A Time For Change.

Admiral Brown takes over as 14th District Commander 22 May 2008.


U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Manson K. Brown and Wilkie Rasmussmen, Cook Islands Minister of Foreign Affairs, signed a bilateral shiprider agreement in Samoa on July 25, 2008. Photo by Carolyn Ridderman, U.S. Coast Guard



On 8 May 2008 at the Coast Guard Maintenance and Logistics Command Pacific, Alameda, California, RADM Manson K. Brown was relieved by CAPT Robert E. Day. RADM Brown will take command of the 14th Coast Guard District on 22 May 2008.

The Change of Command ceremony is a time-honored tradition which formally symbolizes the continuity of authority as the command is passed from one individual to another. It is a formal ceremony which is conducted before the assembled company of the Command. The Change of Command as traditionally practiced within the Coast Guard is unique in the world today; it is a transfer of total responsibility, authority, and accountability from one individual to another.


The Change of Command is a big event in any service. It is an opportunity for the unit to look sharp to all the visitors and to put out the welcome mat to the incoming administration. It is hard to not be inspired by the pomp and circumstance of such an event. It is inspiring to watch a Change of Command ceremony.

The colors have been posted.


The Honor Guard is ready for inspection.

All present and accounted for, Sir.


Sempter Peratus. Always ready. Ready; Willing; and Able.


Reading of Citation to accompany The Legion of Merit.


Admiral Brown awarded the Legion of Merit.


Admiral Brown recieves his personal flag.


Sir, I stand relieved.

A 2-star promotion.


Admiral and Mrs. Manson K. Brown ready for duty, Sir.

The Maintenance & Logistics crew thanks you.

From the CPO Association a hat box for your Honorary CPO cap.


The National Naval Officers' Association thanks you.

The Navy League thanks you.



The Change of Command ceremony for RADM Manson K. Brown signaled a PROMISE of what can be, or what might be, and how great the Coast Guard can be. I experienced a sense of promise and a sense of hope in the future of the Coast Guard. My hope is inspired by RADM Brown's promotion, transfer, and the fact that he is on track to become the Coast Guard's first African American Commandant.

As I sat in the audience at the Change of Command ceremony I saw what had become of the braniac high school senior that I had recruited out of Saint John's Prep School in Washington, DC in 1973. What I saw surpassed my wildest expectations. I saw a Coast Guard admiral of cosmopolitan intellectualism and oratorical eloquence. With his image and the power of his words, he embodies the type of leader that the Coast Guard will need in the next few years. RADM Brown projected a youthful vigor and indescribable charisma. There was an inherent decency and sincerity in his pleasant face and smile.

I like to read Alexis de Tocqueville. He was a 19th Century French statesman and writer who liked to travel around America and make comments about what he observed in the American body politic. On one occasion he noted a characteristic in the American spirit that he felt boded well for America; that is, America's "capacity for self-correction".

I believe that the Coast Guard also has a capacity for self-correction. It is time for a change. Change is in the air. It is time to move on. It is time for healing. It is time to embrace change. I pray that the Americans occupying the most senior positions in the United States Coast Guard will exhibit that sense of self-correction and get back on course.

A mid-course correction could be accomplished by a change at the top, by a single act of bold and daring leadership. Selecting Manson K. Brown as the next Coast Guard Commandant would be such an act of bold and daring leadership.


Admiral Brown presents Maintenance & Logistics Command Pacific Domain's Enlisted Person of the Year Award (CAPT Belmondo, YN2 Rocklage, RDML Brown, CMC Cale-Jones).



NOW HEAR THIS! NOW HEAR THIS!! Change is inevitable no matter who is selected to be the next Commandant. Thad Allen came in with such high expectations, but he has not delivered. His superb job during and after Hurricane Katrina led many to expect more from ADM Allen, but his tenure has been marked by a series of blunders and missteps. He has not provided the moral leadership the Coast Guard has needed at one of its darkest hours. As the supreme leader of the Nation's only humanitarian service, he has abandoned the moral high ground. In retrospect his performance during Hurricane Katrina appears to have been motivated more by a desire to upstage, Michael Brown, the former Director of FEMA than to render aid and comfort to the tragic victums of a natural disaster.

From the Cadet Webster Smith court-martial to the Deepwater fiasco and his failure to provide proper supervision of the Coast Guard Office of Civil Rights, ADM Allen's performance has earned him unflattering comments from the Congressmen and Senators who oversee his areas of responsibility.

The "noose incidents" occurred on his watch. He appears to have done nothing about them. The investigations were ineffectual. It was left to the Governor of Connecticut to take decisive action. The Connecticut State General Assembly was taking the lead in an area where initiative and strong leadership are drastically needed.
On 25 March 2008, the Legislature's Judiciary Committee voted 43-0 in favor of a bill that makes it a hate crime to hang a noose on public or private property, without permission of the property owner, and with the intent to harass or intimidate.

GOOD EVENING, MR AND MRS AMERICA AND ALL THE SHIPS AT SEA. THIS JUST IN FROM HARTFORD, Conn. (9/29/08) If a person tries to intimidate
someone by hanging a noose, he or she could face
criminal penalties in Connecticut. A law making it a
crime to display nooses will takes effect Wednesday, 1 October.

The law was passed after five nooses were discovered
in the state last year. In summer 2007, someone left
nooses for a Black Coast Guard Academy cadet and an
officer conducting race relations training at the United States Coast Guard Academy, New London,Connecticut.

The cadet in question was not Cadet Webster Smith, a Black cadet, who was the first Coast Guard Academy cadet ever to receive the Draconian punishment of a General Court-martial under circumstances that indicated racism was the motivating fator.

Three nooses were found in West Hartford last fall. In
July, a Bridgeport judge presiding over a murder trial
dismissed an entire jury after the drawing of a noose
was found in the deliberation room.


Govovernor M. Jodi Rell said they are symbols of racism. The
state's hate crimes law already includes similar
language for cross burnings.

(Halloween or theatrical displays are allowed under the
law but people caught using a noose to threaten or
intimidate could face up to five years in prison).

As Thomas Jackson said at the time, "The noose story is not the epicenter of Coast Guard Civil Rights issues. Equal Civil Rights are the story. The Coast Guard must and we think they will come to terms with this issue and others confronting the service. Leadership is the key to unlocking binds that hold progress in Equal Civil Rights back. Admiral Thad Allen is searching for the key with all his energy, but his staff expends ten times the energy hiding the key in a new location each time he gets close.

When asked about the Webster Smith court-martial, ADM Allen replied that the "process" had worked just as it was supposed to and just as he expected. On the otherhand, in an attempt to remove the albatross from the neck of the Coast Guard, it was ADM Robert Papp who took steps to remove ADM James Van Sice from office. ADM Van Sice and CAPT Doug Wisniewski were the architects of the Webster Smith travesty. It would appear that while ADM Thad Allen has his head in the clouds, it is ADM Robert Papp who has his feet on the ground. It kind of reminds one of the differences between George Patton and Omar Bradley. One was all talk and the other was mostly silent action.

