Why covering up military officer misconduct is harmful to democracy

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Paul Szoldra
@PaulSzoldra
‘Lost trust and confidence’ — How the military covers up officer misconduct and why that’s harmful to democracy

Why covering up military officer misconduct is harmful to democracy
Most senior officers in the Marine Corps are more concerned with skirting accountability than addressing the issues that plague the service.
taskandpurpose.com
2:36 PM · Apr 29, 2021

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/marine-corps-officer-misconduct-cover-up-zavala/

On a warm summer day, as Capt. Paul Gainey drove home from a weekend camping trip to the Grand Canyon, his cell phone chimed.

“You can’t tell anyone,” Gainey said a U.S. Marine wrote in a text message. “The battalion commander of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion is being relieved because of domestic violence.”

The following morning, May 7, 2019, Gainey drove to his office on Camp Margarita, a small section of Camp Pendleton, a sprawling Marine Corps base in southern California. He met privately with one of the most senior officers in the 1st Marine Division. An investigation had found “credible” evidence that the senior leader of one of the Corps’ most decorated infantry units had physically assaulted his wife for years, the colonel told Gainey. The commanding general had endorsed the investigation days earlier.

Gainey immediately advocated for transparency. He said he argued that the Corps had an obligation to share why commanders had relieved the decorated Marine officer, supported by internal emails shared with The War Horse.

“My leaders stressed the importance of protecting [Lt. Col. Francisco] Zavala’s privacy,” Gainey wrote in an email to The War Horse. He told the colonel a press release could be written that protected due process while also being transparent, he said. Still, he was told that only a few people knew about the case and that he was to keep it quiet, he said.

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[Phoenix61]

1. I worked in Family Advocacy which is the unit in every branch

that is responsible for investigating allegations of domestic abuse or neglect for almost 10 years. There was one, maybe two officers who had allegations reported to the unit. Not because abuse wasn’t happening but because chain of command “handled it.” Can’t help but wonder how many really bad things happened because the perpetrator’s behavior wasn’t addressed as it should have been. Until there are serious repercussions for the chain of command covering up rather than reporting which they are mandated to do nothing will change. When something goes seriously wrong and the shit hits the fan and the front page they’ll offer up a sacrificial lamb but then it’s back to the same old same old.