Army Lt. Col. Robert Howard relieved from training assignment
Stars & Stripes reports that Lieutenant Colonel Robert Howard, the battalion commander of 2nd Battalion, 58th Infantry Regiment, 198th Infantry Brigade, one of the One Station Unit Training battalions for infantrymen at Fort Benning, Georgia was relieved. S&S speculates that the firing was related to a female trainees’ charges that they were sexually assaulted by a drill sergeant.
Howard’s removal comes about one month after the Army announced it had suspended several Fort Benning drill sergeants amid an investigation into allegations of sexual assault raised by female trainees.
Category: Army News
Cue the doubling down on SHARP training for everyone under E-8 in 5,4,3…
I would certainly agree with your prediction if the military were still commanded by the Kenyan, but now that CHAOS is in charge, maybe…just maybe…things will change.
One would hope, but alas, the bureaucratic beast is vast and terrible and not easily slain, even by Chaos himself.
True…it didn’t get all fouled up overnight.
No, it took a concentrated 8 yr effort of promoting SJW’s, PC ass kissers and men/women that tick the right quota box but are totally unqualified to lead a dog let alone men and women
I want to know what really happened, of course.
This guy is/was no slouch, but the term ‘sexual assault’ is thinly spread now.
It can include anything from heinous verbiage to rape. Since this is not a completed story. I will wait for the outcome.
Frankly, I doubt that SHARP training has any effect other than numbing the minds of the people subjected to it.
If military SHARP training is anything like my department’s EEO, I think I’d rather get raped than sit through any more of it.
I saw a report – don’t know where or how reliable – that the EEO and related trainings end up making the workplace environment worse for a while after they occur.
EX-PH2,
This officer was probably not even within 10 miles of anything that happened.
He is being crucified because he was the CO of a unit that this happened in.
The message being sent out is that every commander better make sure SHARP training is treated as gospel.
Not that it will save them if someone ignores it.
The sheep that are allowed to bleat at the military wont be happy until the entire Army is emasculated.
In their minds that’s the only cure.
Agreed, Old Dog, but I think it’s obvious that the SHARP stuff is not working.
there is approximately 5000 or so in a battalion-I did a battalion formation holy shit it was spread out and then did a division in Kuwait with the temperature 117 degrees don’t give me that dry heat bs either.
Jeff, I think you’ll find battalions usually run from 600 to 1200 personnel depending on type. An independent brigade or a regiment will run 5000 or so.
Roger that. What about the unit’s CSM? He should have been closer to the NCO problem than the CO.
I’m taking a wait-and-see posture as well.
There is the very real possibility that some snowflake didn’t like the demands made upon her to meet standards, and made a revenge claim on their Sergeant, the Lt.Col. recognized it as such or thought of it as such, and did not accord it the automatic ‘believe the woman’ response some quarters preach.
Or he could be a jerk.
Exactly.
I recall waiting for the details to come out surrounding the relief of LtCol Kate Germano (female recruit training regiment CO at MCRD Parris Island some time ago).
Top (I hit the report comment erroneously–sorry): I’m still waiting for those results, too.
Germano is definitely high profile. From what I understand she went out kicking and screaming.
Also heard she was a grade A twat-waffle in the Unit she was in prior to her being assigned to MCRD.
If they don’t want this stuff to get any more out of hand than it has, then go back to the days of segregated sexes in training. Female only DSs for the women and males for the men on different parts of the post. This mixed platoon training is and has been a mess.
I went through OSUT Engineer training in the early 90s, there was a Transportation Unit across the compound from us that was mixed sex and some of the guys we talked to in there bragged about how they’d sneak off with females and fuck like jackrabbits, you DON’T put kids in their late teens together in tight quarters and not expect hanky-lanky, ditto with adults, horniness has no conscience.
18-24-year-olds tend to be overloaded with hormones and stunted in maturity. Nothing inherently wrong with that, it’s just biology. The problem arises when you start pretending biology isn’t what it is.
I know (knew) of recruiters partaking of delayed entry recruits during their senior year of high school.
Yep. The ones I knew were wished into the cornfield, never to be heard from or seen again.
Dipping in the Dep is a career ender.
Not worth it….work the TEACHERS instead. Easy money and better access to the classrooms.
Knew one Zone Sup who DQ’d a HS girl so he could start banging her.
Married her, and supposedly it was that same woman who burned Admiral Watson.
FOB Falcon 2006… the tower over had a guy and a girl in it and about 2 hours into that shift the chicks head was bobbing.
This one time, in band camp….
Unless parents start telling their kids to hold off on sexual activity until they are at least legally adults, it is not going to go away.
Yes and tell them if they masturbate they will grow hair on their palms. That will stop it……
Sarcasm and I get your point, ex-PH2
I don’t mean to imply anything but I have heard that when Ex-PH-2 got a bikini wax she had them do her palms, too.
