Military Illumination

The Feres Doctrine: The Accountability Gap

What happens when those who serve believe the military has failed them—and can’t take their case to court? On this episode of Military Illumination, Gary examines the Feres Doctrine, the Supreme Court precedent that generally bars service members from suing the federal government for injuries “incident to service.”

From its origins in a fatal barracks fire to its implications for negligence and medical malpractice claims, Gary offers a pointed critique of military accountability. He connects the issue to his own experience, challenges Congress to pursue reform, and urges prospective recruits and military families to look beyond promises of benefits and retirement.

The central question: Does protecting the military from lawsuits come at too high a cost to the people who serve?

https://saveourservicemembers.org/feres-doctrine/

Podcast: Military Illumination — Host: Gary Episode: "Rigged Military Justice: JAG and Jury Act 8"

Host Gary argues the U.S. military judicial system is structurally rigged against service members, using a 1998 Washington National Guard court-martial as his case study.

Key Points:

• Military juries are handpicked by the convening authority and JAG — not drawn from peers — making biased panels the norm.
• A staff sergeant was court-martialed as retaliation for telling the truth under oath and refusing to falsify documents for a superior.
• The soldier was denied experienced counsel; their attorney refused to represent them and the judge wouldn't intervene.
• Jury panel members had previously filed grievances against the defendant — clear bias before trial.
• Investigator Brett Dougherty allegedly manipulated evidence and falsified statements, while JAG failed to investigate properly.
• Gary argues this is systemic across all branches, not isolated, and urges listeners to research independently before enlisting.

"Military Illumination" – Act 7: The Corrupt Bench of LTC Dwight Williams

In this episode, host Gary continues his chronical of the 1998 Washington National Guard's prosecution of an innocent soldier, focusing on the role of military judge Lieutenant Colonel Dwight Williams. After the soldier's defense attorney, Captain Gregory Goodale, was fired for failing to represent their interests, the soldier was left without legal counsel heading into a court-martial. Despite being notified, the military judge, JAG, the convening authority, and even the Governor's office all failed to act—leaving the soldier unrepresented.

Gary argues that Williams' inaction was pivotal in enabling the prosecution to proceed, painting a picture of systemic corruption shielded by the Feres doctrine, military autonomy, and the guise of institutional integrity. He warns that this is not an isolated incident but a pattern throughout the military justice system, and urges anyone considering military service to be aware of these realities. The next episode will cover corruption within the jury panel

Military Illumination — "Nineteen Acts of Injustice: Act 6 — The Firing of Capt. Gregory Guedel"

In this episode, host Gary continues his series on the Washington National Guard's prosecution of an innocent soldier in 1998. Act 6 focuses on Captain Gregory Goodell, the detailed (assigned) military defense counsel whose advice to the accused soldier was simply to "suck it up." When the soldier, advised by a staffer in Senator Patty Murray's office, formally requested a more experienced attorney, Goodell was never officially removed from the case — though he would later return seeking retaliation.

Key points covered:

• Ineffective assistance of counsel: Goodell, a part-time JAG officer, failed to review evidence, speak with witnesses, or file a motion to dismiss based on violated Article 31 rights (self-incrimination protections).
• The senator's role: While Gary maintains that senators themselves rarely help individual service members, he acknowledges that Senator Murray's staff provided a critical piece of advice — write a letter to JAG requesting new counsel, which established legal standing for the request.
• Military judge inaction: Lieutenant Colonel Dwight Williamson, the military judge assigned to the case, received the letter but took no action — no hearing, no ruling.
• New charges preferred without investigation: In September, Daniel Coffee signed off on new charges (false official statements) without conducting any investigation, making him, in Gary's view, a co-conspirator in the injustice.
• Personnel changes: The original prosecuting attorney (Bennett) exited the case and was replaced by First Lieutenant Christopherson.
• Broader context: Gary frames the episode within systemic issues in the military — the protection of the Feres Doctrine, retaliation against those who speak up, and disproportionate targeting of women and people of color.

The episode teases Act 7, which will detail how Goodell retaliated after being removed and what happened as the case headed toward a January 1999 trial date.

Episode Summary — "Nineteen Acts of Injustice: Act 5 — JAG's Unethical and Deceitful Practices"

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." Host Gary opens Act 5 of his ongoing series with this fitting Sir Walter Scott quote, setting the stage for an episode that exposes how the Washington National Guard's Judge Advocate General (JAG) office orchestrated a malicious prosecution — and how their own deceptions progressively trapped them.

