Marine Brig. Gen. Rick A. Uribe mistreated staff in Iraq

| July 6, 2018

According to Stars & Stripes, Marine Brigadier General Rick A. Uribe took advantage of his staff while he was was the senior ranking Marine, deputy commanding general for operations in Baghdad and director of the Combined Joint Operations Center in as part of the anti-ISIS coalition from 2016-2017.

Marine Brig. Gen. Rick A. Uribe — who had served previously as the inspector general of the Marine Corps — often had his aide pick up his laundry, deliver his meals, write his unofficial correspondence and stand by gym equipment he wanted to use to make sure no one else could use it, the Pentagon IG said in a report.

Uribe also let his aide pay for his haircuts, borrowed cash and used Wi-Fi access she paid for without reimbursing her, the report found.

If it’s true, that was pretty shitty of him. Real leaders don’t take advantage of their subordinates like that.

But days after he returned to the U.S. from Iraq in June 2017, a Defense Department hotline complaint alleged that during the course of the one-year deployment, his aide’s “entire existence as aide-de-camp centered on personal servitude.”

His defense was that he had never been a general or had an aide before;

The aide, who is unnamed in the report, told investigators she had told him, “I’m doing a lot more stuff like your personal type of items. Like, that’s not my job as an aide.”

To which she said Uribe replied only, “Understood.”

Some of those personal services included stripping the sheets from the general’s bed and turning them in to be cleaned, as well as spending hours arranging to have his prescription toothpaste shipped to Iraq. The aide also alleged that he hoarded about $150 in chocolates and coffee sent to him by a lieutenant colonel.

Oh, well, there’s coffee and chocolate involved – totally legit.

Category: Marine Corps

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sj

In the Army new GO’s go to a school that covers a lot of things, including what Aides can/cannot be expected to do. My boss (3 star) viewed it as training opportunity for a young officer (CPT) to see what went on at Flag level in the decision making process. I sat in on almost every meeting, including very sensitive ones. I was almost always asked my opinion, from a CPT perspective of issues. I was never asked to do “personal service”. I even had a joint checking account with him so that I could pay his BOQ bills when checking both of us out on TDY.

This guy had to know better, with or without the charm school class. Its leadership. Its common sense.

O-4E

I’ve also never seen an Army GO that hadn’t been an Aide at some point in their career. That’s pretty much a common thread in every GO’s bio I’ve ever seen.

One of my old bosses (when he was a Lieutenant Colonel and I was a Captain) who is now a 2 star told me a good story about his first day at “charm school”

A four star came in to give the first briefing…

“Congratulations. You made it! But keep in mind. We could load all of you on a C-130. Crash it into the ocean. And there are are dozens of equally qualified Colonels ready to take your place…”

Kind of puts it into perspective

CCO

Every now and then, maybe get the boss out of jam—I guess USMC doesn’t have a batman for general officers like the British Royal Army did*—but all the time? Probably not why the Marine Corps gave you an aide.

*Mostly got that from Dalton Abbey even though the Earl had been a colonel, I think.

100E

I had to put down because of weather at a British base in Northern Germany once. They put me up in the visiting officers quarters above the O. Mess.
After dinner, which all the British officers dressed for, the ‘Batman’ asked me “what time would you like to be knocked up, and do you want coffee, or tea”? I slept on my back that night! Promptly at 5 AM, the time I gave him, there were 2 loud raps on my door, and in marched a Corporal with my coffee.

Roger in Republic

After surviving a harrowing mission over Germany the crew of a damaged B-17 was able to crash land on a British air field. The Brits took them in, fed them, and put them up for the night. The bombardier who related the story said that when he awoke the next morning his shoes were missing from his room. He was angry and hurt, “What kind of guy would steal a man’s shoes while he slept. He was on his way to raise hell with his hosts, when in his stocking feet he emerged from his room to find his scuffed and muddy GI shoes outside his room, freshly shined to a high gloss. A Batman did it while he slept.

Cobrakai99

Random movie trivia about batman. Peter Ustinov was David Niven’s batman in World War II. They were both then in Death on the Nile.

