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Chicago Tribune
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Dan Tully: I trust my fellow service members will abide by the Constitution
Having served as a captain and judge advocate in the Army Reserve, graduated from Stanford Law School and deployed overseas in Iraq, I have thought deeply about military command and the obligations incurred by swearing an oath to the Constitution. These concerns weigh especially heavily as President Donald Trump deploys active-duty military members as a show of force against peaceful demonstrations in Los Angeles and potentially here in Chicago. I want my fellow citizens to know something important. I trust the common sense and decency of my fellow American service members. I have served alongside them, some who consider themselves to be MAGA Republicans. I know they understand how grave and serious it would be to use force against their countrymen and countrywomen. Let me explain why. All service members swear an oath to 'support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.' Enlisted service members continue swearing to 'obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me,' expressly conditioned by, 'according to the regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).' With that condition, the enlisted oath is not absolute; if an order is unlawful, an enlisted service member is responsible not to obey. The obedience language is absent from the officer oath. Instead, officers swear to 'well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.' In short, while all members of the military must act in accordance with the UCMJ, each officer must exercise an even higher level of responsibility, remaining loyal not to a president but to the Constitution. No service member should ever follow a clearly unlawful command, especially when that command is to harm unarmed, peaceful citizens of their own country. It is infuriating that we are even in this situation. Trump doesn't care about members of the military, referring to fallen soldiers as 'suckers' and 'losers' for not escaping their obligations as he did during the Vietnam War. He denigrates the records of patriots such as the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, degrading his war hero status. He has saddled them with an incompetent secretary of defense in Pete Hegseth. Most dangerously, Trump intentionally disregards centuries of the military's most essential tradition of nonpartisanship, eroding American faith in our most trusted institution. What troubles many of us in the military — something I would advise my fellow soldiers and commanders to consider — is the terrifying prospect of an unlawful order coming down from this reckless president. Trump has openly mused about service members using lethal force to control protesters, portraying them as domestic enemies of the Constitution. In fact, it's the opposite: The protesters are exercising their First Amendment right to free speech and assembly in support of the 14th Amendment rights of people being kidnapped and deported without due process. To the extent that there have been acts of violence and vandalism in the vicinity of the protests, those acts are unlawful. Police in our cities are fully capable of addressing the situation. Protests — even ones that include civil disobedience — should not be met with violence unless there is no other option available. But this president believes violence against our citizens is an acceptable first choice because he doesn't value the rule of law or, by his own admission, his duty to uphold our Constitution. American military members are trained and proficient at understanding the conditions under which it is lawful to use force in the heat and exercise of war. They are taught to obey the chain of command, especially on a battlefield. Unit cohesion and effectiveness depend on the obedience of orders. But a service member is not a robot, blindly obligated to fulfill a command received from a superior with no application of context or thought. Especially if that command is given outside the theater of war, with no imminent danger to personnel, and even more so when present on the streets of an American city where the people those soldiers swore to defend are petitioning the actions of their government. American soldiers have misused lethal force in the past, and they have faced consequences. Second Lt. William L. Calley Jr. was convicted by court martial of the premeditated murder of 22 Vietnamese in the famous My Lai massacre. He was convicted because the threshold for disobeying an order is, according to the Manual for Military Courts-Martial and case law, 'a person of ordinary sense and understanding would have known the orders to be unlawful.' With a president so intent on sowing chaos every day, it must be a difficult position for the American troops who have deployed to Los Angeles and are rumored to be on their way to other cities. But Americans stand up to do what's right in difficult moments all the time. We must not forget that there are numerous institutions available to us all to safeguard our rights. Our military, state and federal criminal justice systems are populated with true patriots who believe in the rule of law. This is, ultimately, why I trust that our service members will do the right thing when the time comes. They have been trained well, and they know their obligations to their country. I have sworn an oath to the Constitution three times — as a lawyer, an Army officer and a federal civil servant. The Constitution is not a suggestion; it is the supreme law of the land. Even if our president won't abide by it, I trust my fellow service members will.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Yahoo
