Another Army NCO facing sex charges
In a link from Chief Tango we learn that yet another Army NCO is being charged with being a perv. SFC Michael McClendon, until recently a TAC NCO at West Point, the Military Academy, was found to have a number of pictures of cadets in various stages of undress according to the Fox News;
McClendon, who had been assigned to the United States Military Academy at West Point since 2009, was transferred to Fort Drum, N.Y. last week, said Army spokesman George Wright.
According to reports, McClendon allegedly took pictures and videotaped a number of half-naked or fully-naked women between July 2009 and May 2012. It’s unknown how he got access to all of the footage, but in some cases he allegedly entered the women’s bathroom without first announcing his presence and taped them coming in and out of the shower.
According to the West Point website, McClendon was a tactical noncommissioned officer in charge of overseeing 125 cadets.
Just brilliant. The internet is full of pictures of naked women, so he needed to get pictures of cadets. According to records, McClendon is an engineer and had two tours of Iraq from Fort Hood, TX. He is also a Desert Storm and Bosnia veteran.
Category: Military issues
They let this idiot work at a service academy? I wonder what the screening process was,,, You would think that only the sharpest career NCOs would be allowed to work with West Point Cadets.
JESUS WEPT! Seriously, how hard is it to keep it in your pants?
“…two tours in Iraq…Desert Storm and Bosnia veteran…”
And now he’s a sleeze.
Wrong direction, dude. Seriously.
I can not believe he did this without help from other at the point I know he had show some other those pics and why they did not tell someone
guess someone won’t be getting that 20 yrs+ retirement now.
His Military Career is about to suffer DEATH BY STUPIDITY!!
D’OH!
Sounds like he has his 20. He can be booted but he’ll still receive the pension.
Wow… it’s a small Army. I was stationed with this guy at Ft Lewis in 2000. And he was a sicko perv even then. Surprised it took him this long to get caught…
I’ll toss a *swag* out. He’s probably shared them in the voyuer categories of every known adult website on the face of this planet. Makes me wonder if this puke felt over-empowered by the current um, “political climate” receive a slap on the wrist and be told “don’t do that, K?”
2/17 Air Cav: don’t think that’s categorically true, amigo. I’m pretty sure he loses entitlement to retired pay if he gets court-martialed and gets a punitive discharge (BCD or DD).
And as I said when the Ft Jackson Cdr was relieved, 3 more in the Initial Entry Trainee environment. So, 1 down, 2 to go…
With the whole sexual assault issue being shouted from the mountain tops, there are going to be more queries into the IET environment about what goes on there with Cadre members.
And so it begins, they will be looking with a fine-tooth comb over every IET location, BCT, OCS, etc.
Why I’m glad I left the AIT environment before the big ’07 flush of Drill Sergeants doing naughty things and being replaced with platoon Sergeants.
Funnest Story I heard about that: A female drill Sergeant at PSYOP AIT at Bragg was caught messing around with a male AIT student. (I know, it would’ve been awesome if it were a female student.) There are 50,000 penises running around Ft Bragg looking for a woman to enter and she picks a penis that is her directional arrow to Ft Leavenworth…
@ 2/17 – “He can be booted but he’ll still receive the pension”. How would that work if he gets GCM and prison time?
@9, I think I recognize him from my time at Lewis. Was he in 168? Which company?
Transferred to Drum? What idiots…transfer him to Leavenworth. A cost effective move…let’s call it a PCS!
@13. Pensions are a vested benefit. Once earned, they cannot be taken away. The same is NOT true for other benies that are triggered by an Honorable discharge, such as GI home laons, etc.
So, anyone out there still thinks that these kinds of things are “overblown” or not as big a problem as the media is making it out to be?
@17. Yes, I do, actually. It’s true. IF what he is accused of doing occurred, then he is a pervert and PP will not help that. The recent emphasis on what is a daily fact of life (but on a much greater scale) for the rest of the world is also to be found in the military. Is thios type of stuff so infused in the US military culture that it requires significant special attention? No, not in my view.
No surprise here.
Shorter tradoc tours are needed…
2/17 Air Cav: this military JAG appears to say differently in his Air Command and Staff College thesis. I don’t believe the UCMJ and/or Federal law on the subject has changed since this was written in 1998.
http://dtlweb.au.af.mil///exlibris/dtl/d3_1/apache_media/L2V4bGlicmlzL2R0bC9kM18xL2FwYWNoZV9tZWRpYS81MDY5Mg==.pdf
If I’m reading this correctly, approval and imposition of any punitive discharge as part of a GCM sentence – BCD, DD, or Dismissal – also causes the recipient to lose all retirement benefits, regardless of the amount of service he/she had at the time of the offense.
@ KenW – You are right. 168th Engineers, B Co.
The guy is career military with several deployments. I would be amazed if he didn’t have a higher testosterone count than your average liberal arts prof who is currently boffing your daughters. Let the women stay home and let the men be men.
@22 – ugh, lucky you. What was this guy doing back in 2000 that was pervy?
