A Sergeant in the US Marines called Gary Stein has been discharged of his duties by the Pentagon after he allegedly posted up criticism of President Barack Obama on his Facebook page. On March 1st Stein wrote on a friend’s Facebook page, “Screw Obama and I will not follow all orders from him.” On top of that Stein proceeded to create an Armed Forces Tea Party page where he used an image of the President superimposed into a ‘Jackass’ movie poster as the page’s official picture.
The Pentagon apparently has a zero tolerance social media policy and it revokes the right to free speech for all armed forces on active duty. The Pentagon found Stein in breach of that and expressly discharged the marine. Stein said of his discharge, “I love the Marine Corps, I love my job, I wish it wouldn’t have gone this way. I’m having a hard time seeing how 15 words on Facebook could have ruined my nine-year career.”
A former Army colonel and current military prosecutor called Tom Umberg was present throughout the proceedings and gave his overview of what happened with the case, “The Marine Corps gave him the opportunity to think about his actions, yet the Sergeant continued to undermine the chain of command. I think his purpose was to leave the Marine Corps in a dramatic fashion in order to begin a career in talk radio or what have you.”
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