Another Senior Officer Self-Terminates A Career
Looks like yet another senior military officer has self-terminated their career.
Lt. Gen. John Hesterman, USAF Assistant Vice-Chief of Staff, has been relieved and will retire. He was relieved due to having an “unprofessional relationship with a junior officer”.
Specifically, Hesterman was found to have exchanged inappropriately-worded emails with an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel (from excerpts quoted, apparently female) between March 2010 and May 2011. No other evidence of misconduct was found.
Hesterman had recently commanded the air campaign against ISIS.
This case may well be nothing more than an example of the appearance of impropriety vice actual misconduct. Other accounts indicate there was more to the matter. Dunno.
Either way, it doesn’t matter. For those in very senior positions – enlisted or officer – mere appearance of impropriety matters. (It goes without saying that actual impropriety matters.) Every damn thing leadership does is watched by subordinates; that’s inherent in accepting such an assignment. And you can bet your last dollar that everything the CG or his/her SEA does is noticed – and that word gets around.
Both Fox News and the Air Force Times have articles on the matter. By reading both (neither is very long), IMO you can get a reasonable idea of what happened.
You might have gotten a raw deal, General. Or you might have deserved this. But either way you did this to yourself by forgetting that you were – in essence – a public figure and under the proverbial “microscope”.
Category: "Teh Stoopid", Air Force
Wow… stepped on his “member” big time. Hopefully the missus hires herself a high powered divorce lawyer to get a hunk of change off of him.
Another case of the little head doing the thinking…
That’s strange that it takes five or six years for someone to be offended buy text messages. I guess one of them was not ready for the break up.
Reading the article it sounds like the subordinate and her husband were fucking around on each for a bit before the general got in the mix…
Sounds like her husband is a shitbag too and now everybody is singing like stoolies before a mob purge…
Seems like the general stepped on a land mine when he decided to fuck this woman…didn’t know she and her husband were both liars and cheaters…
Once again proving you should never, under any circumstances, shit where you eat.
Good bye general enjoy your retirement. It’s probably a better deal than your average subordinate would be getting under similar circumstances.
Not sure the two ever became involved, VOV. If that was the case, I don’t think the IG investigation would say “no evidence of other misconduct” – adultery with a subordinate is a BIG no-no for GOs.
That said, I can’t rule that out, either.
But it doesn’t matter. As GEN “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell reputedly put it: “The higher you climb up the flagpole, the easier it is for everyone to see your behind.”
Hondo, I think there might not be physical proof beyond the he said/she said variety.
The text messages between the husband and the LTC though indicated that both had cheated and he said in his message “when ur hurting see the chaplain, not cheat with a 2 star who has control over our lives” and her reply was “I didn’t cheat anymore than you did with you subordinate” and then she said “you should probably delete these texts”
Not proof of physical contact for sure, which is why the general probably gets a walk. But enough smoke to smell a lot like something untoward…
Anybody else think this PC shit has gotten out of hand? Let’s get rid of every senior officer with any amount of competency. Oh, and whose mind isn’t right on the pc bullshit being force fed to our military by this administration and Social Justice Warriors and replace them with political appointee’s competency be damned. That will work out well for us.
Based on the text messages quoted in the complaint it sounds like the good general was fucking her….so there’s that.
Good chance that will end up being “former general”, as its substantiated back to at least him being a one star.
What does PC crap have to do with it?
So any senior office or NCO can just fuck anyone he or she wants to with no consequences? Can you possibly deal with the concept that this GENERAL has his mind on his dick instead of on doing his job?
Does Christine Keeler ring a bell? No, I guess not. Look her up, dork.
I think Jonp was thinking it was just emails EX-PH2….when you read the complaint at the Air Force Times link way down in the guts of it are some text messages where the husband and wife team discuss their mutual infidelity and she admits to fucking the general…the rest of the article doesn’t make that clear and the complaint itself suggests there’s enough ambiguity in the whole thing to not necessarily make a great court case…
But I tend to believe women when they talk about who they’re fucking….and their text exchange seems pretty honest when you read it.
Jonp might not have seen that part it’s easy to miss when you’re scrolling.
I did not see any of that and you are right, I missed it. I thought it was emails.
PH2 needs to get their instant outrage train and take a breather.
“get off of their”
A girlfriend once told me…don’t go fishing off the same dock that you work at.
This is called “the zip code rule”
I was scanning the investigation report, reading a line here and a line there, and was bored beyond belief. I think I was at page 25 of the soap opera when I called it quits. Cripes. Sorry but I just can’t get there from here. Just another ugly divorce that spilled over. And, besides that, this officer and gentleman stuff is so yesterday, given that today it’s just dandy if one male officer is screwing another male officer’s butt. It’s the clash of old mores and new, and the winner is not in doubt.
Maybe they could update the musical “Anything Goes” to reflect the new standard….
In the military, boinking a subordinate is not OK, 2/17 Air Cav – regardless of gender. Also not OK to have a close personal relationship (nonsexual) with a subordinate to the point it leads to either actual favoritism or the appearance of same.
