Will the Marines let Lt. Col. Scheller off with a slap on the wrist?

Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller is getting off way too easy.

He pleaded guilty this week to dereliction of duty, contempt toward officials and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. He signed an 11-page stipulation of facts that listed 27 instances of him improperly attacking political and military leaders over the withdrawal from Afghanistan, including after he was directed to stop posting on social media. “I willfully disobeyed an order,” Scheller said during his court-martial, “to tell hard truths.”

On Friday, a military judge at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina gave Scheller a slap on the wrist. He issued a reprimand to go in Scheller’s permanent file and ordered that his pay be docked by $5,000. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors had asked for the judge to dock $30,000 in pay. Judge Glen Hines, a Marine colonel, said he considered making Scheller forfeit $10,000 but decided to go with half that amount because of nine days he spent in pretrial confinement, along with his “outstanding record before this.”

Scheller has filed paperwork to leave the military. The Navy secretary must now decide whether he will receive an honorable discharge or a general discharge under honorable conditions. Far more is at stake than the level of future benefits he will receive. More importantly, letting Scheller go with an honorable discharge would send the message that what he did was somehow honorable.

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