For thirty-three years I served our nation as a member of the United States Army. It was an honor to serve both the nation and to wear the uniform of the United States Army. Oh there were times I would get mad at the foolishness of the Army, but by and large I had faith that the Army would always be there for the nation, and the Army leaders would do the right thing. That is what the Army has done for two hundred and thirty seven years, or so I thought. Unfortunately the Army reputation for honorable service has been besmirched and for the first time in my life I am ashamed to admit that I am a soldier in the United States.
Why you ask am I ashamed? For a very simple reason, a Court-Martial in Germany allowed an Army Colonel to essentially walk three despite admitting his guilt of being an adulterer, a bigamists, fraudulently filing false travel vouchers, lying, while in Command of the storied 173rd Airborne Brigade. Instead of losing his retirement, going to jail, receiving a dishonorable discharge; he was fined 300K and given a letter of reprimand. No jail and a retirement.
How could this happen you ask? Simple, the Army, unlike the Navy does not hold its leaders accountable; because the Army does not want to punish a West Point graduate and the son of a retired General Officer, nor will the Airborne mafia allow one of their own to be held accountable.
This is not about justice, it is not about doing what is right, it is not about leading, about setting an example for subordinates; it is about the Army not allowing the American people to see that it does have bad apples, that it does do what is right. I can guarantee you that if this had been a Sergeant or Captain, he or she would never have gotten out of Leavenworth.
There is no honor in the Army today, two hundred and thirty seven years besmirched by the act of a Court Martial panel who rather than doing what was right chose instead the easy way and took care of one of their own.
What a crock.The man should have been hung by his balls. West Pointers get date of rank on top of anyone, even if commissioned before them in the year of graduation.Another crock of shit.
I know a captain who did much the same, less the getting married. He’s serving a nickel in the brig. But then he was a Marine. Hopefully the outrage from this will serve as notice to the officer corps to look after the army and not a fellow member of the WPPA.
It’s okay. The Army still makes its soldiers wear their values card. Awesome.
This really is a travesty of justice. An NCO doing something similar would be stacking time in Leavenworth. I don’t know what the panel was thinking–a general court doesn’t need a unanimous verdict, just 2/3, but I’m thinking this was some kind of compromise. I hope the first wife gets to keep her TRICARE benefits–hope her lawyer is of the junkyard dog variety.
Different spanks for different ranks.
Johnson’s sentence is illustrative of the disintegration of the Army’s ethics. It’s been going on for a long, long time.
I recommend returning to the old Ethics regulation – 50 pages instead of thousands. And, training leaders to see in black in white, instead of many shades of grey.
There will always be gray, this was not a case of gray, what he did was wrong, whether it was defined in the The Rules of War or the UCMJ.
I think because the wife (Kris Johnson) went public with this and because she was the one who ratted him out on the fraud issues, I think the army decided to do what they could to arrange that she & the two kids were taken care of. In the divorce, she should get half of his retirement and then a bit more for child support. With a good lawyer and the right jurisdiction, she could walk away with 75% of his retirement pay. With saying all that, after 26 years in the army I would have to agree that if it were an NCO or a junior office, they would have been hammered by the general court martial.
The Air Force also has issues: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2010/05/airforce_dui_051410/
A “Uniform” code of military justice could mean one rule applies to all ranks at all times until retirement or discharge. What we have here is a failure to communicate what “Uniform” means to those that wear stars, officer and enlisted.
@ Jerry. His soon to be ex doesn’t deserve a dime. The idea that HIS retirement is somehow something she has any “right ” to is complete and total BS. It is his money- not hers. He earned it she didn’t as evidenced by the fact that something must have been done on her part to drive him to another bed.
There really are only the issues of fraud and the lying about it to deal with. The rest are between him and his soon to be ex wives.
Sadly theex will get TRICARe- not that she deserves. The USFSPA is a bad law, and it is cases like this that keep Congress from having the gumption to repeal it. It creates sob stories about a supposedly “aggrieved” spouse. Which keeps this piece of excrement law from being repealed.
There are over 200000 victims of this bad law. Regardless of whatever the Colonel did it has no bearing on what she should get.
skippy-san –
I would venture to guess that you are not a career serviceman, or, have any experience with what our spouses endure over the course of a 20 or 30 year career…..
