Army chief public affairs officer sacked after 97% negative climate survey
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Amy Hannah, Director, Army Marketing and Research Task Force, poses for a command portrait in the Army portrait studio at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., Mar. 5, 2019. (U.S. Army photo by Monica King)
US Army Brigadier General Amy Johnston (it looks like there was a name change since her official photo above) was the Army’s top public affairs officer. She was suspended from her duties as the top ranking Army spokesperson after a whopping 97% of her staff describe the workplace she’s fostered as “workplace hostility.”
Jeff LPH 3 sends in this Army Times piece;
The Army’s highest-ranking public affairs officer and top spokesperson has been suspended from her duties after 97 percent of respondents to a command climate survey for her office reported “workplace hostility.”
Brig. Gen. Amy E. Johnston took over as the service’s chief of public affairs in April 2019, according to her official biography.
In that role, she is “responsible for all communications activities involving the United States Army” and she serves as the principal public affairs advisor to the Army secretary and chief of staff.
Army Times obtained slides detailing a recent command climate survey that revealed massive dissatisfaction within the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs. A source familiar with the suspension said it was related to the survey, which has sparked an Army investigation.
An Army spokesperson confirmed that Johnston was no longer in her position, but said she could not provide details about the pending investigation or comment on the survey.
“We can confirm that Brig. Gen. Amy Johnston has been suspended and placed on special duty pending the outcome of an Army investigation,” said Army spokesperson Cynthia Smith. “Given that the investigation is ongoing, we can provide no further comment at this time.”
Johnston did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent through her office.
Johnston’s suspension came in the wake of a command climate survey that revealed alarming conditions at OCPA.
Of the soldiers and Army civilians who responded to the survey, 97 percent reported “workplace hostility,” which is a key indicator of potential toxic leadership issues, according to the slides.
The data also revealed a morale crisis. Roughly two-thirds of soldiers and civilians at OCPA reported low morale in the survey, with only 8 percent saying they had high morale.
According to the briefing slides, spirits were low due to overwork, poor work-life balance and unclear expectations concerning work products.
The survey also revealed potential issues with sexual and racial harassment.
Twenty-one percent of respondents said there was sexual harassment present at OCPA, and 26 percent reported they’d seen racial harassment.
There have been other signs of dissatisfaction with Johnston’s leadership of OCPA, as well.
Johnston was named in the Army Regulation 15-6 investigation that looked into how the service handled Spc. Vanessa Guillén’s disappearance and murder.
Much more at the source, including slides from a presentation given about the command climate survey.
Click on the photo above and take a look at the General’s awards and decorations and her biography here. There are some questions I have with the awards she’s wearing, in particular the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and Service Medal (GWOT-EM and GWOT-SM respectively).
According to the Code of Federal Regulations for the GWOT-SM, no award stars or bronze oak leaf clusters are to be worn with it. Battle stars are permitted, provided the “service members who were engaged in actual combat against the enemy and under circumstances involving grave danger of death or serious bodily injury from enemy action.” Without her wearing a Combat Action Badge, I’d be curious to know why she’s wearing the battle star.
The General is also wearing an arrowhead on her GWOT-EM. I’m also curious how she rates that attachment, which is only authorized if she participated in “in a combat parachute jump, helicopter assault landing, combat glider landing, or amphibious assault landing.” Any of those actions would likely also rate a Combat Action Badge.
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Army, Army News
She has one of the “Entitled Karen” hairstyles.
thebesig,
IMHO she gets a pass on the hair….
Considering all the freak hair that many females (and males!)
are now sporting (in uniform)… and getting away with.
I remember when “Blue Hair” meant “elderly”.
Now it’s self-expression and/or a porn fetish.
Ten cats and a fridge full of box wine (IMHO).
Is that an Arrowhead on her GWOT-E?
Ironic, that someone so unliked gets married at the same time.
What say Mr. Johnston??
Here’s a photo, on O-7 BG pinning day,
which explains why she doesn’t smile much.
Are those braces on her teeth? Or antibiotic (tetracycline) stains?
