Gen. Kurt W. Stein on administrative leave for remarks
The Marine Corps Times reports that Marine Brigadier General Kurt W. Stein has been placed on administrative leave for remarks he made during a town hall discussion on April 6. An anonymous snowflake made a complaint to Naval Criminal Investigative Service;
USA Today reported that Stein was suspended for publicly ridiculing as ‘fake news’ “allegations of sexual harassment at his command” and also joking “about a chaplain recently fired for having sex in public.“
From USAToday;
The Marine Corps on Tuesday suspended a general who publicly ridiculed as “fake news” allegations of sexual harassment at his command and also joked about a chaplain recently fired for having sex in public, USA TODAY has learned.
Brig. Gen. Kurt Stein, director of Marine and Family Programs, made the remarks April 6 before an audience estimated at hundreds of civilian employees and Marines at their base in Quantico, Va., according to three people who attended the all-hands meeting last week. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they said they feared retaliation.
The Marine Corps Times, again;
The allegations that Stein disparaged, first reported by USA TODAY in February, involved two civilian employees who said a Marine officer had made several sexual overtures to them. The allegations initially were deemed unfounded, but the Marine Corps Commandant, Gen. Robert Neller, ordered a new investigation of the claims in March.
Category: Marine Corps
This back channel reporting bullshit is ricockulous. It gives these weak minded individuals (Remember when that was a bad word in the service?) a sense of power over their superiors.
Does it smell like fascism to anyone else? Turn in your neighbor, friend, or boss, or family in the name of the fatherland. In this case, it would be in the name PC culture.
Nobody has a sense of humor on the left. No matter the outcome here, his second star isn’t coming.
Judging by his resume, he’s checked all the boxes for a great career. http://www.militaryonesource.mil/-/brigadier-general-kurt-w-stein
USMCR C-130 pilot.
Well, there you go: pilot. Other peoples’ limits are usually their starting points. He should not have joked with assholes present.
“That’s right, Ice Man, I am dangerous.” –Maverick (not to quote Top Gun too much of anything)
I’m curious what makes you think this ‘snowflake’ is on the Left? Maybe I’m misreading things, but it seems these remarks were made at a meeting on post. How many Lefties work on Marine bases?
My guess is that while the allegations (from two civilian employees) were deemed unfounded, someone knows the people involved and thinks there was something to them, and hearing a general be dismissive of a sexual assault that you believe to be true is gonna warrant a complaint.
The guy sounds like an excellent Marine, and hopefully he gets reinstated, but mocking allegations of sexual assault to a crowd of people that probably includes friends of those making the allegations is a dumb move. Learn from it, and move forward.
I’m making an assumption. There are a lot of left leaning folks on and around a military base. Government (union) contractors, dependents, and just your regular feels good to be a bleeding heart types.
I’ll agree that joking about sexual assault is probably not wise, but nothing is quoted here. So there is not only no record of exactly what was said, but no context.
GOs are usually (but not always as recent examples show) more self aware and self preservationist to not make off color comments. If I had to guess, I’d say he was going out there talking to what in his mind was a military crowd and used language and/or examples that civilians took as offensive.
Fair enough. While I agree there are left-leaning folks on military bases, they seem to be in the minority of all the ones I’ve been on. And sure, while all it takes is one asshole to complain about shit, frankly I’m sure anyone who works on such a base hears far worse all the time.
So given the choice of someone working hard on a military base while secretly looking for ways to sink a clearly well-accomplished general or it just being someone has a personal connection to one of the accusers, I’m leaning towards the second. Not a political thing, just a don’t-say-stupid-shit thing.
I’ve known people who’ve dealt with sexual assault (to varying degrees). Random people joking about sexual shit certainly doesn’t bother me in the least. But if one of the people responsible for assault on a friend of mine started joking about that incident, you better believe I’d not take that too kindly. I’m inclined to think most here are the same.
Without knowing what was said and the context, we’re all just spitballing. Depending on who the civilians are, they may have heard worse. Most of the civil service types on the base I served at were prior service and got down and dirty with the troops. Usually even dirtier since they were the “old school” types. Now if you’re addressing a crowd of civilians at a VA clinic, you should tailor your message accordingly.
It does say he made a joke in reference to (so far) unsubstantiated accusations of sexual harassment. That could literally be anything from “Keep it in your pants, guys. Be professionals.” To actually making a “joke” like “When you go to Colonel Klink’s office, be sure to record it. We all know how handsy he gets.”
let’s take your questions in order:
1. Literally hundreds of civilian marines are lefty SJW types begging for their opportunity to report any words, actions, colors, or sounds they do not approve. In fact, the DoD civil service is essentially a lefty jobs program.
2. Your guess is probably not only wrong, but naive. When complaints concerning a GO/FO come up, the only acceptable outcome is a scalp.
3. The truth is revolutionary and it includes two items: first, women lie about this issue: two, the media lies about point one. While speaking the truth on this issue is career suicide, it is only so because cry babies can not deal with truth.
“In fact, the DoD civil service is essentially a lefty jobs program.”
I’d be careful with that assessment. The DoD civil service is often a second career for vets (IIRC ~50+% have some prior service) and most would take offense to being called a lefty.
The other 50% would be proud?
;P
Wrong on the civil service being a lefty jobs program; at least for the base I work at.