The Setup (1998): At the 168th Aviation Battalion at Fort Lewis, Brett Dockery and Major Robin Davis hatched a scheme to prosecute an innocent female soldier in retaliation for her complaints. The core tactic: take evidence of a crime committed by one soldier, attribute it to another, and let the actual offender go free.

The Supply Room Trap: The soldier was locked out of her own supply room during a change-of-command inventory. Sergeant First Class Rutchy then conducted the audit and reported over $150,000 in missing equipment — a wildly inflated figure that formed the basis of the initial charges. Once the soldier was allowed back in and properly reconciled her hand receipts — following all regulations — the actual shortfall was a mere $198 in expendable miscellaneous items.

The Fabricated Replacement Charges: When the original charges collapsed under the weight of that discrepancy, JAG pivoted to a new charge: making a false official statement. But the "false statement" was actually a routine, regulation-compliant date adjustment made by a warehouse NCO who legally accepted exchanged equipment. That sergeant's sworn statement — admitting he acted alone and within regulation — was deliberately kept out of the charging packet.

The Complicity Chain:

• Captain Gregory Goodell (defense counsel) sat idle for eight months, offering no legal advice beyond "suck it up" — a textbook case of ineffective assistance of counsel.
• Major Donald Bennett (prosecutor) knowingly suppressed exculpatory evidence.
• Major Robin Davis (JAG) failed to investigate the legal merits before pressing charges.
• Major Shaw kept his name off all documentation, ensuring clean hands.

Bennett quietly removed himself as prosecutor once the new charges were filed — a move Gary reads as self-preservation, not accident.

The "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree" Argument: Gary argues that the soldier's rights were violated from the start — she was never read her rights before questioning. Under established legal doctrine, everything flowing from that violation, including the warehouse evidence, should be inadmissible. Yet JAG pressed forward anyway, relying on the Feres doctrine — the legal shield that prevents service members from successfully holding the military accountable in civilian courts — to operate without real oversight.

The Broader Warning: Gary pulls back to the bigger picture: the military justice system, he argues, is a facade. Not just in the Washington National Guard, but across every branch. Evidence that helps the accused is hidden; evidence against them is embellished or falsified. The Feres doctrine ensures that even if a soldier fights all the way to the Supreme Court, the outcome is predetermined. It's a lose-lose for anyone in uniform — and the episode serves as an explicit warning to anyone considering enlistment to understand what they're really signing up for.

Cliffhanger: As September arrives, a pivotal shift occurs — one the National Guard never saw coming. Next episode: Gregory Goodell gets the boot.

In this episode of Military Illumination, host Gary breaks down how the National Guard, the Reserves, and the active-duty military are not separate entities but rather one and the same — despite the military using semantic wordplay to make them appear distinct. Drawing a memorable comparison to Jim Carrey's "Einhorn is Finkle" revelation in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Gary explains that all components fall under the same enlistment contract, the same Uniform Code of Military Justice, and the same chain of command under the President. He shares how injustices experienced in the Guard system are equally present in active duty, and warns potential recruits that the military contract — unlike any civilian contract — is nearly impossible to exit without serious consequences. Gary urges listeners to carefully read the military contract, consider worst-case scenarios, and weigh whether the benefits are truly worth the sacrifices to their freedom, future, and well-being.

With the mid-term elections just around the corner, isn't the right time to evaluate the performance of the GOP in the White House and decide if the GOP should be kicked out of the White House? Listen for the illumination of the facts.

Episode Summary: "An Act of Ineffective Assistance of Counsel: Captain Gregory Guedel"

Runtime: ~12 min 36 sec · Host: Gary · Format: Solo commentary

In this episode, Gary delivers an impassioned first-person account of how his friend — a soldier in the Washington Army National Guard — was failed by the military justice system in 1998. The focus is on Captain Gregory Guedel, the assigned defense counsel whose inaction Gary argues amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel.

