TL;DR is the first guy got canned for "politicizing" (and, really, operating outside the chain of command by widely publicizing his fears and 'leaking' informat

TL;DR is the first guy got canned for "politicizing" (and, really, operating outside the chain of command by widely publicizing his fears and 'leaking' information about) the problem. Basically, the military chain of command has ALWAYS really cared about how you handle these things. He violated it, and my military friends generally feel he did the "right" thing, but many also feel he knew what was coming and should take his punishment, because you just don't do it. While, at the same time, our government has shown an increasing desire to centralize authority and cover up for political reasons. So, I can see both sides, for sure. "You should never do that" meets "doing that is the right and moral thing in this environment". Fine. The guy who called him out basically said a bunch of uncool and undisciplined shit about him, VERY publicly, and had to resign under pressure. He could have kept his job if he had toed the "outside of the chain of command" line and kept his cool. But he couldn't resist running his mouth in exactly the "uncool and outside of the military's expected behavior" manner. Again, the MO of the current administration.