What exactly do they endure? My wife never deployed, she was never shot at, she hever put one a Marine in a body bag; she never went hungry or lived in a hole in the ground. I could go on and on but the simple fact is they don’t have to endure shit but inconvenience. And far too often they shit on the service member and still get benefits simply because they got over on the system and married a military member. They rate NOTHING.
USMC you are a first class idiot! Im an Army wife of over 22 years and I can tell you that moving every 1-2 years, putting up with FRGS, PTA meetings alone, coaching our sons teams, sleepless nights with sick kids, missing the death of parents because we lived overseas, the air-conditioning breaks in the middle of a Georgia heatwave, wives from the unit calling with their problems (my husband left me no money, my husband beats me…….) while you SIR are drinking with the buds and female soldiers down at the cantina , watching porn in your air-conditioned tents on your lap top, and getting “massages” done at each new port!!! Dont give me crap about what military spouses do or dont go through. I lived in Djibouti and saw how the Marines lived at Camp Lemoniare……Burger King, Cantinas, entertainers (to include cheerleaders) came to entertain the troops and surf and turf nights at the chow hall! Give me a break!!! You SIR rate NOTHING !!! You are probably a divorced angry has been.
You married young and probably to a foreign spouse who found out she had rights as soon as she landed in the land of the big NEX! All you guys are idiots for marrying your little “I love you Long Time!!” girls. You end up bitter and with a disease. Us real women do for the most a great job supporting our military husbands and put up with a lot! ( we know you are saints on deployment!!) Kris Johnson and their kids deserve that retirement for the shit they had to put up with. If it wasnt for her the Army would still have him in command!!! UGH! She deserves a medal and a reward for turning him in. She just saved the Army from more waste fraud and abuse…… a retirement check is just 1/2 of what she deserves. For all you wife haters out there…….if you had used the brain in your head on your shoulders and not the one in your pants you wouldnt be this bitter and angry. Get over yourselves!
Yea, I guess 29 years of Naval Service and having to have 36% of a hard won retirement stolen from me every month by a worthless shrew don’t entitle me to have any worthwhile opinons on the subject. Silly me.
Women don’t “earn” anything by being married to a service member. The whole concept of military retirement as “property” is wrong, completely wrong. You know who said that? The Supreme Court in 1981 when they correctly ruled that military retirement was not divisible . Congress ON A VOICE VOTE with no roll call-enacted the USFSPA that has screwed over literally 200,000 of us-and potentiallu will screw over millions more, given that the military’s divorce rate is about 50%. At least when a 401K is split up , the loss is real and immediate and the service member can begin efforts to recover, by changing contributions or investment strategy. There is no such option with military retired pay. Its based on an expectation of value that goes on and on and on.
So no-I’m not going to sit here and extol the virtues of the “long suffering” military spouse. She wants funds for retirment-she can get off his or her ass an invest their own money in an IRA, or get a job and work for her own money. The whole idea of “communal property” like marriage itself is one that needs to be re-thought.
Bitter? You bet. I have a right to be. And that’s why regardless of whatever happens to Col Johnson, I won’t cry any salt tears if his wife gets not a dime.
And Maj W-here is a longer and more comprehensive explanation of why you are wrong. http://fareastcynic.com/2005/07/20/the-briefing-the-secdef-missed-part-ii/
Skippy-San,
you married that “worthless shrew” in a first place, did not you?? So, “enjoy” the consequences of your decision.
This Court-Martial decision is a shame, the Col should have served some time for the fraud and bigamy.
The correct way to deal with a vindictive sortt such as is described with Skippy is to put a .45 bullet in her head and bury her in an unmarked grave. That is what they deserve, not our hard earned money.
USMC Steve, how are you different from the thugs in Goodfellas? So, 36% of your salary is worth a murder; what about 35%, 30% 25%, 20%, etc? At what point do you decide to respect another person’s life and the law?
Wow what an original way to get rid of a women you don’t like; hope you live in a state without the death penalty–if you lived in Texas or Florida your ass wouldn’t be around long. Hope your kids don’t mind you offing mom.
Skippy San, you are pathetic. I am going to leave your misogynist comments up out of allowing your true colors to be known. Given your comments I can understand why your wife told you to hit the road jack.
Skippy-
you have issues. hope you get help.
that is all.
Tricycle.
I bet you married young and married a foreign born spouse! Your the idiot to fall for the “I love you long time” line! You get what you bargained for. I dont think Kris Johnson is in the same cat. as your ex wife. Although I feel sorry for both women. Why do men only think with their appendage when it comes to women?
