CDR Jonathan Jackson was relieved of command in December for violating the Navy’s sexual harassment policies and for conduct unbecoming. But having read through the Navy IG Report and the commander’s NJP appeal (both pdf files found at the U/T link above), I find that the one is damning and the other exculpatory. We apparently have a department head who bore a two-year grudge, and a struggling junior officer who either was deliberately insulted, or she was not. And a CO who maybe spent a little to much time celebrating with Bacchus, leaving himself open to charges that he spoke thoughtlessly and acted imperfectly, while letting off steam.
These days, you must be nigh on perfect, nearly all the time.
If you’re a CO, that is.
Marry a neo-prohibitionist atmosphere with radical feminism (not to mention the yet to be experienced coming joys of the inculcation of the force in “queer theory”) and what do you expect? Bull Halsey?
Bull? Poor choice of word there VX?
I spend ‘way too much time with Bacchus, and I have been known to speak thoughtlessly and act imperfectly, even here!
But then, I am not a Naval Officer, but Justthisguy.
There seems to be a large telescope trained on every USN officer in a position of command these days, just looking for the very slightest slip-up.
As a HR professional on the civilian side, I advise CEOs, GMs, VPs, Managers and have been noted to be decidely NON-PC. It is why I have been successful.
The one piece of advice I repeat more often than not is ” It isn’t impropriety that will get you in trouble, it is the image of impropriety that will get you in trouble.”
Too many focused on what others are doing instead of what they should be focused on which is why we have created such a screwed up set of work rules.
That’s nothing but the sad and sorry truth. Perception caused me more trouble as County Engineer than the facts ever did. From my observation it’s axiomatic.
Investigating official: “Ms [Redacted]“.
Inspector General: Ms [Redacted]“.
Maybe I’m mis-remembering, but doesn’t a successful appeal of NJP only set aside the unjust punishment and not the finding of guilt?
We have a Navy where the civilian side outnumbers the uniformed personnel.
Worthless PC billets and mostly worthless personnel fill those billets in disprortionately large numbers compared to actual uniformed warfighters. These include all of the Diversity zampolits, most of the EEO types, and many of the JAG and IG types. THey put no ordnance on target, but inflict plenty of damage from “friendly fire.”
Too many uniformed people are promoted based on PC factors, not warfighting skills, and too many warfighters are beaten up and poorly rated for a shortage of PC compliance rather than a lack of warrior skills. The sheepdogs are falling prey to the disease of PCness, making them unable to protect the sheep from the wolves.
Our Navy is no longer a serious military force ready to fight and win wars at sea. We are, however, doing well in accepting barely qualified people, promoting mediocrity based on PC rather than actual performance, and ignoring the steadily degrading readiness (both material and personnel) that flows from misplaced priorities.
As pointed out earlier, the IG investigator was indeed “Ms. [redacted]” and it is certainly possible, and probably very likely that “Ms. IG” may have her own biases about matters, most likely of the feminist persuasion.
Reading CDR Jackson’s appeal certainly demolishes the charges and findings against him at NJP. This is not some simple “he said-she said” disagreement, but his claim of innocence is backed up by numerous witnesses willing to put their names (and careers) on the line to support an officer they believe was wrongly convicted.
However, it is clear that in today’s PC climate CDR Jackson is toast and will be lucky to stretch his appeals to reach the 20 year mark for retirement.
What is more disturbing is the rampant ignorance of military matters by those commenting on the newspaper’s site.
I guess we need to quit looking for warriors to defend our nation. Find plaster saints, HR professionals, lawyers and IG staffs and let them defend our nation against attack. That would please a lot of our fellow citizens, most of whom probably vote in elections as well.
Our country is truly screwed.
I asked a Senior JAG Officer about why the Navy seems to bend over backwards to investigate and punish to a near-extreme, anyone who even remotely offends- from a comment, to raunchy sophomoric videos, to adultery. Not only that, but the very public pronouncements of it all, especially the findings of guilt. The Officer stated that the Navy still remembers the fallout from Tailhook ’91 and how a SECNAV and CNO were lost. Tis better to ruin one man’s career than your own. Punishment only results in one person being fired. Not doing so could result in higher leadership being fired.
I’ve long though we should get together with the Royal Navy, box off a big patch of the North Atlantic, and have us some anything-goes wargames. You know, something that would let us figure out who can actually do they job they’re being paid for.
How many is that now for 2011? I wish I could say I gave up the count when I ran out of fingers but it stopped after I ran out of toes too!
Anyone read the comments at the link? The pious adherents of the new religion are out in force.