With his new job as Atlantic Area Commander, VADM Papp is a step closer to the top job, but Manson Brown would be a better choice. His experience is broader, and he preceeded Barack Obama to Iraq by several years. The details of that duty are classified. There was a time when he was the special envoy of SEC-DOT Norman Mineta. The Selection Board for Commandant will have all of the relevant facts. While either Brown or Papp would be a better Commandant than Allen, VADM Manson K. Brown would be the wiser choice. History would smile on such a choice.

Admiral Brown at Lei-cutting ceremony to celebrate opening of the CG Clinic at Tripler Army Medical Facility in Hawaii; at right with Major General Hawley-Bowland (Commanding General, Tripler Army Medical Center), and RADM Brice-O'Hara (CG D14 Commander).



RDML Brown meets major league catcher, Travis Buck, before throwing out the first pitch at the Oakland Athletics' annual Coast Guard Day game.



Admiral Brown, 14th CG District Commander answered questions about its downed HH-65C Dolphin helicopter. "The work the Coast Guard does is hazardous," said Brown. "We do dangerous jobs in dangerous environments. We employ training and standard operating procedures to minimize the risk to our people. Losing a fellow 'Coastie' is like losing a child; it is an indescribable feeling," said Brown, who has been in the service for 30 years. He said he met with the three spouses at the hospital earlier. "We have thrown our cloak of comfort and concern around these families as if they were our own. We are going to take care of them in the absence of their loved ones."



The U.S. Coast Guard’s fight against minor maritime law violations may be a precursor to terrorism activities, according to one of its district commanders. Rear Adm. Manson K. Brown, USCG, commander, 14th Coast Guard District, described how fishing violations in U.S. exclusive economic zones may be laying the groundwork for terrorist actions in the same manner that piracy and terrorism have become linked.

Solving the problem of illegal fishing in the 14th Coast Guard District—which spans vast areas of the Pacific near many small island nations—may also position the Coast Guard to deal with emerging terrorist threats in the region. Tight federal budgets preclude the possibility of the Coast Guard adding large numbers of ships and crews, the admiral said. Instead, the Coast Guard must rely on technologies to fill the gap.

And, just as with conventional military operations, international collaboration is another key to success. Fish poachers can flee into waters of another sovereign island nation and grab fish there, which effectively defeats U.S. efforts to curb illegal fishing that threatens to deplete stocks. Adm. Brown described how the U.S. Coast Guard has a cooperative agreement with the Cook Islands that allows that country’s officials to use U.S. vessels as platforms for chasing poachers in their own waters. The admiral is pursuing similar agreements with other small island nations, and this collaboration can serve to help combat terrorism if it emerges in the region.

Feburary 2009 , the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) honored Coast Guard District Fourteen Commander Rear Adm. Manson K. Brown for his leadership and commitment to service with a Thurgood Marshall Flag Officers Award.



(In Picture) Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle and Rear Adm. Manson Brown at the Coast Guard District Fourteen Ball last year.
"I am pleased and privileged to be linked with a statesman such as Thurgood Marshall," said Brown, a civil engineer who has risen through the ranks of the U.S. Coast Guard to command the service's largest geographic district. "This is truly a humbling experience and I am honored to build upon Justice Marshall's legacy by furthering his commitment to leadership."

"I have thoroughly enjoyed my years in the United States Coast Guard and I recommend a career in our service to any young person looking for adventure and opportunities for professional growth," said Brown, a 1978 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy. "Officer or enlisted, the Coast Guard offers opportunities to grow and learn in a dynamic environment

Governor Linda Lingle is the sixth elected Governor of Hawai‘i. She is the first mayor, first woman and first person of Jewish ancestry to be Governor. She is also the first Republican to lead the Aloha State in more than 40 years. In November 2005, she was awarded the Diversity Best Practices Award for Leadership in Government – the first such award for a state’s chief executive.


Rear Adm. Manson Brown, at podium, commander of the 14th Coast Guard District, officiated at a change of command ceremony in which Lt. Cmdr. Bob Little, second from right on stage, took command of the cutter Kukui from Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Matadobra, third from right on stage. (Apr2009)

(Galveston, TX June 20, 2009)
Free At Last; Free At Last, Thank God Almighty, We are Free At Last.

Rear Adm. Manson K. Brown painted a picture of the African-Americans who stood in the yard of Ashton Villa on June 19, 1865, to hear the news that they were free.

Admiral Brown, the third African-American to reach the rank of admiral in the U.S. Coast Guard, invited the audience at the annual reading of the Emancipation Proclamation to think about those who first heard the proclamation read, informing them that they were free.

Their thoughts might have focused on working their own land, rather than some else’s, Admiral Brown said. Perhaps they were thinking about the ability to raise a family without fear of violence or of separation, he said.

Admiral Brown invited the audience to wonder whether any of those who heard that first reading of the proclamation in Texas could envision a day when the U.S. Armed Forces would be led by African-American generals and admirals — and when the nation would be led by an African-American president, Barack H. Obama.

“This is hallowed ground, not just for this community, but for the nation,” Brown said.

For the 30th year, Al Edwards, the Texas state representative who wrote the legislation to make Juneteenth a state holiday, organized the reading of the proclamation at Ashton Villa.

Doug Mathews, assistant vice president at the University of Texas Medical Branch, led the audience through an event that included music, prayers and comments from Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas, council members Tarris Woods, Dr. Linda Colbert and Danny Weber, County Commissioner Stephen Holmes and State Rep. Craig Eiland.

Later Friday, crowds watched the Juneteenth Parade, joined in a picnic at Wright Cuney Park and heard gospel music at Mount Olive Baptist Church.

On the Texas mainland, residents marked the day with gospel music, dominoes and softball tournaments, concerts, beauty pageants and the readings of the Emancipation Proclamation. Some of the festivals stretched on into the evening.

At Texas City’s festival, organizers honored Jasper Victoria, one of the founders of the Southside Juneteenth Celebration.

Mr. Victoria, a deacon at New Macedonia Church in Hitchcock, grew up in south Texas City, said Lynn Ray Ellison, one of the festival organizers.

“He’s always been a good civic and community worker,” Ellison said.

In Hitchcock, the Stringfellow Orchard House displayed artwork by League City artist Ted Ellis. The exhibit, “American Slavery: The Reason Why We’re Here,” depicts the transportation of slaves, the industry of slavery and crop production and the abolition of slavery.

KAPOLEI, Hawaii — In a ceremony scheduled for 10 a.m., Thursday, July 16, 2009 command of U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point will be transferred from Capt. Bradley Bean to Capt. Anthony “Jack” Vogt.

