A decorated Marine gunner whose perspectives on doctrine and lethality have been widely published is headed for court-martial at Quantico, Virginia, this month on charges that include unauthorized absence — equivalent to absent without leave.
But according to the Marine and his lawyers, it’s a bizarre misunderstanding that involves sworn statements from top generals, including a former commandant of the Marine Corps.
Chief Warrant Officer 5 Stephen LaRose also faces charges of dereliction of duty, false official statement and conduct unbecoming a Marine officer, according to a charge sheet received by Marine Corps Times. His trial is set to begin Dec. 17 before Navy Cmdr. Kate Shovlin, a circuit military judge. According to military dockets, it’s set to last three days and to be adjudicated by a jury panel of military officers.
LaRose, who served from 2020-2022 as an advisor on the Defense Department’s Close Combat Lethality Task Force, or CCLTF, established in 2018 by then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, said in an interview that the charges stem from an anonymous complaint against him made to the Marine Corps Inspector General.
The charges concern a period from 2022 to 2023, during which time LaRose said he was beginning to transition from the Marine Corps to civilian life amid changes to the CCLTF that left the task force without any dedicated Marine staff.
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In 2021, the Army moved to take point on the task force, headquartering it at their Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Moore, Georgia. As a result, LaRose said, the Marine Corps moved to “matrix support” for the unit, allowing a small number of staff to advise it remotely from the Washington, D.C. area.
LaRose, who said he was initially assigned to the task force partially in recognition of injuries sustained from deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan that left him unable to run up and down ranges, said he began a medical board process as a pathway out of service.
What followed, according to LaRose’s account, was an unconventional period in which he was “shared” by multiple elements, including the task force and Marine Corps Training and Education Command, without a clear chain of command. On top of that, he said, he advised the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab in an unofficial capacity.
“I was never assigned to [Marine Corps Warfighting Lab], because it was just pro bono work as I’m transitioning out of the service,” LaRose said.
According to his civilian attorney, Nathan Freeburg, LaRose’s paperwork underscores the confusion: he hasn’t had a fitness report since 2019, even though FitReps are supposed to be completed annually by a Marine officer’s supervisors.
The case also underscores the unique position Marine gunners, the Corps’ senior weapons experts, hold in the service. Only a handful of gunners are in uniform at any given time, and they tend to act as mavericks who can transcend levels of command and set their own tasking with more freedom than other officers.
A point of particular controversy came in November 2022, when LaRose accepted a position as a Marine Corps infantry officer at defense contractor ManTech, and showed up on base in his contractor role.
LaRose maintains that he was on terminal leave at this point, and had secured an opinion from the Marine Corps’ ethics office that cleared him to work for ManTech, though he had to avoid certain activities until out of uniform, such as working contracts for money and doing work for the contractor from his office in Quantico.
His charge sheet accuses him of engaging in outside employment “which conflicted with his official duties” and accepting compensation from the contractor “for making representations to the Marine Corps.”
His unauthorized absence charges say he was absent without permission from the CCLTF for all of September 2022, and from the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab from the end of May to the end of July 2023. But LaRose’s legal team maintains he was always working during these time periods, though it was not always clear to whom he was reporting.
“We demanded a bill of particulars from the government on some of the dereliction of duty charges and they went looking for his FitReps [to] determine what his duties should have been that he allegedly failed to perform,” Freeburg said in an interview. “But he hasn’t had a FitRep since 2019.”
The false official statement charges, meanwhile, have to do with statements LaRose is accused of making about his future plans, including that he was planning to go to the Wounded Warrior Regiment, a unit for convalescing Marines; that he had, in October 2022, been given a terminal leave date and a separation date; that he worked for ManTech as a teleworker; and that work for the Warfighting Lab did not represent a conflict of interest. The prosecution alleges all these statements were false.
Freeburg said the evidence to convict him just isn’t there.
“False official statement … requires a mental requirement of actually knowing that something is completely false, etc.,” he said. “And he’s had multiple [traumatic brain injuries], 100% VA rating for PTSD, all combat-related. And we intend to litigate all of that.”
Because of LaRose’s role and close interactions with top brass, multiple generals and senior leaders have been asked to give statements or testify in LaRose’s case, including former Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger; Brig. Gen. Kyle Ellison, commander of the Warfighting Lab; retired Maj. Gen. Charles Gurganus; and Joe L’Etoile, commander of CCLTF until 2020.
While it’s not clear who initially complained about LaRose, he wonders if his outspoken support of the Corps’ controversial forward-looking strategy, Force Design 2030, including multiple published pieces at outlets like War on the Rocks, made him enemies within the service. He also admits that his aggressive way of approaching tasks has resulted in “hurt feelings” at various places he’s worked.
However, he maintains his record speaks for itself. In addition to two Bronze Stars earned earlier in his career, he received the Defense Superior Service Medal from CCLTF and the National Infantry Association’s St. Maurice award in the last two years.
“All of this while I’m under investigation,” he said.
For Freeburg, the move to deal with the accusations against LaRose at court-martial, rather via counseling or a non-judicial remedy, is inappropriate.
“It’s hard to understand,” Freeburg said, “why a [Chief Warrant Officer 05] who is essentially a war hero is being court-martialed for an AWOL and some ticky-tack charges on very thin evidence.”
