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Last edited Sun Feb 28, 2016, 11:22 PM - Edit history (11)
Washington Post: Besides serving as governor...Chris Christie (is)...commander in chief of the New Jersey National Guard...in charge of 8,400 citizen soldiers...After he took office in 2010, Christie reappointed (a) childhood friend...to lead the Guard. But the married general was forced to resign in disgrace after staff members caught him having an affair at work...The governor’s next pick...Air Force Brig. Gen. Michael L. Cunniff...was secretly reprimanded by the Pentagon last year for his excessive waistline and for repeatedly ducking physical-fitness tests...
Cunniff finally took a fitness test in November 2013, his first in more than three years. He flunked when his waist size was measured at 4.5 inches larger than what was allowed...Cunniff reports directly to Christie...(but Christie's) staff said he was unaware that...Cunniff...had been reprimanded...(According to) Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts...Christie has given Cunniff 90 days to slim down and “meet his obligations...The Governor has expressed directly to the General that his failure to meet that standard or to provide notification of his formal reprimand is both unacceptable and disappointing...”
Dissent began to bubble up last year. In April 2014, a group of junior officers wrote a letter to Christie to complain about a “demeaning and toxic” command culture in the militia. The(y)...accused Cunniff and his deputy, Army Brig. Gen. James J. Grant, of not promoting minorities into senior jobs...In May...(it was) disclos(ed) that four colonels had been convicted of drunken driving...In December...other senior officers, including the state chaplain, filed a harsher complaint with the Army inspector general at the Pentagon...accus(ing) Cunniff and Grant of abuse of authority, fraud, waste, cronyism and other wrongdoing...In January (2015), the mutiny reached the Internet...Parody videos were posted...casting Cunniff and Grant as incompetent Nazi commanders...In February...the Guard’s top (minority) officers wrote another letter to Christie saying that the troops “have had enough...(of the) mistrust, secrecy, intimidation, deception, favoritism, cronyism and unethical behavior.”
“It’s like the mob,” said Brian K. Scully, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who says he lost his job because he refused to help cover up the general’s affair. “One minute you’re the made man. The next, you get a bullet in the back of your head -- only here it’s career assassination.”
Cunniff finally took a fitness test in November 2013, his first in more than three years. He flunked when his waist size was measured at 4.5 inches larger than what was allowed...Cunniff reports directly to Christie...(but Christie's) staff said he was unaware that...Cunniff...had been reprimanded...(According to) Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts...Christie has given Cunniff 90 days to slim down and “meet his obligations...The Governor has expressed directly to the General that his failure to meet that standard or to provide notification of his formal reprimand is both unacceptable and disappointing...”
Dissent began to bubble up last year. In April 2014, a group of junior officers wrote a letter to Christie to complain about a “demeaning and toxic” command culture in the militia. The(y)...accused Cunniff and his deputy, Army Brig. Gen. James J. Grant, of not promoting minorities into senior jobs...In May...(it was) disclos(ed) that four colonels had been convicted of drunken driving...In December...other senior officers, including the state chaplain, filed a harsher complaint with the Army inspector general at the Pentagon...accus(ing) Cunniff and Grant of abuse of authority, fraud, waste, cronyism and other wrongdoing...In January (2015), the mutiny reached the Internet...Parody videos were posted...casting Cunniff and Grant as incompetent Nazi commanders...In February...the Guard’s top (minority) officers wrote another letter to Christie saying that the troops “have had enough...(of the) mistrust, secrecy, intimidation, deception, favoritism, cronyism and unethical behavior.”
“It’s like the mob,” said Brian K. Scully, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who says he lost his job because he refused to help cover up the general’s affair. “One minute you’re the made man. The next, you get a bullet in the back of your head -- only here it’s career assassination.”
About that formal reprimand: Cunniff not mentioning it to Christie is one thing. But surely the Pentagon formally informed Christie that he was in danger of losing his military point man. If Cunniff never mentioned it to Christie, maybe it's because he saw no point in telling him what he already knew. Anyhow, cue the F Troop theme!
rocktivity
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