{"id":32258,"date":"2012-10-05T08:06:46","date_gmt":"2012-10-05T12:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=32258"},"modified":"2012-10-05T08:06:46","modified_gmt":"2012-10-05T12:06:46","slug":"dempsey-opposes-wards-demotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=32258","title":{"rendered":"Dempsey opposes Ward’s demotion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Associated Press <\/a>reports that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey thinks that Gen. William Ward, the former head of U.S. Africa Command, should be allowed to retire at his four-star rank, despite the serious misuse of funds at General Ward’s disposal in that position;<\/p>\n

A Defense Department inspector general’s report released in mid-August concluded that Ward “engaged in multiple forms of misconduct related to official and unofficial travel.” It said Ward “conducted official travel for primarily personal reasons,” misused military aircraft and received reimbursement for travel expenses that far exceeded the approved daily military rate without authorization.<\/p>\n

Panetta is hearing from all sides as he weighs his options in the case, and he has not made a final decision, officials said.<\/p>\n

Other officials have argued that the allegations made against Ward in in the IG report were very serious and that senior officers need to be held accountable. Officials have suggested that similar misconduct by a lower ranking officer or enlisted military member would garner severe punishment or dismissal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ll say here that I still consider William Ward my friend because of the impact he had on my career over the years. He was my battalion executive officer back in the Cottonbalers and our paths crossed again at Fort Drum when he was a brigade commander. Aside from being a fine infantry officer, one of the finest I’ve ever known, he was a friend to soldiers of all ranks.<\/p>\n

However, as in every thing else I’ve seen, Dempsey is wrong on this. If he thinks those soldiers who burned Korans and the Marines who urinated on corpses deserve to be reduced in rank, then if General Ward is guilty, he should face the same punishment as those other folks under General Dempsey. Since Ward will be retiring, it will have little impact on him, but it will send a message that folks who do bad things will be punished. Not reducing Ward’s rank will send a message to the ranks that some animals are more equal than others, to borrow from Orwell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Associated Press reports that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey thinks … Dempsey opposes Ward’s demotion<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[198],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-army"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}