So what kind of misconduct are we talking about? The article never really says. And with all the sexual stuff in civilian life right now, I’m wonder if that’s what these are or other things.
White males of a certain age are back in charge, folks. In the White House, in the Pentagon, on the Streets of our Cities and Towns, and of course in the Military. And they all think that if we just wish hard enough, we can return to the 1950s.
What’s sad is that, thanks to trump and his enablers, and all the years of news coming out of the pentagon about exactly these kinds of abuses, no one even thinks about believing the spokescritter. (Oh, and see again the discussion about reporting sexual assault at the service academies.)
The number of complaints filed against senior military and defense officials has increased over the past several years, but more cases are being rejected as not credible and fewer officers are being found guilty of misconduct, according to data from Defense Department investigators.
As a retired LTC this is nothing new and to be expected as shit flows downhill, with shit at the top what else is to be expected.
Understand, until careerist officers stop being evaluated/promoted based on negative marks on their CV there will never be any correction just more and more CYA. Understand, until careerist officers can no longer be judge/jury there will never be any correction just more and more CYA.
The higher ranks will always have superior documentation.
Having spent my so-called career in the Snivel Service, and having witnessed a whistleblower in the flesh, I’m always a bit skeptical of the claims of fraud, waste, and abuse. The guy I saw in action may not have been typical, though I suspect he was.
This man would lodge 20 different complaints about terrible things that were happening in the agency.
In 17 of those 20 cases, he simply had his facts wrong, usually wildly wrong.
In two of those 20 cases, there was a germ of truth, but he mischaracterized it. For example, a harmless accounting error became “millions of dollars missing!!!” This would show up in the Washington Post as a story about some unknown person absconding with the money, when nothing of the sort had happened. It was just in the wrong “bucket” in the ledgers.
In one of those 20 cases, he would be on the money, and deserved to be listened to.
The problem, of course, is that you never knew into which category the latest sensational claim should be placed, and it took a huge amount of staff time to deal with each one. As a result, he was gradually shunted off into a meaningless position.
Speier is right. If anything, people of higher rank should suffer harsher penalties for similar infractions, because they are supposed to set the example and hold to a higher standard.
I assume that at least some of of the uptick represents more sexual assault reports. No wonder they didn’t report before. Until the process changes nothing gets better.
Have you heard about all the arrests in the Pacific fleet? It is all naval flag officers who took money to port their ships at a particular port (I gathered flag officer have the ability to choose where to port for resupply) where the briber would bill the USN a lot more than other ports in the area would have. So the briber was arrested and convicted and now they are working their way thru admiral great and small.
I am sorry I only partially remember this but the gist of the story was that the Pacific fleet was going to be decapitated because ‘everybody’ seemed to be in on the scam (oh the admirals got money and trips and girls… the usual stuff.