Key points covered:

• The gap between code and practice. Gary opens by contrasting the military's written regulations and the UCMJ with how those rules are actually applied — asserting that codes are used to prosecute service members but ignored when they reveal JAG misconduct or a soldier's innocence.
• Article 31 rights violations. Gary contends that his friend's rights were clearly violated, as documented in sworn statements by Brett Dougherty and Lineweaver, making everything that followed inadmissible. He argues Goodell either missed this or willfully ignored it.
• Goodell's failures as defense counsel. Gary lists what Guedel could have done — filed motions to dismiss, conducted discovery, interviewed witnesses, examined evidence — but did none of it. Instead, Goodell's defense strategy boiled down to telling the soldier to "just suck it up."
• The gladiator metaphor. Gary paints a vivid analogy of the soldier being led into an arena, chained and bound, while officers — Guedel, Dougherty, Major Donald Bennett (prosecutor), and military judge Dwight Williams — take turns "stabbing" the defenseless soldier, with onlookers cheering and doing nothing.
• The paper trail. Gary references efforts to escalate the case through the National Guard Bureau, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, the Ninth Circuit of Appeals, Senator Patty Murray, Washington state representatives, and the governor's office — all creating a documented record now archived in eastern Washington.
• What's coming. Gary promises this is only the beginning of the story, teasing that the soldier will "come back to life and fight," and asks listeners to stay tuned, share the episode, and verify the claims by researching the named individuals themselves.

"Enter Captain Gregory Goodell" — Act 3 of Nineteen Acts of Injustice by the Washington National Guard!

What happens when the person assigned to defend you in a military court does absolutely nothing? In this episode of Military Illumination, we dive into Act 3 of our ongoing series on the Washington National Guard — and introduce you to Captain Gregory Goodell, the JAG officer appointed as detailed military counsel for a decorated soldier who never asked for trouble.

Five months. That's how long Goodell had to build a defense, interview witnesses, review charges, and prepare for a summary court-martial. He did none of it. No witnesses contacted. No subpoenas issued. No questions asked. When the soldier finally stood before the judge, her attorney's advice was three words: "Just suck it up."

Meanwhile, the prosecution was using the delay to dig deeper — locking up supply rooms, conducting new investigations, and stacking additional charges against someone whose rights were never even read to them. Was Goodell's inaction incompetence — or was he part of the plan all along?

This episode breaks down what "ineffective assistance of counsel" really looks like in the military justice system, why the public defender equivalent in the JAG corps may be the last person you want in your corner, and how a system designed to protect its own leaves soldiers to fend for themselves.

If you or someone you know is considering enlisting, this is the side of military justice they don't tell you at the recruiting office.

Military Illumination — "The One That Got Away" (Act 2)

Series: Nineteen Acts of Injustice of the Washington National Guard Host: Gary Episode: Act 2 — "The One That Got Away" Runtime: ~19 minutes

Episode Summary

In this gripping second installment of his investigative series, host Gary unpacks a stunning case of military injustice from 1998 — one where the guilty walked free and the innocent were charged with the crime.

The story picks up where Act 1, "The Boiler Room," left off: a supply sergeant from Lima Company had secretly stored equipment in Echo Company's boiler room at a Washington National Guard unit based at Camp Murray, part of the 1st of the 168th Aviation Battalion at Fort Lewis. After a full day of surveillance, interrogation, and pressure, the Echo Company sergeant — the person whose space was used without their knowledge — was finally brought into the office of Major William Palmer Shaw, the battalion's executive officer.

What happened in that office raises serious legal alarms. Rather than reading the sergeant's Article 31 rights (the military equivalent of Miranda warnings) before questioning, Major Shaw read them only after — and when asked why, he bluntly replied, "To cover our butts." Gary poses a chilling question to listeners: In the military, can they get away with interrogating someone first and reading rights only after extracting a confession? His answer: yes, and it happens far more often than the military would like to admit.

The real perpetrator — the Lima Company supply sergeant who had actually moved and hidden the equipment — was called in the following day and assured, "Nothing's gonna happen to you. We just want to know where you stored the equipment." And that's exactly how it played out. He confessed, led officials to a secured Conex storage container on base containing roughly $50,000 worth of equipment, and then... nothing happened to him. He retired as a staff sergeant with a clean record.

But the injustice doesn't stop there. In a breathtaking move, the equipment recovered from the guilty sergeant's hiding spot was added to the charging documents of the innocent Echo Company sergeant. The evidence of the crime was taken from the person who committed it and placed on the person who didn't.

What's Next

The next episode will introduce Captain Gregory Goodell, the JAG legal counsel assigned to the case — and Gary asks the question that will drive Act 3: Was he a good attorney, or one of the best worst attorneys the military had ever seen?

https://jsc.defense.gov/Portals/99/Documents/UCMJ%20-%2020December2019.pdf

https://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=38.38