In all honesty what should have happened is that they should have put a 2-3 week hold on the boots on the ground raids until 1) the new POTUS and SecDef were full up to speed on them and b) during said pause have the G-2 and J-2 at the Pentagon...DIA...NSA et al review their intel...update as necessary and then resume these type of operations as necessary.
That way they aren't set up for failure by their predecessors like what seems to be the case here.
They could still call a pause...explain why and put the blame for that dead SEAL squarely on the last administration.
Sorry friend, Trump became CinC two weeks ago. It became his responsibility on 1/20.
On a much lesser note, I came back from a week's training to learn that I was being assigned both Chaparral (missile) platoons in my battery. I had worked with the first one for 3 months, yet the platoon being evaluated that day was my first day with them.
We flunked. It was all on me, that's how it works in the Army. One of the best learning experiences of my life. Were there other reasons for our lack of success? Of course, but that didn't matter. Good leadership trumps all.
Over the next 18 months, I successfully took 3 platoons through evaluations, as well as carrying the load during a battery level evaluation when my CO went catatonic after making a couple of egregious mistakes in disseminating mission orders. I knew the consequences for my actions, and I was rewarded with a career-ending evaluation. How bad was it? LOL, it earned me a nasty letter from Dept. of the Army, though my Group Commander attached remarks to the effect that my "problems" arose from the lack of leadership from the Battery and Battalion Commanders.
I'm no saint or Patton, but I was more concerned about the soldiers in my unit, that busted their humps for us, despite the CO and a couple of Platoon Leaders completely effing everything up. How bad was it? Upon returning to the CP after checking on platoons as acting XO (in addition to Systems Maintenance Officer...a terrible job, all the blame but no authority), my First Sergeant was sitting on a tree stump, with his head in his hands. This was a man who served 3 tours in Nam as an infantry first sergeant...he had never seen a cluster foxtrot like this, and he was flummoxed. Behind the scenes, I issued orders to right the ship, at least until the evening briefing, when I unloaded on the platoon leaders. I was personally invested here, as I had taken 3 of the 4 platoons through their evaluations, and I couldn't believe the crap I was seeing. With the CO sitting there, I told the platoon leaders what their squads would do the next day, chapter and verse what they were supposed to do in the field.
After that "session", I was surprised to bump into the evaluation team chief, who was standing just outside the CP van. Realizing he heard everything, my first thought was "oh, crap." Instead, he smiled at me and said, "that was beautiful, LT." The next day, we passed...barely.
I hope that Trump learns from this, and improves as CinC.
Apologies for digressing.