Yes, I get that. My point was that what was not okay previously (e.g., sodomy and homosexual relationships) is now okay and the application of the highfalutin standards such as the appearance of impropriety as evidenced by some email content strikes me as silly. I appreciate that standards have changed and I am in no way defending this now-retired general.
I’ll bet money the good Gen has lowered the boom on subordinates for the exact same offense.
Damn good chance of that – either directly, or by nailing them on an eval. And that’s another reason he deserves whatever the hell he gets here, in my book.
I have very little tolerance for hypocrites.
You know he did… and probably while he was fooling around on his own wife.
“Do as I say, not as I do…”
I have not idea what a Assistant Vice-Chief of Staff does. I am sure it is very important. I am equally sure we can do without one.
It is a good thing they purged this kind of misconduct out of the Air Force, God knows there would be a total breakdown in mail delivery to the troops otherwise.
I guess the old “Hog Board” is a thing of the past while deployed. We kept the board just outside the head for a reason. We used to take pride in our board and looked forward to updates from the homeland.
I didn’t see any mention of what happened to the “much loved” Lt. Col. A picture would have been nice.
http://undertheradar.military.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/aliciaquaco.jpg
I remember the days when women didn’t mind reminding us what we were fighting for. I never disrespected a woman in uniform, in fact I showed a great appreciation for a few of them when they were out of it.
Station a Marine with a bunch of Air Force ladies and see what happens, in quiet places we don’t talk about there be happenings. I guess the message here is don’t use email.
http://199.204.87.17/jonn/realdad.jpg
You win the Interweb today.
“I have no idea what a Assistant Vice-Chief of Staff does. I am sure it is very important.”
Very simple, Dave. The job title has the word “Vice” in it. He obviously has duties that involve “vice”, and he was just carrying out his duties to the best of his (sexual) abilities.
I wonder how that gets graded on a performance evaluation in the Air Force. 😀
FWIW, 0-9 & 0-10 not subject to performance evals (Army 0-8 and up). That high up it’s brutally direct process. The WH/Pentagon doesn’t like you…it’s instant retirement.
Hog Boards….thanks for the memories.
See?
I knew I should have joined the USMC after college instead of going back into the Navy. The Marines were always nice to me. Sailors – not so much. But it was the 1960s-70s, and things were different then.
Oh, well.
Here’s the annoying thing, Dave. It’s not that the Marines get the frisky zoomettes while the Army gets the buffalo heifers, it’s that the Marines have to keep reminding us of it…
“I have not idea what a Assistant Vice-Chief of Staff does.”
Dave, I think that it’s Pentagonese for “Coffee Bitch”…
I really need to get a keyboard. May bee i cud pruf reed things batter.
It takes approximately two tablespoons of blood to create an erection.
Apparently this is enough blood loss from the brain to cause it to cease functioning.
And yet he’ll still pull a six-figure retirement check and at least that again for some lobbyist or defense contractor. Pardon me if I’m not shedding any tears.
“It takes approximately two tablespoons of blood to create an erection.”
I was curious about that so I cut my finger, dripped out two tablespoons, dropped my drawers, poured it on Willie, and…nothing. Are you sure you didn’t omit a step or something?
Virgin sacrifices don’t work.
Hey-OOOOOOOO!
You roll the dice and you take your chances. This General…lost. Bummer. Better luck being a lobbyist where fucking people or getting fucked by people, is part of the job.
Dude should have just made a phone call.
Another unethical, immoral and ignorant moron.
The other day, someone else (I forget who) wrote something about “…just one more power point presentation could have prevented this” (or words along those lines).
That comment is apropos here, and still funny as hell.
Three Rules to avoid the IG:
Sleep with your own spouse
Spend your own money
Drink at home
Just about everything we see could be prevented if people followed those rules.
Or at least if you’re not married don’t be sleeping with subordinates or other people’s spouses either….plenty of unattached company, preferably outside your military circle.
You forgot “Don’t look at pRon on your work computer. 😉
Don’t make fake casino chips, but maybe that kinda falls under spend your own money.
She needs to be flushed along with the General, as they say it takes two to tango and she seemed willing enough.
Doesn’t the Air Force have Sharp training? ?
I’ll never forget the first time I discovered Sharp. I was at Fort Hood and saw some Sharp posters on the wall. My first reaction was that the Army wanted the troops to look sharp.
I’m sure she was quickly promoted to supreme commander of the air force or whatever it is they call it. What a brave woman.She survived the patriarchy and lived to tell about it.
Luckily, the “appearance of impropriety” or failure to secure National Security information doesn’t impact the former Sec. of State’s ability to look for a promotion.
Rules, policies and laws are for “little people”, like Lt. Generals and the like.
Everyone knows that you can f*ck up, but you better not get caught f*cking down.
I wonder, if Eisenhower saw things the way you do, who would have replaced Patton?