The Alpha platoon SEAL Team 7 which was splintered by Edward Gallagher’s trial

Edward Gallagher in Mosul in 2017 

They went to war as comrades but when Alpha Platoon, SEAL Team 7 returned from Mosul in 2017 after a seven month deployment, they had been splintered by the alleged war crimes of their highly regarded leader Edward Gallagher. 

Seven SEALs testified against Gallagher for the prosecution at his trial and many were granted immunity for their own war crimes in exchange. 

Two – SO1 Craig Miller and SO1 Corey Scott – said they saw him stab the boy in the neck but Scott claimed that was not what killed him and that he was the one who ended the boy’s life.  

It is unclear if those are all of the men who were deployed with them or if others abstained from taking part. 

Because of the high risk nature of their job and the secrecy of military courts, information about the case and its background has not flowed as freely as it would have in civilian proceedings. 

What is certain is that Gallagher was the chief of a group of younger, arguably less SEALs. His supervisor was Lt. Jacob Portier who has been charged separately.

Those against Gallagher called themselves the ‘brotherhood’ in a secretive WhatsApp group when they returned home. 

The difference between them and the ‘real brotherhood’, they said, was that the latter tolerated war crimes whereas they did not. 

Gallagher’s wife and defense team has called the other SEALs a group of ‘mean girls’.  

Navy Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, center, walks with his wife, Andrea Gallagher, left, and advisor, Bernard Kerik as they leave a military court on Naval Base San Diego, Tuesday, after he was found not guilty of murder

Navy Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, center, walks with his wife, Andrea Gallagher, left, and advisor, Bernard Kerik as they leave a military court on Naval Base San Diego, Tuesday, after he was found not guilty of murder

SO1 Dalton Tolbert

SO1 Dalton Tolbert

Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Dalton Tolbert 

When the SEALs returned from Mosul and set up their WhatsApp group, SO1 Dalton Tolbert, who was a sniper during their tour, tried to drum up support from others to report Gallagher. 

‘I saw Eddie Gallagher shoot at someone who didn’t deserve to die. I shot more warning shots to protect civilians [from Eddie] than I ever shot at ISIS,’ he said in one message in their WhatsApp group, The Sewing Circle. 

He gave one example where he said he saw Gallagher shoot an unarmed elderly Iraqi man in a tunic who had been collecting water from a river. 

He claimed he fired a warning shot to try to scare the man away but that Gallagher fired at him and wounded him.  

Tolbert had been accepted into the famous SEAL Team 6, which was responsible for taking out Osama Bin Laden. 

He said that as a result of his testimony at Gallagher’s trial, his dream of carrying out covert operations for that team is now over.  

Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Dylan Dille

SO1 Dylan Dille is illustrated above in a shirt and tie, sitting in front of Gallagher, with a photograph in the background of the men crowded around the ISIS fighter once dead

SO1 Dylan Dille is illustrated above in a shirt and tie, sitting in front of Gallagher, with a photograph in the background of the men crowded around the ISIS fighter once dead

Dille’s testimony was some of the most damaging. He claimed that Gallagher told him that he would like to kill an ISIS prisoner if the opportunity arose. 

His remarks were what informed the prosecution’s arguments that it was a premeditated killing. 

Dille claimed that on the day the boy died, he was with Gallagher when the call came over the radio that a prisoner was at the base. 

‘No one touch him. He’s all mine,’ he claimed he said. 

He said Gallagher had told him earlier: ‘If we ever get a wounded enemy, that the medics know what to do to nurse him to death.’   

He did not claim to have seen Gallagher kill him. Instead, he said the boy was alive when he left him 

He returned to his post and then came back to the group later but found the prisoner dead, he said.

Later that day, he said Gallagher held a meeting with the junior SEALs because they were so uncomfortable with what had happened. 

He said that at that meeting, Gallagher told them: ‘This was just an ISIS dirtbag. Next time we get a prisoner … it will be out of sight, out of mind.’ 

Dille served in the Navy from 2010 until last year. 

Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Craig Miller

Miller’s testimony was among the most dramatic. He said that he saw Gallagher plunge the knife into the boy’s neck and that blood spurted out. 

‘I saw him stab the prisoner in the side of the neck. He kind of like jumped back a little bit,’ after the alleged stabbing. 

SO1 Craig Miller

SO1 Craig Miller 

‘The blood just came out. It looked similar to a baby throwing up,’ he said. 

