SEAL Eddie Gallagher hits the limelight again as his book goes to press.
In a recent podcast, he denied being responsible for the murder of the ISIS operative, a death for which he was charged. Yet he nor any of the other SEALs on the scene tried to save the ISIS wounded fighter’s life.
“We killed that guy,” Gallagher continued. “The grain of truth in the whole thing is that that ISIS fighter was killed by us, and that nobody at that time had a problem with it,”
“At that point, my intuition kicked in and I was like: I’m not talking to anybody about – even though I’m, like, innocent, I knew to keep my mouth shut.” Task and Purpose reported quotes from the Line Podcast.
The Navy will not retry him. The decision was made after the Navy reviewed Gallagher’s inflammatory comments and determined they were “not corroborated,” Navy spokesperson Cmdr. Courtney Hillson told POLITICO. “No substantive information was found to merit an investigation based on those statements,”
By Greg Chabot
In the latest episode of the Shawn Ryan show. Eddie Gallagher goes into detail about his last combat deployment and events that led to his arrest and subsequent acquittal of murder. SOC Gallagher, the former sailor of the year at NSWG-1 talks about his arrival at ST-7 and how he took the worst rated platoon at the command and turned it into the top platoon at ST-7. The Platoon earned them a deployment to Mosul to help liberate the city from ISIS control.
Eddie describes the chaotic scene for the liberation of Mosul, going in depth into the tactics used by ISIS—How ISIS would exploit the hand-tying ROE of US forces and the restraint needed to follow the ROE in the heat of battle. In some truly heart wrenching moments, Eddie discusses the human suffering and atrocities inflicted on the population of Mosul by ISIS and the toll it took on his SEAL platoon. Viewers will hear Eddie’s side of what happened with the severely injured ISIS fighter including going into detail of the injuries and attempts to save his life, complying with the Geneva Convention.
Eddie discusses the NCIS investigation into his alleged war crimes after a successful deployment. Eddie goes into detail about the many violations of his rights, including being left in an interrogation room for seven hours and the confiscation of his phone, leaving him unable to contact his family or attorney.
During this time, NCIS conducted a raid on the Gallagher home involving over thirty agents and armored vehicles that lasted over eight hours. For the very first time, Eddie’s son Ryan who was eight years old at the time, gives his first-person account of the raid, describing the thuggish behavior of NCIS agents pointing weapons in his face. They dragged him from the home in his underwear. Eddie’s wife Andrea, also sits down and talks to Shawn about the raid, about the confusion of not knowing what was going on, as she was not home. She describes the anguish she felt not knowing if her children were safe. During the raid on his home, Eddie had no clue his family was being terrorized by NCIS.
After being released from interrogation, he talks of how the raid affected him and the toll it took on his family.
Eddie talks about his arrest and being held in pre-trial confinement while undergoing treatment for TBI, . While confined, Eddie’s command was more interested in protecting the NSW institution than seeing justice served. Violations included preventing Eddie from seeing his lawyers and the case was riddled with undue command influence with his fellow SEAls.
Eddie pulls no punches and describes his feelings of being shunned by a community he loved, about feeling betrayed and isolated by NSW. He credits his wife and faith with helping him cope during confinement. Even with an order from President Trump, NSW refused to lift the heavy restrictions on Eddie. After misconduct by the prosecution and a direct order from President Trump, Eddie was finally released and allowed to prepare his defense.
Eddie describes his feelings during the trial, and when he thought things turned in his favor. In the most strikingl part of the interview, Shawn asks Eddie how it felt to be acquitted by the jury and set free. Sadly, even with his acquittal, NSW constantly harassed him and even attempted to revoke his Trident, resulting in President Trump ordering the Navy to let Eddie retire as a Chief Petty Officer and keep his Trident.
In the final segment of the interview, Shawn and Eddie discuss life after the Navy and the struggles of readjusting to civilian life. Eddie gives an honest account of his struggles with multiple TBIs from eight combat deployments as a SEAL and various non-traditional treatments that helped him. Shawn also asks Eddie about his upcoming book that is slated for release in 2021. Eddie then discusses the Pipe hitter foundation that he founded to help warfighters facing situations like what he went through. The interview is worth the time to listen to. It is very eye opening to how the military justice system is rigged against service members. VIDEO BELOW
Greg Chabot, Author Chabot, Author served in US Navy Seabees from 1988-1993 Army Guard from 2002-2005 Always been a avid shooter and Outdoorsman.