Posted on 04/24/2014 12:15:17 PM PDT by servo1969
Conservatives have noticed that the Pentagon is firing officers left and right, with many leaving under an embarrassing cloud. The question they ask — and I don't know that anyone has an answer — is whether these firings are the legitimate and appropriate housecleaning that a sclerotic bureaucracy needs or whether they're a purge, with Obama's New Age, gender flexible, fighting optional military getting rid of people in command positions who actually think that the military's job is to wage war in America's defense.
All I know is that the latest person being investigated as a predicate to an inevitable firing is someone I've actually met. Back in October 2009, I got the opportunity to attend a party that had, as its guests, members of the Blue Angels. I wrote about it here. I also included a photograph I took of all the guys (plus two gals) lined up:
Please take special notice of the guy in the center (or more accurately, sixth from the left). We spent a few minutes speaking with him and found him to be — as all these officers were — personable, intelligent, and respectful.
Now, though, a debate rages about just how respectful this specific officer actually was:
A former commanding officer of the U.S. Navy's flight demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels, has been removed from his current post after accusations that he ‘tolerated an inappropriate work environment.’
Capt. Gregory McWherter allowed, and in some cases encouraged, sexually explicit humor and inappropriate comments among members of the famed precision flying team, the U.S. Navy contended on Wednesday.
McWherter was relieved of duty as executive officer of Naval Base Coronado on Friday after a complaint was filed with the Navy's inspector general about an ‘inappropriate command climate’ at the Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron based at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida.
During his two stints as Blue Angels leader between 2008 and 2012, McWherter ‘tolerated an inappropriate work environment within the squadron which may have violated the Navy's sexual harassment, hazing and equal opportunity policies,’ a Navy statement said.
‘The complaint alleges that lewd speech, inappropriate comments, and sexually explicit humor were allowed in the workplace and in some case encouraged by the commanding officer,’ and that ‘pornographic images were displayed in the workplace and shared in electronic communications,’ the statement said.
Significantly, McWherter got a strong vote of support from a woman who served under his command:
"At one point there was a command survey and one came back that men didn't treat women fairly," Melinda Cary, who served under McWherter during 2006 to 2008, told The News Journal.
"The first thing he did was bring us to talk about who was telling jokes. And he went out, and, I guess, set them straight. He followed up and made sure we weren't still having trouble."
Maybe McWherter is a sexist pig who ought never to have been allowed a command. Or maybe he's an old-fashioned warrior who is making too much trouble in a modern military determined to serve as a giant Leftist social experiment, rather than hewing to its traditional responsibility as America's protector.
by JJ
"That’s amusing, and inclines me strongly to believe it’s all BS. That mealy-mouthed collection of weasel words, “inappropriate work environment” is exactly what the Navy said about why Admiral Chuck Gaouette was relieved, too. (When they finally said anything, months after the fact.) Nobody ever really knows what it means but it sounds like… something pretty serious. (Or I guess it’s supposed to. To me it sounds like what I said: mealy-mouthed BS.)
Gaouette, (whom I would know if I fell over, as he would know me), always struck me as among the softest-spoken people around. The only negative opinion he ever mentioned to me about anything was about the Canadian navy, with which he is not impressed. (Three rowboats, seven canoes, and eleven kayaks.) He was accused, in a roundabout way (within the parameters of the mealy-mouthed BS), of being a sort of closet racist in his conduct, in those same terms McWherter was accused of excessively liking girls. (If that’s what the mealy-mouthed BS about sexual misconduct amounts to.) McWherter’s work environment evidently permitted dirty jokes; Gaouette’s maybe permitted watermelon jokes. I never saw Gaouette on the bridge of anything he commanded, or on the admiral’s bridge of Stennis in charge of a battle group, maybe the man’s an animal at sea; but my experience of him would add up to: “not bloody likely.”
(To move off point for a moment. I have read in more than one place that he was fired – which is what it amounts to – for being a little too aggressively inclined to go do something about events as they transpired that night in Benghazi. This is incorrect: Stennis, her planes, and battle group were at the time well out of range to the east, and couldn’t have done anything even had their commander strenuously wished to do so. They were in transit, and were over halfway to their Mid-east station from Bremerton, but not that much more than halfway there. F/A-18s need a lot of help to operate thousands of miles from their home deck, and therefore mostly don’t operate at that sort of range. There were plenty of assets a good deal closer – which Chuck, commander of the group, knew perfectly well. Now, I suppose it’s entirely possible he rang up the Pentagon and said something like, “what the f**k is wrong with you ass****s, why aren’t we doing something?” which might have gotten him in trouble with Madame Fat-ass and her minions, but that would be his only relationship to Benghazi: talking about it. And probably a good deal more temperately than I just did. But talking about things, no mistake, can be a sin in the military.)