How pathetic :(
In the spirit of fair play, I now call upon Townie76 to demand that the Army become a subordinate command of the Marine Corps.
Provided we get to run it!!!!!!!!!!!!
That verdict was a travesty. Not only was he an adulterer and a bigamist who defraused the Governemnt with false travel charges etc… but he also let Fraudulent contracts to his “wife”‘s father and they wracked up an $80,000 Cell phone bill using a Government cell phone. all that an no loss of Rank, no jail time, no Discharge, just a fine big but so what- he was a criminal! They only needed to get a 2/3 vote to send him to Leavenworth and they couldn’t muster that? F-ing pathetic.
For Justice: if a private/sergeant/lieutenant committed bigamy, made false official statements, and stole $300,000 – that soldier’s wife and family wouldn’t get squat. Not one damned penny while his or her husband was drummed out with a BCD.
Justice is equal. Justice only recognises right and wrong. There are zero shades of grey in Justice.
Compassion breeds the shades of grey folks are so fond of. Compassion is nice, and is best displayed at Walmart or in one’s church’s parking lot 5 minutes after services let out. Far too many folks argue for compassion as they cut thy neighbor’s throat for that primo parking spot, or to exit the parking lot in time for the game.
Mrs. Johnson is, for lack of other information, capable of holding a job. She is capable during this 3.5+ year mancession of getting a job. Her children know how to operate a latchkey. Who the hell is she to be permitted to sit back on the couch crying to Oprah and eating cupcakes? Or is this demonstration sexism now a positive?
And before you get all up in a snit: Colonel (Retired) Johnson gets half the cash. The money will go back into the general fund to be spent for other things: abortions, use of Air Force 1 to play at a Masters’ course. Johnson’ll be eligible for a nice, lucrative job (is his security clearance being pulled? If not – major bucks!), and given his morals, K Street is the place for him.
It is not compassion to give Mrs Johnson the privilige of free money when she’s neither earned it, or is incapable of making her own. This is welfare and the Army has made a colonel’s wife a welfare queen. May that the Army choke on that.
Everyone just settle down! As an Army wife at any rank, after 20 years of serving alongside our husbands we deserve, you heard me right, deserve that retirement check just as much as our spouses who were active duty. The years of following our husband from post to post, putting on FRG meetings, doing newsletters, going to PTA meetings alone and holding down the homefront while our husbands are hopefully behaving themselves while deployed (and we know you dont always!!!) Kris Johnson should get her retirement check at the end of all this. She married and idiot but at the time his butter bars were so bright and new she couldnt see past the sparkle. Two kids later and he has a mid life crisis in his pants while deployed and lonely while she is back at home taking care of everything from dental apts. to PTA meetings to FRG bitches. Give me a break, she cant find a job now that will make her 1/2 of what he’s been making, she has been to busy with the Armys work to keep her career up. The best she can do now is get a job checking groceries at the local Walmart! I know we want to crucify the Col (as well he should be) but for the real wifes sake and the first children of his, I think the panel did ok. This jerk just needs to retire like yesterday and do us all a favor and stay the heck away from the good troops!
DaveO,
I hate to differ, but Justice is and should be full of grey, because Life is. There are all sorts of extenuating circumstances that make one’s actions more or less vile.
I don’t know very much about this particular case, it seems those who are familiar with the details are pretty upset with the relaxed sentence. From what I read this guy was full on cheating with another woman late into their lives. In this case I think she is entitled to those benefits, she stayed the course and was planning on those benefits and this guy screwed the pooch (maybe literally). If he didn’t want to reduce his pension he could have kept it in his BDU’s. ( I know, they don’t wear BDU’s anymore, I am old, deal with it)
As for spouses deserving pension money. I am on the fence. Married life is hard, being marred to a deployable service member harder still. I think a great many military marriages end poorly because of the extra demands the Service puts on a family. Should the serving spouse be punished even more for their decision to serve? I know a few EM’s who wound up divorced because their wives didn’t like all the field time, and when we weren’t out in the woods they didn’t understand the bonding time we felt we needed to stay tight as a fighting unit. I don’t think they deserve anything.
For the most part I do not agree with award settelements like alimony anymore. There are cases when it is appropriate IMO and so it should remain an option, but it should be something that requires proof of some major offence to get. (FWIW I also think child support should be backed up with reciepts showing that money was spent on the kids)
Ok I am starting to ramble, so I am out…