The 14th Coast Guard District Commander, Rear Adm. Manson K. Brown, will preside over the ceremony, which celebrates time-honored traditions associated with the transfer of command. Guests invited include Coast Guardsmen stationed on Oahu and in Hawaii, service members from other branches, government and industry partners and community members.

Coast Guard Day, 4 August 2009.
With this week's 219th birthday of the U.S. Coast Guard, I'd like to share with Honolulu Star-Bulletin readers the commitment of America's fifth armed service to provide maritime safety, security and stewardship in and around Hawaii.

As America's maritime shield of freedom, the men and women of the Coast Guard in Hawaii stand the watch every day, ready to respond at a moment's notice to those in peril on the sea and perform our multiple missions. Our air, cutter and small boat crews collaborate with other federal, state, and local maritime partners, as well as the maritime industry, to accomplish these missions.

In the past year, we've partnered many times with NOAA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on marine debris recovery and marine mammal relocation missions in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. While patrolling the pristine waters of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, we've documented several boats fishing illegally and worked with the U.S. Attorney's office to ensure those fishermen were held accountable. Earlier this summer, Coast Guard law enforcement personnel embarked aboard a U.S. Navy frigate and extended our service's ability to curb illegal fishing in the Pacific - a first for both services.

For many of our "guardians," service in the U.S. Coast Guard has provided a way forward to achieve America's dream. Whether military or civilian, active duty or reserve, or selfless volunteers in the Coast Guard Auxiliary, we are proud to serve as members of "Team Coast Guard." Being a part of Hawaii's ohana makes our service here all the more special.

Mahalo, Hawaii, for your support.
Rear Adm. Manson K. Brown is the 14th Coast Guard District commander in Honolulu

Obama Administration Officials to Hold Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting in the Pacific Islands on September 29, 2009


HONOLULU, HI - Obama Administration officials will hold an Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting in the Pacific Islands on Tuesday, September 29, 2009. The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, led by White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, and Rear Admiral Manson Brown, Commander 14th Coast Guard District, consists of senior-level officials from Administration agencies, departments, and offices.


The Task Force, established by President Obama via presidential memorandum on June 12, is charged with developing a recommendation for a national policy that ensures protection, maintenance, and restoration of oceans, our coasts and the Great Lakes. It will also recommend a framework for improved stewardship, and effective coastal and marine spatial planning. The meeting in the Pacific Islands will be the fourth regional public meeting held since the Task Force was created.

STOP THE PRESSES. WE INTERRUPT FOR AN EMERGENCY MESSAGE.

(Sept 29) PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — A powerful Pacific Ocean earthquake spawned towering tsunami waves that swept ashore on Samoa and American Samoa early Tuesday 29 Sept, flattening villages, killing at least 39 people and leaving dozens of workers missing at devastated National Park Service facilities.


Cars and people were swept out to sea by the fast-churning water as survivors fled to high ground, where they remained huddled hours later. Signs of devastation were everywhere, with a giant boat getting washed ashore and coming to rest on the edge of a highway and floodwaters swallowing up cars and homes.

American Samoa Gov. Togiola Tulafono said at least 50 were injured, in addition to the deaths.

The U.S. Coast Guard planned sent a C-130 plane to American Samoa to deliver aid and assess damage after the powerful earthquake and tsunami hit the U.S. territory.
Rear Adm. Manson Brown, Coast Guard commander for the Pacific region, said the Coast Guard is in the early stages of assessing what resources to send to American Samoa.

“We’re going to assume, because a tsunami of this sort is probably going to wreak havoc in the port, we’re going to have to get additional personnel and supplies down through the airport,” Brown told reporters.

A tsunami creates the risk of pollution if the waves damaged port refueling facilities, Brown said.

“We need to make sure we mitigate any hazard to human beings or hazards to the environment,” he said.

The U.S. Pacific Command, which is responsible for all U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region, hadn’t received any requests for help and wasn’t considering sending, spokesman Maj. Brad Gordon said.

Quote of the Day:
“There is no warfare area more important than cyber.”—Vice Adm. Richard W. Hunt, USN, commander of the U.S. Third Fleet

The challenges of the Pacific region and cyberwarfare issues dominated discussion on the second day of TechNet Asia-Pacific 2009 in Honolulu, Hawaii November 2-5. The new J-6 of the Pacific Command (PACOM), Brig. Gen. Brett T. Williams, USAF, began the day by calling for a new relationship between communicators and operators.

“What happens in cyberspace doesn’t stay in cyberspace; it affects the real world,” he declared. The U.S. military doesn’t need a cyber planning tool; it needs an integrated warfare planning tool. Information as a weapon and as a tool to further the commander’s capabilities will be much more powerful as a result, he said.

The Pacific theater of operations is providing new challenges to the U.S. Coast Guard, said the commander of the 14th Coast Guard District. Rear Adm. Manson Brown, USCG, told a luncheon audience that the Coast Guard increasingly is dealing with national security aspects as it carries out traditional missions deep into the Pacific.

Protecting precious fisheries are a national security issue, particularly as small island nations depend on fishing for food and commerce, he noted. If commercial concerns brazenly break rules and overfish, the well-being of these nations is threatened. Food security is a top issue with each of these countries.

Because it can be hard to get multiple nations to agree on something, the Coast Guard is entering into bilateral agreements to pursue joint interests in the vast region. Adm. Brown cited as an example how U.S. Coast Guard surveillance and reconnaissance information passed to its counterpart in Kiribati helped that small island nation catch illegal fishing in its waters. Apprehending the illegal fishers both stopped them and generated $4.7 million in fines’ revenue for Kiribati.

Appeals Court Judge Finds In Favor of Webster Smith

A Judge on the Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals found that former cadet Webster Smith was denied a fair trial and that the case should be sent back to the trial court for a new trial. He found that the Case of United States vs Webster Smith should be returned to the Convening Authority for a new trial.


Until and unless there is a reversal, this Dissent will continue to loom large. It is more properly an appeal to the brooding spirit of the law, and to the intelligence of a future day. When that day comes and this travesty of justice is reversed, then all people of goodwill can celebrate the promise of America, one nation under God, with liberty and JUSTICE for all!


The Judge found so many discretionary errors in the court-martial proceedings that he had no choice but to rule that Webster Smith had been denied a fair trial.

It was a classic case of "he-said she-said". The trial came down to simply a credibility issue. The big question was who was telling the truth and who was not.

This was a quetion for the jury to decide. It was a fact question. The jury is the trier of facts. The court-martial judge went to extraordinary lengths to keep the question out of the hands of the jury. He took it upon himself to decide the issue of credibility. That is why Webster Smith was convicted.

The jury had no idea what the real issue was. They were kept in the dark. They were not given proper instructions. The judge decided who was the more credible witness. The judge abused his discretion.

The judge went beyond the authority and power delegated to him under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and the Federal Rules of Evidence. Webster Smith was denied his Sixth Amendment Rights.

