Professional Military Education

Stuart Scheller served in the Marine Corps as an infantry officer for seventeen years. His five deployments included combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. When he was a Lieutenant Colonel, Scheller served as a battalion commander at the Marine Corps School of Infantry (SOI). In the summer of 2021, U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan. The withdrawal was poorly planned and hastily executed. The Taliban took over the entire country and surrounded Kabul airport. As Marines scrambled to secure the airport, a suicide attack caused the tragic deaths of 13 U.S. servicemembers. Frustrated by these events, Stuart Scheller felt compelled to speak out. He made a public video that criticized military leadership. Shortly after releasing the video, he was fired from his job as a battalion commander. He then publicly resigned from the Marine Corps and continued to be critical of both the military and Marine Corps leadership. As a result, he was placed in the brig and court-martialed before leaving the Marine Corps in Decem