You’d think with a flag officer’s pay, she could afford to get a little teeth-whitening cosmetic work done, even if it’s just a home kit.
PETDR,
It’s the 2nd. They’re gray. Dark gray.
I had an ex date with this,
which I never saw (at first),
because she had “veneers” put on all her front teeth.
Then 1 day, while eating chicken wings….
1 veneer broke off.
No injury, no pain, of course, but she totally freaked.
In public, at a nice bar/restaurant.
Part of why she’s an ex.
My wife (first, current & only) used to work in a dental lab staining dentures. What an eye for color! She would tell me that many people with “gray” teeth was caused by tetracycline (too much? long time?). She could tell me that “in order to make this color, I need to add this, that & the other”. Some of which made NO sense in the telling, but worked out spot on correct in the making.
That’s interesting. I am a retired dental technician with over 40 years of experience. I’ve never heard of dentures being stained. Denture teeth come in a variety of shades and grey is one of them.
I suspect you’re talking about porcelain crowns and bridges that are fabricated with using stains.
Meth is a terrible drug.
I don’t think meth had anything to do with her teeth. Meth usually REMOVES the teeth.
Formaldehyde?
JEEZ!! Did she fund her way through Ohio State chewing rocks?
Bulimic… chronic stomach acid makes teeth look ugly, but they stay skinny!
Missed every dental appointment.
Now I finally understand why those were so important. No wonder the first shirt was always harping on it.
She may chew betel nuts. Habit forming.
Take a closer look at that O-7 pinning day photo.
She’s wearing two (Yes, 2) 3/16 inch Bronze Service Stars on her NDSM, denoting the third award.
Don’t think so, as she was commissioned in 1991.
Hmm, that’s GWOT, Gulf War ’91 and ‘Nam? She ain’t that old. (Would’ve had to have enlisted at 17, with Mom and Dad’s permission, and hit active duty before 15 August 1973 at the youngest. That’s 65 years old today.
She’s just following the example set by the 1st SEAC Gainey. You gotta remember, he earned his first award of the Viet of the Nam Era NDSM while in the Delayed Entry Program awaiting graduation from high school, cause the Army wasn’t taking any non-high school grad CAT 3B’s at the time (73-74) he wanted to come on real active duty.
Claw,
Her current “official” photo has (only) 1 star on the NDSM.
Other photos show 1 AND 2.
It appears she got her butt spanked,
and told to remove the 2nd star.
Probably not her 1st skirmish during the battle of the devices.
https://www.army.mil/publicAffairs/chief/
Thanks, going to print that pic off and use it as the template for my jack-o-lantern.
I think you may be on to something with all of this, and someone with more time should look into it. For one thing, I do not know of any circumstance in which anyone would have a star on their GWOT service medal. I have never seen anyone with a star on this medal. The Army typically uses the term Campaign Service Star although Battle Star is in the reg. I have 3 or 4 campaign stars on my ICM because I was there during 4 or 5 designated campaigns or in the case of Iraq, phases (there were 7 total. If you were there on the day one ended and one began you got two stars). It doesn’t necessarily mean I was in a major engagement. That said, the Army actually identifies these campaigns by date and the units that participated. Same with GWOT EM and the ACM. BTW, her 82d Combat Patch (aka Combat Service Identification Badge) is also sketchy. Having seen her actual bio, she never served in combat with the 82nd or any other unit most of us would recognize as a unit, for that matter (mainly PA positions at very high staff levels). It is always possible that she was attached to or did an individual augmentee assignment with the World’s Largest Street Gang, but her only time actually assigned to division was as a PAO and she did Katrina and Rita relief. . The Bronze Arrowhead Device is very tightly controlled. Small unit Air Assaults and even small combat jumps by units already in country don’t count. I’ll post an excerpt at the bottom. I was in the 101st in Desert Storm, and they were very strict about awarding the arrowhead- I was on a subsequent lift and I did not get one. The assault operation will be of such scope as to warrant DA designation as a battle or campaign and be of such magnitude as to include tactical elements of at least one other Service. The forces committed should be spearheading a major assault into enemy-controlled territory. The operation will be such… Read more »
Maybe she got her rank because of who she “knew and blew”, had the right dirt on the right people or just rode the EO gravy train to where she is, ya-think?