One does not have to read the Appeals Court decision to know that an accused at a court-martial has a right to cross-examine the witnesses against him. Anyone who has watched Perry Mason or Tom Cruise in the movie "A Few Good Men", would come away with an appreciation for the fact that the jury has the responsibility to decide what the facts are and who is not telling the truth.

When a judge does not allow the jury to do its job, he commits reversible error. When a judge confuses his duties with the duties assigned to the jury, then he has abused his discretion and that constitutes reversible error.

The prosecution was allowed to ask Webster Smith questions that were like bombshells that would cave in the sides of a Sherman Tank, but on cross-examination of the principal witness, the Defense lawyers were reduced to tip-toeing through the tulips. The uncorroborated testimony of the principal witness was a roadside bomb to Webster Smith's defense.

If the jury had only been allowed to follow the Yellow Brick Road and to resolve the credibility issue itself, then, at least, the trial of Webster Smith would have had some semblance of a fair trial. The trial judge was not taking any chances. He took matters into his own hands. He jumped onto the Scales of Justice and pulled them way down on the side of the Prosecution.

In a case where the principal witness was allowed to hide behind the military judge for protection from thorough cross-examination; and where facts and perceptions may have been dispositive of the ultimate issue, Truth can be elusive. In a case where a convincing and charming fabricator of facts can sway a jury that has not been fully informed, and where the jury has only been given some of the relevant facts, the judge left a lot of room for mischief on the part of a sneaky prosecutor. The judge left a lot of room for the imagination of the jury to run wild when he allowed the Prosecutor to introduce just enough evidence to put Webster Smith in a compromising position; but he denied the Defense lawyers an opportunity to explain the contradictions by cross-examining the principal witness. Then the judge left it to the jury to "connect the dots". This was terribly unfair to the accused, Webster Smith.

Webster Smith was reduced to "a bug under a glass jar" for inspection, and the principal witnesswas kept as snug as a bug in a rug. Eventually all of this discretionary "hokus-pokus" became so egregious as to eliminate any possibility of a fair trial for Webster Smith. Finding the Truth became next to impossible.



I see no reason to waste time reciting the strained, biased, and contorted illogic of the Majority Opinion. Chief Judge Lane I McClleland was determined to bring one home for the Ole Girls' Network, no matter how rediculous the decision read. It will forever stand as one more piece of evidence to history and to the majority of reasonable people as to just how institutionally biased the Coast Guard Military Justice apparatus really is.

In the same way that cases in United States Courts of Appeals are heard by a three-judge panel, this case was heard by only 3 of the Coast Guard's Criminal Appeals judges. A majority of the active judges may decide to hear or rehear a case en banc. Parties may suggest an en banc hearing to the judges, but have no right to it. Federal law states en banc proceedings are disfavored but may be ordered in order to maintain uniformity of decisions within a circuit or if the issue is exceptionally important, as in the case of Webster Smith. Each court of appeals also has particular rules regarding en banc proceedings. Only an en banc court or a Supreme Court decision can overrule a prior decision in that circuit; in other words, one panel cannot overrule another panel.

The Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals is currently constituted as follows:
Acting Chief Judge Lane I. McClelland
Judge David J. Kantor
Judge Thomas R. Cahill
Judge Gary E. Felicetti
Judge Frederick W. Tucher
Judge Michael J. Lodge
Clerk of the Court: Jane R. Lim

If there is no en banc hearing and decision, this case could be remanded for a new trial. To send the case back to the Superintendent of the Coast Guard Academy for a new trial would the only fair way and the last clear chance for the Coast Guard to remedy the errors that were committed in the court-martial of Webster Smith.

The Founding Fathers and the framers of the U S Constitution provided procedural safeguards for criminal defendents facing the awesome powers on the Federal Government with a bottomless pocket and a legion of attack dog prosecutors. They gave him; among other rights, the right to remain silent, the right to trial by jury, and the right to confront and to cross-examine the witnesses against him. These rights are inalienable. These rights cannot be taken away; not by the Government, and certainly not by a part-time trial judge.



One judge on the Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals saw clearly how the legal system, the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Military Rules of Evidence were misused to deny Webster Smith a fair trial.

It was due process without all of the process that was due.
It was military justice without fairness and very little justice.
It was a kangaroo court-martial.
It was (to quote Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas) a high tech lynching.
It is a stain on the Red, White and Blue.
It is a stench in the nostrils of a just God.
It will live in infamy.

Attorneys for former Coast Guard Academy cadet Webster Smith have filed a brief and a petition for review and appeal of his court-martial with the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. (Aug 2008). This is the last level of appeal before the U S Supreme Court.
The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF) will hear the WEBSTER SMITH case. Oral Argument has been scheduled for September 2009!

Former cadet Webster Smith had this to say:
""Often times, I lose sight of what I am fighting for. I forget why there are D.C. lawyers calling my phone or why some people go out of their way to bring up the very issues that spawned this web site. It is only when I sit back and read the most recent 41 page brief to the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces that everything comes back to me. United States v. Webster Smith was supposed to have been an open and shut case that ended with a guilty plea about three years ago; but the case still has life. By all indication, the case has more life now than it did when many first heard about it. LT Stuart Kirkby, bless his soul, had about 100 men and women on his JAG docket. Merle Smith had a line to toe and he toed it well, with diplomatic and political savvy. The content of the brief to CAAF couldn’t have been raised as issues to the court, back when. They would have had Kirkby sanctioned and Smith barred from ever pursuing employment within the community that has defined his life, supplanted his purpose and provided for his family.

As much as this case is about people, it is also about a system. Never should a person be defeated by the investigation, itself. A person should never be influenced to make a decision about the sanctity of their freedom based on what they read about themselves in the print media or hear from nationally prominent politicians. Facts of the case, media scrutiny and the intensity of the investigation can break the best of men. Yet in still, facts-despite the media scrutiny and investigation-are often enough to get a man through it all. The latter is where I stand. Some people preferred it when negative media scrutiny over-shadowed logic or facts. To them, U.S. v. W.S. was more reasonable, more tolerable, when I didn’t say a word. It was more reasonable when most of the facts had yet to speak for me. If you believe that there is finality where I currently stand, I ask you not to insult the CAAF judges. They have already positively changed the lives of several men that I once knew.

Some of the anonymous messages to this site have ramped up recently. There are people that are infuriated that this fight continues; it was supposed to end with me breaking down in a room before anything ever went public or something, I suppose. It was supposed to be over before any testimony was scrutinized.

