A few Good Men

A FEW BAD

Homeland Magazine recently had the opportunity to visit with Major Fred Galvin USMC (retired), author of A Few Bad Men. Major Galvin’s Fox Company was involved in an incident in Afghanistan in which their Marine Special Operation Task Force was ambushed by the Taliban using a suicide car bomb and waves of Taliban fighters. Galvin’s men shot their way to safety and back to base. Before they even got back, the Taliban fed BBC journalists lies about out-of-control Marines killing civilians. Without even a preliminary interview with Galvin, the company was expelled from the country and Marine, Army, and DOD officials publicly condemned the Company and criminally prosecuted them in the longest war crimes tribunal in Marine Corps history. Even after the Marines were cleared of wrongdoing, it took another eight years for Galvin to fully exonerate himself and his men.

Homeland: Why did the military leadership so quickly take the word of the Taliban, our enemy, and not even get your side of the story before making the decision to ship you out of Afghanistan?

Galvin: To be honest, it was an unlucky mix of bad leadership, a turf war, a war in which those in charge were more interested in scoring PR points than winning. So, when the Taliban accused us of war crimes, it checked all of their boxes in terms of putting down the “gung ho” Marines, endearing themselves with the media and the international community. The notion of justice, due process, and protecting your own would have interfered with their agenda.

Homeland: Please describe how things got off the rails to allow the sabotage of the first Marine Special Operations Task Force.

Galvin: During our training, every week for eleven months I asked the Commanding General of the Marine Special Operations Command, Major General Dennis Hejlik, what our mission would be, who we would be supporting, or where we would be employed. I never received any of this information. This led to significant resource shortfalls and left us unable to properly conduct our mission. Those in charge not only withheld vital support but also undermined and portrayed the Task Force as incompetent and operating as outlaws. As Lieutenant Colonel Steve Morgan, a member of the Court of Inquiry stated in the Department of the Navy record, “it was the perfect storm of toxic leaders.”

Homeland: How did you prepare the first Marine Special Operations Task Force knowing that your command was in direct opposition to the success of your unit?

Galvin: The day I met my Battalion Commander he mentioned to me, “Fred your job is easy, all you have to do is train your Marines.” He then immediately convened his battalion staff and ordered them not to provide any support whatsoever to our unit. I had faced enemies before, but they didn’t wear Marine uniforms.

Homeland: What were your assigned missions in Afghanistan?

Galvin: We were directed to conduct special reconnaissance in the Tora Bora Mountains with the requirement of having an immediate Quick Reaction Force (QRF). This mission required aviation assets to immediately reinforce our unit if contact with the enemy was encountered in the mountains. The problem quickly and continuously became that Colonel Haas’s staff stiff-armed not only the required aviation support to insert our recon teams but also any logistical support required to sustain our Marines including food, fresh water, fuel, and funds to operate. Meanwhile, his Army Green Berets on the same base enjoyed pallets of supplies including body building supplements, a camp with a pool, lifeguard tower, and all the fuel and logistical support necessary to conduct operations. The irony is that, despite all their support, they focused on an aggressive physical fitness program instead of collecting intelligence and operations to identify and disrupt the Taliban.

Homeland: The 2008 Court of Inquiry must have been mentally exhausting, please describe the impacts on you and your Marines.

Galvin: The prosecution interrogated the Marines in our Task Force with extreme prejudice which immediately led to one Marine being diagnosed with cancer, another diabetes, another having his body completely stop producing testosterone, several Marines developing severe PTSD, many encountered financial hardships associated with legal fees for defense attorneys in the capital offense case, and most of our marriages quickly were ruined. One interrogation from the prosecution led to threatening a Marine who legally immigrated and was naturalized to having his mother threatened to be deported unless he signed a manufactured statement that the prosecution coerced him into signing.

These tactics, led to the psychological torment from the government prosecutors which no military members in America should ever be exposed to.

Homeland: How did you defend yourself and your team against these tactics?

Galvin: I prayed daily and through my faith in God, I realized that each of the previous missions in Iraq as well Afghanistan was proof that this legal battle would end in success.

Homeland: You went on to serve seven more years in the Marine Corps, why did you return to Afghanistan and then after retirement fight to clear your Marines’ names?

Galvin: Immediately following the Convening Authority’s dismissal of my case in December 2008, I requested to be assigned to Okinawa, Japan to serve and eventually deployed as the Operations Officer for 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion in Afghanistan. Believe it or not, this case becomes even more outrageous during this subsequent deployment to Afghanistan.

Additionally, upon my military retirement the media continued their attacks against me in the press including the day I retired and repeatedly that same year until in 2015, seven years to the day after our attack in Afghanistan, our side of the story was finally told in the press through a five-part long-form story which eventually won the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation’s Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense.

Maj. Fred Galvin (USMC, Retired) tells the entire story in his new book A Few Bad Men: The True Story of U.S. Marines Ambushed in Afghanistan and Betrayed in

America. He lives in Hawaii.

A FEW GOOD MEN Available at Amazon www.tinyurl.com/A-Few-Good-Men

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