The 24th MEU’s Lt. Colonel has been relieved of duty for allegedly shoplifting 65$ worth of crap from Walmart. On the surface, at least, it’s nice to see the kind of thing that would land a private in a world of shit ruining a career in a proportionate way for an O-6.
O-6, actually, and likely on his way up at that age and after that promotion.
That’s a lot of pay to give up for a couple of printer cartridges and a bottle of STP.
You are correct, I got my ranks mixed up in the story. Hell, at first I thought it was the general under the lead that was the focus of the story, so it could have been worse.
And yes, it’s a lot of pay and a MEU is undeniably a prestige assignment (and that picture includes a dive bubble on his uniform, so he’s been around in terms of nuts and bolts stuff in the military as well). Who knows what else was going on to make him do this, since shoplifting is so often a symptom of something else.
Yeah, that seems like a pretty rarefied grade to be committing petty crime, especially in the marines, who can’t after all have all that many full colonels to begin with. He must make, what, more than $80K plus all the officer and marine benefits?
On the other hand, I guess he wasn’t exactly a fast-rising star, since he’s been commissioned for over 25 years; I’d think at 50 he’d be looking to be a brigadier, even in the marines where there aren’t that many of them, so maybe as LK says there’s something else festering there.
Edit: I like the comments on that military.com page, btw. Far more sensible discussion there than in any other news site I can think of.
It’s probably somewhere around 90-100k.
On the other hand, I guess he wasn’t exactly a fast-rising star, since he’s been commissioned for over 25 years; I’d think at 50 he’d be looking to be a brigadier, even in the marines where there aren’t that many of them, so maybe as LK says there’s something else festering there.
That was just innuendo based on the shoplifting thing more than his career, which seemed perfectly healthy to me especially given his time spent as an enlisted man and the fact that he was handed a MEU upon promotion. It’s a tiny percentage of officers that are even considered for flag ranks, and that’s as much a political question as one of competence or overall quality of career.
Edit: I like the comments on that military.com page, btw. Far more sensible discussion there than in any other news site I can think of.
24848339 Feb 7, 2011 3:13:16 PM
This is the result of the president not giving our troops a decent pay increase. How many more problems are going to arise because out government is using our fighting men and women like pawns on a chess board.
Well, there’s always that guy.
Yeah, but other people jumped on him. It’s not like there aren’t wackos, but that they mostly were reasonably respectful.
The only troubling thing is that appears to have been found guilty before he has had his day in court. Shouldn’t he have been temporarily relieve of duty pending the outcome of the civilian proceeding. If the charges are dropped or he is found not guilty, I would hope he’d get some slack.
On the other hand one of the comments is this
I work for Wal*Mart in Asset Protection, and I have read the internal report, he knew what he was doing was wrong.
I also came across this pretty harsh sentence.
ICHITA, Kan. – A disgraced Air Force sergeant will spend up to eight years in prison for exposing multiple sex partners to HIV at swinger parties in a sentence that the prosecution hopes will send the message that the military values the integrity of its servicemembers.
Now if only the same standards were applied to Lindsey Lohan… :(
Eight years for willfully exposing multiple people to HIV seems light, not harsh.
Though I suppose if it’s classified as assault it’s about as harsh as the law will allow.
They need to prove the charges in order to convict him in a military or civilian court. All you need is the appearance of impropriety (public) in order to compromise your ability to be taken seriously as a commander or in the case of non-command positions have your privileges seriously restricted. That’s exactly how it works across the military at lower ranks, where even receiving the notice of a speeding ticket makes the life of an enlisted man a living hell in comparison to what it was before.