Missing Navy sailor found dead in Virginia, another sailor in custody
What happened to Angelia Resendiz is a mystery, but her mother wants to get to the bottom of it. Resendiz was last seen on May 29 in her barracks in Miller Hall at Naval Station Norfolk, according to a missing person's alert issued by Virginia State Police on June 3. The alert was rescinded Tuesday, when the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) announced the medical examiner identified a body recovered Monday as the sailor. Another sailor was taken into custody. Esmeralda Castle says she wants to talk with the person believed to be involved in the death of her 21-year-old daughter. She doesn't want to know how her daughter died and was left in a wooded area miles from her naval base - she says she wants to find closure. 'This can't happen again,' Castle said. Her daughter dreamed about one day cooking elaborate meals for presidents and world leaders in her role as a Navy cook, Castle said. Virginia's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner told CNN 'the cause and manner of death is pending,' but would not elaborate further. NCIS placed a sailor in custody pending formal charges, but has not identified the individual. 'A Navy Sailor has been placed in pretrial confinement in connection with the death of Seaman Resendiz. Charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice are pending,' NCIS told CNN in a statement Thursday. Castle said her daughter's friends started calling her on May 29 to tell her Resendiz was last seen with a sailor in the barracks. It was out of the ordinary for her 'fun-loving' daughter not to call, she said, or to miss a day on Snapchat with her sister—they had a 400-day streak on Snapchat that was now broken. 'NCIS remains committed to uncovering the facts surrounding the tragic death of Seaman Resendiz to ensure accountability and justice,' NCIS said in a statement to CNN. The case is drawing parallels to the 2020 death of Vanessa Guillen, the 20-year-old private first class who was last seen in the parking lot of her barracks, and was later found in a shallow grave near Fort Cavazos in Texas. The main suspect in Guillen's disappearance was identified as a fellow Army specialist. Resendiz's body was discovered in a wooded area over six miles away from the barracks where she was last seen. 'I don't know if she was alive… I don't know if that's where her life was taken, but that's where she was found,' Castle said. Geraldine Alston witnessed agents carrying a white body bag from the wooded area behind her home on June 9, she told CNN. She later learned on the news the body recovered was Resendiz. 'I'm still in shock,' she said. Alston's back door is about 200 feet from the start of the nearest tree line. The mother of six walked toward the area where the body was found while talking to CNN by phone. She remembered it was hot, humid, and raining intermittently that afternoon as agents walked out of the woods with what appeared to be evidence in paper bags. Minutes into her walk, she came upon something on the grass that made her stop and think of Resendiz's mom. It was a bouquet of fresh flowers. 'Rest In Peace Angelina,' was written on a piece of cardboard. 'I don't feel safe,' Alston said. 'She was lying behind my house in the woods.' Castle says she looks at her daughter's picture every moment of every day. 'She's gone. She's in a better place,' she tells herself. Resendiz was new to the military. She was 21, filled with dreams, and loved singing, music, and painting, according to her mother. She joined the Navy in August 2023, obtained 'recruit' and 'Naval Technical' training, and was assigned to the USS James E. Williams in February 2024, a US Navy spokesperson said. 'Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends, and coworkers of Culinary Specialist Seaman Angelina Resendiz, assigned to the USS James E. Williams (DDG 95),' Commander, Naval Surface Atlantic Public Affairs told CNN in a statement. Castle is raising money through a GoFundMe page to fight for justice for her daughter. She is planning to hold a vigil on June 20 in the Rio Grande Valley, the area where Resendiz grew up. The funeral service has yet to be announced until her daughter's body is released, she said. As for why she wants to speak to the person believed to be responsible for her daughter's death, she says she wants to forgive. 'I… want to get to a place where I can forgive,' Castle said.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Yahoo
Ex-Army soldier who drugged, raped minor faces charges
A 48-year-old ex-Army soldier who was convicted of drugging and raping a juvenile family member is facing federal charges that he failed to register as a sex offender and lied on a U.S. passport application. From June 2021 until May, Ricardo Marlon Blenman, aka 'Ricardo Marlon Thompson, ' allegedly used an alias and lied to evade law enforcement and registering for his sex crimes in Arizona, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. Blenman was born in Panama and became a U.S. citizen in 1990. He is being held at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu after a successful motion by the U.S. Department of Justice to have him held without bail. Blenman is barred by a state protective order from having any contact with his three children or their mother until Sept 27, 2027. In July, the state Department of the Attorney General asked the public for help finding Blenman, a 'convicted sex offender