Four star general relieved for attempting to get a subordinate assigned a command
General Charles Hamilton attempted to influence a board to approve a subordinate for command. (Eben Boothby/US Army)
Army Secretary Christine Wormuth relieved General Charles Hamilton of his command. He was one of the Army’s 12 four-star generals. An inspector general report detailed how Hamilton intervened with an assessment board that reviewed candidates for command assignment. The beneficiary was a Black female lieutenant colonel. They initially voted 5-0 to not recommend her for command. However, Hamilton got them to hold a second review. Despite his talking to officers who potentially would be on the second review to discuss their voting parameters, the second board voted against the subordinate.
From Stars and Stripes:
According to officials and documents, Hamilton inappropriately tried to push an assessment board to approve a command assignment for a female lieutenant colonel, the Associated Press reported. He successfully persuaded the board to give the officer a second interview after a board initially voted 5-0 not to recommend her for command.
Before the second interview took place, Hamilton contacted senior leaders who could have been on her second panel to discuss their voting parameters and the candidates. The second panel also deemed her not certified for command, according to the AP.
The Army Inspector General Office’s investigation came after it received an anonymous complaint in December 2023 that Hamilton and the lieutenant colonel were having an “inappropriate, fraternizing, and likely sexual relationship,” the investigation said. Investigators subsequently found that though Hamilton and the lieutenant colonel had an “overly familiar relationship,” there was no “definitive evidence” that the two had a sexual relationship.
At first, the matter was referred to the Defense Department Inspector General’s Office, which closed the case in January after finding “insufficient evidence in the complaint to warrant further investigation.”
But the day after a news report in March that Hamilton pressured Army officials to select the lieutenant colonel for command, the Defense Department Inspector General’s Office referred the matter to the Army Inspector General’s Office for investigation.
Wormuth suspended Hamilton on March 22 and removed the lieutenant colonel’s name from the command selection list, according to the investigation.
Hamilton, who is Black as is the female officer who sought a promotion, wrote a letter to Wormuth in August asking to be reinstated as commander of Army Materiel Command, and he laid out his case in the lieutenant colonel’s promotion and his view on the Command Assessment Program, or CAP.
In the letter, he implored Wormuth to investigate why CAP deems few minority officers as ready to command and the barriers that exist that make qualified Black officers unwilling to subject themselves to the process.
Additional Reading:
Adams, M. (2024, December 11). Army secretary fires four-star general for meddling in promotion process. Stars and Stripes. Link.
