Your Tax Dollars At Work (& Play)

WASHINGTON — Since 2013, military investigators have documented at least 500 cases of serious misconduct among its generals, admirals and senior civilians, almost half of those instances involving personal or ethical lapses, a USA TODAY investigation has found.

Many cases involve sex scandals, including a promiscuous Army general who led a swinging lifestyle, another who lived rent-free in the home of a defense contractor after his affair fell apart and another who is under investigation for sending steamy Facebook messages to the wife of an enlisted soldier on his post.

Yet despite the widespread abuses, the Pentagon does no trend analysis to determine whether the problem is worsening, nor does it regularly announce punishments for generals and admirals — all public figures, USA TODAY has found. Senior officers found to have been involved in adulterous relationships, a violation of the military’s code of justice, have been reassigned with no public notice and allowed to retire quietly, in some cases with full honors.

No, really? I'm simply shocked. You'd think that people who sole purpose for existence is killing (& "breaking things") would have some kind of moral code, perhaps even a code of military justice of some sort.</sarcasm>

In 2014, then-Defense secretary Chuck Hagel created an office to investigate ethical problems among senior leaders. It was shuttered two years later without determining the depth of the problem, a task Hagel gave it when he opened the office.

“This is another example of top (Pentagon) officials refusing to demand accountability and sweeping major ethical problems from commanders under the rug to the detriment of the men and women who serve admirably under them,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat and member of the Armed Services Committee, told USA TODAY.

Because the Pentagon obscures the extent of the sexual scandals, problems emerge piecemeal as new cases are ferreted with the aid of whistle-blowers. The Army, for example, was unaware that Maj. Gen. Joseph Harrington was sending Facebook Live messages to the wife of a sergeant until USA TODAY showed them to officials. He was fired on Oct.13.

It goes on & on & this reporter hadn't the patience to finish. When the fucking hell do we drain the Pentagon swamp of its ranking alligators & crocodiles?

[USA Today]