who failed to register his address, ' according to a statement. As a U.S. Army soldier stationed on Oahu in 2018, Blenman was accused of sexually abusing a child between 2014 and 2017. According to federal court records, Blenman was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting the victim four times in Italy and Hawaii. He was convicted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice in 2018 of aggravated sexual contact, assault consummated by battery, and administering a drug /intoxicant, and sentenced to three years in federal prison. Blenman is a 'covered sex offender and is required to register under the sex offender registration program ' of any jurisdiction or be included in the National Sex Offender Registry based 'on an offense against a minor, ' according to court records. He moved to Oahu in 2021 and failed to register as a sex offender, at one point listing his ex-wife's address in Ewa Beach. He was charged by federal criminal complaint May 28 with failing to register as a sex offender and making a false statement in application and use of passport. Blenman was arrested June 2 and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Tuesday. On April 7, the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security Service was contacted by the state Department of the Attorney General for help revoking Blenman's passport. He did not have the 'conspicuous identifier on his passport, as required, ' according to court records. 'Upon further discussion with an investigator from the Hawaii State AG's office, it was revealed that on April 13, 2018, Blenman was convicted in a General Military Court Martial for sex crimes he committed in the state of Hawaii and Vicenza, Italy, between 2007 and 2017, ' according to the court records. The conspicuous identifier is a statement printed inside the passport book of a person who has been convicted of a sex crime against a minor, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. After he was convicted of sexually assaulting the child, Blenman was sentenced to a reduction of rank, to the pay grade of E-1, 36 months confinement and dismissed from the military service with a dishonorable discharge. He was imprisoned at the Joint Regional Correctional Facility, in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Blenman signed a form acknowledging that he was required to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act as a sex offender, within 72 hours, in any 'state, territory, or tribal nation, in which he will reside, be employed, carry on a vocation, or be a student.' In April 2021, Blenman, using the last name 'Thompson ' signed an International Megan's Law Notification form with the Puerto Rico Police Bureau acknowledging that he had to register as a sex offender. He did not register, allegedly used a fake address and left Puerto Rico without notice, leading the government to issue an arrest warrant. On a June 29, 2021, passport application, Blenman allegedly did not mention he used another name and identity. Thompson is the name listed on his birth certificate prior to becoming a U.S. citizen. He has 'provided false or misleading information ' to law enforcement officials regarding his 'residential addresses on multiple occasions, ' according to the court records. Blenman was arrested in January 2024 for fourth-degree misdemeanor sexual assault. His next state court appearance in that case is scheduled for July 9. ONLINE DIRECTORY To view an online directory of Hawaii's registered sex offenders and other covered offenders and to sign up for email alerts, go to.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Yahoo
Arrest made in disappearance of U.S. Navy sailor, 21, later found dead
An arrest has been made in connection with the disappearance of a 21-year-old woman, a U.S. Navy Seaman, found dead earlier this week, according to Naval officials and media reports. Angelina Petra Resendiz was last seen at her barracks at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia on the morning of May 29, NBC News reported, but officials with the Virginia State Police did not issue a critically missing person alert for her until the first week of June. The sailor's body was discovered June 9 by members of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in a wooded area in Norfolk. According to the 21-year-old sailor's family, Naval officials, including her commander, dragged their feet after her disappearance. A spokesperson for the family told NBC News that Resendiz's mother, Esmeralda Castle, was not informed of her daughter's disappearance through official Naval channels. 2 men, cousins, accused in brutal 2024 murder of U.S. Marine in L.A. County 'Her daughter's colleagues, friends, and even authorities knew she was missing, but the response was minimal,' according to a statement released on behalf of the family. 'After her friends filed a missing person's report when her commander would not, they showed little compassion or understanding.' Officials at NCIS, who have arrested an unidentified sailor in the 21-year-old's disappearance, said in a statement that they began investigating as soon as the agency learned that she'd been missing. 'NCIS remains committed to uncovering the facts surrounding the tragic death of Seaman Resendiz to ensure accountability and justice,' the statement added. Investigators told NBC News that the investigation is ongoing, and that charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice are pending against the suspect. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump speech at Fort Bragg prompts questions, concerns about politicization of military
