017 deployment to Iraq punctuated by heavy drinking on the battlefield and unlawful photos of service members posing with dead bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Navy\u2019s special operations community is not the only that has come under scrutiny in recent years. In addition to a SEAL, a Marine Raider faces charges of murder in the death of Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, an Army Special Forces soldier, while deployed to Mali in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And late last year, former Green Beret Master Sgt. Daniel Gould was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for attempting to smuggle cocaine from Colombia on a military transport plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\t