(And to digress onto another issue about which I’ve been asked: I was raised better than that. He’s never seen fit to bring it up, so you may safely bet that I’ve never brought it up. And I will not bring it up, have not asked, and will not ask why the Navy did what it did to him.)
I don’t know what the Navy wants to be, and am fairly certain the Navy doesn’t know what it wants to be, either. I come down in several ways on this myself, but my ultimate goal is that I want a Navy that can kick the ass of every other navy on the planet, and maybe be able to do it to more than one of them – like Russia and China, when that becomes, as it inevitably will, necessary – simultaneously. I do not, in other words, give one good g-ddam what somebody who’s good at that job – it is the only job - makes jokes about. I don’t care if they’re funny jokes, off-putting jokes, or sick jokes: I just want him to put his bombs on target. I don’t care if he’s a sexist pig. I don’t care what he thinks about Jesse Jackass. I don’t care what he thinks about Jugears or Fat-ass. All that does not have a thing to do with how well he drives his plane.
And the Navy better pull its collective head out and decide what its doing. I’m with Norman Schwarzkopf: you have a military to kill people and break things. That’s what they do. And it should be all they do, and they should be left alone to develop the means to do it as efficiently as possible. Political correctness doesn’t enter into it. They are not a social experiment, as democrats seem never to understand. (With one exception: June 24, 1940, when republicans voted to integrate the armed forces. Roosevelt wouldn’t do it, it had to wait until 1952 when Truman could get the credit.) Why we persist in treating them as a social experiment I don’t know, but every time we engage in some such BS all we accomplish is to degrade the forces, and eliminate very good people, and we do so all in the witless interests of political correctness."
Conservatives have noticed that the Pentagon is firing officers left and right,
Oh brother what a stupid sentence. Conservatives are not stupid. They know that firings have been taking place since 1776. You do something stupid, you get fired. I have not heard of one firing where I said to myself that they didn’t deserve to be shown the door. Writers certainly try to make conservatives look like idiots.
I remember when women said they wanted to be treated the same as the men they worked with. What they really wanted was to change the nature of men.
The Obama Administration is purging the military of anyone who would stand up to them to oppose a leftist coup.
Military leadership at the top levels is lacking, IMHO. We have created and promoted a generation or two of wussies. There are exceptions, of course, but they will be swept aside. We have a chance or two on the horizon to put a fix in place but I’m unsure if there are enough cojones available.
He was on staff when I went through Top Gun. Back then they had some guys that formed a band and he used to do an Elvis set with them that was pretty funny.
Top Military Brass Purged by Obama Regime:
Reaganite Republican ^ | 14 April 2014 | Reaganite Republican
Posted on Monday, April 14, 2014 10:53:25 AM by Reaganite Republican
'The problem is worse than we've ever seen' -Ret. Lt Gen Jerry Boykin (fmr Under Secretary of Defense)
Commanding Generals fired:
· General John R. Allen-U.S. Marines Commander International Security Assistance Force [ISAF] (Nov 2012)
· Major General Ralph Baker (2 Star)-U.S. Army Commander of the Combined Joint Task Force Horn in Africa (April 2013)
· Major General Michael Carey (2 Star)-U.S. Air Force Commander of the 20th US Air Force in charge of 9,600 people and 450 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (Oct 2013)
· Colonel James Christmas-U.S. Marines Commander 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit & Commander Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response Unit (July 2013)
· Major General Peter Fuller-U.S. Army Commander in Afghanistan (May 2011)
· Major General Charles M.M. Gurganus-U.S. Marine Corps Regional Commander of SW and I Marine Expeditionary Force in Afghanistan (Oct 2013)
