The Navy will review whether an officer who was convicted of posing with the corpse of an ISIS captive before President Trump intervened should be allowed to remain in the elite SEAL corps, a defense official told NBCNews on Tuesday night
Trump's order was widely reported to have created a rift with the Navy, and on Tuesday night, the defense official said the service would seek to strip Gallagher and three of his supervising officers of the gold eagle Trident emblem signifying that they are members of one of the Navy's elite Special Warfare Navy Sea, Air and Land units, better known as SEALs.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Rear Adm. Collin P. Green, commander of Naval Special Warfare Command, would issue an order Wednesday directing that a Trident Review Board be convened to determine whether to withdraw the emblem from Gallagher and the three other officers — Lt. Cmdr. Robert Breisch, Lt. Jacob Portier and Lt. Thomas MacNeil.
Green would make a ruling based on the board's recommendations, which would then go to the Navy's top leadership.Removal of the Trident denotes that a sailor is no longer a SEAL, but it isn't a demotion. Since 2011, 154 sailors have been expelled from the SEALs. Asked whether Green expected reprisals from the White House, the defense official said Green had the backing of Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer and of Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations.
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