Anti-Obama Marine Discharged For Facebook Page
SAN DIEGO (CBS) — A Camp Pendleton Marine will no longer be allowed to serve his country over comments that were made on Facebook.
KNX 1070's Tom Reopelle reports Sgt. Gary Stein now faces an other-than-honorable discharge from the military for criticizing President Barack Obama.
Podcast
Stein will also lose most of his benefits for violating Pentagon policy limiting speech of service members after stating on the "Armed Forces Tea Party" page he created in 2010 that he would not follow certain orders from the president.
The 10-year Marine veteran said he would "never follow an illegal order from his superiors and he cited being ordered to confiscate guns from U.S. citizens as an example", according to the Armed Forces Tea Party page, which also noted Stein "wasn't acting in his official capacity as a Marine".
But earlier this month, Judge Marilyn Huff of the U.S. District Court in San Diego disagreed and refused to deny a restraining order that would have temporarily suspended proceedings to have Stein dismissed from the Corps.
Former Marine Judge Gary Solis said he was not surprised by the discharge.
"He said, 'Speaking as a United States Marine, I say to President Obama, screw you'," said Solis. "This was after he had been warned to back off."
Stein was not eligible to receive a dishonorable or bad conduct discharge, as those are only handed down as a court-martial sentence.
A Facebook post dated April 25 stated that Stein's discharge would likely be postponed until "results of a medical condition he was diagnosed with on Monday are returned and treatment is discussed".
