Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Kissoon, MCRD battalion commander relieved
Devtun sends us a link to Military.com which reports that another battalion commander of a training battalion at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina has been relieved of his command. Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Kissoon, the commander of the 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, was fired by his boss, Colonel Paul D. Cucinotta, after an investigation which made Cucinotta lose confidence in Kissoon’s ability to command.
The decision to relieve Kissoon came just a day before Marines announced the death of a Marine recruit, 20-year-old Raheel Siddiqui, of Taylor, Michigan, which remains under investigation.
However, Carroll said the relief was connected to an investigation that wrapped up in late February and was tied to specific acts of alleged misconduct by Kissoon and not connected to the battalion or Siddiqui’s death.
The last commander to be fired was Lieutenant Colonel Kate Germano who was fired for being “overly aggressive” with women recruits.
Category: Marine Corps
Both MCRDs are “fish Bowls” all eyes are on you.
^^^^ Amen to that.
Agreed. Not sure exactly what happened. The Drill Field has been end of countless careers and marriages.
I will wait until more details are available on this particular case.
3rd battalion
Oorah!
We used to hear about you people over at 3rd Battalion. Wasn’t that where they sent recycles, unks, fat bodies, and those under 5’6″
Those of us in 1st Battalion didn’t look behind us much.
PLT 1005, 1975
Third Bn was rumored to be the way out if you could find the path in the swamp.
And crab meat if you couldn’t.
I remember before heading to Boot Camp in 1988, my recruiter and two Lance Criminals that were home on leave, told me that under no circumstances did I want to get into 3rd Battalion. In my not having any fucking idea about what was going to happen when the bus door opened in front of yellow foot prints at Parris Island mind, was thinking “ok whatever you do, make sure you stay away from anything 3rd battalion. Sure enough as I ran from the footprints into receiving another poor sucker recruit wrote the number 3074 on my hand with sharpie as i went through the portal. The only good thing was I was in the middle of a fucking whirlwind and had no time to be concerned with being 3rd Battalion
Semper Fi 3rd Battalion!
Its Ok bro, Scotty was Third Battalion. He tried to get into 1st Battalion but couldn’t get by this sign:
http://199.204.87.17/tah/tt.jpg
Plt 3066 of the 3064 series. Graduated 7 Sept 1988 back when Hotel Company was a part of 3rd Bn.
Ah, the good ol’ days.
Awesome gunner. I was 3074 in series 3081. Graduated Oct 4, 1988. As I remember it, we called it Hell Company! Could not wait to get out of there. Did one enlistment, went to school and came back to become an infantry officer.
Semper Fi brothers!
My battalion commander (2nd BN, MCRD Parris Island, 1979) was one LtCol Harvey C Barnum, who, as a 1stLt in Vietnam was awarded the Medal of Honor. Although I didn’t fully appreciated it at the time, I’ll never forget that little blue ribbon with the five white stars at the top of his rack staring back at me during the Battalion Commander’s inspection.
Either they don’t make commanders like that anymore, or we aren’t making Marines that way anymore.
http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/3225/barnum-harvey-c-jr.php
I want to know more about this. An uninformed opinion about something like this is worse than no opinion at all. We probably won’t get much in the way of details for some time.
At the Recruit Depots these days, the relief of a Recruit Training Battalion CO could be the result of something as simple as a Drill Instructor putting his hands on a Recruit, and then the CO not reacting quickly enough to satisfy higher authority.
And you’re right, we probably won’t find out much more about this incident for a long time, if ever.
Marines can chime in on this question if you please. How can someone be “fired” in the military? Was this just shorthand for the story and what will be his fate? Is this a career ender?
In times like these, getting Relieved for Cause is pretty much a death sentence to any NCO or Officer’s career, especially if they’re Field grade rank.
Bingo. And for someone with 15-16 years service, that’s a major issue.
Getting relieved for cause will be a huge flag at the guy’s next promo board. Pretty sure most promo boards now also flag people with significant derog in their file for “show cause for retention” boards or serve as feeders for QMP/QSP boards. I believe the same is also true for other central selection boards as well (like SSC/other high-end schools), but I’m not sure
If the LtCol will be considered by a central selection board again before he hits 18 years of service, he’s quite likely toast. If not, he’s likely toast after the next USMC early retirement board that sees his file.
According to S&S, he received his commission in 1996, so in that regard, he’s almost to 20 now.
I’d guess he’ll ride a desk for a few months and the quietly put in his papers, but then again, he was fired as the result of an IG investigation, so if they want to burn him, they might well do so.
Was rather busy yesterday and didn’t have time to read the S&S article. Thanks.
That said, barring some info that later exonerates him he’s still almost certainly SOL, career-wise (and maybe even then). Next USMC early retirement board will almost certainly tap him for early retirement if he hasn’t applied for voluntarily retirement. And he’ll be considered by a central selection board of some time fairly soon as well – which could well trigger a “show cause” board.
My impression is that IG investigations only seem to result in prosecution if they uncover enough evidence to spawn a CID/NCIS/AFOSI investigation of serious criminal wrongdoing. If the misconduct is minor (criminally), generally not. But they certainly can end careers.
Depending on what was uncovered by the IG, this could well cost the guy a grade a retirement, though. If/when he eventually retires, substantiated misconduct in an IG investigation can be grounds for a determination of “not having served successfully” at that grade/rank.
Thanks, guys. I knew fired was not the correct term. “relieved for cause” was what I was after. Do you think what happened will be enough for The Marines to through him out a few months short of retirement? I guess that since we don’t know what for it’s a crap shoot. Seems a shame unless it was way serious.
Kisson has over 26 years in Service, He enlisted in 1990.Thats all I could read of his bio, a snippet from Google. They pulled it from the MCRD command site.
Depending on what the investigation was he will probably be told to put in his papers and get retirement. He is looking at about 5700 a month in retirement.
how do you figure out that he will get about $5700 a month?
Boot camp 1965…..obviously a LOT of things have changed. Just because it was San Diego, that doesn’t mean it was a party. The party really began once we graduated, got out for a while to cut loose in Oceanside and San Diego to find out how Calif. was overrun with some real freaks. First trip to Tijuana was Okinawa on steroids. That is, I don’t recall seeing any donkey acts on the latter. What a time to grow up! What a time to wake up! T J and MCRD San Diego will never be the same.
I had the honor to serve w Lt Col Kisoon from 93 to 95. As a Corporal he finished #1 in Corporal school and #1 in Seargent school. The most squared away Marine i had ever encountered. I just knew when i got out in 95 if he made officer he would possibly make it to General. I followed his career and he advanced just as i knew he would. Its terrible his career was derailed by this unfortunate event because he was 100% Marine and Loved the Corps. I know whatevers next for him he will do great. Semper Fi War Dog
people change, it’s been over 20 years since you served with this guy!