Another snowflake writhes its hands in glee thinking it pissed on some Warrior’s career.
Yep. And as an anonymous “please don’t tell anyone my name” source…..No one has to verify the information but the head shed has to take action anyway.
“We don’t know who made the complaint but here it is” bullshit.
Its disgusting. I hope the GEN pulls out of it ok
Yep.
“Two civilian employees”. Fuck ’em! They should have NO say in what happens in the military and in my opinion should not be at such briefings.
Fucking snowflake, liberal cum stains anyway. Always looking for any opportunity to be offended and degrade our military, our nation or a good man or woman serving them.
Either read out their names publicly as the General’s has been, or call bullshit on these anonymous reporter types and tell them to shut the fuck up and go sit in the corner and touch each other if they don’t have the guts to stand by their accusation.
“The allegations that Stein disparaged, first reported by USA TODAY in February, involved two civilian employees who said a Marine officer had made several sexual overtures to them.”
I do not like conclusory language in reporting. First we were told he publicly ridiculed the complaints and then we are told that he disparaged the complaints. What did he say? I dunno. All we are given is conclusions by the reporter. As for the complaints of “sexual overtures,” I wonder what form the overtures reportedly took. Were they, “Would you let me buy you dinner Friday?” or “Hey, wanna screw?” This shit has gotten out of hand, so to speak. Widdle feewings get hurt and someone gets burned. Cripes.
Wait, a Marine made sexual overtures to women? I’m shocked! Just plain Shocked!
Well—————Bye!
Down here in south Florida “Snowflakes” are “SnowBirds” that come down to their condos for the winter plus a number of times during the year instead of just during the winter. Of course, we do have Snowflakes/Snowbirds that are also THEE other “Snowflakes” as in the above comments.
General or not cut that hair.
Three issues
1) 2 civilians complained about an unnamed officer’s actions. The general is in charge of that investigation.As such he should not even comment until it is over.
2) Beside making a couple of relatively innocuous jokes, he apparently stepped on toes big-time. Another article said investigators found that 70 out of the 120 present reported being offended. Even assuming some snowflakes, sounds like a bad night.
3) Generals have to be politicians. Sounds like this one let his hair down st the wrong time. Judging by over 100 combat missions, he will be missed…but he needs to retire now.
Looks like we lost a C-130 Pilot. If we are lucky a certain Compass Call Desert Storm veteran C-130 Pilot will be pardoned and released from Tarrant County Jail to fill the billet.
I’ve read all your POVs. The issue is that the GEN did not zip his lips when he should have.
Gross jokes in private aren’t acceptable in public arenas EVER.
I don’t care what else LBJ did, he kept his yap shut in public.
It’s worse when the general audience has snotnosed snowflakes in the mix and they have been trained since diaper days to report anything and everything, period, even if it has nothing to do with them personally. They have also been trained to misunderstand and/or misinterpret slang, innuendo, and stupid remarks. Everything is sexist, racist, too conservative, too whatever, and they do not have the chops to deal with it like grownups because they are NOT grownups. They may never be grownups.
Taking that into consideration, making a crass joke about a chaplain porking someone in public is grossly inappropriate, worse if it’s recorded some place. GEN knew the rules and ignored them, at his peril. Now he’s most likely out of a job.
What YOU think is funny may be funny in the company of your cohorts, but in another setting, it’s just plain stupid.
And then there’s that old saw about “some people would complain if they were hung with a brand new rope.”
In my experience, Marines always opened a meeting, class, or stand-down with a joke to relax everyone and soften some of the barriers inherent in the rank structure, etc, etc. Of course, there were exceptions; when the event concerned a death, criminal act or other serious situations you just wouldn’t start with a joke. Period. Hell, that was part of my training at The Basic School. Everyone got a topic to present as a formal brief and you had to have an attention-getter (joke, story, or something) to focus the audience. The joke was supposed to relevant to the topic. We were critiqued on everything including your opening. Sexual, racial and tasteless jokes earned a personal interview with the Company Commander.
But, the “Joke Ship” sailed sometime in the late 80s by my estimation. Things were getting dicey for joke tellers even then. By the late 90s I never heard much in the way of jokes in formal group settings and I’m surprised this is a problem 30+ years later when virtually everyone can be offended about something.
I haven’t heard the specific language, but I can’t imagine anything funny that could be said about sexual harassment or the Chaplain’s public sex act in that situation.
Stupid.
Snowflakes are becoming increasingly deadly.
At some point, they become wet blankets.
I guess it is just a matter of who was around. I once told a SES (retired Marine aviation operations guy) an off color joke in front of the agency chief counsel and everyone laughed. I am still employed.
The joke?
Why does the Navy allow Marines on ships?
(SES hilariously answered “so you had someone to dance with”)
I said no, because sheep are way to obvious.
I am guess that might have gotten a GO fired too =P
The Director of Marine and Family Programs is being censured for some off color remarks – eluding to making jokes about sexual harassment?
I’ll go out on a limb and say he was shit-canned because the directorate he’s in charge of includes programs such as community counseling, family and victim advocacy (i.e. domestic abuse, sexual assault and child neglect/abuse), and his comments didn’t align to the programs he’s supposed to administer.
The Corps takes that shit pretty seriously