Coast Guard Seaman Ethan Tucker Found NOT GUILTY
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Where is the Justice for Ethan Kelch?
On August 29, 2019, United States Coast Guard Seaman Ethan Tucker’s Commanding Officer composed a memorandum that stated: “I consider him a serious threat to the safety of the community.” On September 18, 2020, the Coast Guard concluded Tucker’s trial and found him NOT GUILTY. This, of course, was expected by everyone who knew Tucker or the evidence of the case.
In short, not only did the Coast Guard drag Tucker’s name through the mud for over a year, calling him the murderer of his friend, they also confined him to a small island and a military prison.
If you are unfamiliar with the case, check around the internet, or look at our past two articles: Empathy for Coast Guard Seaman Ethan Tucker and How a Murder Trial Defines the Coast Guard.
But the Coast Guard will not apologize. Instead of doing the correct thing, they move the goal post and they find Tucker guilty of “doing or failing to do certain acts that contributed to a Coast Guard member’s death” – Guilty of: 1) making a false official statement, 2) assault, 3) consuming alcohol underage, and 4) conduct of the prejudice of good order and discipline (source). This guilty conviction not only allows the Guard to justify what they’ve done to Tucker so far, it also allows them once again ignore the real reason for the Death of a Shipmate – poor leadership. Sure, they cleared Tucker of savagely murdering his friend. But they did so over the course of a year and a half when they had no evidence to suggest he did or would do such a thing in the first place. Not only did they not have evidence, they had evidence that showed Tucker trying to help his friend, and doing so at great cost to his own wellbeing. Tucker literally passed out in the frozen tundra trying to help his friend and shipmate, and this is the Coast Guard’s response.
I’ll help the Coast Guard out on this one: I’m sorry Ethan Tucker that you lost your friend. I’m sorry that you were held unfairly, against your will, with a murder charge dangling from your neck, while your commanding officers called you names, and unwitting shipmates believed the portrait the Coast Guard painted of you without considering the known testimony and video evidence of other Coasties. I’m sorry that you now have to wear a Bad Conduct award around your neck for the continuing denial of the USCG. I’m sorry for the insurmountable pain you and your family have experienced.
And, to be clear and paramount, the Coast Guard would also like to apologize to Ethan Kelch, who lost his life over a year ago, and has not yet found a sense of justice. He was doing what most 20 year old Seaman do on Dutch Harbor. He was a sailor. He was patriotic. He was drinking away the cognitions and emotions that arise being a junior enlisted person. He had one too many, and he had no tools to come back. He hid, as Coastie’s do, when they operate under draconian policies. I’m sorry you lost your life, while so many of us survived. I’m sorry Coast Guard leadership has failed time and time again to take responsibility for the suffering coming from Alaska. You will not be forgotten and you will be remembered as the complete human you were, with all of the traits you brought to the table. We salute your service and your life.
As we move forward, we call on the leadership in District 17 to speak clearly and truthfully about the culture it has produced. You cannot use your subordinates as shields, protecting yourself from mistakes. You cannot get away with falsifying records, with manipulating the fleets perception for your own political gain. Your orders and your comments will be equitable or we will call you on it. Captain Riddle and RADM Bell, you must take responsibility for 2019. You must both accept the condition of the Douglas Munro (just the Munro in Bell’s case) as a failure of leadership. We aren’t asking you to give up command – we want you to be better leaders. We want an apology. And you owe an apology to Tucker, Kelch, and their families.
I vow to continue collecting information on this case. Like many of the Coast Guard deaths in Alaska, this case is accompanied by curious inconsistencies. CGIS and the District 17 High Command, don’t have the cleanest past, yet they never seem to be in the spot light. I believe that more stories will come out in the near future that shows they have a loyalty to their internal objectives, and not the truth. I wonder if the CGI investigators that worked on this case also worked on the Wells’ case, the Strickland case, the Cocaine case, or the Obendorf case, or any of the other cases that were the result of death or mass suffering. Are the reports generated by the team that has an obligation only to the Commandant consistent with the truth or only with that of the Coast Guard’s sensitive image.
If you have any information of the characters or plots of the stories I write about, please forward them my way. I’d like to paint the most useful picture possible. Were you on the Munro in the past? Do you know about mass hazing or violent harassment incidents? Email me – Bradley@dirtysailorcompany.com
We can help out in Alaska.