GOP lawmakers demand defense secretary intervene in Navy’s handling of SEAL trainee’s tragic death
More than 30 GOP members of Congress have called on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to intervene and allow a Navy SEAL commander to retire honorably after The Post revealed questionable actions the service took against him following the death of a special operations school trainee.
In a Wednesday letter, the 31 lawmakers asked Austin to cancel the Navy’s planned board of inquiry into Capt. Brad Geary, who oversaw the SEAL training course in which Seaman Kyle Mullen, 24, participated just before he died suddenly on Feb. 4, 2022.
The Navy uses boards of inquiry to consider a service member’s alleged misconduct or performance, as well as whether they should be forcibly separated. Instead, the lawmakers requested Austin grant Geary a voluntary retirement without reduction in rank or benefits.
Among the signatories were five former SEALs – Reps. Dan Crenshaw and Morgan Luttrell of Texas, Elijah Crane of Arizona, Ryan Zinke of Montana and Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin.
An initial investigation did not find Geary at fault for Mullen’s death, and he was issued a non-punitive letter of caution (NPLOC) following a disciplinary hearing known as an admiral’s mast.
“Brad accepted accountability for his command when he was taken to admiral’s mast the first time,” Geary’s wife Amy told The Post. “When he presented his evidence, that admiral cancelled mast and issued him a NPLOC.
“Case closed, he was held accountable.”
However, the Navy later launched another investigation into allegations against the captain before issuing a scathing investigative report that placed the heaviest blame for Mullen’s death on Geary, alleging his staff abused the Special Forces hopefuls while the captain looked the other way.
The report also claimed that Geary fostered an environment where seeking medical attention was discouraged, young SEAL trainers grew extreme in their practices and the voices of retired SEALs brought in as advisers were silenced.
Geary has repeatedly denied the allegations, telling The Post in June 2023 he was “disappointed” with the results of the investigation and defending his team against accusations of wrongdoing.
“The Navy changed the investigation, lied to the American public, then built a new investigation based on those lies; thereby fabricating a new perceived need for accountability where it simply doesn’t exist,” Amy Geary alleged on Thursday.
A major problem with the second investigation, the lawmakers said, is that Navy investigators did little to analyze the role that performance-enhancing drugs may have played in Mullen’s death.
Human growth hormone and testosterone were found in Mullen’s car after his death, along with syringes, according to the Navy report.
The lawmaker letter comes after The Post revealed that the Navy added a sentence to the press release announcing Mullen’s death stating that drugs had not been a factor – despite the service never fully investigating whether that was the case. The sentence was added at Mullen’s mother’s request.
Geary told The Post last year that he had attempted to get the Navy to address rampant PED use among SEAL trainees during his tenure as the program’s commander, without success.
In September of last year, the Navy issued a memorandum requiring random drug testing for all SEALs for the first time in the program’s history.
“There have been reports that the U.S. [sic] Navy failed to accurately disclose and investigate the correlation between controlled substances and performance enhancing drugs found in the vehicle and personal belongings of [Seaman] Mullen,” the lawmakers wrote Thursday, expressing “concern regarding potential violations of Joint Ethics Regulations perpetuated by senior leaders within the U.S. [sic] Navy pertaining to the death” of Mullen and the subsequent investigation.
“Additionally, we require that you initiate a personal investigation, brief Congress, and issue a report on all allegations pertaining to any misconduct uncovered by the Department of Defense,” the group wrote.
Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), an Army veteran, told The Post that “the Navy’s handling of the death of Seaman Kyle Mullen raises serious red flags.”
“The Navy appears to have cherry-picked the facts to fit the narrative and omitted anything that didn’t support the charge,” he said. “This needs a deeper dive to ensure institutional, system-wide failures are not laid at the feet of an honorable service member like Captain Geary.”
“It shouldn’t take the legislative branch to force the Navy to adhere to their core values of honor, courage and commitment,” Amy Geary told The Post Thursday.
“Our family has suffered because of their lack of integrity and moral courage,” she said. “We are thankful there are so many lawmakers willing to tell the Navy it’s time to ‘get real, get better.’”
Should Austin decline the lawmakers’ request, Geary next month will face a board of inquiry where he could be stripped of his retirement benefits and rank.
