Monday, September 30, 2013

A pair of Marine Major Generals got fired.


Forced into retirement actually, and the first general officers to be sacked since Vietnam.
Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos asked Major General Charles Gurganus and Major General Gregg Sturdevant to retire, holding the two officers responsible for a September 2012 attack on a base in Helmand province that killed Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Raible and Sergeant Bradley Atwell and wounded eight others.

The moves marked the first time since the Vietnam War that a U.S. Marine, Army or Air Force general was forced out of a job for negligence during an enemy attack, according to a blog for Foreign Policy magazine, which cited Tom Ricks, author of “The Generals,” a military history.

The assault by about 15 insurgents on Camp Bastion, the main British base in Afghanistan located next to the Marines’ Camp Leatherneck, also destroyed a fleet of six Harrier AV-8B aircraft, marking the biggest loss of U.S. materiel in the 12-year conflict. In May, Amos ordered an investigation into the attack and today endorsed the probe’s findings.

Gurganus and Sturdevant “did not take adequate force protection measures within the range of responses proportionate to the threat,” Amos said in a statement released today. While both commanders faced challenges in pursuing the enemy even as the overall U.S. troop levels began to decline in Afghanistan, “my duty requires me to remain true to the timeless axioms relating to command responsibility and accountability.”
So is this how they are going to downsize the Corps?

// posted by montag @ 10:55 PM
Comments:
I've heard that they are working on the poor dudes at the bottom of the pile, too. New rules on tattoos ANYwhere on the body, rules dictating what the troops can wear even when OFF duty, even when on leave....saying crap like they must ALWAYS be clean-shaven and have military hair cuts. Oh, and some bases have now said NO visitors...even other military members allowed in barracks rooms, and with increasing inspections during night hours to see that military 'stract' is being maintained.

Guess they retire brass and treat ordinary troops like it is Basic Training ALL the time...
# posted by Anonymous Syrbal/Labrys : 12:46 PM
 

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