It is interesting to compare this to the OP Honors case. The common thread is that there now exists a method for poor performing officers to counterattack their superiors when counseled on their shortcomings. What saddens me most is that in this case, it appears a department head was the ring leader. This poor Asian American JO was only a pawn, used by an O4. The propensity to take any accusation, admittedly uncorroborated, and give it full credence Harkins back to the DOD IG Tailhook witch hunt. That said, CDR Jackson certainly gave his enemies enough ammunition.
Also, as much as we would like to think, this is nothing really new. My CAT I trip through the RAG, we had a guy who DQ’d at night. Turns out he was given extra training throughout the training command, due to his constant threat of playing the race card. Turns out that like this VAQ 134 DH, this JG had a record book as well – which he brought out at his FNAEB and trashed the RAG LSO. Got qual’ed on his third try, and the LSO split for the airlines. This guy was scary all through his one fleet tour, and left in disgrace when it turned out he was malingering as well as falsifying his log book to build time for the airlines – which was his goal from AVROC. He got his goal. But the ending wasn’t pretty.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/16812
That is the scariest story I’ve ever read. I’m sure at FedEx there were people just like at the RAG who knew this guy was a danger to himself and others. But because of the color of his skin, it was ignored.
PC is literally killing us. Look at the case of the Major Hassan and the Fort Hood shootings. At several points, someone in his chain of command could’ve taken the appropriate action and saved a lot of lives. But because they were afraid of reprisals, they remained silent.
It’s to the point where like the presidential campaign, where no candidate wants to endure the proctoscopy of the media prying into every aspect of the their lives, no one is going to want to wear that command pin. The zero-tolerance Nazis are bleeding the services dry and no one except the REMFs will be left. When CYOA is the rule of the day, well…
I’m glad I’m retired.
Grizzled Coastie/
Were I the Maximum Leader at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, I would have forcibly retired EVERYONR who had the SLIGHEST hand in the production of the PC white-wash rpt on the Ft. Hood shooting–to include the Army Chief of Staff. They are ALL PC carrying Typhoid Marys. “Diversity” PC Kool-aide drinkers all..
Wow, that IG report is indeed exculpatory. He comes off a bit juvenile, but she comes off as being utterly thin-skinned and willing to pull the race card and the golden VJ card to get her way. The women quoted in the report never saw anything out of line first hand, but they “felt” and rephrased what others said as “what he actually meant was.” His spy, JO female, thought the climate was outstanding and points out that the complainant had a few problems of her own.
So what’s the lesson? What if the CO was perfect in every way? Would he still survive if a superbly entitled minority female with performance issues starts lobbing accusations?
Methinks Unca Lex is truly glad his day has come and gone.
more chickenshit
I hate to say it ..but from what I saw in the AG report, I think the brass made the right call on this. I don’t give a damn about the “hostile work environment” claim…that appears to be truly BS and another example of the PC nature of todays Navy. I was however, a lot more concerned about the comments about aviation safety in the AG report. Perhaps the complaints came with improper motives, but it did sound like there was a problem in the Squadron. I am long removed from the NavAir game, and I suspect that P3′s have a different philosophy than the TACAIR guys, but it is wrong for a senior officer to second guess the Plane Commanders decision relating to safety of flight. There is a reference in the AG report to a flight mishap, where the Skipper instructed the disregard an unsafe gear indication and gear collapsed on landing… if that was substantiated in the mishap investigation, that alone would be enough to can the Skipper.
There are times, alas, that the right thing gets done for the wrong reasons.
As the father of a career Naval Aviator and also one of the many that fell afoul of the USNA admissions process of a decade ago when this diversity integer was introduced into the admissions calculus [ref. The Blue & Gold officer told my son that if he could run an under 5 seconds 40 and had a 36 inches verticle leap he'd be in. This CDR got my son an appointment to West Point. He turned it down and opted for an NROTC scholarship to VA TECH. You can't be a Naval Aviator by going to WP], it disturbs me greatly, to repeatedly see evidence of the forces of “kinder & gentler” entering into the command environment. So saying that, there is never any excuse for an officer to act in any way other than APPROPRIATELY, viz. in a mature and thoughtful manner. While I empathize with CDR Jackson, as I do with CAPT. Honors, the exhibiting of gravitas in a commanding officer must be considered a cornerstone of that command.
I’ll sign off by citing the “Ten Principles of Leadership” which I was taught as a young corporate “officer”:
Honor, Knowledge, Virtue, Courage, Conscience, Commitment,
Patience, Perserverance, Performance and Pride.
Semper Fortis
Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent is also a good Law to live by.
Jtg, Eagle Scout and band nerd, at the Right of the Line, with the Colors.
Lex,
I was exchanging emails with a couple of fellow Navy Milbloggr’s who have been around as long as we have about this, and I am thinking that perhaps we should start an archive of Admin stories just so people know what Admin used to be like in living memory … then again, maybe not …
fast neat average friendly good good
Form O-96