Following your logic and considering your rank you must have sucked at blowjobs.
Following your logic and considering your rank, you must have excelled.
According to the logic of those who think you get promoted by giving blowjobs I was at least above average at it.
Did you ever serve with Willy Brown and CoW-Mooo_laa?
Just keep practicing. I’m sure your skills will improve.
And your battle cry, Комиссар, was “Whip ME! Beat ME! Make me feel CHEAP!!!” followed by gargling, kicking the dumpster and yelling “NEXT!”.
doubtful. After all, you WERE relegated to that bastion of professionalism and courage…Civil Affairs–the less brave effectual kissing cousin of Human Resources.
Let’s be honest. You’re a jack ass.
Dude, you clearly have zero knowledge of what Civil Affairs is or does.
It is also one of the most dangerous jobs on the ground. We go to towns and villages that hate us the most. We meet with the leaders of communities that hate us the most, on their ground, and surrounded by their guards.
And they know we are coming. And approximately when.
And that is only one of the aspects of the job I can talk about on this forum.
Human Resources? WTF?
Yeah, but one thing for sure Lars, no matter how many blow jobs you gave you never got nor will you ever get a CAB. (All though I’m sure you tried your best) LMAO!
Looser. Coward
Actually, I earned my CAB. And a Command Sergeant Major who knows I did has promised to help me get it added to my records.
What possible good would having a CAB added to your records do?
Fuck, you don’t need the help of a CSM. Simply mail a copy of the orders and a hand written note off to HRC and if the orders prove to be legit, they’ll issue you a DD215.
Claw, hard to prove orders legit when Lars has none.
He just wants to be a “PX Hero”.
He’s still a phony, a fraud and a coward.
Yeah, I’m thinking the same thing. Believes he earned/deserves a CAB, but never had any orders cut for it.
And now, some seven or eight years after he left active duty, he’s got some obscure Civil Affairs e-9 (or maybe the 1st SEAC?) working diligently on getting him one.
He can probably take that promise of a CAB in one hand and shit in the other hand and see which one fills up first./smile
The CAB that was supposed to have been conducted by the supported division never occurred.
He is going to fix it.
Can we try that again, English this time?
Waiting, waiting. Over two hours now.
Sounds like another JRM Bullwinkle Badge deal.
Claw, et al,
I am *positive*, someplace, at some time, I don’t think it was classified but it may have been, dunno, but I am for certain, I loaded an aircraft with some ammo on it that made its way to a dude who took it to a dude who knew a dude how got it and then went outside the wide and shot at other bad dudes and then got/qualified for an award so, that “begs the question”, as a righteous Air Force retired dude, now, leaning towards 15 years, where’s my CIB bitches???
OK, ok, I’m serious, I’ll at least admit I know I don’t rate a CIB> I get it, BUT, where’s my Air Force Combat Action Medal??
HUH FUCKERS?!?!
LARS?!??!
BITCH?!?!?!
HELP A BRUTHA OUT MOTHERFUCKER!!!
” “This SARC (not IDC)Meming has been Copyrighted by ChipNASA Productions for the Private use of our audience, Any other use of this SARC meming or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of this SARC meme post without the express written certified, authenticated, consent of Chip Productions, is prohibited.”
This reply is directed to Chip (cause we’ve run out of available reply space):
Your AFCAM award paper trail got screwed up and it was diverted over to and is currently being worn by the 4th SEAC./s
Yeah right Lars,sure you earned a CAB.
Is that CSM “Forgin’ Frank” by the way?
Still a fraud and a coward.
I am neither a fraud nor a coward.
“The CAB that was supposed to have been conducted by the supported division never occurred.
He is going to fix it.”
Lars, you do realize you are posting on a stolen valor blog. LMAO
Still a fraud, a liar and a coward.
Major Moonbat, you forgot to start that comment with “NO SHIT, THERE I WAS…”
You genuinely think that’s an insult, don’t you?
I don’t judge.