· General Carter F. Ham-U.S. Army African Command (Oct 2013)
· Lieutenant General David H. Huntoon (3 Star), Jr.-U.S. Army 58th Superintendent of the US Military Academy at West Point , NY (2013)
· Command Sergeant Major Don B Jordan-U.S. Army 143rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command (suspended Oct 2013)
· General James Mattis-U.S. Marines Chief of CentCom (May 2013) · Colonel Daren Margolin-U.S. Marine in charge of Quantico 's Security Battalion (Oct 2013)
· General Stanley McChrystal-U.S. Army Commander Afghanistan (June 2010)
· General David D. McKiernan-U.S. Army Commander Afghanistan (2009)
· General David Petraeus-Director of CIA from September 2011 to November 2012 & U.S. Army Commander International Security Assistance Force [ISAF] and Commander U.S. Forces Afghanistan [USFOR-A] (Nov 2012)
· Brigadier General Bryan Roberts-U.S. Army Commander 2nd Brigade (May 2013)
· Major General Gregg A. Sturdevant-U.S. Marine Corps Director of Strategic Planning and Policy for the U.S. Pacific Command & Commander of Aviation Wing at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan (Sept 2013)
· Colonel Eric Tilley-U.S. Army Commander of Garrison Japan (Nov 2013)
· Brigadier General Bryan Wampler-U.S. Army Commanding General of 143rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command of the 1st Theater Sustainment Command [TSC] (suspended Oct 2013)
Commanding Admirals fired:
· Rear Admiral Charles Gaouette-U.S. Navy Commander John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group Three (Oct 2012)
· Vice Admiral Tim Giardina(3 Star, demoted to 2 Star)-U.S. Navy Deputy Commander of the US Strategic Command, Commander of the Submarine Group Trident, Submarine Group 9 and Submarine Group 10 (Oct 2013)
Naval Officers fired (All in 2011)
· Captain David Geisler-U.S. Navy Commander Task Force 53 in Bahrain (Oct 2011)
· Commander Laredo Bell-U.S. Navy Commander Naval Support Activity Saratoga Springs , NY (Aug 2011)
· Lieutenant Commander Kurt Boenisch-Executive Officer amphibious transport dock Ponce (Apr 2011)
· Commander Nathan Borchers-U.S. Navy Commander destroyer Stout (Mar 2011)
· Commander Robert Brown-U.S. Navy Commander Beachmaster Unit 2 Fort Story , VA (Aug 2011)
· Commander Andrew Crowe-Executive Officer Navy Region Center Singapore (Apr 2011)
· Captain Robert Gamberg-Executive Officer carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower (Jun 2011)
· Captain Rex Guinn-U.S. Navy Commander Navy Legal Service office Japan (Feb 2011)
· Commander Kevin Harms- U.S. Navy Commander Strike Fighter Squadron 137 aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln (Mar 2011)
· Lieutenant Commander Martin Holguin-U.S. Navy Commander mine countermeasures Fearless (Oct 2011)
· Captain Owen Honors-U.S. Navy Commander aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (Jan 2011)
· Captain Donald Hornbeck-U.S. Navy Commander Destroyer Squadron 1 San Diego (Apr 2011)
· Rear Admiral Ron Horton-U.S. Navy Commander Logistics Group, Western Pacific (Mar 2011)
· Commander Etta Jones-U.S. Navy Commander amphibious transport dock Ponce (Apr 2011)
· Commander Ralph Jones-Executive Officer amphibious transport dock Green Bay (Jul 2011)
· Commander Jonathan Jackson-U.S. Navy Commander Electronic Attack Squadron 134, deployed aboard carrier Carl Vinson (Dec 2011)
· Captain Eric Merrill-U.S. Navy Commander submarine Emory S. Land (Jul 2011)
· Captain William Mosk-U.S. Navy Commander Naval Station Rota , U.S. Navy Commander Naval Activities Spain (Apr 2011)
· Commander Timothy Murphy-U.S. Navy Commander Electronic Attack Squadron 129 at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island , WA (Apr 2011)
· Commander Joseph Nosse-U.S. Navy Commander ballistic-missile submarine Kentucky (Oct 2011)
· Commander Mark Olson-U.S. Navy Commander destroyer The Sullivans FL (Sep 2011)
· Commander John Pethel-Executive Officer amphibious transport dock New York (Dec 2011)
· Commander Karl Pugh-U.S. Navy Commander Electronic Attack Squadron 141 Whidbey Island , WA (Jul 2011)
· Commander Jason Strength-U.S. Navy Commander of Navy Recruiting District Nashville , TN (Jul 2011)
· Captain Greg Thomas-U.S. Navy Commander Norfolk Naval Shipyard (May 2011)
