In a startling essay for Task & Purpose, former SEAL sniper Josh Vriens said he wished he had done more to help hold retired Navy chief Eddie Gallagher accountable for allegedly stabbing a 17-year-old ISIS prisoner to death and taking a photo with the corpse. Vriens describes Gallagher as a commander who would purposely put soldiers in crossfire to “make it a great deployment.” “In the end, Gallagher showed us he wasn’t our brother. Real brothers don’t needlessly put their men at risk. Real brothers don’t chase medals. And they certainly don’t murder unarmed prisoners or terrorize civilian populations,” Vriens wrote. “As much as some fringe creatures want to argue about our rules of engagement, ROE’s were not the problem on this deployment. The problem was one man’s insecurities, greed, and addiction.” Gallagher was acquitted of killing the prisoner but convicted of taking the photo. He has since claimed that the medical procedures his team performed on the prisoner “killed that guy...Our intention was to kill him. Everybody was on board.”
