Military Resistance 10K7
“I Have Lost All Respect For The Senior Officers”
“I Firmly Believe We Are Promoting Politicians Instead Of Real Leaders”
“The Senior Officers Are Willing To Lower The Standards To Ensure Their Buddies Are Not Accountable For Their Actions”
Letters To The Editor
Army Times
November 12,2012
Once again, it appears the senior leaders in the Army are looking out for their buddies.
I agree with “Ashamed of officer corps” (Oct. 22).
The senior officers are willing to lower the standards to ensure their buddies are not accountable for their actions.
I have lost all respect for the senior officers, after watching many of them conduct themselves in an unprofessional manner on multiple occasions over the past 10 years.
General officers and colonels are into the mode of “I am something special and, therefore, I can do whatever I want because my buddies will take care of me.” Junior officers watch this behavior and follow the direction of their “leaders.”
I firmly believe we are promoting politicians instead of real leaders.
A leader stands up for what is right, not what is convenient. General officers and colonels who act in an illegal and/or unethical manner should be reduced to E-1 and given a dishonorable discharge.
I have been on court-martial boards that have done the same to sergeants for much less.
Eventually, the senior personnel (I have a difficult time thinking of them as leaders) will need to start enforcing the standards on their buddies that they require from the junior officers and enlisted.
Lt. Col. Richard Smith (ret.)
Elizabeth, Colo.
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“Lower-Ranking Solders Are Routinely Court-Martialed, Fined And Often Jailed For Lesser Offenses”
Letters To The Editor
Army Times
November 12,2012
It appears the values and principles found in today’s “modern Army” have become all too apparent.
A four-star officer repeatedly misappropriates hundreds of thousands of dollars; misuses military equipment to personally benefit himself and his family; violates the trust of his office and his oath not to lie, cheat or steal; and his supervisors excuse his behavior with such phrases as “I’ve never heard of a private getting fined a million dollars” (Gen. Ray Odierno, Association of the United States Army conference).
That’s perhaps the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard from a soldier of any grade and office.
The general was placed in that highly responsible, highly accountable position because he was believed to be trustworthy — more so than an Army private. Lower-ranking solders are routinely court-martialed, fined and often jailed for lesser offenses.
Lt. Col. Joseph M. Gravish (ret.)
St. Louis
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Marine Corps Base Hawaii Commander Relieved Of Duty “Due To A Lack Of Confidence”
Oct 19, 2011 By Associated Press
The commander of Marine Corps Base Hawaii has been relieved.
Marine Corps Installations Pacific commander Maj. Gen. Peter Talleri relieved Col. Jeffrey R. Woods today due to a lack of confidence.
Marine Corps Forces Pacific spokesman Lt. Col. Curtis Hill said in an emailed statement that the specific circumstances of the relief are a private matter protected by the Privacy Act and aren’t releasable to the public.
Woods is being replaced by interim commanding officer Lt. Col. Michael P. Antonio, who has served as the base’s director of operations and training.
Marine Corps Base Hawaii includes installations at Kaneohe Bay and Camp H.M. Smith, where the U.S. Pacific Command is located.
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Submarine Commander Faked Own Death to Escape Lover:
“As Punishment, Ward Received The Punitive Letter Of Reprimand And Has Been Relegated To Administrative Duties”
Cmdr. Michael P. Ward II salutes at an Aug. 3 ceremony before taking command of the U.S.S. Pittsburgh. Photo: Navy
September 20, 2012 By Robert Beckhusen, Wired.com [Excerpts]
Ending a romantic affair by faking your own death is usually a bad idea for — I don’t know — everyone.
What’s an even worse idea?
Faking your own death weeks before taking command of the Navy’s nuclear submarine U.S.S. Pittsburgh.
Now you can read the Navy’s internal report that tells the sordid story.
On Sept. 5, Navy Cmdr. Michael P. Ward II was found guilty of conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman, dereliction of duty and adultery (an offense in the uniformed services) after staging his death to deceive a younger lover with whom he was having an affair, according to a Navy investigative report obtained by Danger Room through a Freedom of Information Act request.
As punishment, Ward received the punitive letter of reprimand and has been relegated to administrative duties at Naval Submarine Base New London, the home port of the Pittsburgh.
The Navy wouldn’t comment on whether or not Ward will be kicked out of the service. But the 43-year-old former submarine commander’s naval career is now more or less over.
“Commander Ward’s dishonesty and deception in developing, maintaining, and attempting to end his inappropriate relationship … were egregious and are not consistent with our Navy’s expectations of a commissioned officer,” Capt. Vernon Parks, the head of Submarine Development Squadron 12, wrote in the report.
