Posted on May 18, 2016
Navy chief tells fellow admirals to rethink integrity and behavior in aftermath of scandals
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I think the problem of flag level (and Colonel Level 06 Pay grade) misconduct is service wide, Navy, Air Force, Army and to a lesser extent Marines (probably because we have less flag level officers and the Marines have lesser budgets and therefore lesser exposure to the corruption of defense contractors, IMHO).
There have been some really high publicity scandals both moral and criminal that seen to have hit flag level officers in the Air Force, Army and Navy in the last couple years, so I think it is appropriate to ask is this bigger than one branch of the service. I think most of us hold flag level officers to the highest standard due to their rank and the fact that they are passing justice on lower ranks as Command Convening Authorities. This is one of the reasons I was so dissapointed in General Petraeus when he admitted adultery and passing classified materials to his lover, Paula Broadhead, herself an Army reserve Major and fellow West Point grad. Adultery is clearly a crime in the US Military and the UCMJ, and who knows how many convictions for Adultery Gen Petraeus upheld as a Convening authority in his 30 plus years as an active duty Army Officer.
There have been some really high publicity scandals both moral and criminal that seen to have hit flag level officers in the Air Force, Army and Navy in the last couple years, so I think it is appropriate to ask is this bigger than one branch of the service. I think most of us hold flag level officers to the highest standard due to their rank and the fact that they are passing justice on lower ranks as Command Convening Authorities. This is one of the reasons I was so dissapointed in General Petraeus when he admitted adultery and passing classified materials to his lover, Paula Broadhead, herself an Army reserve Major and fellow West Point grad. Adultery is clearly a crime in the US Military and the UCMJ, and who knows how many convictions for Adultery Gen Petraeus upheld as a Convening authority in his 30 plus years as an active duty Army Officer.
Navy chief tells fellow admirals to rethink integrity and behavior in aftermath of scandals
Posted from washingtonpost.com
Leadership
Corruption
Honor
Ethics
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 6
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Capt Lance Gallardo , Sir I think the root cause stems from a developed sense of entitlement. Websters Dictionary defines entitlement as the feeling or belief that you deserve to be given something (such as special privileges). In each case of either Flag Officers or the high profile Colonel cases there was a belief that they were above the law. COL Johnson, the 173D Commander, was getting TDY orders for his mistress as his cultural advisor, BG Roberts from Ft. Jackson got into a physical altercation with his mistress, BG Sinclair did his thing, and it goes on. There is just a belief that permeates "What are they going to do? Make me retire?" but what ends up happening is not only a bad name for the services but it continues to show the clear divide between Officer and Enlisted accountability. Until punishment is reconciled to be standard for both sides and other Flag Officers start policing up their comrades, the entitlement attitude will remain.
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Capt Lance Gallardo
SFC (Join to see) Hundred and ten percent agree with your comments about entitlement and I would add a kind of an invulnerability mentality largely rooted in "hey I am flag level officer now" I am part of the "ultimate" good old boys club. The Best flag level officers never forget that those stars on your shoulders only mean that you carry the weight of the responsibility of your command and your rank more heavily than everyone else, and they never forget that the leader holds his position in a Democratic Republic to be the "ultimate servant," not the one who is served. There is a humility that should go with that level of command and authority and in the best officers it is always there.
Contradictory I know, to be both Humble and Proud at the same time. But those kind of officers are personally Humble, but Proud of the achievements of the men and women they lead and what their unit as a whole does, and they are not quick to take credit to themselves, but to deflect praise away from themselves and onto those that they lead.
In that respect, our first CinC George Washington, will always be the model of what an American General Officer is supposed to be. I also think of John McCain's Admiral Grandfather, who gave everything during WWII including his health and passed away mere days later after the end of the War and VJ Day-2 Sep 1945 ( John Sidney "Slew" McCain Sr. (August 9, 1884 – September 6, 1945)). My mother's father gave everything that he had in a different way and was KIA US Army Infantryman, 103 INF, 43ID, March 14th, 1945 and is still buried in the US Cemetery in the Manila the Philippines. Left behind a wife and three kids, the last one conceived on a 24 hour pass to see his wife one last time before he shipped out to combat in the Pacific. Final rank, PFC, US Army. Purple Heart, Posthumously.
Maybe because all of the men in my family who served (and that was most, either draftees or volunteers, father, uncle, both grandfathers, numerous cousins) were all enlisted, I have always been "enlisted oriented" and I have always wanted to see prior enlisted Flag level officers, especially in the Army and the Marine Corps, which IMHO needs leadership in its officers more than the Navy and the Air Force. Again just IMHO. We have only had one prior enlisted (in the Marine Corps we call them Mustangers) who has ever been the Commandant of the Marine Corps that I can recall, Commandant Alfred M. Gray, who led the Marine Corps during the Gulf War and was instrumental in instilling Maneuver Warfare into the Marine Corps and emphasizing that Marine at all ranks were required to read professionally and become Warrior /Scholars. I have heard a book and Autobiography is coming out about him, maybe this year.
Contradictory I know, to be both Humble and Proud at the same time. But those kind of officers are personally Humble, but Proud of the achievements of the men and women they lead and what their unit as a whole does, and they are not quick to take credit to themselves, but to deflect praise away from themselves and onto those that they lead.