EXPECTATIONS

As odd as it may sound, I have embraced this whole (long) process; that includes the good and the bad. No one has to remind me of the shame, dishonor and regret because I have already coped and moved on. I have a daughter who I hope to raise as a moral and compassionate person but believe me; I first had to reconcile fatherhood with my own flaws. I wouldn’t have grown, gotten married nor had a daughter, so soon, if I remained the person that I was. That was the good that came of it and it makes me feel safe and secure. The bad, however, keeps me moving forward. It is an engine for progress; I enjoy it. Every time that I get one of those messages or hear some discouraging news, it reminds me of what I set out to fight for. No person veiled with my transgressions, would ever give up on themselves when they know that they are right. Yesterday, the Easter message at our church was about expectations. About never lowering one’s expectations, no matter what realities we face. Pastor Fleming also talked about the many ways that God turns curses into blessings. Personally, without all of the negativity and doubt, I would lose my way. I don’t remember life without it. The harsher the bite, the closer I feel I am. No matter the amount of discouragement, I have never lowered my expectations. The line of demarcation, guilty or not guilty, has long since been forgotten.

Whatever the outcome of this next stage, it will impact me and I will move on. I am simply trying to continue on with a pure and obedient heart, everything else will take care of itself. I have put all of this in God’s hands and I am watching it unfold. Don’t ask me to accept my current situation as reality, that would be lowering my expectations.""




Tuesday, November 10, 2009

United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces

450 E Street, Northwest

Washington, D.C. 20442-0001



SCHEDULED HEARINGS




United States v. Webster M. Smith, No. 08-0719/CG

(Appellee) (Appellant)



Counsel for Appellant: Ronald C. Machen, Esq.

Counsel for Appellee: LT Emily P. Reuter, USCG



Case Summary: GCM conviction of going from place of duty, attempting to disobey an order, sodomy, extortion, and indecent assault. Granted issue questions whether the military judge violated Appellant’s constitutional right to confront his accusers by limiting his cross-examination of [SR], the government’s only witness, on three of the five charges.



NOTE: Counsel for each side will be allotted 20 minutes to present oral argument in this case.

DAY OF JUDGEMENT FOR WEBSTER SMITH.

Those who were not present on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at the

United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (USCAAF)

450 E Street, Northwest

Washington, D.C. 20442-0001

for the oral arguments in the case of United States v. Webster M. Smith, Case No. 08-0719/CG, missed a real burn burner.

The judges of the USCAAF are civilian judges and sit as a single panel on all cases. Typically, all five judges participate in each case. The judges came out firing questions fast and furious to the two Appellate Attorneys. The first one up was Counsel for Webster Smith: Ronald C. Machen, Esquire. He was prepared and completely unflappable. He responded to every question put to him. When he was interrupted in mid sentence, he did not forge on and try to finish his thought; he immediately responded to the Judge's question. He gave reasoned responsive answers to every question. Some judges fired hard ball questions, and one judge even offer up a soft-ball question which was answered in the same serious manner.

Then came Counsel for U S Coast Guard: LT Emily P. Reuter, USCG. She had a cold or was recovering from the Swine Flu and began by pleading for leniency because of her weakened voice. It was downhill from there for her. She did not appear to give responsive answers to most of the questions put to her. She may have not even clearly understood some of the question before she attempted to respond to them. Frequently she appeared to retreat to her notes or her brief and read the holdings from cases that she had cited in her brief. Perhaps this was her first time arguing before the court or maybe this was a case that no one else wanted to argue, but there surely was not her finest hour.


This was an appeal from a General Court-Martial (GCM) conviction for going from place of duty, attempting to disobey an order, sodomy, extortion, and indecent assault. The ISSUE on Appeal was whether the military judge at the court-martial at the Coast Guard Academy violated Webster Smith’s constitutional right to confront his accusers by limiting his cross-examination of Shelley Roddenbush [SR], the government’s only witness, on three of the five charges.

Counsel for each side was allowed 20 minutes to present oral argument in the case.


The judges of the USCAAF are Judge Andrew S. Effron is the Chief Judge. The other four judges are Judge James E. Baker, Judge Charles E. “Chip” Erdmann, Judge Scott W. Stucky, and Judge Margaret A. Ryan, the most recent appointee.

The first issue that they tackled was the jurisdictional issue. The Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals had denied a request for reconsideration on 14 May 2008. It was not clear whether this was in the Appellate Record. There was a question of how many days had elapsed from the notification of the denial to Webster Smith's attorney and the date that Attorney Machen filed his appeal to the USCAAF. The Coast Guard had sent the Notice of Denial via DHL, a German company, rather than simply using the U. S. Mail as required by the Rules of Court. Apparently there are two time periods that may be relevant under Article 67(B) of the USCAAF's Rules. One is a 61 day rule and the other is a 95 day rule.

They kept coming back to this jurisdictional issue again and again. I do not think they hammered it out definitively during the hearing. Webster Smith's attorney said that it is not in the Record that he was notified on 14 May. LT Emily P. Reuter for the USCG said that it was in the Record. I am sure the USCAAF judges will settled the issue before they issue a decision.

This is troubling because I would hate for the judges to dodge the ISSUE on Appeal because of a technicality like jurisdiction. I could hear a couple of the judges contemplating doing just that. The tone and the tenor of the questions leads me to just that conclusion. It would be a shame after all this time and effort to be cheated out of a hard and definitive decision on the ultimate ISSUE.

That being said, it is my reasoned opinion that the judges of the USCAAF are poised to reverse the conviction of Webster Smith. I feel there is better than a 60-40% chance that they will reverse the conviction by a majority vote. also, there is a 51-49% chance of a unanimous decision.

I think Judge Ryan is a swing vote. She gave Attorney Machen the hardest time. If at all possible she might do like Judge Lane I. McClelland of the Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals and uphold the status quo. However, I do not think she would go out on a limb and write a dissenting opinion. If the other four judges split 2-2, I think she might side with the judges who determine that a reversal is warranted because the Trial Judge abused his discretion and committed reversible error.

Judge Baker appears most eager to reverse this conviction because Webster Smith was denied his right to a fair trial. He sees this as a fair trial issue. He believes that the trial court members had a right to know what the secret was that SR wanted Webster Smith to keep, that it was of a sexual nature, that she had recently lied about it being nonconsensual when it was really consensual oral sex with an enlisted man in Norfolf, Virginia. Also, SR wanted Webster Smith to go out and lie for her so badly that she was willing to pay him with sexual favors.

Judge Baker feels this was crucial evidence that the members were entitled to know. The exact nature of the secret was crucial to Webster Smith's defense. The Trial Judge relied upon Rule 412 of the Military Rules of Evidence and allowed into evidence only the fact that Webster Smith was privy to a secret that SR wanted him to keep; and that secret concerned something that could ruin her cadet and officer career in the Coast Guard.

Even though Judge Baker is a civilian, he might have served in the military. He pointed out that there are lots of secrets that can harm one's career. It could be a secret concerning having failed a physical training exercise; or, it could be a secret involving a wardrobe or a uniform violation. The members had no way of knowing the precise nature of the secret since the trial judge protected SR from more rigorous cross-examination. They did not know that when SR was faced with rumors she lied to limit her own culpability. Giving a limiting instruction to the members was not sufficient to cure the error. It was more than harmless error. It was big, earth shaking, reversible error. It violated the Sixth Amendment of the U. S. Constitution.