Ret_25X

Promote toxic fucks, get toxic generals.

SFC D

Here ended the lesson. It really is that simple.

Some Guy
Ex-PH2

Is this a symptom of spoiled brat syndrome, or am I reading too much into it?

M1 Hound

Do you mean on the part of the aide or the star? I have had two different assignments to work directly with BG’s and found one a totally arrogant, fucking ass hole and the other a quite decent man with proper military bearing and common human decency never mistreating those under his command. I experienced a couple other Brigs and found that they were the meanest, most difficult officers I had the unfortunate displeasure to meet. One man I was assigned to in a bunker in Korea in 1968 was a great leader, a man I would follow from Korea to Vietnam. My job was as his S-2 NCO and duties included everything “classified documents” related, including writing reports from field notes, classified documents coming into the message center, being accountable for storage and destruction. Additionally, I guess because we got along and I had great respect for him I was also his driver, RTO and more but nothing untoward – ever. It is interesting the United States Military is able to produce two officers at the O-7 that could not be as different as the east is from the west.

Green Thumb

Interesting take.

RAH

It’s out of character. I knew him as an O-3 KC-130 pilot and there was no hint of it in him then. Of course, this was back in 2001. Something to be said for stars on one’s shoulder going to his head.

A Proud Infidel®™️

That’s just kind of fucked up.

Garold

One of my daughters was offered the position of being a General’s aide; something that made me extremely proud of her for. She almost took the offer but she and her husband wanted to start a family so she left the service. After reading what aides may be required to do I’m certain she made the correct decision.

sj

I’ll geeze for a moment awaiting the WOT. When we were at AMC commanders conferences us Aides would often have adult beverages together and trade stories. In that era no one experienced personal services and found the experience to be enlightening. I learned I didn’t want to be a GO (not that I ever would be) because you’re always being watched and this was in the 70’s.

Sometime’s its not the GO that is the blame. We took weekly trips to a subordinate command. I noticed that the AVN folks always sent a Huey for 2 of us. I asked the CO why he didn’t send a LOH with its one crew member, the pilot? He said the General didn’t like the LOH. Oh. So one day in the car I asked why he didn’t like a LOH? His response was he had no problem with a LOH. So next time I asked the CO to send a LOH. The boss loved riding up front and chatting with the pilot. Turns out it was my predecessor that didn’t like them and used the Gen’s name.

One last geeze: I had been on Post for a year at school so I had some gripes about the Post from an O3’s perspective. I had a list of them in my notebook and worked my way through most of them during my tour in casual conversation in the car. The Post CSM contributed to my list too. I got a lot of them changed since he was also the Post CG (Ft Monmouth). The best one was when one of the sub commands and a contractor brought a proposed new squad radio in to show him. All the GO’s and COLs were ecstatic over it. It got passed around the conf room. When it got to me I messed with it like Snuffy would in a listening post foxhole and broke the antenna off. There was a huge gasp. The boss laughed and ended the meeting. That ended that radio. Geeze out.

Garold

You must have been one polished dude, SJ, to have even been offered such a job. Good for you and thanks for the insights.

My daughter was polished as well. She was stationed at Vandenburg at the time and responsible for all the incoming officers; usually butter bars.

One time a new bunch were in-processing when a Command Chief came by. He looked them all up and down and exclaimed “You all look like a bunch of bags of trash! You are supposed to be the examples yet this Senior Airman has to show you how you are supposed to look!”

I cracked up when she told me that story. She’d also been coined by a few Generals for her professional bearing.

sj

Hardly “polished” Garold. Claw and 3/17 will attest to that. Just in the right place at the right time. Luck is better than talent!

Garold

Yep, I was rarely “polished” myself. I liked to be on the edge and get away with the rope given me quite often. I had a commander, my last, I was not real pleased with. One time I had my blouse off and my t-shirt not tucked in. He informed me I was out of uniform. My response – “Yeah, Ack, but I’m really, really close.”

He didn’t find it funny.

Another time he came into the office of a co-worker and announced he was in a bad mood.

