Generals Gone Wild
Hondo sends us a link to a Washington Post article which catalogs some of the recent bad behavior by flag officers in the military services. It really is quite a shameful list, incidences from intoxicated while on duty to adulterous affairs and sexual harassment.
Since November 2012, when an adulterous affair felled David H. Petraeus, the CIA director and most renowned Army general of his generation, the armed forces have struggled to cope with tawdry disclosures about high-ranking commanders.
The Navy has been humbled by a spiraling sex-and-bribery scandal, as well as a gambling incident involving a three-star admiral who authorities say they caught using counterfeit chips at a riverfront casino. The Air Force relieved a nuclear commander after investigators said he went on a drinking binge in Moscow. The Army fired one general for allegedly groping a woman, forced another to retire after he accepted expensive gifts from a foreigner, and demoted its top commander in Africa after an investigation found he treated himself and his wife to a $750-a-night Caribbean hotel suite at taxpayer expense.
I have no idea what the problems is, other than the fact that the good officers are leaving in droves, and these knuckleheads are unsupervised. That, coupled with how military justice is hamstrung by it’s own rules and there is no real punishment handed out to flag officers. “Letters of concern” somehow don’t have the same impact as loss of benefits and reduction to private. Enlisted Marines face a court martial for urinating on corpses of dead enemies, but their officers are allowed to pee on anyone they please.
Of course, the Secretary of Defense issues a solution – classes for flag officers about how they should behave themselves. I’m sorry, but if you are 40 or 50 years old and you don’t know how to behave, a class isn’t going to help you. But, Hagel is a liberal and he’s doing what liberals do best; look like he’s doing “something” whether “something” works or not.
Category: Military issues
People with access to those in Washington seem to think that the rules don’t apply to them. Oftentimes they assume that their friends will make the bad charges go away and sadly sometimes they are right.
Like with the “rockstar” CEO’s of the 90’s who started to go to jail in the 2000’s. And like them there needs to be some high level firings and some flag rank going to Levenworth.
Sometimes people just regress in their moral development.
Many times good guys leave because of bad leadership. Idiots tend to stay because they have no chance outside and stay under the radar and then get promoted… VOILA- classic example of cause and effect.
I recently read Schwartzkopf’s book, “It doesn’t Take a Hero” and he talked about a class he took when he got his star. The class basically dealt with ethics, making sure to reinforce the rules of ethical behavior etc… He said it was kind of surprising because it was stuff everyone had learned long ago and many times over but then he said how surprised he was at the number of violations racked up by General officers. The sleeping around with younger men’s wives, etc… He recounted a story of his commanding General telling him, after learning that he was getting promoted to General, how amazed he was at how much funnier he got after getting his first star. The point being not to let the star go to his head….Schwartzkopf was surprised at how many people did let that star go to their head…
It aint just the Os fellas. Command CMSgt William Thomaston of Offut AFB was just relieved of duty for slapping his wife around. I have worked around him in the past, and I wasnt surprised. Without going too deeply into it, he is a classic example of the do as I say, not as I do mentality…
In civilian jobs, in the real world, that kind of behavior will get you fired. If you’re an executive at the top, you get the ‘golden parachute’ treatment while you’re shown the door. I’ve seen this happen where I worked.
It’s annoying to see that the upper echelon didn’t get booted the way the peons did, but those are the idiots who also brought some large corporations to their knees financially.
It doesn’t just happen in the military. It’s simply less visible to the public until someone leaks it.
We’re taught Lord Acton’s axiom: all power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I believed that when I started these books, but I don’t believe it’s always true any more. Power doesn’t always corrupt. Power can cleanse. What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals.
— Robert Caro
For those who don’t recognize the name: Robert Caro is the man who wrote the as-yet unfinished 5-volume biography of LBJ, collectively titled The Years of Lyndon Johnson. From his research on LBJ – and on Robert Moses of NYC, about whom Caro also did a biography – I’d say the man knows what he’s talking about.
The first two volumes of the LBJ biography (The Path to Power and Means of Ascent) are truly fascinating – and indeed show how power reveals the true character of those who attain it.
Why can’t the Generals sleep around, get expensive gifts and spend tax payer money on extravagant vacations? Presidents, Senators, appointed officials and anyone that seems to go to government conferences all seem to be without a care in the world when it comes to things we are mad at the Generals for. Yes we like to think the military would keep a higher standard, but when your bosses misbehave and it’s ok why can’t they?
You guys ought to visit the Pentagon.
Or check out senior VA administration.