WASHINGTON — Defense Department officials say troops who cheered and jeered Tuesday at President Donald Trump's political statements at a rally at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, did not violate military regulations, but a former military legal officer said they did just that. During the speech, uniformed soldiers yelled in support of Trump's political statements and booed former President Joe Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. 'Do you think this crowd would have showed up for Biden? I don't think so,' Trump said to boos about Biden. Trump made other comments about Newsom and about Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, where protests against the administration's crackdown on immigrants have been taking place and where Trump has ordered thousands of National Guard members and active-duty Marines deployed in response. Other Trump comments about the 'fake news media,' transgender people, protesters in California and flag-burning also drew boos from the uniformed military members in attendance. Trump is known for his rallies at which he goes after and pokes fun at political enemies and other issues, but typically he makes those remarks at political events, not on U.S. military bases. Such overt political activity on a base is the prerogative of the commander in chief. But military leaders would typically frown upon troops' reacting the way they did as inconsistent with military good order and discipline, and, according to one expert, it is a violation of military regulations found in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, or UCMJ. Presidents of both parties often use troops as political props and put them and their commanders in difficult positions by doing so, but Trump's speech took that to a new level, said Geoffrey DeWeese, a retired judge advocate general who is now an attorney with Mark S. Zaid PC. (Zaid has represented whistleblowers on both sides of the aisle, including one who filed a complaint about Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019 that led to Trump's impeachment, and he was one of the people whose security clearances Trump revoked this year.) 'It's a sad tradition to use the military as a backdrop for political purposes,' DeWeese said. 'To actively attack another president or a sitting governor and incite the crowd to boo, that's a step in a dangerous direction, that really says we want to politicize the military, that sends a bad message.' DeWeese said there were likely to have been violations of the UCMJ. 'I would be cringing if I was a senior officer and it happened under my watch,' he said. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said repeatedly that he wants to take politics out of the military by removing diversity, equity and inclusion programs and banning service by transgender service members. Kori Schake, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who worked at the State Department and the National Security Council under former President George W. Bush and at the Pentagon under former President George H.W. Bush, said in an email that commanders at Fort Bragg should have done a better job preparing troops there. 'It's terrible,' she wrote. 'It's predictably bad behavior by the President to try and score political points in a military setting, and it's a command failure by leaders at Ft Bragg not to prepare soldiers for that bad behavior and counsel them not to participate.' The Pentagon said in a statement that there had been no violation of the UCMJ and suggested the media was against policies that Trump has championed. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell also alleged in a statement that the media 'cheered on the Biden administration' and its policies regarding the Defense Department 'when they forced drag queen performances on military bases, promoted service members on the basis of race and sex in violation of federal law, and fired troops who refused an experimental vaccine.' 'Believe me, no one needs to be encouraged to boo the media,' Parnell said. 'Look no further than this query, which is nothing more than a disgraceful attempt to ruin the lives of young soldiers.' On Wednesday, Army officials at Fort Bragg addressed the sale of some MAGA merchandise at the event, which was planned in cooperation with a nonpartisan organization, American 250. 'The Army remains committed to its core values and apolitical service to the nation,' Col. Mary Ricks, a spokeswoman for the Army's 18th Airborne Corps at Bragg, said in a statement. 'The Army does not endorse political merchandise or the views it represents. The vendor's presence is under review to determine how it was permitted and to prevent similar circumstances in the future.' The Army's own new field manual, published recently, says the apolitical nature of being a U.S. soldier is what contributes to the public trust. The Army 'as an institution must be nonpartisan and appear so, too,' says the new field manual, 'The Army: A Primer to Our Profession of Arms.' 'Being nonpartisan means not favoring any specific political party or group. Nonpartisanship assures the public that our Army will always serve the Constitution and our people loyally and responsively.' U.S. troops can participate in political functions, just not while on duty or in uniform, the book says. 'As a private citizen you are encouraged to participate in our democratic process, but as a soldier you must be mindful of how your actions may affect the reputation and perceived trustworthiness of our Army as an institution,' it says. 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