Judicial Watch announced today that it has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Maj. Fred C. Galvin (USMC, Ret.), commander of an elite U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations unit falsely accused of war crimes in Afghanistan in 2007 and fully exonerated in 2019, but who was still denied retroactive promotion to lieutenant colonel by the Marine Corps in 2020 despite an otherwise exemplary service record. The lawsuit was filed against the Acting Secretary of the Navy, Thomas Harker, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. It alleges that the military violated the Administrative Procedure Act and another statute in denying Maj. Galvin a promotion (Maj. Fred Galvin v Thomas Harker et al, (No. 1:21-cv-01813)).
On March 4, 2007, Galvin and 29 members of the Marine Special Operations Company Foxtrot (Fox Company), the first combat unit of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC), passed through the Afghan village of Bati Kot, near the Pakistan border, in a six-vehicle convoy. A suicide bomber driving a fuel and explosive-packed van approached the convoy at a high rate of speed. The van detonated, then fighters on both sides of the road opened fire on the convoy. Fox Company fought back and escaped, returning to their base with only one minor casualty. The Afghan government, numerous media outlets, and others falsely accused Maj. Galvin and the unit of war crimes in responding to the attack, and even the U.S. military, after a horribly flawed investigation, called for Galvin and six other Marines be charged with dereliction of duty and negligent homicide. Maj. Galvin was relieved of command, and Fox Company was redeployed out of Afghanistan.
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