It is about subordinates being a bunch of pussy’s and not telling the senior officer, “Yes sir, but I have the obligation of pointing out what you are asking me to do is in violation of….. and if word about it gets out there could be a problem.” Then doing a notarized MFR to cover your butt. I am so proud of a former Marine NCO who as a civilian club manager at Pine Bluff Arsenal, told a former colonel post commander that his bringing his own beer into the club by the case to drink for free was a violation of…” “He also refused to give the colonel special pricing on a reception.” The colonel ignored him about the beer, someone dropped a dime on him, and the Army in their infinite wisdom placed the colonel in a dead end assignment when he left here.
I’m sorry but didn’t CINC just spend $4,000,000 taxpayer dollars on another vacation? They are just following the lead of who they see in charge.
There’s an old military axiom that “A soldier who won’t f#@%, won’t fight”.
That said, there are standards about how to go about that, and they don’t include subordinates or their relatives, or any variation that could undermine good order and discipline.
I know of a “Guard bum” who made O-6 (current) and now is chief of staff. He was relieved of duty on an overseas deployment, and prior to that mission, on another mission a year earlier, left his troops in a South American country to take a civilian airplane ride home to “brief the higher ups.” He shit-canned all forwarded deserving medals and wrote himself up for a medal…the only one awarded!
Looks like “General Promotional Material” to me!
Beretverde: unfortunately from what I’ve seen that’s not unknown on the RC side of the house. “Top cover” from a well-placed patron can sometimes result in incompetence and/or misconduct being overlooked.
I won’t say it’s common, but it’s not unknown. Unfortunately.
I remember an SF O-6 up for general. The hidden and sharpened knives then came out on him- Wearing of unauthorized decorations. One was a CIB! He retired AFTER it made the front page of the Stars and Stripes.
I knew a newly promoted Brig. General in Germany was “ordered” to stop screwing the secretaries. Man did he have some firepower to save his career! This was in the early 70s!
I can go on and on… this problem isn’t “new” material.
Whenever I see things like this, I think of how I’m not allowed to vote, drive, drink, fly, buy guns, marry, be a guardian of my own affairs, etc. because of my age. The official explanation is that teenagers aren’t mature enough to do those things yet. Fair enough. And then I see things like this. And I get angry. Very angry.
@3 OT
Here’s an interesting passage from GEN Colin Powell’s book “My American Journey”. The late GEN/CSA/NATO SACEUR Bernard Rogers addressed the new Army 1 stars at “Charm School” in 1979.
“All of you could board an airplane and disappear over the Atlantic tomorrow, and the 52 colonels we’d replace you with would be just as good as you are. We would not be able to tell the difference. Furthermore, many of you have to accept that you have had your last promotion, So do your best, and let the future take care of itself.” Half of us would make major general. At most, 10 of us would make lieutenant general. And maybe four of us would make four stars.
He was proud of us, he said, and expected us to do well. But he also warned of the test of rank. “Some of your careers will stall out,” Rogers said “because you think the stars put you above the rules, and you become little tin gods. Some of you will top out because you can’t handle the responsibility. Some of your careers will falter because your wives start acting as if they got the promotion. I am not speaking hypothetically,” Rogers went on. “Everthing I am saying will happen to somebody in this room.”
Beretverd: agreed, amigo – it’s an old problem. And IMO it’s no more acceptable today than it was then.
In my book, if you’re a senior guy – officer or NCO – then you’re setting the example, whether you want to or not.
“An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!”
Another example of a general who couldn’t remember the difference between right and wrong:
“A one-star general and former commander of the Michigan Air National Guard improperly received nearly $200,000 and broke the law by collecting a federal paycheck while performing a state-level job for 16 months, according to a newly released IG report.
Brig. Gen. Richard G. Elliot, Michigan’s former Air adjutant general, also “used his public office for private gain” when he approved his own time and attendance records while serving as the state’s top Air Guard official, the IG investigation found.
Elliot also received nearly $20,000 in temporary duty travel money that was unwarranted, the IG found.”
http://www.freep.com/article/20140113/NEWS06/301130142/Michigan-Air-National-Guard-scam
Hondo, I’ve also heard the adage that Adversity doesn’t build character it reveals it….similar to your quote but for different circumstances.
Alcohol tends to reveal personality and character as well…a lot of folks when under supervision or under their own personal control are far different when released from supervision or personal control. As this article more than attests….
I am not surprised by this really, I believe my generation (those in the late 50s age bracket) are by far and large a “me” generation of instant gratification wienies with some exceptions. Many baby boomers were spoiled by their parents who wanted better lives for their kids which is admirable and something we all want, but never taught appropriate discipline or personal accountability. Consequently we see these results, and now these baby boomers are raising generations of their own to be even less responsible.
This will be an interesting few decades to come no doubt.
lol @ adulterous affair still being something under the UCMJ while every other perverted sex act is now publicly acceptable including degrading the uniform while promotion them.
Just sayin’