My response – “We figured that Ack, so we’ve hired a clown to come in and do magic tricks for you.”

Steam came out of his ears and I just laughed.

Alemaster

I spent a lot of years as an OSA pilot, fixed and rotary-wing, flying GOs/FOs/DVs. During that time I heard a lot of “The General wants” and usually believed it was really what the dog robber wanted or thought that The General wanted. Most of the senior pax were really pleasant to the crew, A-d-C, often not so much. Many Aides couldn’t understand that our job was to make the Aide look good. regards, Alemaster

sj

I broke that code before stepping on my crank. Gets real tense in the car at the helipad when the bird isn’t there when it is supposed to be. Every time it was a legitimate mechanical or ATC issue but I figured out that the Det CO could make my life miserable should I give him reason. He actually loved me after the LOH incident since he didn’t have to have 3-4 man crews all the time.

Alemaster

I really enjoyed working with the good Aides-de-Camp. It was fun making their lives just a wee bit easier; all they had to do was tell me what they needed, aviation wise, and let me do that hard part. Tell me what time you wanted to go and I’d be there 30 minutes early, don’t pad the takeoff time. Same for arrival, just let me know when you wanted to be “there.” Nothings better than an uneventful flight. regards, Alemaster

SFC D

That’s the proper test for a field radio. It’ll obviously function in the field or it wouldn’t have gotten that far. The big test is “is it Soldier proof”. It has to survive (1) idiots and (2) Signal Corps Soldiers with 5 weeks of school that “know how to make it work better”. It can occasionally be the same person.

Deplorable B Woodman

Hey! I was Sig Corps! Watch it there, bub!
When I was in, I supported the Infantry and Treadheads at different times. So our thing was, “if you want to test it, give it to the grunts or the DATs”, and, “you can never make anything foolproof, fools are too ingenious”.

A Proud Infidel®™

Every time someone thinks they’ve come up with something that’s idiot-proof, this world produces a higher grade idiot!

sj

Well, as a career Signal Corps officer, mostly tactical in the 82/101 in my company grade days, I have a slightly different take. As I learned later in my career, the Army has rigid Developmental Testing (DT) and Operational Testing (OT) procedures. In my LT days I was frustrated that I could buy radios in Radio Shack that did the job, and more, and, for sure, they cost a lot less. But then Snuffy (Carl in today’s world) enters in. Not to disparage Snuffy. He is sent on a listening post and told to stay there and listen for hours on end in a cold foggy world on the front lines. He is bored. He fondles his radio. He messes with it like his girlfriends left boob. And he still has an hour left on his watch. He does stuff to that radio that no egghead engineer at Ft Monmouth or Motorola ever imagined a Soldier would ever think about, much less, do.

God bless the American Soldier. It is the responsibility of the acquisition (incl testing) community to give them what they need to accomplish their mission.

Snuffy WILL do things to his equipment that no egghead ever imagined.

Oh, by the way, the American Soldier will ALSO take an item of equipment and make it do shit, in a good way, that no engineer ever imagined.

Hack Stone

Hack was on a CAX out at Camp Wilson a few decades ago, goes into a Comm tent, and sees some Radio Breaker (2531) resting his fat ass on the face of a piece of crypto gear. Hack quickly schooled the miscreant that crypto gear is not a field expedient chair.

Several years back, Hack worked as a contractor down at Quantico. Hack assumed the duty of care taking of the VTC rooms, and some external customers were using one of the VTC rooms. The rooms had long tables that would fold down, then you could roll them away. Quite a few got fucked up by people sitting on the tables. Anyway, Hack goes in there, and some idiot government guy is sitting on the table while jawjacking with his companions. Hack says to him “Excuse me, but don’t sit on the tables.” He responds with “I’m not that heavy.” Hack responds with “If you need to sit down, we have forty chairs in this room, feel free to use one.”

timactual

Those rigid testing procedures must have been developed after the handset for the PRC-25 was produced. We had a chronic shortage because the little piece of plastic/cellophane covering the microphone always seemed to leak, shorting it out.