@21. Hondo: I have learned more in the last 35 mins of internet research on the matter than I ever knew before. I started with your piece but, owing to its date, after giving it a quick read, I moved on to later stuff. It strongly appears that I was guilty of transferring case law on civilian gov’t employees to the military. And while both could lose their pension for certain specified crimes (in practice, treason, essentially) only the military ties loss of pension to certain discharges. I will look into it more tomorrow but would love to hear from JAGC or another JAG. Clearly, military do not vest as civilian gov’t employees do. Thus, all signs point to major error on my part, both with respect to conclusion and basis. I can only hope that Al T. and others who read my earlier pronouncement see this.
Aw fuck. Why did they send him to Drum? Ah well, at least I am deployed at the moment.
2/17 Air Cav: if it’s any consolation, I had to research it too. I thought that a DD or Dismissal was “scorched earth” time regarding ALL military and VA bennies, including retirement – but I wasn’t sure. I have to admit I was kinda surprised to see that BCDs apparently do the same.
I’d also like to see a current mil JAG weigh in on the subject. Mil law in this area could indeed have changed in the last 15 years.
Just remember troops, one Aw Shit cancels out all Attaboys. Within the ‘New’ Army, sex is the biggest Aw shit there is. Absolutely no one will get any slack on that. When they are arresting General Officers you know that even E-7’s are dead ducks. And they deserve to be.
Amen to that, Roger, do the crime, do the time!
#10, streetsweeper, yeah, I thought the same thing!
Someone once told a joke…”The dick point, pussy don’t point.” Funny but not. This guy deserves whatever he gets.
@29- Thanks, API. Think it has something to do with “conquests” and the need to show off. The only other uses he’d have for doing this stuff is blackmailing his victims. If thats the case (and anything is possible) he’d certainly be up for far more than military charges. But, he’d still probably score a slap on the back of his hands…Just saying.
With the liberal media all over the military these days we don’t ass clowns like this doing something you would expect in a college dorm. It shouldn’t happen there either. @28 Roger said it best, his Atta boys are all used up now. He committed the biggest F-up in the military these days. Why is there not a better process for selecting NCO’s for the academy? I thought only the “best and brightest” had a shot at the Point. Fox News covered it but the Cresent News Network was all over it. They had a tag line about London but I didn’t hear a story. Fox had the story on the soldier’s murder in London.
Sparks, it is supposed to be for the best and brightest. I tried to go there and had to fill out a massive packet and have recommendations from my BN Commander. Unfortunately I didn’t make it because my 2 years NG time shows as AD time on my ERB and it put me over the cut off for time in service.
Pretty sure I served with this scumbag in the 201st at Ft. Lewis in 2008. No one liked him there either. He didnt last long before they realized he was a scumbag.
Screening don’t mean squat. Gene McKinney was screened for the top dog position but still ended up sleeping with the help if I remember correctly.
So we have a known perv being rewarded for his misdeeds while all the not-ever-gonna-be-a-pervs are forced to sit through one more PP presentation?
Seems like there should be much better things for our Army to be doing, but that could just be me.
Yeah, OWB, a few dickheads screw up royally, and EVERYONE gets punished and treated like crap, the usual!!
@ 24 – see post 23… Justify violation of privacy because he has “high testosterone” and then make a sexual remark about your daughters and wrap it up with a chauvinist dig.
If that ain’t him, it’s someone who thinks just like him.
I just had my SHARP class on Monday. Looks like I better get ready for another one.
He thought the Sexual Harassment Briefings were an Instruction Manual.
McKinney got retired as a master sergeant.
Mike, don’t you get to retire at the highest rank held? at my final out I met a SFC that had been either a Cpt or Maj but had resigned his commission and moved to the enlisted and told me he was going to get to retire at the highest O grade he had held.
@12 – suspect you will find that the selected penis was attached to someone she saw more in the course of her week than most others. I would be willing to bet real green money that more affairs start due to constant exposure on a daily basis revealing common background, ties, attitudes, etc. than ever begin with Craigslist posts or internet cheating sites.
@42 – You retire at the last rank *honorably* held. So once the Court Martial is complete, if he’s allowed to retire, he still probably won’t be retiring as an E7. Johnson, the 173d commander, retired as a LTC (got off waay to light) despite having served as a COL and Brigade Commander. Ward, I think, retired as a MG, despite reaching GEN and commanding AFRICOM.
This nonsense will not stop until someone is stripped of ALL rank and benefits and does some SERIOUS jail time. Someone will get to be the example of the consequences of this bullshit. It’d be a shame indeed if an NCO became the first to get crucified, with all the officers who have proven to be slimy shitbags of late. But hey, someone has to fry. Might as well be our peeping Tom, here.
I just can’t figure out why he’s at Fort Drum surrounded by Soldiers. He needs to be disappeared to some deep, dark hole until the trial is over and he can be sentenced.
@44
Ward retired as a LTG. At his retirement ceremony shortly after stepping down from AFROCOM, had all 4 stars. He was kept on AD while under investigation, and reverted to highest permanent rank of MG after 60 days (if not filling a 3 or 4 star billet). His 4 star buddies like Dempsey, tried to lobby Panetta for retirement at full rank.
@41
Former SMA McKinney, retired as a MSG, really lucked out…
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/12/us/full-pension-is-backed-for-former-top-soldier.html?ref=gene_c_mckinney
AirCav, if he receives a felony conviction (DD/BigChicken) he will not receive benefits while encarcerated(SP). Maybe after release, but not during. Same thing with SSI or any fed ‘benefits’.