Lackland Commander relieved in wake of sex scandal
The Associated Press reports that the commander of the Air Force’s basic training installation has lost his job over the widening sex scandal at the base;
Col. Glenn Palmer was commander of basic training for the 737th training group at the Texas base, where more than a dozen military instructors in the past year have been investigated or charged with sexually assaulting recruits. Officials familiar with the decision said Palmer has been relieved from those duties, speaking on condition of anonymity because the announcement was not yet public.
The officials said there was no indication Palmer was facing any criminal charges. In all, six instructors have been charged with offenses ranging from rape to adultery.
Investigators say more than three dozen female trainees have been victimized by male instructors at Lackland, where approximately 35,000 airmen graduate each year.
I’m not going to deny that sexual assault doesn’t occur in the military. In fact, I tried to punish one of my NCOs when I worked at HHC 10th Mountain Division who thought it would be a good idea for him to walk through the female barracks, drunk, in an open robe wearing Daisy Dukes, calling a certain young soldier who he thought was particularly attractive. She called me at home late on a Sunday night, which didn’t bode well for anyone.
I wasn’t successful getting him punished, but I did get him fired. I think it affected my other NCOs in that they behaved themselves in public, anyway. Of course, while I was trying to get him some NJP, it was a major battle between me, the commander and 1SG, because they didn’t think his behavior rose to the level of punishment, but I was just trying to protect them by urging them to take action. But, I guess some people don’t see sexual misbehavior as all that serious. So, I got them to move him to the Division TOC and away from my females.
I’ve seen it the other way, too. One of my female soldiers thought that I should give her a sexual end-of-tour award on her last day in the unit and she became quite adamant about it. Yeah, it didn’t happen, but I probably could have had her busted for sexual assault, but actually, I just wanted her gone. I guess pretty 20-year-olds aren’t all that accustomed to people telling them ‘no’.
But, yeah, I’ll admit that it happens, and commanders who aren’t willing to do something about it deserve what they get.
Category: Air Force
I heard of crap going on in other units that had females, but it wasn’t just males preying on females, as you have stated; it went both ways.
I remember a friend in Tech School telling me she had a date one weekend. When I inquired as to whom she was going out with, she said it was her TI from basic. She assured me that he was no longer a TI, but I always thought that seemed a bit fishy given that they were obviously still in contact.
Also, my TI made me shower with 30 other men…
Lack of accountability on the part of people in charge is a huge morale killer. It makes the soldiers cynical about the whole institution (not that ours need any help with that). How do I talk about the “zero tolerance” drug policy with a straight face while everyone carefully doesn’t look at the E8 who failed a few tests, lost a single pay grade, and got moved to a new AGR position created just for him?
And again, tell me how putting women on submarines is going to be a good thing?
It will certainly skew the “Miss Halfway Night” compitition.
“I guess pretty 20-year-olds aren’t all that accustomed to people telling them ‘no’.”
When I was a community college instructor I occasionally (OK-relatively rarely, but still) had the same problem. It was flattering (where in the hell were they when I was single?), but I am married and committed to my wife. Those young girls just couldn’t understand why anyone would turn them down and they would sometimes get mad as hell when you did.
I’ve seen some of the females on those boats.
I still see the men winning, if that tells you anything, Ray.
All I can say is..IT’S ABOUT FUCKING TIME!!! No pun either. As an aside the commander of LAFB got relieved too. Press release stated it was a normal PCS change. Right, we’ll see who makes the BG’s list.
I went thru Basic and AIT right around the time of the Aberdeen proving grounds “scandal” along with Tailhook and even the Marines having their own little issue with a lesbian female marine commander at boot picking out female recruits to have fun with. I was also an AIT instructor in the early millenium. Everytime I looked at a female, I remembered one simple thing a CSM told me years before, “Ain’t no “p***y” in the world worth 30 years.” I’d had 10 in so far and I would’ve gotten 20 for fooling around, I’m sure. So never, not once. Especially in an Initial Entry Training (IET) environment because it doesn’t matter if they are willing or not. A couple years later, a 1SG was getting his fun in and finally the female said “no” and he said “yes” and she called CID on him. He was also a former drill sergeant and previous history with drill sergeants was that they were hooking up with females, which is why he figured he’d get away with it still. The previous CoC was not concerned with what they did, but there was a new sheriff in town, along with CID being involved. Well, a couple of former drills are breaking rocks in Leavenworth because of it. No Instructors were harmed in the results of this investigation because instructors were smart enough to know better. All IET Cadre are battered endlessly with the strict rules of dealing with Trainees. So in this case I have no sympathy for them because they think its worth it and that they’ll get away with it. Even if your chain of command isn’t doing anything about someone else doing it, doesn’t make it right for you to do it. I feel sympathy in the case of this story for those recruits who were treated this way and for so many cycles it seems without action by the chain of command. That is truly a shame and shouldn’t happen. However, at the same time, I will note that there are plenty of Trainees who will play the “victim”… Read more »
http://www.37trw.af.mil/library/biographies/bio.asp?id=14946
Interestingly Col. Palmer was prior enlisted and a Combat Controller at that. With that background and 36 years experience you have expected a better command climate.
