Retired Major General James McMonagle was outraged by the scandal rocking the Marine Corps. Marines allegedly shared naked pictures of fellow service members.
"I think it's disgusting," McMonagle said. "There's not place in the Marine Corps for conduct like that."
He would know. He proudly led the charge for more than 50 thousand Marines as the Commanding General of I MEF.
"It was my life," he explained. "i mean I'm still a Marine."
As the saying goes: Once a Marine, always a Marine.
"The people you serve with are so important to you because they're your means of existence," he added.
He does not care if they are colonels or corporals: Has names for those who betrayed that bond.
"Devious, bad people," he explained.
The War Horse report said a secret Facebook page called "Marines United" posted naked photos of female Marines, vets and other women. Marines allegedly snapped some without the women knowing.
The USMC Hit the scandal head-on. They issued a statement saying they are:
"...deeply concerned about allegations regarding the derogatory online comments and sharing of salacious photographs in Marines Unite,". It went on to say "This behavior destroys morale, erodes trust and degrades the individual."
Dr. Bart Billings, who is a clinical psychologist, served in the Army for 34 years. He heads up a combat stress conference.
He quite literally wrote the book on it called 'Invisible Scars'. He wonders what triggered the posts.
"The bond that they have obviously is broken and it's going to create a lot of tension," Billings said. "What has impaired their judgment and reasoning to do something like that? They know it's against the uniform code of military justice. The Marines know that."
He wonders if something like Post Traumatic Stress could be behind it. However, he is not just worried about poor judgment here on home soil.
"If I had somebody that I was sent to combat with and I knew that did something like that I wouldn't trust them," Billings said. "I wouldn't want to go to combat with them."
McMonagle said no good will come of this.
"If there are 1,000 involved, then I guess we better get 1,000 people to replace them because they're only masquerading as Marines," he said.
McMonagle thinks they can expect a lot of time in the Brig and possibly being removed from the Marine Corps. He also suspects those with lesser offenses may have their pay docked and their ranks stripped.
While there is no such thing as a "Former Marine" He thinks violating fellow Marines cuts it pretty close.
"They will be a Marine with a scar the rest of their lives," he said.
