Fellas, these great servicemen where exonerated less than 12 months after the incident, it was the top MC brass that buried the outcome after piling on initially. The media just ran with the narrative. Looks like the MC command let this run under the radar, probably because it would show bad planning on their part (my speculation)
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/ne...es-get-lackluster-vindication-from-hqmc/""MARSOC Marines falsely accused of war crimes get lackluster vindication from HQMC
After almost a decade, the Marine Corps has publicly exonerated a group of nearly 30 elite special operations Marines falsely accused of war crimes in Afghanistan in 2007, according to a North Carolina congressman.
But a letter from the commandant’s office to Rep. Walter Jones merely affirms the ruling of a court that convened years ago ― a rather tepid gesture toward the Marine commandos who have suffered through years of shame and humiliation stemming from a rash judgment by the Pentagon and senior U.S. military officials.
Task Force Violent: The unforgiven | Part 1
Task Force Violent: The unforgiven | Part 1
The tragic betrayal of an elite Marine Corps commando unit
By: Andrew deGrandpre
The team, dubbed Task Force Violent, was publicly ostracized by senior military officials who initially accused the Marines of killing civilians during an ambush in Bati Kot district of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province in March 2007. But formal investigations later found no misconduct by the Marines.
On Wednesday, Jones, a Republican from North Carolina who has spent years advocating for the Marine commandos, said in a news release that he “applauded the United States Marine Corps for publicly exonerating” the special operations team.
Task Force Violent: The unforgiven | Part 2
Task Force Violent: The unforgiven | Part 2
Unwanted and unsupported, the first Marine commandos were 'set up for failure'
By: Andrew deGrandpre
But for nearly ten years, the men with Task Force Violent have been forced to carry the burden of that fateful day, wounds and a stigma that has reverberated for years in their lives and careers.
“We are concerned to hear of the challenges many members of Fox Company are facing — which are, unfortunately, far too common among our combat veterans,” Maj. Gen. Frederick Padilla, the staff director for Commandant Gen. Robert B. Neller, said to Jones in a letter. “I have asked the Commanding Officer of our Wounded Warrior regiment to follow-up with these Marines to ensure they are receiving appropriate and all necessary care and support.”
Task Force Violent: The unforgiven | Part 3
Task Force Violent: The unforgiven | Part 3
Marine commandos survived this nightmare. No one believed their story
By: Andrew deGrandpre
Despite what appears to be a sincere gesture by the Corps to put the issue to rest and exonerate the Marine special operators of wrongdoing, the commandant’s office took a inexplicable ten years just to publicly reiterate the findings of a Court of Inquiry that convened in 2008 at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
The Corps’ letter comes after Jones’ office wrote to the top Marine in December 2017 requesting his office review Task Force Violent’s case. The commandant’s office responded in only two months, while the MARSOC operators have spent years seeking to more fully absolve their team of any wrongdoing, which was not unbeknownst to the top Marine’s office.
The latest letter raises the question of why the commandant’s office waited so long to make a simple public affirmation of the court’s ruling.
“The Marine Corps has consistently said, in agreement with MARCENT [Marine Corps Forces Central Command] commanding general’s decision announced publicly May 23, 2008, that the Marines of Fox Co. acted appropriately ‎in response to the Mar. 4, 2007 complex attack in Afghanistan,” Lt. Col. Eric Dent, the commandant’s spokesman told Marine Corps Times Thursday.
“Both Gen. Dunford and Gen. Neller, as the 36th and 37th Commandants respectively, openly supported this position and remain steadfast in their support of the MARCENT commander’s‎ characterization of the Fox Co. Marines’ tactical actions on Mar. 4, 2007,” Dent said.
Retired Marine Maj. Fred Galvin at his home in Overland Park, Kansas, on January 7, 2015. Galvin was the commander of Fox Company, 2nd MSOB, the first MARSOC unit to deploy to Afghanistan. (Mike Morones/Staff)
Retired Marine Maj. Fred Galvin at his home in Overland Park, Kansas, on January 7, 2015. Galvin was the commander of Fox Company, 2nd MSOB, the first MARSOC unit to deploy to Afghanistan. (Mike Morones/Staff)
In 2008 the court found the Marine commandos operated within the confines of the Law of Armed Conflict and that their actions “reflected sound military judgment.”
“Unless there is new and relevant information that was not known at the time, I fear there is nothing to be gained by re-visiting the events of March 4, 2007 in order to re-state the conclusions of the Court of Inquiry a decade later,” Padilla said in his letter to Jones.
Task Force Violent, led by Maj. Fred Galvin, who is now retired, was part of the then-newly formed Marine Special Operations Command’s first deployment. Just thirty days after arriving in Afghanistan, the team came under a heavy ambush.
Initial reports from the battlefield seemed to suggest the team went on a shooting frenzy, killing scores of civilians.
The team was publicly shamed and kicked out of country. Galvin was stripped of his command following the incident, and the team was blacklisted in the annals of history as a stain on MARSOC’s first deployment.
At the Court of Inquiry, Marines most directly involved in the incident faced potential charges of negligent homicide.
Press reports about the court proceedings produced a one-sided narrative because important testimony was classified and took place behind closed doors.
The lopsided information flow resulted in a February 2008 cover of the Marine Corps Times that mischaracterized the team and its exploits.
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