In that respect, our first CinC George Washington, will always be the model of what an American General Officer is supposed to be. I also think of John McCain's Admiral Grandfather, who gave everything during WWII including his health and passed away mere days later after the end of the War and VJ Day-2 Sep 1945 ( John Sidney "Slew" McCain Sr. (August 9, 1884 – September 6, 1945)). My mother's father gave everything that he had in a different way and was KIA US Army Infantryman, 103 INF, 43ID, March 14th, 1945 and is still buried in the US Cemetery in the Manila the Philippines. Left behind a wife and three kids, the last one conceived on a 24 hour pass to see his wife one last time before he shipped out to combat in the Pacific. Final rank, PFC, US Army. Purple Heart, Posthumously.
Maybe because all of the men in my family who served (and that was most, either draftees or volunteers, father, uncle, both grandfathers, numerous cousins) were all enlisted, I have always been "enlisted oriented" and I have always wanted to see prior enlisted Flag level officers, especially in the Army and the Marine Corps, which IMHO needs leadership in its officers more than the Navy and the Air Force. Again just IMHO. We have only had one prior enlisted (in the Marine Corps we call them Mustangers) who has ever been the Commandant of the Marine Corps that I can recall, Commandant Alfred M. Gray, who led the Marine Corps during the Gulf War and was instrumental in instilling Maneuver Warfare into the Marine Corps and emphasizing that Marine at all ranks were required to read professionally and become Warrior /Scholars. I have heard a book and Autobiography is coming out about him, maybe this year.
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Leadership must come from and be supported by the top. Clear communication from your leaders will give you both security and a clear understanding that you will be prosecuted if you cross the line.
The UCMJ is only as good as the integrity of those sworn to uphold that code. The more senior you are,the more severe the penalties.
The UCMJ is only as good as the integrity of those sworn to uphold that code. The more senior you are,the more severe the penalties.
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Sir, thank you for the post and there may be some Chiefs that will not like what I have to say.
I think we are promoting ranks officers and enlisted to early and we have changed the tradition of Chiefs Training and I believe this is some of the Navy's problem we advance those that look good on paper because they impress others by looking good and having all the collateral duties that they pass on to others and they take credit for it so it appears they are sharp when it was the whole team not one person. This concept is missing in leaders today. My Chiefs wisdom for the day OUT....
I think we are promoting ranks officers and enlisted to early and we have changed the tradition of Chiefs Training and I believe this is some of the Navy's problem we advance those that look good on paper because they impress others by looking good and having all the collateral duties that they pass on to others and they take credit for it so it appears they are sharp when it was the whole team not one person. This concept is missing in leaders today. My Chiefs wisdom for the day OUT....
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CPO (Join to see)
SCPO Joshua I - You need to try to keep old traditions of CPO leadership going. When I retired I told the Chiefs that they were going to have a fight and their hands and to hold onto what was given and entrusted to us as Chiefs and that we needed to look after the troops like we had been trained to do no, matter what others tell us. That is my old Chiefs wisdom please try to hold the line brother.
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Capt Lance Gallardo
The US Navy, maybe more than the other branches of service is all about tradition. If the Navy loses that sense of tradition, then I think it has lost something indefinable but unique to the US Navy. More of my family has served enlisted in the US Navy than even the Army and it is a very unique service with those traditions large and small that make the Sea Service special. Yes, I am even talking about Poseidon's Court and shellbacks and pollywogs.
The US is first and foremost a Global Naval Power. It is our two oceans, and our wooden (now steel walls) walls of the US Navy that kept the enemy from our shores. I spend as much of my free time reading Naval Proceedings and keeping up with the debate regarding the vulnerability of our Super Carriers to long range land based Ballistic Missiles as my wife, 3 year old, and my job requirements permit me. All of us should be very concerned with the resurgent and aggressive attempts by Communist China to drive us out of the South China Sea and Russia's spending spree on Attack Submarines. The Iranians are doing their best to deny us access to Persian Gulf.
We have since 9/11 been focused on the ground wars in Iraq, the Middle East and Afghanistan, while the US Navy has been doing what they have always done, circling the globe on their West Pac Floats , Med Floats, Atlantic Deployments, keeping a watchful eye, keeping the sea lanes open and pirates at bay, and letting America's enemies (and potential enemies like China and Russia) know that we are there and we are watching.
God Bless my father's Service-The United States Navy.
The US is first and foremost a Global Naval Power. It is our two oceans, and our wooden (now steel walls) walls of the US Navy that kept the enemy from our shores. I spend as much of my free time reading Naval Proceedings and keeping up with the debate regarding the vulnerability of our Super Carriers to long range land based Ballistic Missiles as my wife, 3 year old, and my job requirements permit me. All of us should be very concerned with the resurgent and aggressive attempts by Communist China to drive us out of the South China Sea and Russia's spending spree on Attack Submarines. The Iranians are doing their best to deny us access to Persian Gulf.
We have since 9/11 been focused on the ground wars in Iraq, the Middle East and Afghanistan, while the US Navy has been doing what they have always done, circling the globe on their West Pac Floats , Med Floats, Atlantic Deployments, keeping a watchful eye, keeping the sea lanes open and pirates at bay, and letting America's enemies (and potential enemies like China and Russia) know that we are there and we are watching.
God Bless my father's Service-The United States Navy.
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