A Crony Military? Jerry Brown’s Man Fires California’s First Female Army General

In August of 2011, Brigadier General Charlotte L. Miller, California’s first Army female general, was “involuntarily separated” from the California National Guard for what she feels are invalid reasons. In fact, when the order originally came down there weren’t much by way of reasons even given. At last Miller is speaking out and making some pretty serious charges against Major General David Baldwin, the man that fired her, by testifying before the California State Senate Rules Committee against his nomination to head the Calif. National Guard.

Last June, Miller was informed by The Adjutant General’s office (TAG) that she was being removed from her position and cast out of the California National Guard after over 30 years service and a near spotless record. What made matters worse was that, according to Miller, the TAG cited no authority or statute that authorized her removal nor was any proof of the specific charges made offered.

Miller further notes that her own due process was violated by the sudden dismissal and she says several military statutes were violated in the separation. Miller also reports that she has never been allowed access to copies of any investigations or findings that the TAG claims it based her dismissal upon.

A story in the Sacramento Bee from Feb 14makes all sorts of accusations against General Miller and states that Gen. Baldwin fired her because he “lost confidence” in her. But it seems that many of the accusations contained in the Bee article are incorrect, misleading or flat out untrue.

For instance, the Bee article says that Miller failed to detect crimes while commander of the Recruiting and Retention Command and left the impression that she was the officer that created and implemented a policy called “RIP-O” (Recruiting Incentive Program-Officers) saying that malfeasance was “echoed in her own policy.” The RIP program was not one upon which she had oversight as it was a federally mandated incentive program. She left command for another assignment within six months of the mandate.

Miller also claims she never had any notice that any investigations and findings of fault were made against her during the 2006 program in question.

Baldwin himself has a chequered career. He was allegedly involved in a cover up of the loss of several automatic weapons that ended up being recovered by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, members of his office were discovered altering their timecards in order to hide any “double-dipping” they might have engaged in, and it appears that he’s used state military funds to create new positions for his close associates creating an atmosphere of a crony military.

Gen. Miller says that Gen. Baldwin has violated due process on removals and subsequent promotions and that he’s created an air of favoritism that could paralyze the Calif. National Guard’s command structure. The act of favoritism, Miller says, “is one of the quickest methods to erode confidence in leadership by subordinates.” Cronyism of this type “compromises the strength and integrity of the Guard leadership.”

Miller will appear before the committee this Wednesday.

Todays Events, California Senate

Rules
Chairman: STEINBERG
1:30 p.m. – Room 112 (Room 112)
(TELEVISED)
Rules Committee
Show Details

Shortlink:

Posted by Warner Todd Huston on February 15, 2012.
Filed under Big government, corruption, Culture Of Corruption, Democrats, General, Liberals, Military.
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago-based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com and BigJournalism.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, RightPundits.com, StoptheACLU.com, Human Events Magazine, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events.He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book "Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture" which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions, EMAIL Warner Todd Huston: igcolonel .at. hotmail.com"The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it." --Samuel Johnson

You can leave a response or trackback to this entry