But if Infidel’s personal experience is that people got promoted though blowjobs then he must have given disappointing blowjobs.
“According to the logic of those who think you get promoted by giving blowjobs I was at least above average at it”.
You’re setting the standard, apparently.
Major Moonbat, you project yourself once again and prove me right!
This is the first time I’ve ever indirectly called someone a cocksucker who not only replied in the affirmative that they were, and then, as a capper, said they were “above average at it”. We do live in interesting times.
Indeed!
That’s actually funny.
Actually, Public Affairs is where a lot of failed officers go to revive their careers. This isnwhynArmy PA is so bad. Most of the actual trained PA officers are mediocre at best, and the hand picked PAs are great warfighters but crappy at PA. Ironically, the Army Chief of Public Affairs (CPA) is rarely an actual PA careerist. Usually a combat arms guy waiting for their real BG job like DCG of a division.
Civil affairs is not public affairs.
It is astonishing how so many veterans can know so little about military branches.
Here you go again projecting right and left!
Begging your pardon, major, but the only one conflating the two is you. What is being compared is their actual usefulness.
No, but of course I didn’t say that.
Also, not to quibble, but Public Affairs is a Functional Area (FA 46) for officers, not a branch. Big difference. Astonishing.
I am not sure what makes you so sensitive about this. You aren’t Civil Affairs by any chance, are you?
However, now that you mention it, Civil Affairs is another place where failed officers go to revive their careers. I give you LTC Kane Mansir…
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-fires-officer-affairs-women/
I’m pretty sure that Major Moonbat HAS brayed that he was in Civil Affairs.
And YEAH, that Ossifer did a LOT of thinking with his pecker!
PA was not even mentioned in this sub thread. CA, and inexplicably, HR was.
Which is why I thought you were conflating CA with PA.
Now I realize you simply replied to the wrong comment and meant to reply to the one mentioning PA above this sub thread.
Actually, you replied to the wrong comment, but let’s not make a big deal out of it.
The story is about the top PA officer of the Army, therefore, the story is about PA. Not sure how you figure that steeleyI is commenting on the wrong thread.
That “Karen” do….
She asked to speak to the manager, and wanted the manger FIRED….not realizing SHE was the manager. Hence why she was shitcanned.
Irony can be pretty ironic.
She took command in 2019, so if she was going to pull the usual two year ticket punch and move on, her time was almost done anyway. My google-fu is weak, does anyone know if she was put in for a second star? Wonder if she was a brace face bitch in highschool too.
I’m just surprised this didn’t get buried with her moving on or retiring. This kind of command climate doesn’t just crop up after you get a star. It grows over time, and I’m sure there were warning signs that were ignored so as not to derail her career.
Just how competent is she if she couldn’t fix the climate survey to give the answers she wanted? Every climate survey I ever took had very clear pre-determined outcomes favorable to survey sponsor.
“Battle stars are permitted, provided the “service members who were engaged in actual combat against the enemy and under circumstances involving grave danger of death or serious bodily injury from enemy action.” ”
This is improperly parsed. Combat is only one of the possible qualifications. The preceding paragraph specifies that a member merely needs to be “assigned, attached or mobilized” to a unit participating in designated operation for 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days.
Another point is that if the operation changed names during the tour than another award will be issued. I have three stars out of one really long deployment for example.
Combat is one of the possible qualifications for the award of the GWOTEM. Battle stars are permitted, service stars for various campaigns are not permitted. They ARE permitted on the Iraq and Afghanistan campaign medals. I’m assuming one of those is where you have your three stars. The GWOTEM is only issued one time, as is the GWOTSM. There are no subsequent awards, only campaign credit.
I’m not saying she doesn’t rate the GWOT-SM. From her bio she certainly deployed to enough locations to rate all her campaign medals. Hell at this point, the criteria is so broad for the GWOT-SM it’s practically automatic for anyone on AD.
I am questioning if she was properly awarded a battle star for the GWOT-SM. To my knowledge (and I could easily be wrong) there have been no GWOT-SM battle stars authorized.