· Commander Mike Varney-U.S. Navy Commander attack submarine Connecticut (Jun 2011)
· Commander Jay Wylie-U.S. Navy Commander destroyer Momsen (Apr 2011)
Naval Officers Fired (All in 2012):
· Commander Alan C. Aber-Executive Officer Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 71 (July 2012)
· Commander Derick Armstrong- U.S. Navy Commander missile destroyer USS The Sullivans (May 2012)
· Commander Martin Arriola- U.S. Navy Commander destroyer USS Porter (Aug 2012)
· Captain Antonio Cardoso- U.S. Navy Commander Training Support Center San Diego (Sep 2012)
· Captain James CoBell- U.S. Navy Commander Oceana Naval Air Station's Fleet Readiness Center Mid-Atlantic (Sep 2012)
· Captain Joseph E. Darlak- U.S. Navy Commander frigate USS Vandegrift (Nov 2012)
· Captain Daniel Dusek-U.S. Navy Commander USS Bonhomme
· Commander David Faught-Executive Officer destroyer Chung-Hoon (Sep 2012)
· Commander Franklin Fernandez- U.S. Navy Commander Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 24 (Aug 2012)
· Commander Ray Hartman- U.S. Navy Commander Amphibious dock-landing ship Fort McHenry (Nov 2012)
· Commander Shelly Hakspiel-Executive Officer Navy Drug Screening Lab San Diego (May 2012)
· Commander Jon Haydel- U.S. Navy Commander USS San Diego (Mar 2012)
· Commander Diego Hernandez- U.S. Navy Commander ballistic-missile submarine USS Wyoming (Feb 2012)
· Commander Lee Hoey- U.S. Navy Commander Drug Screening Laboratory, San Diego (May 2012)
· Commander Ivan Jimenez-Executive Officer frigate Vandegrift (Nov 2012)
· Commander Dennis Klein- U.S. Navy Commander submarine USS Columbia (May 2012)
· Captain Marcia Kim Lyons- U.S. Navy Commander Naval Health Clinic New England (Apr 2012)
· Captain Robert Marin- U.S. Navy Commander cruiser USS Cowpens (Feb 2012)
· Captain Sean McDonell- U.S. Navy Commander Seabee reserve unit Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 14 FL (Nov 2012)
· Commander Corrine Parker- U.S. Navy Commander Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 1 (Apr 2012)
· Captain Liza Raimondo- U.S. Navy Commander Naval Health Clinic Patuxent River , MD (Jun 2012)
· Captain Jeffrey Riedel- Program manager, Littoral Combat Ship program (Jan 2012)
· Commander Sara Santoski- U.S. Navy Commander Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 15 (Sep 2012)
· Commander Kyle G. Strudthoff-Executive Officer Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25 (Sep 2012)
· Commander Sheryl Tannahill- U.S. Navy Commander Navy Operational Support Center [NOSC] Nashville , TN (Sep 2012)
· Commander Michael Ward- U.S. Navy Commander submarine USS Pittsburgh (Aug 2012)
· Captain Michael Wiegand- U.S. Navy Commander Southwest Regional Maintenance Center (Nov 2012)
· Captain Ted Williams- U.S. Navy Commander amphibious command ship Mount Whitney (Nov 2012)
· Commander Jeffrey Wissel- U.S. Navy Commander of Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron 1 (Feb 2012)
Naval Officers fired (All in 2013):
· Lieutenant Commander Lauren Allen-Executive Officer submarine Jacksonville (Feb 2013)
· Reserve Captain Jay Bowman-U.S. Navy Commander Navy Operational Support Center [NOSC] Fort Dix , NJ (Mar 2013)
· Captain William Cogar-U.S. Navy Commander hospital ship Mercy's medical treatment facility (Sept 2013)
· Commander Steve Fuller-Executive Officer frigate Kauffman (Mar 2013)
· Captain Shawn Hendricks-Program Manager for naval enterprise IT networks (June 2013)
· Captain David Hunter-U.S. Navy Commander of Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadron 12 & Coastal Riverine Group 2 (Feb 2013)
· Captain Eric Johnson-U.S. Navy Chief of Military Entrance Processing Command at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, IL (2013)
· Captain Devon Jones-U.S. Navy Commander Naval Air Facility El Centro , CA (July 2013)
· Captain Kevin Knoop-U.S. Navy Commander hospital ship Comfort's medical treatment facility (Aug 2013)
· Lieutenant Commander Jack O'Neill-U.S. Navy Commander Operational Support Center Rock Island , IL (Mar 2013)
· Commander Allen Maestas-Executive Officer Beachmaster Unit 1 (May 2013)
· Commander Luis Molina-U.S. Navy Commander submarine Pasadena (Jan 2013)