Sparks

“His defense was that he had never been a general or had an aide before;”

Well he’s just too stupid to be a GO then. Because there is no way he became a one without following close behind many GO before him and watching their behaviors.

USMCMSgt (Ret)

^^^ EXACTLY!

He deserves to be punted.

USMCMSgt (Ret)

(Punted AFTER the Corps un-frocks (de-frocks?) his dumb ass)…

SgtM

What about when enlisted are made to serve officers in the officer mess on board a ship. Shovel your own slop or stand in line and get it plopped on a tray like the rest of us.

sj

Imagine my surprise as a new 2LT at Bragg when I learned that the officers ate last (to provide incentive for the mess Sgt to make sure he cooked enough and kept it hot). Good idea plus it provided a chance to BS with the troopers in a casual setting to do a morale check.

Perry Gaskill

Having enlisted eat first apparently goes back a long time. During the Civil War, a Union General, it might have been Phil Sheridan, was asked the secret of his success.

“Feed your horses. Feed your men. Then feed yourself,” he said.

Mason

I know of at least one USAFR unit that lost those messages. Nothing like standing in a line of hundreds at a field kitchen on bivouac to see the officers show up and push themselves into the front of the line. This was the only time I saw officers lead from the front. 😉

timactual

At least they got in line themselves. Our officers had their meals brought to them.

rgr769

The principle or standard of officers eating last was explained to me as a 2LT infantry officer by my first sergeant the first time we had chow in the field. The idea is that the officers will make do with what is left, in case there is a shortage of rations. This standard exists in the British Army as well. Also, in the British Army, officers are assigned daily to eat in the mess hall to verify that the quality of the meals is being maintained.

Hack Stone

Hack had to pull OOD at 7th Comm. OOD was required to eat in the chow hall, and to randomly ask Marines how they enjoyed the meal and if they had any suggestions for improvement. One Marine commented that he wish the chow hall had fresher vegetables. So the next day, Hack is being relieved by the oncoming OOD in the Sgt Maj’s office. The Marine’s comment is brought up when the Sgt Maj asks about the chow hall, and he goes off “Does he think that we are Camp Pendleton? We don’t have vegetable farms surrounding us. Blah, blah, blah.” If you are going to erupt every time a Marine responds with his opinion when you ask him, then don’t ask him.

AW1Ed

RHIP, SgtM, but for the best chow on the ship, wrangle an invite to the Goat Locker. You’ll be amazed.

ChipNASA

often had his aide pick up his laundry, deliver his meals, write his unofficial correspondence and stand by gym equipment he wanted to use to make sure no one else could use it, the Pentagon IG said in a report.

Uribe also let his aide pay for his haircuts, borrowed cash and used Wi-Fi access she paid for without reimbursing her, the report found.

“I’m doing a lot more stuff like your personal type of items. Like, that’s not my job as an aide.”

To which she said Uribe replied only, “Understood.”

Some of those personal services included stripping the sheets from the general’s bed and turning them in to be cleaned, as well as spending hours arranging to have his prescription toothpaste shipped to Iraq. The aide also alleged that he hoarded about $150 in chocolates and coffee sent to him by a lieutenant colonel.

/not aide, not personal servant, MAID.
//she’s lucky the General didn’t issue her knee pads.

Ex-PH2

Knee pads? He’d have made her pay for them, ChipNASA!

Martinjmpr

Wait, so you’re telling me a senior military officer acted like an entitled prick and demanded that his ass be kissed by his subordinates? That he acted like rules were for “lesser” people and did as he pleased because there was nobody around of higher rank to stop him?

I’m shocked. SHOCKED I SAY!!!!

Next you’ll be telling that snow is cold.

And BTW, before someone says it, yes, I know that not every senior military officer is an arrogant prick. But it’s kind of like what they say about lawyers – it’s the 99% that give the other 1% a bad name.

timactual

It’s nice to know that it’s not just the Army that has such “officers”. Petty larceny and hoarding and lying about it. Somehow I don’t think this behavior started when he was “frocked”. I will bet there are a number of former subordinates with similar stories to tell, going back to when he was on O-1.