As Attorney Machen so eloquently stated, SR had used the secret as a sword and a shield. It shielded her from testifying at the Article 32 investigation, and it was the sword that she used at trial to stab Webster Smith through the heart. It killed him and his career in the Coast Guard. It is what the judges referred to as the Theory of Innoculation. The secret had innoculated SR from two investigations. It saved her from testifying at the Article 32 Investigation.

LT Emily P. Reuter wanted to argue that this was not a Fair Trial issue, but it was a pattern or practice issue. As such the Trial Judge was correct to limit cross-examination of SR to stop any evidence from coming in concerning her prior sexual history or her propensity to tell lies. She argued that the Defense's Theory of the case at trial was wrong for the evidence that they were trying to elicit, and that the Trial Judge correctly used Rule 412. If he erred, it was no more than harmless error. It was not Reversible Error. She was not persuasive.

Truth crushed to earth shall rise again. The essence of truth in this case is finally coming to the surface. From where I sit, the USCAAF stands ready to right a gigantic wrong. It wants to reconsecrate the Temple of Justice in the Coast Guard. It wants to heal the wound that was inflicted on the Sixth Amendment by the trial court and the Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals.

Sixth Amendment Wounded By Coast Guard Court.

Good news travels fast, bad news even faster. Webster Smith is one step closer to the Supreme Court. That is the good news. He lost his appeal to the Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals. That is the bad news.

There is no joy in Mudville; Webster Smith has struck out. As far as the Coast Guard and its ability to right a terrible wrong is concerned, all men of goodwill are left bewildered. The Coast Guard no longer has the power to correct its own mistake.

The Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals by a narrow margin has made the wrong decision for the wrong reason. They have left the Sixth Amendment to the U S Constitution in shreds. {Footnote.(1)} By a majority of 2-1, they voted against Webster Smith.

The Decision was not unanimous. It was a majority opinion. Only one member of the Appellate Court was able to see clearly the errors made by the Trial Court and to vote his conscious.

I see no reason to waste m time reciting the strained, biased, and contorted illogic of the Majority Opinion. Chief Judge Lane I McClleland was determined to bring one home for the Ole Girls' Network, no matter how rediculous the decision read. It will forever stand as one more piece of evidence to history and to the majority of reasonable people as to just how institutionally biased the Coast Guard Military Justice apparatus really is.

The dissenting opinion was more persuasive. In a clear, cogent and convincing analysis that flowed logically, the dissent appears to has fashioned a minority opinion that could easily become the majority opinion if the Supreme Court grants Certiorari. It was a masterpiece of scholarly legal reasoning that is sure to take its place with the likes of Learned Hand, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Thurgood Marshall.

The 2 judge Majority opinion assumed such a contorted illogical path that it resembled a pretzel draped out in a straight-jacket; whereas, the Minority opinion is so straight and logical, it could show the way to San Jose. It should be christened "stare decisis".

The judge who wrote the Minority opinion should be commended. He not only has courage but also a brilliant legal mind. His only fault is that he could not convince at least one of the other two judges on the three judge panel to see the error of their ways.

The Writ of Ccertiorari is the writ that an appellate court issues to a lower court in order to review its judgment for legal error and review, where no appeal is available as a matter of right. Since the Judiciary Act of 1925, most cases cannot be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court as a matter of right; therefore, a party who wants that court to review a decision of a federal or state court files a "petition for writ of certiorari" in the Supreme Court. If the court grants the petition, the case is scheduled for the filing of briefs and for oral argument.

Several pieces of the puzzle were missing at the Trial and the Appellate level. For the moment, let us provide just one missing link.

The Missing Link In the Webster Smith Case: Katie Collela

Most people know the basic premise of the story, the collusion of several young women that resulted in the court-martial of the first cadet at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Shelly Raudenbush Wyman was the lone victor of the several women that accounted for the 22 charges against Webster Smith. Why did she come forward over two months after Webster Smith was removed from classes, following the allegations by then Regimental Commander-Kristen Nicholson, her two best friends Shannon Frobel, Kristin Strizki and Nicholson's subordinates: Stacy Chmielecki, Keri McCormack, and Katie Collela?

During the Court-Martial, Webster was represented by LT Stuart Kirkby and Merle J. Smith. Neither believed that the charges would prevail for the government. They did not pursue details of Shelly's relationship with the other female cadets. They could not mention Katie Collela or call her to the stand, Captain Judge denied her as a defense witness. Besides Kristen Nicholson, she was the only person who could detail how and why she came forward. Her father had just been appointed the Dean of Students and wanted no part of it. This was not the only reason that Smith's attroneys did not further pursue Shelly. Shelly Raudenbush Wyman was charged with two UCMJ violations--including disobeying an order--by the Coast Guard Academy, to push her to cooperate. She consulted with an attorney before the Smith trial and would not testify in the May pre-trial hearing so that she would not incriminate herself. The academy did not give her prosecutorial or testimonial immunity until the day she testified.

Why did she come forward?

The only cadet that knew about Webster and Shelly's sexual relationship was then-cadet Katie Collela.
Katie Colella and Webster went out several times in November of 2005. Over Thanksgiving break when Webster decided to stay at the academy, he picked her up from Captain Collela's home in Ledyard, CT. They went out on the first of two or three dates, with the blessing of the Captain. The first night, they went to a club called Complex and outside of the Complex Webster told Katie about Shelly. Katie asked Webster to end it if he wanted to hang out with her.
Before the investigation, as the evidence revealed, Katie had not told the Regimental Commander about Shelly.
Katie played as integral of a role as Kristen Nicholson did in pushing the charges but when it came time to end Webster's career, she was nowhere on the charge sheet.
The circumstances around their relationship could not be crafted for a charge sheet and maybe she had a little more integrity than the others.
In February of 2006 when CAPT Wisniewski realized that Webster was not going to plead guilty to the original charges, he stood before the Corps of Cadets in the Chase Hall wardroom and asked for any additional female cadets to testify against Webster Smith.
Katie Collela, Shelly's track teammate, told Kristen of the conversation about Shelly. Kristen, the acting Regimental Commander, approached Shelly (Shelly admitted in trial) and several days later, she was interviewed by CGIS
Not only was there a question of criminal prosecution for Shelly, she squelched rumors to save her engagement to Grant Wyman by agreeing to help the girls with Webster Smith.
Shelly's fiance was not there to support her during any of the hearings or the trial
Shelly did not attend or testify against Webster at the sentencing hearing
Katie Collela was later kicked out on an Honor Violation.
Webster's continued relationship with Shelly was never allowed into evidence in court. Breakfast and physical therapy in CDR Richard Shumway's office the next day, her lobbying Webster to join the track team, and her frequent trips to Webster's dorm room to comfort him after several issues that Webster had with his ex-girlfriend Kristen Nicholson in early November were never allowed into evidence.
The court of appeals majority ruling stated that there was no reason for Shelly to misrepresent the truth in trial.