Whassamatta, Poe? Batteries run down again? Not enough room on your card for those phone calls? Poor thing! Try a Jar-Jar Binks video. It’s been rumored that it shuts off all desire to even look at anyone sideways.
This incident has had far-reaching effects here on Sand Hill. I was talking to a neighbor yesterday about the NCOs who are under investigation. He told me they are a PITA to manage because they are not allowed to have any contact with Trainees. This makes it impossible to task them for details since all of the work here is conducted by Trainees or post-graduate holds. So, several suspended Drill Sergeants in an environment where we need every campaign or bush hat the Army can produce, headquarters personnel who must monitor these guys while continuing to perform their regular jobs, and command teams who may or may not have known who are effectively having their careers ended. We’ve had to give up valuable Drills who were integrated into our battalion in exchange for Drills from 2-58. In a regular unit this wouldn’t be an issue, but every company out here – while conducting the same training events – runs differently. When we pick up, my company will have four Drills who have been in the company for a full cycle, two from other units, and four who arrived in the past month or so. Of the four of us, two are leaving after the next cycle, and the other two have only two cycles left. I picked up the Fort Jackson newspaper upon reporting there for Recruiter School years ago. Two former NCOs were in the UCMJ section for having relationships with Trainees. Both lost rank, their careers, and one got a few months in jail over it. Needless to say, that (coupled with common sense and a desire to continue serving) set the tone for my time as both a Recruiter and Drill Sergeant. Do your job, don’t do the people that come with that job. Rant over, and I know it’s slightly misplaced in this article. Even so, if the former BC knew he deserves this. If he didn’t know he still assumed responsibility upon taking command. As for the NCOs in question, should the accusations prove founded they need to be made examples of. I keep my… Read more »
You should be doing the SHARP lectures, you know. You, or maybe me.
I have no patience with people who can’t keep their hormones under control, and zero tolerance for anyone in any work force, civilian or otherwise, who uses his/her position to take advantage of or abuse subordinates.
What about IDC_SARC? 🙂
What about him? He’s mostly air.
And so it begins….
Gee, who would have thought that mixing men and women could have adverse effects on discipline and good order or unit cohesion.
Whatever happened to “battle buddies”? And how did those people find the time or place to indulge in hanky-panky? I guess the new volunteer Army trainees have more unsupervised free time than we used to.
Looks like it is now
“Battle buddy with benefits”
Well, it really does have to do with biology. Hormones, to be specific. None of that is under anyone’s control in the strictest sense. Even the Romans knew that and took advantage of it. Gladiator sweat was bottled and sold as an aphrodisiac. Pillaging and looting, and raping and abducting females was a side effect of it, considered as a benefit. The difference between a civilian corporation and the military is that in the civilian world, misconduct toward a co-worker will get someone fired. I’ve seen that happen three times. IBM tried to fire a female programmer because she was dating a programmer who had left IBM for another company. Trade secrets were at stake, y’know, so it was viewed in the same light as the Profumo/Keeler affair, which was actually worse because Keeler was dating a Russian guy when she wasn’t banging Profumo. It almost brought the Brit government to its knees. I think you can understand that kind of issue. Combat elevates hormones of all kinds, as does isolation and being moved from one place to another, like band camp or summer camp. It doesn’t help if you’re a victim of your own raging hormones, either. So what to do? Well, if the parents haven’t instilled a sense of morality about sex in their kids, is it the military’s responsibility to do so? From all I’ve seen, the so-called SHARP programs are as worthless as a three dollar bill, but these weren’t something anyone had to sit through in them there Olden Times. I realize this LTCOL was the supervisor for this bunch of raggeyd-ass horndogs and hornbitches, and he’s being held responsible for their misbehavior. I get that. The fact is that their ‘misbehavior’ is normal but there is a massive lack of self-discipline in the ranks. That is what needs to be looked at. A recent news report is that 18-year-olds coming out of high school have the emotional and mental maturity of 15-year-olds. That’s not a good sign. I don’t know if the answer is to separate the humping bunnies from each other or get… Read more »
I’m going to take a stab that it had something to do with their accusations being swept under the rug, or not being given the due diligence they deserved.
As soon as a trainee reports an incident or accusation to Cadre, the chain of command, Chaplain, etc., the accused should be immediately removed from being involved with training until further investigation determines whether an official investigation and/or courses of action should be taken.
It could be something else, but that’s my guess.
I suppose that the only way to put this in its proper perspective is to let me have a six-week stint as the SHARP instructor. If I can’t scare the crap out of the teens and the O-gangers who want to get laid, then I’ll revise my presentation until I have them sweating bullets right in front of me.
The name Robert Howard is so legendary in U.S. Army combat arms. The ultimate BAMF – well, eh..not this guy.
2/58 was my battalion for Basic and AIT back in the day. Er, nice to see it in the news, sort of?