Despite the revelations of GEN Allen this morning I still stand by my comments in Thom Shanker's piece below.
One comment I made that Mr. Shanker could not use was in reference to Barbara Starr's commentary last Friday night on CNN about how General Officers live in a bubble and are treated like royalty and that all of the pomp and circumstance goes to their heads (I am paraphrasing of course). My retort to her would be that in my 30 years of experience the General Officers with whom I have served and worked for do not focus on the trappings of their position and the vast majority remain humble, selfless, and focused on accomplishing the mission and taking care of their troops. Sure many have and will make mistakes (strategic and tactical) as we all are prone to do, but they do not abuse their positions and they demonstrate great integrity and personal responsibility. Of course in any organization we are going to find people with bad judgement and personal foibles but we do not hear about all the good work senior leaders do because as a very wise Command Sergeant Major with whom I have served always said, "The house that is not burning does not make the news." Unfortunately today we are seeing a number of houses on fire. But we should remember all those others that are standing tall and strong and not burning to the ground and turning to ash.
V/R
Dave
Dave
November 12, 2012
Concern Grows Over Top Military Officers’ Ethics
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON — Along with a steady diet of books on leadership and management, the reading list at military “charm schools” that groom officers for ascending to general or admiral includes an essay, “The Bathsheba Syndrome: The Ethical Failure of Successful Leaders,” that recalls the moral failure of the Old Testament’s King David, who ordered a soldier on a mission of certain death — solely for the chance to take his wife, Bathsheba.
The not-so-subtle message: Be careful out there, and act better.
Despite the warnings, a worrisomely large number of senior officers have been investigated and even fired for poor judgment, malfeasance and sexual improprieties or sexual violence — and that is just in the last year.
Gen. William Ward of the Army, known as Kip, the first officer to open the new Africa Command, came under scrutiny for allegations of misusing tens of thousands of government dollars for travel and lodging.
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair, a former deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan, is confronting the military equivalent of a grand jury to decide whether he should stand trial for adultery, sexual misconduct and forcible sodomy, stemming from relationships with five women.
James H. Johnson III, a former commander of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, was expelled from the Army, fined and reduced in rank to lieutenant colonel from colonel after being convicted of bigamy and fraud stemming from an improper relationship with an Iraqi woman and business dealings with her family.
The Air Force is struggling to recover from a scandal at its basic training center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, where six male instructors were charged with crimes including rape and adultery after female recruits told of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
(Continued at the link above)
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