COB6: agreed. But some who’ve had repeated success eventually seem to believe they’re “bulletproof” and the rules don’t apply to them. I’d guess we’ve all seen that from time to time.
I’d also guess that might be part of the reason why 2x BZ selects only rarely seem to make GO/FO, but that’s another discussion.
Ray, the only putting women on subs is when the entire crew is made up of women. Period.
Air Force can’t shake the stink of negative publicity – just a few short years ago AF Academy sexual assaults were in the news. AF GOs are already under the most fire from armed services committee for leadership & program administration lapses. Good luck to Gen Welsh as new CSAF.
My son just graduated from Lackland in June so we’ve talked about this a lot. First, he said his MTI was a very honorable man, as was every MTI he had contact with. Second, from one article I read, they were all from the same training squadron, so there was some kind of culture there that wasn’t shared by the rest of the squadron. Third, although there aren’t enough female MTIs for all of the girls, they should at least attempt to have a female MTI for a female flight. My son said the ones he did see were all in charge of men. My son said they were brainwashed in briefing after briefing on sexual harassment and alcohol abuse. He got the same thing when he got to Sheppard too. Everyone knows exactly how to report sexual harassment, it’s amazing to me that the first girl didn’t speak up for over a year. Along those lines, my son had a flight mate who they found out was gay about halfway through BMT. My son caught him making a list of the hottest guys in the flight and reported it. His “punishment” was additional counseling. Would that have been his punishment if my son had made a list of the hottest girls in a sister flight? I’m sure this will become more of an issue now that gays are allowed openly. At least the guys aren’t showering with the girls like gay guys are. Being female, I’ve seen a lot of girls do anything to get a guy, sleeping their way up comes naturally. I’ve warned my sons to be very careful, girls can say anything they want to and you will be guilty until proven innocent. Do not get drunk with a girl you don’t know well. Don’t be alone with a girl you don’t know well. Don’t go to a girl’s room at school or on a business trip. The consequences are not worth it. What gets me is that these guys are mostly in their 30s so they’ve been in the Air Force for at least a… Read more »
I’ve warned my sons to be very careful, girls can say anything they want to and you will be guilty until proven innocent. Do not get drunk with a girl you don’t know well. Don’t be alone with a girl you don’t know well. Don’t go to a girl’s room at school or on a business trip. The consequences are not worth it.
Bless you for doing it. And add – “If one of them does say something, close your mouth, with an extreme sort of closure, not just to the police, but to everyone. Except your lawyer. And get one right away.”
Very good advice in posts 14 and 15.
I know that females slept with drills. I caught one on Fireguard. I also know that they think it got them special favors. Hell, I swore after a shitty time in the two mile and the CO bullied me. I kept my eyes open and mouth shut…can you say Green MFR? I wrote it all down and asked to speak to the CO before I lit outta Ft. Jackson. I handed him the book and signed my name. Never knew what he did with it, but I did what I could do. One female drill was clearly getting it on with other trainees. Happened ALL.THE.TIME. I never found it acceptable. Period.
Oh no, not bullying! Hahaha…
The AP didn’t point out the fact that Col. Palmer took command after the majority of this stuff occurred, and that he went after it very aggressively once he took over. I’ve heard nothing but praise and the highest respect for him from those who served under his previous commands, and strongly suspect that he got thrown under the bus for political expediency. Col. Palmer was prior enlisted, a combat controller who made MSgt before he commissioned as a Special Tactics Officer. From the look of things, it’s a shame he couldn’t have stayed in the SOF world instead of going to the bluest of big blue and getting screwed over by circumstances set in motion before he was ever a part of it.
http://www.37trw.af.mil/library/biographies/bio.asp?id=14946
@19.
You have a very solid and valid point.
Unfortunately, Commanders are ultimately responsible for everything under their command, like it or not. It is called the shit sandwich and sometimes you must take a bite.
The burden of command is a bitch.
I was cadre at the 1/507th PIR (Airborne School) at Fort Benning for my last assignment. I wasn’t a black hat because, by the time I got there, I only had 9 months left in so they made me permanent staff duty assigned to HHC. Well HHC has the best and the worst of the airborne community…meaning we owned Pathfinder and Jumpmaster schools as well as had all the holdovers (not the kinds waiting for a slot, the kinds that quit, failed too many times, kicked out, etc.). My 1SG was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with one of the female holdovers. Now I don’t know if he did or not, nor do I know what became of it because this was within a few weeks of my ETS. I do know that this female stayed in barracks rooms specifically reserved for cadre and, somehow, was NEVER on any details. I also know that he seemed to fall off the edge of the earth overnight and I was surprised as hell the next time I showed up for duty and the new 1SG, who was slotted for C co I think, introduced himself to me. Even if this came to nothing and the private was crying foul, his career was over because the accusation is almost as bad as actually committing the offense
@21.
