An Entire Seal Team Was Kicked Out Of Iraq For Knocking Back Too Much Of Grandpa's Cough Medicine

New from Dan Lamonthe, who is a great reporter for Military matters. He said,

The commander of a U.S. Special Operations task force in Iraq has sent home a platoon of Navy SEALs for drinking while deployed, U.S. defense officials said, the latest discipline incident that has emerged for an elite force relied upon heavily by the Pentagon.

U.S. Special Operations Command said in a statement Wednesday night that the platoon was forced out early to San Diego “due to a perceived deterioration of good order and discipline within the team during non-operational periods” of their deployment.

“The Commander lost confidence in the team’s ability to accomplish the mission,” the statement said. “Commanders have worked to mitigate the operational impact as this SEAL platoon follows a deliberate redeployment.”

The statement did not state what prompted the decision, but two defense officials with knowledge of the issue said that SEALs drinking alcohol prompted it. The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that the SEALs violated General Order No. 1, which bans alcohol use.

Drinking typically isn’t a HUGE deal while deployed. Granted, it’s against the rules and any officer, like Nerdy Ole Connor with ZBT, will frown on it. Prior to deployments, every single troop knows ways of getting booze into a combat zone. You put it in Listerine bottles, you put it in Gatorade, and on and on. It’s not tough if you want to ESPECIALLY in units like SOCOM. Easy. Super easy.

So, what I think this is, is I think this is a wake up call to the SEALs as a whole. Just earlier this week there was articles about the SEALs using cocaine and shit.

The Little Creek, Virginia-based command conducted urinalysis testing on April 9 and April 16, 2018, nabbing six SEALs for allegedly abusing cocaine and other banned substances.

Several SEALs told investigators they previously beat the testing program by swapping out tainted urine for clean samples — but they weren’t screened very often anyway.

“I never once got piss-tested on deployment or on the road, where I was using most often,” one busted SEAL said in a statement.

“When I was in Buenaventura, Colombia, I was using cocaine. I think I was the only one of the four SEAL TEAM TEN guys using cocaine there. It was everywhere.”

Between this case, the murder cases, and many other things, SOCOM might be using the leadership tactic of a wake-up call because normally booze isn’t enough to send an ENTIRE SEAL team home. Dan goes on to quote the SOCOM spokeswoman, “Leaders at all levels must lead in a way that sustains and sharpens that foundation,” she said. “Discipline is a competitive advantage and enforcing those standards is critical to our success on the battlefield.”

Yep. Wake up call. Will it work? Probably. We need it to. Frogmen are vital to what we accomplish around the globe.