Footnote.(1)
U.S. Constitution: Sixth Amendment
Sixth Amendment - Rights of Accused in Criminal Prosecutions

Amendment Text | Annotations
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF) will hear the WEBSTER SMITH case. Oral Argument has been scheduled for September 2009!

After savoring the good news, Webster Smith had this to say: "Often times, I lose sight of what I am fighting for. I forget why there are D.C. lawyers calling my phone or why some people go out of their way to bring up the very issues that spawned this web site. It is only when I sit back and read the most recent 41 page brief to the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces that everything comes back to me. United States v. Webster Smith was supposed to have been an open and shut case that ended with a guilty plea about three years ago; but the case still has life. By all indication, the case has more life now than it did when many first heard about it. LT Stuart Kirkby, bless his soul, had about 100 men and women on his JAG docket. Merle Smith had a line to toe and he toed it well, with diplomatic and political savvy. The content of the brief to CAAF couldn’t have been raised as issues to the court, back when. They would have had Kirkby sanctioned and Smith barred from ever pursuing employment within the community that has defined his life, supplanted his purpose and provided for his family.

As much as this case is about people, it is also about a system. Never should a person be defeated by the investigation, itself. A person should never be influenced to make a decision about the sanctity of their freedom based on what they read about themselves in the print media or hear from nationally prominent politicians. Facts of the case, media scrutiny and the intensity of the investigation can break the best of men. Yet in still, facts-despite the media scrutiny and investigation-are often enough to get a man through it all. The latter is where I stand. Some people preferred it when negative media scrutiny over-shadowed logic or facts. To them, U.S. v. W.S. was more reasonable, more tolerable, when I didn’t say a word. It was more reasonable when most of the facts had yet to speak for me. If you believe that there is finality where I currently stand, I ask you not to insult the CAAF judges. They have already positively changed the lives of several men that I once knew.

Some of the anonymous messages to this site have ramped up recently. There are people that are infuriated that this fight continues; it was supposed to end with me breaking down in a room before anything ever went public or something, I suppose. It was supposed to be over before any testimony was scrutinized.

EXPECTATIONS

As odd as it may sound, I have embraced this whole (long) process; that includes the good and the bad. No one has to remind me of the shame, dishonor and regret because I have already coped and moved on. I have a daughter who I hope to raise as a moral and compassionate person but believe me; I first had to reconcile fatherhood with my own flaws. I wouldn’t have grown, gotten married nor had a daughter, so soon, if I remained the person that I was. That was the good that came of it and it makes me feel safe and secure. The bad, however, keeps me moving forward. It is an engine for progress; I enjoy it. Every time that I get one of those messages or hear some discouraging news, it reminds me of what I set out to fight for. No person veiled with my transgressions, would ever give up on themselves when they know that they are right. Yesterday, the Easter message at our church was about expectations. About never lowering one’s expectations, no matter what realities we face. Pastor Fleming also talked about the many ways that God turns curses into blessings. Personally, without all of the negativity and doubt, I would lose my way. I don’t remember life without it. The harsher the bite, the closer I feel I am. No matter the amount of discouragement, I have never lowered my expectations. The line of demarcation, guilty or not guilty, has long since been forgotten.

Whatever the outcome of this next stage, it will impact me and I will move on. I am simply trying to continue on with a pure and obedient heart, everything else will take care of itself. I have put all of this in God’s hands and I am watching it unfold. Don’t ask me to accept my current situation as reality, that would be lowering my expectations."

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces

450 E Street, Northwest

Washington, D.C. 20442-0001



SCHEDULED HEARINGS




United States v. Webster M. Smith, No. 08-0719/CG

(Appellee) (Appellant)



Counsel for Appellant: Ronald C. Machen, Esq.

Counsel for Appellee: LT Emily P. Reuter, USCG



Case Summary: GCM conviction of going from place of duty, attempting to disobey an order, sodomy, extortion, and indecent assault. Granted issue questions whether the military judge violated Appellant’s constitutional right to confront his accusers by limiting his cross-examination of [SR], the government’s only witness, on three of the five charges.



NOTE: Counsel for each side will be allotted 20 minutes to present oral argument in this case.


DAY OF JUDGEMENT FOR WEBSTER SMITH.

Those who were not present on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at the

United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (USCAAF)

450 E Street, Northwest

Washington, D.C. 20442-0001

for the oral arguments in the case of United States v. Webster M. Smith, Case No. 08-0719/CG, missed a real burn burner.

The judges of the USCAAF are civilian judges and sit as a single panel on all cases. Typically, all five judges participate in each case. The judges came out firing questions fast and furious to the two Appellate Attorneys. The first one up was Counsel for Webster Smith: Ronald C. Machen, Esquire. He was prepared and completely unflappable. He responded to every question put to him. When he was interrupted in mid sentence, he did not forge on and try to finish his thought; he immediately responded to the Judge's question. He gave reasoned responsive answers to every question. Some judges fired hard ball questions, and one judge even offer up a soft-ball question which was answered in the same serious manner.

Then came Counsel for U S Coast Guard: LT Emily P. Reuter, USCG. She had a cold or was recovering from the Swine Flu and began by pleading for leniency because of her weakened voice. It was downhill from there for her. She did not appear to give responsive answers to most of the questions put to her. She may have not even clearly understood some of the question before she attempted to respond to them. Frequently she appeared to retreat to her notes or her brief and read the holdings from cases that she had cited in her brief. Perhaps this was her first time arguing before the court or maybe this was a case that no one else wanted to argue, but there surely was not her finest hour.


This was an appeal from a General Court-Martial (GCM) conviction for going from place of duty, attempting to disobey an order, sodomy, extortion, and indecent assault. The ISSUE on Appeal was whether the military judge at the court-martial at the Coast Guard Academy violated Webster Smith’s constitutional right to confront his accusers by limiting his cross-examination of Shelley Roddenbush [SR], the government’s only witness, on three of the five charges.

Counsel for each side was allowed 20 minutes to present oral argument in the case.


The judges of the USCAAF are Judge Andrew S. Effron is the Chief Judge. The other four judges are Judge James E. Baker, Judge Charles E. “Chip” Erdmann, Judge Scott W. Stucky, and Judge Margaret A. Ryan, the most recent appointee.

The first issue that they tackled was the jurisdictional issue. The Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals had denied a request for reconsideration on 14 May 2008. It was not clear whether this was in the Appellate Record. There was a question of how many days had elapsed from the notification of the denial to Webster Smith's attorney and the date that Attorney Machen filed his appeal to the USCAAF. The Coast Guard had sent the Notice of Denial via DHL, a German company, rather than simply using the U. S. Mail as required by the Rules of Court. Apparently there are two time periods that may be relevant under Article 67(B) of the USCAAF's Rules. One is a 61 day rule and the other is a 95 day rule.