Miller was who led The Sewing Circle, according to Parlatore, Gallagher’s lawyer. 

He was the first to report him to superiors once they had returned from Iraq. It was around the time that Gallagher was up for promotion to Master Chief and he was being considered for the Silver Star, the third highest honor in the armed forces. 

Miller first went to Lt. Commander Robert Breisch in around March 2018, when Gallagher was up for the award. He told Breisch that it was based on lies and that he didn’t deserve it. When asked why, he first claimed Gallagher stole food from care packages in the platoon.

When he was told that wasn’t enough to open an investigation, he claimed Gallagher used dangerous war tactics like using other SEALs as bait.

Again, he was told it was not enough. Over the next five months, Breisch said one of the SEALs went to him every week to complain about Gallagher.

Eventually, in around August 2018, Miller finally claimed he’d stabbed an ISIS prisoner. 

‘[He] blurted and vomited it out. He said, “Eddie stabbed a prisoner,”‘ Breisch testified.

Since they returned, Miller has been promoted to chief.  

Special Operator First Class Corey Scott 

Scott had been expected to testify in line with the other SEALs and accuse Gallagher of murdering the boy. 

But when he got on the witness stand, he blindsided prosecutors and the courtroom by claiming he was the one who killed the ISIS prisoner by closing off his air supply by covering his breathing tube with his thumb. 

He said it was an act of mercy because he knew Iraqi forces would torture the young man if he let him live and handed him over. 

Corey Scott (shown in a court sketch) was called as a prosecution witness on Thursday in the case against Edward Gallagher.

Corey Scott (in a court sketch) was called as a prosecution witness on Thursday in the case against Gallagher but stunned the prosecutors by taking responsibility for the murder. Now, he is being threatened with perjury charges 

Scott and Gallagher were the two medics on the scene and they were closest to the boy when he died. 

He said he did see Gallagher stab him but that it was not what ultimately killed him. 

Prosecutors have accused him of lying to protect Gallagher and say he only did it because he had been granted immunity himself. 

He insisted he was being honest and merely did not want Gallagher, who has a wife and children, to spend the rest of his life in prison. 

Scott has since been threatened by Navy prosecutors with perjury charges.  

Special Warfare Operator First Class Joshua Vriens 

SO1 Joshua Vriens

SO1 Joshua Vriens 

Vriens testified that he had seen Gallagher shoot a young girl in a hijab and sent others scattering. 

He claimed to have watched through his scope as the girl was hit in the stomach and then dragged by one of her friends to safety. 

But upon cross-examination, Vriens admitted he only saw it through his own sniper scope and did not see Gallagher pull the trigger.

He also conceded that ISIS had been shooting civilians that day, leaving open the possibility that it could have been one of their snipers who injured the girl. 

Special Warfare Operator First Class T.C. Byrne 

Byrne testified that he was wearing a helmet fitted with a camera when the ISIS prisoner was brought into the base. 

Footage taken from it was shown to the jury. He said that he saw the prisoner alive but that he left him in Gallagher’s care and returned to find him dead. 

SO1 Terrance 'TC' Byrne is shown pointing to a photo of the dead fighter on the ground

SO1 Terrance ‘TC’ Byrne is shown pointing to a photo of the dead fighter on the ground 

Lt. Thomas MacNeil 

MacNeil, who had roomed with Gallagher in the past, was the first to take the stand.

He claimed that after they returned from Mosul and there were rumors of an investigation, Gallagher and Portier approached him in a parking lot where he said Gallagher ran up to him and threatened him. 

‘Chief Gallagher got in my face and said “If you take me down, I’ll take all of you down. I’ve got s**t on all of you,’ he told the trial.     

Lt. Jacob Portier 

Portier was the supervisor during the deployment and he has been charged separately for covering up Gallagher’s alleged crimes. 

He conducted the reenlistment ceremony next to the dead ISIS fighter’s body once he had stopped breathing and was also filmed walking past the SEALs as they played with a drone near the youngster’s body. 

He allegedly ordered the SEALs to delete the incriminating photographs and videos taking during deployment which could put Gallagher behind bars.

Portier’s own defense team has claimed, like Gallagher’s, that they are being unfairly prosecuted. 

At his trial, it was revealed that a repository where alleged war crimes are meant to be logged and then investigated has sat empty since it was created in 2009.  

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