Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jr. went viral last month after he posted several videos criticizing his chain of command on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“My name is Lieutenant Colonel Scheller, United States Marine Corps. I want to say this very strongly. I have been fighting for 17 years. I am willing to throw it all away to say to my senior leaders, I demand accountability,” Schiller said in a video.
Scheller, who was relieved of his duties last week after his initial criticism, has now been put in pretrial confinement at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. He’s now being accused of violating four articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
NewsNation’s correspondent Rich McHugh spoke with Scheller’s parents, Stuart and Kathy, who are understandably upset about their son’s case.
“They [the miltary] have not told us anything,” Scheller Sr. said. “Yes, they’ve incarcerated our son.”
Scheller Sr. told NewsNation he’s blaming several top U.S, military leaders for putting his son in prison.
“I absolutely believe it’s no coincidence that Secretary Austin, Generals Milley and Mackenzie appearing in front of senators and congressmen yesterday and today, they basically threw him in jail because they did not want him talking. They wanted to shut him up.”
Scheller Sr. said although some critics are saying his son’s videos look “off-topic,” he believes his son’s points are valid.
“The pressure, the shaming, the intimidation, that the Marines know how to put on a person was incredible.”
Scheller’s mother, Kathy, agrees.
“I don’t think we understood it in the beginning. I think I understand it now,” she said.
Several critics on social media have called out Scheller’s videos, saying it’s not his place to speak against the military. But his parents don’t feel the same.
“He understands the chain of command,” Scheller’s mother said. “He understands that you also have to, you have an obligation to hold your superiors accountable … All Marines to be accountable to each other. It’s a brotherhood.”
“Every older old school colonel and above would like to fry him [Scheller Jr.] court-martial him and lock him up. That’s not the answer in 2021,” his father says.
Overall, Scheller’s mother said, he’s a good person who is really just being misunderstood.
“He’s a good person. He is a moral person. He is a brilliant person. And he loves America.”
Scheller was scheduled to face a pre-trial hearing on Thursday, but both sides agreed to delay the hearing until next Tuesday. His family said they delayed it because the military dropped about 600 pages of legal documents Wednesday and they are still trying to process them all.
