Category: Army News

Someone sent a link to the sad news that Army’s cornerback, 20-year-old sophomore Brandon Jackson was killed in an automobile accident Sunday. The brightest star of USMA’s football squad, from Queens, NY, played in every game last year as a freshman and led the team with 3 interceptions and 62 tackles. Already this year, he accounted for six tackles and two pass breakups.

According to Croton-on-Hudson police Detective Sgt. John Nikitopoulos, police received a call at 1:50 a.m. Sunday about a motor vehicle crash. When they arrived on the scene, they saw a single car had crashed into the guardrail. The driver was still in the car when responders arrived, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Yesterday, I noticed an uptick in traffic to our post about Major General David Haight from late last month. HMC Ret sent us link this morning from MSN which explains why there was an interest in the story. They drilled down into the details of the salacious story; how Jennifer Armstrong, 49, a government employee, was attracted to the general’s smile and began a torrid love affair with him that lasted ten years.

Armstrong, who told USA TODAY in interviews that the relationship began with a flirty email and ended after assignations with multiple partners at swingers’ clubs, hotels and her home, says Haight had promised a future together. “I gave him the best years of my life,” she said.

In a statement issued after news of his reprimand broke, Haight vowed to work with Army investigators untangling his dark, off-duty life.

The general had built an enviable career in special operations and light infantry assignments, but one “aw, shit” is all it takes.

Apparently, the general had “Haighters” (see what I did there) who left anonymous tips with the Army Office of Inspector General

In 2015, anonymous tips about Haight’s extramarital affairs were brought to the Pentagon’s inspector general. Ultimately, the Army’s inspector general took the case. The Army ordered Haight to sever contact with Armstrong. Investigators interviewed her and others and substantiated allegations that he had “had an affair and lived a ‘swinger lifestyle.’ ” Investigators also determined that he had spent nearly 24 hours on his government cellphone and sent more than 800 emails on his military computer to Armstrong.

[…]

The letter of reprimand effectively ended his 30-year career. A board will determine his retirement rank. A clean record could have earned Haight as much nearly $123,000 in his first year of retirement. If he’s busted back to colonel, his pay could drop to about $98,000.

David sends us a link to USAToday which reports that Army Major General David Haight has been removed from his post as the chief of operations for U.S. European Command because he misused resources while having an extra-marital affair;

“Maj. Gen. Haight was reprimanded for failing to exhibit exemplary conduct by engaging in an inappropriate sexual relationship with a woman who was not his wife and for misusing government resources,” said Col. Pat Seiber, an Army spokesman.

The Army may convene a board to determine the rank at which he last served satisfactorily, Seiber said. Retirement at a lower rank could cost him tens of thousands of dollars in pension pay.

“I’m very sorry — and take full responsibility — for my actions,” Haight said in a statement to USA TODAY. “I will cooperate fully with Army leadership as the process moves forward.”

Well, that statement shows that he still has little bit of good judgement left even though the stuff he did before contradicts that. More SHARP slide-show training for the snuffies should fix the problem in the flag officer ranks, though.

Bio Added;

The Army Times speculates on whether or not Army Reserve Captain Antonio D. Brown should get the Purple Heart for his death resulting from the shooting in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida last weekend;

Capt. Antonio D. Brown wasn’t on duty or in uniform when he was shot dead early Sunday morning, one of 49 victims in what some have called the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. But the incident has been labeled a terrorist attack by both the White House and the Justice Department, and new award criteria that shaped the 2015 decisions to award Purple Hearts to victims of shootings in Chattanooga (earlier that year) and at Fort Hood (in 2009) could apply regardless of the service member’s duty status.

There is also the case of the shooting in Little Rock, Arkansas of Private William Andrew Long and Private Quinton I. Ezeagwula – Long was killed and Ezeagwula was wounded – they were both awarded Purple Hearts earlier this year. They were on temporary hometown recruiter duty, fresh out of basic training and on a smoke break when they were shot. But this Orlando case more closely resembles the La Belle Disco bombing by Libyan terrorists in Berlin, West Germany on April 5th, 1986. 39 victims were awarded Purple Hearts for their wounds, according to the Associated Press archives.

The United States on Monday awarded Purple Heart medals to 39 U.S. soldiers who were wounded in the April 5 La Belle discotheque bombing in West Berlin.

In ceremonies attended by Richard Burt, the U.S. ambassador to West Germany, the medals were presented to the soldiers for wounds received in the service of the United States.

All the soldiers honored have recovered from their injuries.

Burt flew to Berlin on April 30 to attend ceremonies awarding the Purple Heart to a soldier who was critically wounded in the bombing. Both the soldier’s legs had to be amputated, and he remains in critical condition.

Thanks to Bobo for the Army Times link.

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, June 5, 2014) — When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, the original 13 colonies did not have a shared army, but instead, a collection of independent colonial militias.

The first battles of that war were fought April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Mass., by patriots of the Massachusetts militia. They were the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first hostilities between the colonies and Great Britain.

Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and as British troops moved back across Massachusetts toward Boston, colonial militia from around New England began massing around that city. Within days, thousands of militia members under the leadership of Artemas Ward of Massachusetts had Boston under siege.

By May 10, just weeks after hostilities began in Massachusetts, the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia. On the agenda: creating a common army to defend the colonies.

A month later, on June 14, the Congress approved the creation of that army, the Continental Army. The new force was made of those militiamen already gathered outside Boston, some 22,000 of them, plus those in New York, about 5,000.

The following day, the 15th, the Congress named Virginian George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, and named Ward his second in command the following day.

The Congress also resolved to form a committee “to bring in a draft of rules and regulations for the government of the Army,” and voted $2 million to support the forces around Boston, and those in New York City.

Congress authorized the formation of 10 companies of expert riflemen from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, which were directed to march to Boston to support the New England militia. These were the first troops Congress agreed to pay from its own funds, and the units later became the 1st Continental Regiment.

(John R. Maass of the U.S. Army Center for Military History contributed to this article.)