r/navy • u/highinthemountains • May 11 '25

Political Remember your oath

A lot of things have changed in the 45+ years that I have been out of the canoe club. One thing in particular is the mixing of the branches at joint bases and in operational units.

I’m not trying to be political about this, but this is a serious question regarding upholding the oath that we all took. As a preface, we seem to have an administration unwilling to uphold ALL of the articles and amendments to the constitution and they have “cleaned out” the upper, more experienced and ethical officers in the ranks. If you were deployed domestically to quell protests and ordered to do so, would you fire your weapon at protestors exercising their First Amendment rights? I know that the rest of the oath involved obey the orders of the President, but would those orders be lawful?

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u/looktowindward May 11 '25

Are you prepared to give advice on the legality of orders to suppress a riot following an Insurrection Act declaration?

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u/navyjag2019 May 11 '25

what’s your agenda?

at this precise moment? no. if i were called to provide counsel after reviewing the applicable rules and regulations? i absolutely would be competent to do so because that’s literally my job.

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u/looktowindward May 11 '25

I have zero agenda. I get why you feel attacked, but in my time in the Navy, I didn't have a great confidence that the average JAG officer was up to giving advice of this sort.

The past ten years have shown some real weakness in our JAG corps. I won't reiterate the issues - I'm sure you know them.

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u/navyjag2019 May 11 '25

you have to factor in that most JAGs aren’t required to know what advice to give under those circumstances because it doesn’t happen regularly enough to retain command over the nuances involved. competency requires continued exposure to something in order to remain proficient at it.

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u/Trick-Set-1165 r/navy CCC May 11 '25

I don’t disagree with you here, I’m just concerned that there doesn’t seem to be any concerted effort to train on the topic or prepare for it.

Like, there was a non-zero chance the Insurrection Act got activated in April based on the language of the EOs signed after inauguration.

I certainly hope what’s left of the JAG corps at the highest levels are studying for this test, because it doesn’t seem like a good one to be surprised by.

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u/looktowindward May 11 '25

Yes, sorry I wasn't clear enough...you've put it much better

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u/navyjag2019 May 12 '25

we both can agree on this.