Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced last night that the onetime top Pentagon official in Africa has been forced to retire after an investigation found that he traveled too lavishly.
Panetta decided that Gen. William E. Ward, former commander of U.S. Africa Command, should be retired at the grade of lieutenant general. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey reportedly urged Panetta to let Ward retire at his four-star rank.
“The Department of the Army will also seek to recoup roughly $82,000 in expenses stemming from Gen. Ward’s misconduct in travel, misuse of military aircraft, misuse of staff, and the receipt of reimbursements to which he was not entitled,” the late night statement said.
In June 2012, the Department of Defense Inspector General released an investigation finding that Ward had “engaged in numerous substantiated acts of misconduct related to misuse of government funds during his tenure as commander of U.S. Africa Command.”
The violations reportedly consist of using military vehicles to shuttle his wife on shopping trips, accepting dinner from a government contractor, and spending a couple of nights at the Waldorf Astoria.
Since departing U.S. Africa Command, by operation of law Ward reverted to the grade of major general and is currently serving as a special assistant to the Army vice chief of staff in that grade.
“Secretary Panetta insists that leaders within the Department of Defense exemplify both professional excellence and sound judgment,” the statement from press secretary George Little said. “The secretary recognizes that the vast majority of senior officers in the military abide by the letter and spirit of our laws and regulations, and utilize sound judgment in their stewardship of taxpayer resources. The secretary is committed to ensuring that any improprieties or misconduct by senior officers are dealt with swiftly and appropriately.”
In the Bush administration, Ward served as the United States Security Coordinator, Israel – Palestinian Authority while deputy commander at U.S. European Command.
President Obama put the nomination of the next European commander on hold while Gen. John Allen is being investigated for “inappropriate communications” with a Tampa socialite involved in the Petraeus affair. If Allen goes, he will be the fourth general in Afghanistan to fall due to ouster or scandal during Obama’s term.
A purge of generals. Where have I heard of that before?
Erdogan, Morsi, Obama?
Most infamously, Stalin.
A purse of compromised generals. This guy deserved it. So did Petraeus. So did Allen. All broke the honor code that is well-understood by all military officers.
Concur. MGEN should be the terminal rank–and only if there is nothing to indicate a consistent pattern of egotistical conduct when he was in command at lower levels.
Retirement at LGEN is a disgrace if the guy didn’t do much that someone else of the same rank could not have done just as easily–in other words, the man achieved no achievements of unique genius attributable to his presence alone, and not the system’s. And since there is nothing of that sort arising from Africa that I am aware of,, MGEN should be the terminal, and would have sent a stronger message. Egotism has its price, and officers are not feudal lords in ownership of their own fiefdoms.
This reminds me of “Night of the Long Knives” of the Hitler era.
Either there’s a whole lotta rot in the military (like the 70s, only this time it’s at the top) or someone has reasons for purging generals.
Maybe both.
No doubt people have their reasons for going after these fellows, but the fellows all deserve it and they themselves know it. If this is a “purge,” it’s a purge of the compromised.
Since when is anyone in D.C. concerned about lavish spending? I don’t remember hearing about many people being “retired” for the trips to Vegas and Hawaii.
I’m detecting a purge of General Staff in the military.
Just can’t figure out how he’s going to promote non military cronies to General.
A four-star general is bounced for $80,000 in “lavish” spending, when the Obama family sucks up – what was it, a BILLION dollars a year in travel and security?
When a single Hellfire missile launched from a Predator is $100,000?
It’s a fart in a windstorm.
Yet I’ve seen senior business executives hassled and fired over the like.
Maybe the $80k is a proxy for some much larger things we’re not hearing about, but it may not be.
Something nobody has bothered to understand:
1)Obama and his wife have always hated America.
2)Obama and his wife have always hated America’s “military-industrial complex” and will see that it is decimated.
3)Obama and his wife deliberately returned Churchill’s bust for reasons he stood up to the Third Reich and stood for Britains colonialism.
4)Obama and his wife feel America (the colonial power) owes them (downtrodden) everything and should pay for everything Obama’s spend, waste and give away.
Sounds like something French. Soon americans will be told to “Eat cake!”
Purging military leaders who would oppose a unilateral nuclear disarmament or draw down of our present inventory to unacceptable levels.
Once our present nuclear inventory is reduced, all our enemies would have to do is target our missile sites and take out our nuclear capability and we would be defenseless and unable to respond to a first strike.
Obama now has the flexibility to endanger us.
We should consider that some, possibly many of these actions occurred during a war. And then we can look to history as a guide. How did past Flag officers – AND their more junior officers – comport themselves in similar situations? The answer would be … similarly.
Very quickly, Churchill becomes a drunk, Eisenhower and adulterer, and off we go to the races. The fact that people are a mixed bag becomes “our military is corrupt.” Benghazi is off the front page and sex, lies, and email-gate becomes the hot thing.
I’m not suggesting that we exonerate the current crop of officers, but that the Obama administration expected these actions and BANKED them for use at the right time. The question becomes, how precisely is this the right time … and what’s next?
Cut off its head … and what becomes of the the rest of the body? That’s at least part of the intent. Fuel the left hatred of the military, and what comes next?
500 Flag officers serving and retired endorsed Romney with a very public newspaper ad. What are they thinking tonight? How many of them are just as “guilty”? How many of them are sleeping poorly? How many are wondering “Am I next?”
Welcome to brass knuckle politics Chicago style. Single out the few, punish them hard, cow the rest into silence, and secure your claim to power. Leave enough loose ends to imply something deeper, to imply something sinister we’re not hearing about, and your supporters will whisper the worst: a coup diverted, unnamed dark corruption, moral decay and a whole stew of vile Michel Moore half-truths.
We have a Chicago-thug in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and he means to rule, not to serve.
For anybody who follows military news on a daily base then it would not be so alarming of how many many career status officers (especially the army) of the military branches have been charged and or convicted of crimes with so many more pending at various degrees. A horrible top down character and criminal culture, especially in the army, has been allowed to grow since 2003 like no other times I can remember in my time from Korea forward. In some large part, I supose it says more about our national culture.