· Commander James Pickens-Executive Officer frigate Gary (Feb 2013)
· Lieutenant Commander Mark Rice-U.S. Navy Commander Mine Countermeasures ship Guardian (Apr 2013)
· Commander Michael Runkle-U.S. Navy Commander of Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 2 (May 2013)
· Commander Jason Stapleton-Executive Office Patrol Squadron 4 in Hawaii (Mar 2013)
· Commander Nathan Sukols-U.S. Navy Commander submarine Jacksonville (Feb 2013)
· Lieutenant Daniel Tyler-Executive Officer Mine Countermeasures ship Guardian (Apr 2013)
· Commander Edward White-U.S. Navy Commander Strike Fighter Squadron 106 (Aug 2013)
· Captain Jeffrey Winter-U.S. Navy Commander of Carrier Air Wing 17 (Sept 2013)
· Commander Thomas Winter-U.S. Navy Commander submarine Montpelier (Jan 2013)
· Commander Corey Wofford- U.S. Navy Commander frigate Kauffman (Feb 2013)
Me too.
5.56mm
Others have said that they were told “accept gays in the military or resign”.
its the homos...75% of all sexual attacks are homo BUT the media doesn’t cover it
I’ve thought there was a purge going on for some time. There appears to be two types of purge. One is ideological. You get rid of those who see the world differently than you. The other is to maintain a degree of fear so that others will do whatever you want for fear of losing their job or reputation or benefits.
I’d say there’s a third type, political. I recall a captain of the (as I recall) USS Enterprise. One of the 5,000 sailors on board was accused of raping a Japanese woman. They fired the captain. I’m fairly certain that he’d probably never seen the man who allegedly committed the rape and I can’t conceive of how he’d have stopped it. I’d say that was just the US wanting to say to the Japanese people how sorry they were. But there went an experienced and probably quite good officer for no good reason.
So you think McWherter is guilty of allowing lewd talk and porn images in email and in someone’s locker? I have only read one thing negative about the guy, and it is from a leaked email from some Navy brass. All personal accounts from folks under his command have given him the highest praise. Numerous women who called him “Boss” have written that he was the best boss they ever had. That he took care of their issues. So when you read about him, did you think he deserved to be removed from his latest command assignment? Or are you waiting for more info from the lone accuser whose sensibilities were bruised while working for the number one Navy recruiter in the world?
Lots of Navy. Guess if you want to o from 600 ships to 300 getting rid of 100 or so high ranking officers is the way to go.
Never trust chicks. This kinda thing is why they aren’t allowed in the mafia.
“...You do something stupid, you get fired. I have not heard of one firing where I said to myself that they didn’t deserve to be shown the door....”
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Wow!! You have either lived a particularly sheltered life or you’re just defending the ongoing “soft” purge of the military.
Men of war are typically not choir boys. . . these are only excuses to achieve their evil goals.
Pretty soon, our military will look like Robin Hood’s “Merry Men in Tights”
There are not many in the last 50-70 years who are actually worthy of the term “leader”. Most senior officers I knew including contemporaries of mine who made it that far up the ladder are political animals first and foremost. On these forums I advocated in 2000 that Bush fire most of the senior leadership starting with the JCS. Too many Clinton appointees were left in place. Colon Bowel is a prime example of this type.
Maybe the kenyan is going about a purge, it is hard to tell in some cases but in others it seems almost clear that it is a political purge. Democrat presidents have a bad habit of doing this.
Yep, now they want to remake the military into some kind of ladies tea party.
Same thing with the gays. All they wanted was to be left alone and not be persecuted. Next thing you know they insist we remake our society as they want it.
As for the Blue Angels thing, I would want to go to war with this guy versus the harpy who bitched about him and got him fired.
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