Hack Stone

Are you talking about the General or Hillary Clinton in that first paragraph?

Club Manager, USA ret.

As an admin NCO in three major HQ’s then a club manager, I was exposed to a lot of GO/FO’s, many in the 4 star arena and I worked with their officer aides. I used to jokingly refer to them as “Go-for de camps” and not one disputed the slang. The CINCPACAF at Hickam had NCO aides at this quarters who handled cooking and chores. No reason an aide should have to stand by gym equipment, all it would have taken was a word to the appropriate NCOIC. This guy abused his power and I am frankly surprised the female aide was not called upon to perform bedroom services.

Mick

KC-130 pilot with a Purple Heart and a CAR. CO VMGR-352. CO MAG-11. 1st ANGLICO detachment commander with the 13th MEU(SOC). Forward Air Controller with 1st MARDIV in Al Anbar Province in Iraq.

Marine KC-130 pilots rarely make it into the USMC General Officer ranks, and by all accounts this guy was was “going places”.

Not anymore.

He should have known better than to let any of this happen.

USMCMSgt (Ret)

General Amos comes to mind when I think of shitbag officer/aviators who made it though the flag officer promotion system, only to fuck things up.

Hopefully the Corps will rid itself of this clown before he can do any more damage.

2/17 Air Cav

“He said he trusted his aide to tell him if he was asking her to do something improper.”

The guy is a lousy liar. He knew damn well that what he was doing was 100% unethical. He is also a weasel, trying to shift his responsibility and duty to a subordinate, the very person he took advantage of. That’s what pisses me off about this more than any other aspect. After all, princes gotta prince. But this one needs his ass kicked.

HMC Ret

The entitlement is huge in this one.

Forest Green

This is light weight compared to some of the shit I saw going on with GOs and Aides, and no I’m not going to repeat any of it. Still makes me sick to think about it. Suffice it to say their are some really dumb-ass GOs out there. Fortunately, a small minority.

Steve Weeks

I was a office aid to a Lt. General James Lambert on Okinawa in 1971. I was a Spec. 5. I took care of the coffee pot, the mail, I polished boots, I cut grass and kept notes on his inspections, was his driver on several trips. Took care of his appointments ects. I was glade to do it as his job was way more important then mine. Plus He also took good care of me.

MrBill

“When asked for comment, Uribe referred this reporter to his attorney, Scott Pruitt.”

FatCircles0311

I always though that is what general aides do. Being a bitch for brass shouldn’t be a real thing.

Green Thumb

Aid-de-Camp = Bitch.

And you know it walking in the door….

m0311

Big shocker. Most people below E-5 in the military are mistreated on a daily basis.

Hack Stone

Hack was stationed at 2nd Maintenance Battalion way back in the day. He got picked to fly down with the Commander of 2nd Marine Division to the port in Jacksonville Florida to inspect the combat gear from the cargo ships that float around waiting on the next crisis. He gets in the van at Division HQ, and we head to the General’s house. He gets into the van, and his Aide is standing on the sidewalk. He says to the Aide “I’ll be back late tonight. Be sure to walk my dog.” Four years of college, TBS and commissioned an officer in the Marine Corps, and you end up walking a dog.

spd0302

Hack you’ll like this one. Being a prior enlisted Lance Criminal, then off to college and back to OCS, I was driving down to TBS in January 96 from my parents home in NYC. The northeast had a huge snow storm and Stafford, VA got hit hard too. My whole careful drive down I was thinking how great it was that I would have no more working parties, police call, field day etc. Yeah, how wrong I was.
Make it to TBS, check in with S-1, notice a bunch of people in cammies shoveling snow as I make my way to report to my SPC, and think “Man it sucks to be them.”
So I check in with Captain Chambers. Get my room assignment, and was told to drop my shit off get in cammies and grab a shovel as it was my platoon shoveling out at the grinder. He saw the look on my face and said something along the lines of “yeah, remember he average rank on Quantico is Major and 2nd Lt’s are a dime a dozen, keep warm out there.” It was actually a great lesson, and my hubris was put in check pretty quickly.