There are explicitly no stars or OLCs authorized for additional awards of the GWOT-SM. It’s a one and done medal, no matter how many campaigns one participates in.
It’s just really weird, like having the arrowhead on the GWOT-EM. Her other awards and badges don’t appear to support having been in direct enemy contact nor making a combat drop or amphibious landing.
The GWOT-SM is awarded just for being in the military at the right time. The GWOT-EM is awarded for deployment. And you can’t wear both at the same time.
Is she AG? They’re usually the ones with jacked up racks in official photos, for some reason. /sarc
Maybe she was on Brian Williams’ helicopter.
Oh and 97%? I guess her aide got to vote…..
She’ll land on her feet. I know of a certain telecommunications company that loves to create a hostile workplace. She could prolly even get a sign on bonus.
You can vote officers out nowadays? How about first sergeants?
First off: that haircut???? I had that Mary Quant pageboy, too – back in the 1960s, for Pete’s sake, and it’s supposed to be exactly even all the way around, and especially so on both sides of your face.
One side longer than the other isn’t just WRONG, boys and girls: it is sloppy and unkempt and this individual ought to know better. And no, her head is not tilted. The difference in length is about 1.5 inches. It’s the cut.
Second, she has more ribbons than a 4-H contestant at the county fair, so what gives with that? If, as someone suggest above, she’s wearing something she’s not qualified to wear, isn’t that stolen valor? It’s like looking and Milley Vennilli, who has more junk on his jacket than a jar full of raspberry seeds.
And third, if she’s a “lifer”, and she’s “retiring”, who did she piss off, and how? Now that is the real “tell” of the tale, wouldn’t you say?
Why is the Army sending PAO officers to Command and General Staff College and the National Defense University?
PME… they all gotta do something.
All due course Field Grade officers go either to CGSC or an equivalent, and all COLs go to some form of Senior Service College. The Eisenhower School is part of NDU (Along with the Joint Staff College, and the National War College), and was formerly known as the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. It was primarily the Senior Service College for non-warfighter types, focused on strategic level logistics, industry, etc.
This is so they can integrate into staffs and planning at the brigade level and above with at least a passing understanding of war fighting doctrine. Public Affairs should be integrated into the planning and synchronization of any campaign to be effective.
Generally speaking we are an epic fail at this, so we blow up a village, kill an innocent dude and his family with a drone strike, or get some horses too close to Haitian aliens, then call in the PA to make everyone love us for it.
Female GOs seem to land on their feet despite stumbling – getting reprimanded or fired. Would end most careers. BG Jennifer Grant, MG Dawn Dunlap, and MG Miyako Schanely are a few that come to mind who are continuing on w/ their careers.
And BG Karpinski didn’t get reduced for Abu Ghraib, but for shoplifting out of the PX, too…
Smells like Holly U know who….
https://www.google.com/search?q=holly+graf
S’what you get when you hire strictly due to EO Quotas versus those who are truly qualified.
I think the most shocking thing about this entire debacle is that (A), The command climate survey was actually read by someone in a position to make change, and (B), change was actually made. This could be a first for the Army.
Ok Fagge’s,
(This is not possessive this is plural add to my new favorite spelling I stole from a mistake on voice to text and I added the accent to make it a little bit more pinky extended an upscale.)
All right you paste licking butt fuckers, yes I read all the comments and yes I know the difference between public affairs and recruiting but COME ON Jose’ Bidenavidenez,
You absolutely have got to be kidding me if you don’t think that at least there is some minuscule correlation or connection or causation or whether or have you between these numbers this survey this outcome and this massive fucking of cluster raping of goats and corn holing of morale???
Now I only give you this link because I’m an absolute mega fan of almost everything Angry Cop does.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0W5Ks2R-jcQ
GODDAMN TOOB OF YOU FUCK!!! Take that “mobile” (m) HTML and stick it in your pooper!!! 🍑✊
Ahem
Jeez, Russia’s ads (which look like clips from the first half of Full Metal Jacket) make ours look like wussy “woke” ass. It would be better if we just had this:
Bring back:
Wow! Turns out “Mary Jane Rottencrotch” is real person after all!