Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, 40, was prepared to surrender his Trident pin “for the good of the SEALs, the president, and the country” but was later informed that he would be allowed to keep it.
Minutes before the Pentagon announced Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s decision to force the resignation of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer on Sunday, Gallagher told his attorney Timothy Parlatore he was willing to give up the pin, effectively expelling him from the elite SEAL unit. Soon after Gallagher told Parlatore to write a letter declaring he would give up the pin, he received word that Esper was going to let the SEAL keep it.
“This isn’t a twist any of us saw coming,” Parlatore told Navy Times Monday. “From the beginning, my primary responsibility was to save Eddie Gallagher’s life, then to save his reputation, but Eddie Gallagher loves the Navy and he loves the SEAL teams. He’s been falsely accused of attacking the institution, but it’s an institution we both love and want to improve.”
“With this personnel change, this institution will improve and no one will go through the ordeal Eddie went through. At the end of the day, the most important duty any of us have is protecting America,” he continued. “This case is completely bananas.”
[Related: ‘You are a true leader’: SEAL Eddie Gallagher thanks Trump following firing of Navy secretary]
Over the summer, Gallagher was acquitted of murder charges stemming from his 2017 deployment to Iraq but was found guilty of taking a photograph with the body of the ISIS fighter he was accused of killing. As a result, he was demoted one rank, and the Navy was considering revoking his Trident insignia.
Earlier this month, President Trump stepped in to restore his rank and later publicly announced his opposition to expelling Gallagher from the SEALs. Spencer is said to have gone behind Esper’s back with a private proposal to White House officials that would have allowed Gallagher to retire with his pin if the Trump administration refrained from interfering in the proceedings against him.
Therefore, Esper dismissed Spencer, who claimed in his resignation letter that he “no longer share[s] the same understanding as the Commander in Chief who appointed” him. Trump later shared his plans to nominate Ambassador to Norway and retired Navy Rear Adm. Kenneth Braithwaite as his next Navy secretary.