The story, first reported by the Connecticut newspaper The Day, began last October, when Ward met a 23-year-old woman from Virginia — whose name was redacted from the report — on a dating website.
They began to have an affair. Ward was married and had children, but didn’t reveal that to his mistress.
At the time, Ward worked for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the two saw each other when he came down for classes at the Joint Forces Staff College.
He also communicated with her over e-mail using the phony name “Tony Moore,” and falsely told her he was a special forces operator.
In June, Ward apparently wanted out of the affair.
So he — in a striking further display of bad judgement — concocted another false identity, this time a supposed friend named “Bob,” and sent an e-mail telling his mistress that he had died, according to the report.
“He asked me to contact you if this ever happened,” the e-mail said, according to The Day. “I am extremely sorry to tell you that he is gone. We tried everything we could to save him. I cannot say more. I am sorry it has to be this way.”
Three days later, the woman drove from her home in Chesapeake to Ward’s house in Burke, Virginia to pay her respects.
Instead, she was greeted by a new owner who told the family that Ward “had not actually died, but rather had moved to Connecticut to take command of a U.S. Navy submarine,” the report said.
Then, Ward learned his former lover was pregnant.
He resumed contact — after he faked his death.
In late July, Ward traveled to Washington D.C. for a medical appointment and met with her to discuss “how to handle the pregnancy.” She then lost the baby due to complications and the illicit relationship came to an end. But the ex-couple kept up contact which the Navy believes impaired “his ability to take full responsibility” for the sailors under his command.
The Navy didn’t find out, though, until a relative of Ward’s ex-mistress got in touch with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). Ward was then booted from his post one week after taking command of the Pittsburgh.
“Cmdr. Ward’s actions directly contradict Navy standards, especially the high standards of conduct expected of our commanding officers,” says Lt. Cmdr. Jennifer Cragg, a spokeswoman for the submarine group. “Leaders who fail to meet these standards, like Cmdr. Ward, are removed from leadership positions and referred for appropriate disciplinary or administrative action.”
It’s an exceptionally awful story, and frankly bizarre.
Ward appears to be the seventeenth Navy commander relieved of duty in 2012, according to the Navy.
It’s more than the 13 commanders cashiered in all of 2010, but short of the 23 commanders fired last year and still down from a record high of 26 sacked officers in 2003.
Among 2012′s cashiered commanders include officers fired for falsifying administrative records (Cmdr. Corrine Parker, April 16); “inappropriate personal behavior” (Capt. Jeffrey Riedel, program manager of the Littoral Combat ship program, January 27); and creating “a poor command climate” (Cmdr. Dennis Klein, May 1).
In June, the Navy sacked Capt. Chuck Litchfield of the U.S.S. Essex amphibious assault ship after the ship collided with an oiler off the California coast.
Most of the firings, though, involved “personal misconduct,” with the true nature of the offenses left undefined.
But Ward’s misconduct, we now know, was one of the more extreme cases — one that involved manipulating loved ones for the sake of a career now in tatters.
It was also one of the most idiotic.
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Commander Relieved For Violating Entire UCMJ:
“If Dismissed, Grant Will Most Likely Move On To Accept One Of Dozens Of Job Offers Already Extended To Him By Private Companies, Think Tanks, And Foreign Governments”
“Grant’s Enlisted Driver, Sergeant Adrian Green, Has Been Charged As An Accessory”
“Green Faces Reduction In Rank To Private, The Loss Of All Benefits To His Family, And Could Be Executed As Early As Next Month If Grant Is Convicted”
Colonel Grant’s Most Recent Command Photograph
November 8, 2012by Dark Laughter, The Duffle Blog.
CAMP LEJEUNE, NC – The Department of Defense has been rocked by the firing and court-martial of a high-ranking Marine officer for allegedly violating every single article of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).
Colonel Mitch Grant, once a promising VMI graduate and the commanding officer of the Eighth Marine Regiment, is now charged with adultery, forgery, arson, improper use of a countersign, espionage, stalking, burglary, making a check with insufficient funds, murder, depositing obscene matters in the mail, and conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman, among other charges.
Grant is only the latest in a string of commanders fired over the past few years for alleged violations of the UCMJ, or civil and criminal laws, including sexual harassment, falsifying records, misusing official funds, bigamy, making sexually explicit videos and showing them to troops, initiating an adulterous relationship and then terminating it by faking their death, negligent handling of nuclear weapons and launch codes, and shoplifting.
These are in addition to numerous other firings motivated by “loss of confidence” that did not necessarily result in charges, but which were sufficiently embarrassing that the Pentagon and armed services wanted to keep their specifics quiet.
