Andrew Wolfson

@adwolfson

The Navy SEALs who flew a Trump flag on a military convoy in January were ordered to undergo “teamwide remedial training” on avoiding partisan political activity but received no individual punishments, records show.

Their commanding officer ordered them to undertake “corrective measures intended to help them atone for and potentially recover from their mistakes,” according to documents provided Thursday to The Courier-Journal in a records request.

The commander, whose name was redacted for security reasons, said in a memo, “I am confident that the letter, spirit and intent" of the Department of Defense policies regarding safe convoy protocols and apparent political endorsements have been very clearly impressed on them.”

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He also wrote the incident “demonstrated a serious lack of judgment by all three service members principally involved,” their commander wrote.

“It was entirely foreseeable that flying a political campaign flag from a military vehicle while on a public highway…could appear to imply DoD endorsement of a political campaign.”

The records show that three Special Warfare forces were the principal culprits, but their names also were redacted.

Lt. Jacqui Maxwell of the Naval Special Warfare Group 2 in Virginia Beach, Va., said last month that “administrative corrective measures” had been taken with each individual based on their respective responsibility. She declined to elaborate on the punishments or how many were punished.

The newspaper reported that some motorists were alarmed Jan. 29 when they saw an 11-truck convoy rolling through Louisville flying the flag of a national leader. The 3-by-5-foot blue flag on the first vehicle said in white letters “Trump” and “Make America Great Again.”

At least one of the service members involved told investigators he was aware of rules prohibiting defense department endorsement of candidates during an election but did not believe it was wrong to fly the banner once the election was over because Trump was now commander in chief.

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Another said he didn’t believe flying the flag violated department policy.

The report said that about 30 minutes into the trip from Fort Knox to Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Butlerville, Indiana one of the personnel noticed the flag was garnering a lot of attention from drivers, “some of which was negative,” and concluded the flag should be taken down.

But he decided it would have been unsafe to pull over on the highway and do that, and the report agreed that would have violated Navy rules. However, the report noted there were many exits on Interstate 65 and that the convoy commander could have scouted out a safe area to do that.

The report also said flying the flag from the antenna of a vehicle using “zip ties” was unsafe and could have caused an accident.

The commanding officer said the special operations forces also violated the Navy "SEAL Ethos” that states “I do not advertise the nature of my work or seek recognition for my actions."

“This episode served to cast a bright and unwanted spotlight on our actions and locations,” the commanding officer said in the report.

The unit was based on the East Coast, but the Navy has declined to say exactly where, citing security reasons.

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at 502-582-7189 or awolfson@courier-journal.com.

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