I went to the BAC in 98 as an OSUT, right out of Sand Hill, Private. E-nothing.
Let me tell you, those Cadet College Chicks looked good. The only woman I saw for roughly 13-14 weeks was the chow hall lady. And she looked good, sort of, not really, not at all.
Know what I mean.
It goes on. But the real question is “How much does SSG, SFC, MSG Airborne wish to risk that career?”
@12 nice pun
@22
Former Special Forces SFC Kelly Stewart comes to mind about married guy screwing around and getting his ass handed to him with whole he said/she said concerning a rape accusation (though woman in question was not military).
@22 “…It goes on. But the real question is “How much does SSG, SFC, MSG Airborne wish to risk that career?”
I remember a certain president, who was warned to keep it in his pants… but he ended up lying under oath and was brought up on perjury charges and impeached.
This behavior is not just in the military…it is everywhere; no matter how high up one is in the food chain or their IQ.
I agree that it’s everywhere, but do you think it’s more prevelant in the military? What with all the TDYs, and deployments?
It’s scary/depressing to think about sometimes seeing how many marriages fail because of stuff like that, especially when you hear about it in PME. I had an Airman Leadership School instructor have her husband deploy on a 365 when I was going through, the next class that went through got the dubious honor of watching her be dismissed for adultery with one of her students.
btw that’s “prevalent”.
On the subject of Soldiers gone wild, I have seen some crazy behaviour. When I reclassed from combat arms in 03 at Huachuca, there were a group of female IET’s that were having a competition to see who could bag the highest ranking NCO (with bonus points for extras such as combat patches, being airborne, etc). One of my reclass platoonmates ended up being accused of rape when his airborn beret was found in a female IET room (she took it as proof). The rape allegation fell apart pretty fast but he ended up booted from the course and got a field grade when he returned to Bragg. And the stories of what I seen in the field by leaders as a JRTC/NTC O/C would blow your mind. Senior NCO’s caught in a CONEX with 5 members of the opposite sex. PVTs and CSMs in Porta-Johns, it’s crazy. And I won’t say anything about false rape allegations other that unless the military does something to hold people accountable for proven false allegations, we will continue to have a huge problem that will ruin careers and lives on the whim of a scorned woman or someone trying to rewrite the memory of their own poor choices in bedmates. As an example, if a female shows up late for weekend duty and is stil drunk, all she has to do is claim rape, then she’s untouchable. But the guy who took her home will have his life turned upside down. Then there is a unnamed base here in Germany that until recently had a (for lack of a better term) lesbian gang. They would pick their targets and the new females were given a choice: join the group or have a large group of women on base that would make their life hell. On the side of NCO misconduct, I was in a BN that had numerous complaints from females about waking up at night and finding someone in their rooms watching them sleep. The chain of command ignored the complaints and counseled one complaining Soldier for leaving her room unlocked. It… Read more »
Wow, that was a long rant. Short version, the military is jacked up with uneven enforcement of standards and discipline. And civilian PC BS inflicted on us from congress makes it worse.
There Is a lot of random sex going on the military, much initiated by the female, but boot camp is a whole different situation than out in the fleet. There are not circumstances that make it ok for guy with that kind of authority over anyone (especially a bunch of 18 year olds) to have sex with them. And I’d like to see the female instructors who do this punished much more severely also.
@21 – I was in A co and Jumpmaster Branch as a Blackhat…and saw much of the same from HHC and the Holdovers. We could have seen the same shannanigans from the same people.
This problem has been with us (both versions, abuse of authority to coerce sex and use of physical attractiveness/sexual favors to get ahead) as long as we’ve had human societies. To me, it appears so deeply embedded in human nature that I don’t think we’ll ever be able to prevent it 100% of the time. Other than hammering the offenders when caught and the offense proven, I don’t see much else we can do. Ditto for false accusations.
And I do mean hammering those found to have engaged in such conduct or to have made false accusations of same. Hard.
I can pile in. I was a the new LT and as I found out later the youngest and only single one (I also found out later the battalion had not had a new LT in about two years….reasons are another story).
My first week every time I went to the motor pool and back to the battalion offices there would be a crowd of female enlisted. Always saying hi and stuff. Small talk.
I was oblivious, being a naive LT I paid no mind to it. For some reason I didn’t think that enlisted would come on to an officer….well after a while my Platoon sergeant set me straight. He saw what was happening. It was an eye opener.
I had a 1SG that would use the night vision systems on bradleys to scan the perimeter for night time activities then bust them. Some people are pretty desparate.