Colonel Grant laughed throughout the reading of the charges, from chuckling at minor offences to shaking with uproarious laughter during the reading of more outrageous charges, restrained only by his straitjacket and the wire caged mask over his mouth to prevent him from biting those present in the courtroom.
Officials have declined to disclose the specifics of how the investigation was initiated, but multiple sources have confirmed that it began when Grant was observed with his hands in his pockets before a staff meeting at Camp Leatherneck by General Andrew Blake, who instructed his chief of staff, Colonel Patton Callahan, to have Colonel Grant report to his office to privately receive a verbal warning.
“Let’s just say it was dumb luck that we uncovered any of his crimes at all, and leave it at that,” said Colonel Callahan. The command initially intended to quietly NJP (non-judicial punishment) Grant so as not to cause any embarrassment, but Grant refused it, insisting on a court-martial instead.
“Refusing NJP was (Grant’s) last ditch effort to keep his record clean by staring down the command over the difficulties of convening a court-martial for an O-6,” says military legal analyst Joseph Baines.
“I’ll be blunt with you. It almost worked. I suspect there were probably many other NJPs Grant avoided in this exact same way. But once the decision was made to go to trial no matter what, and follow the investigation wherever it went, that’s when it really exploded.”
Though the specifics of the charges have been kept as quiet as possible, so many base residents have been interviewed that some of the incidents have been leaked.
Each one seems to involve multiple violations, such as one in which Grant was talking on a cellphone while driving drunk on base, then maimed a pedestrian and fled the scene of the accident.
In another, Grant allegedly exposed himself in public while making disloyal statements. After only a few days of charges piling up, the local NCIS office requested augmentation by additional personnel to help catalog them all.
“I think once he knew it was going to trial, at some point it just became a game about trying to violate more of the punitive articles,” says Grant’s guard Sgt Ethan Maynard. “And I think some of us might have unwittingly played along.”
“For instance, when the true extent of his crimes was being realized, the bosses elected to transport him back by ship to buy some time to prepare for the trial.
That was how he managed to get charged with violating Article 134-10 for escaping custody, not to mention 134-30 for jumping from a military vessel into the water. Oh, and also those two extra murder charges for killing his guards.”
“Eventually, seeing all those charges stack up in one case became kind of a running gag,” says Daniel Sauls of NCIS. “I don’t remember who it was that suggested, as a joke, that we compare his fingerprints with prints on the washers we kept getting reports of in base vending machines. But wow, after that actually panned out, the pieces just started coming together.”
“The next day we used voice recognition technology to prove that he was responsible for an epidemic of obscene, racist, and threatening phone calls throughout the area.
It was while we were trying to see if he might be involved with the disappearances of some dogs and cats in a neighborhood just off base that we found the cockfighting ring, which was being run by Grant’s second wife, a minor he illegally brought into the country as a sex slave and then used to claim fraudulent dependent benefits.”
“But the charges that really took us by surprise came when a procedural error during the vending machine investigation caused Col Grant’s fingerprints to be checked against Central Command’s biometric database.
“That’s how we discovered 5% of the improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan displayed partial or complete prints. As we reexamined some of the reports related to those IEDs, we noticed they all involved substantial numbers of destroyed weapons. When those weapon serial numbers started showing up in caches of insurgent weapons, the case took on a whole new dimension.”
Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the case is not the magnitude of Grant’s crimes, but the absence of any documented misbehavior prior to the case.
Not only does Grant’s service record demonstrate an unbroken chain of outstanding fitness reports, but his trial has already been briefly interrupted by notification of Grant’s selection to the rank of brigadier general.
This soon resulted in additional charges of bribery and extortion, as Grant first offered to use general officer rank to benefit his prosecutor if he engineered an acquittal, then attempted to blackmail the court, then the Marine Corps, and finally the Department of Defense, by claiming he would leak the story of his selection to the media if they did not drop all charges.
Plans detailing a similar attempt to secure a presidential pardon from Barack Obama were discovered in Grant’s cell, along with several vials of heroin Grant was apparently dealing to other prisoners, and a toothbrush sharpened into a stabbing weapon and hidden in a hollowed out copy of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
“Well, selection isn’t exactly the same thing as promotion, strictly speaking,” said a visibly shaken Secretary Leon Panetta during the media firestorm after the story first broke.
Several additional charges of bribery and extortion were originally entered against Col Grant following revelations of similar appeals and threats Grant made to his former co-conspirators in numerous foreign governments, criminal groups, and terrorist organizations, but Grant’s defense attorney successfully argued to have these instances treated solely as charges of espionage and aiding the enemy.
While the DoD has attempted to paint Grant’s apprehension and trial in a positive light, indicating a professionalizing drawdown period after the chaotic expansion necessary for the surges in Iraq and Afghanistan, Baines isn’t so positive.