They kept coming back to this jurisdictional issue again and again. I do not think they hammered it out definitively during the hearing. Webster Smith's attorney said that it is not in the Record that he was notified on 14 May. LT Emily P. Reuter for the USCG said that it was in the Record. I am sure the USCAAF judges will settled the issue before they issue a decision.

This is troubling because I would hate for the judges to dodge the ISSUE on Appeal because of a technicality like jurisdiction. I could hear a couple of the judges contemplating doing just that. The tone and the tenor of the questions leads me to just that conclusion. It would be a shame after all this time and effort to be cheated out of a hard and definitive decision on the ultimate ISSUE.

That being said, it is my reasoned opinion that the judges of the USCAAF are poised to reverse the conviction of Webster Smith. I feel there is better than a 60-40% chance that they will reverse the conviction by a majority vote. also, there is a 51-49% chance of a unanimous decision.

I think Judge Ryan is a swing vote. She gave Attorney Machen the hardest time. If at all possible she might do like Judge Lane I. McClelland of the Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals and uphold the status quo. However, I do not think she would go out on a limb and write a dissenting opinion. If the other four judges split 2-2, I think she might side with the judges who determine that a reversal is warranted because the Trial Judge abused his discretion and committed reversible error.

Judge Baker appears most eager to reverse this conviction because Webster Smith was denied his right to a fair trial. He sees this as a fair trial issue. He believes that the trial court members had a right to know what the secret was that SR wanted Webster Smith to keep, that it was of a sexual nature, that she had recently lied about it being nonconsensual when it was really consensual oral sex with an enlisted man in Norfolf, Virginia. Also, SR wanted Webster Smith to go out and lie for her so badly that she was willing to pay him with sexual favors.

Judge Baker feels this was crucial evidence that the members were entitled to know. The exact nature of the secret was crucial to Webster Smith's defense. The Trial Judge relied upon Rule 412 of the Military Rules of Evidence and allowed into evidence only the fact that Webster Smith was privy to a secret that SR wanted him to keep; and that secret concerned something that could ruin her cadet and officer career in the Coast Guard.

Even though Judge Baker is a civilian, he might have served in the military. He pointed out that there are lots of secrets that can harm one's career. It could be a secret concerning having failed a physical training exercise; or, it could be a secret involving a wardrobe or a uniform violation. The members had no way of knowing the precise nature of the secret since the trial judge protected SR from more rigorous cross-examination. They did not know that when SR was faced with rumors she lied to limit her own culpability. Giving a limiting instruction to the members was not sufficient to cure the error. It was more than harmless error. It was big, earth shaking, reversible error. It violated the Sixth Amendment of the U. S. Constitution.

As Attorney Machen so eloquently stated, SR had used the secret as a sword and a shield. It shielded her from testifying at the Article 32 investigation, and it was the sword that she used at trial to stab Webster Smith through the heart. It killed him and his career in the Coast Guard. It is what the judges referred to as the Theory of Innoculation. The secret had innoculated SR from two investigations. It saved her from testifying at the Article 32 Investigation.

LT Emily P. Reuter wanted to argue that this was not a Fair Trial issue, but it was a pattern or practice issue. As such the Trial Judge was correct to limit cross-examination of SR to stop any evidence from coming in concerning her prior sexual history or her propensity to tell lies. She argued that the Defense's Theory of the case at trial was wrong for the evidence that they were trying to elicit, and that the Trial Judge correctly used Rule 412. If he erred, it was no more than harmless error. It was not Reversible Error. She was not persuasive.

Truth crushed to earth shall rise again. The essence of truth in this case is finally coming to the surface. From where I sit, the USCAAF stands ready to right a gigantic wrong. It wants to reconsecrate the Temple of Justice in the Coast Guard. It wants to heal the wound that was inflicted on the Sixth Amendment by the trial court and the Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals.

Another Day; Another Noose.

The Coast Guard is investigating the March 27, 2008 discovery of a noose aboard a 110-foot patrol boat CGC Nantucket, in South Florida. This small cutter carries a 15 man complement. This is the latest in a series of such incidents to plague the Coast Guard, a small military service about the size of the New York police department.


The crew of the CGC Nantucket found the noose tied into the end of a line attached to a Stokes Litter — a basket used to lift injured people into helicopters — while the litter was stowed, said Coast Guard spokesman CMDR Jeff Carter. He said officials don’t know yet whether the noose represented a threat or if it was just someone practicing knots.

That is a bit hard to believe considering the attention nooses have received in the media recently. One state, Connecticut, the home of the Coast Guard Academy, has taken legislative action to declare the placing of a noose a hate crime.

It is a bit ironic that the Stokes Litter used to rescue the physically impaired, is in the care and custody of someone so mentally impaired that they would spend their spare time fashioning the most reviled hate symbol of the modern era, and then put it in a conspicuous place where it would eventually be found. It is not reassuring to think that some mentally deranged social psychopath who has committed the equivalent of a hate crime in Connecticut, is a member in good standing of an elite Coast Guard Search and Rescue Unit.

This particular knot, the noose, has quickly become the favorite practice knot of Coast Guard seamen in the 21st Century. It probably has nothing to do with the fact that so many Coast Guardsmen come from the Deep South. This is a sad commentary on not only the Coast Guard but the whole human race at this point in human history. We have split the atom, mapped the human gnome, cracked the DNA mystery, and miniaturized the micro-processor chip; but, we have yet to tame the tongue or change the human heart.

After the failure of the CGIS, NCIS and the FBI to find any suspects in the noose incidents onboard the CGC Eagle and at the Coast Guard Academy in the summer of 2007CMDR Carter was quick to point out that the Coast Guard “takes this very seriously.”

This will surely be a slam-dunk. The ship has only a 15 man crew. They should crack this case and be home in time for dinner. No future officers are involved, and we normally crucify the small fry, anyway.

An outside investigator has joined with 7th Coast Guard District Commander in looking into the incident, CMDR Carter said. Perhaps this outside investigator has more to bring to the table than the platoon of CGIS, NCIS, and FBI that labored so valiantly but to no avail at the Academy until March 2008. Perhaps he is a former Northwest Canadian Mountie. They always get their man. Or, hopefully some one like P. D. James’ Inspector Adam Dalgleish, or Hercule Perot or Inspector Cluseau could crack this caper. My all time favorites are Sherlock Holmes, Sergeant Joe Friday, and Sam Spade; followed closely by Charlie Chan, Bulldog Drummond, and Boston Blackie. Alas, these Baby Boomer crime fighters may be a little over the hill. This new breed of Coast Guard noose knotter is too smart and has too much backup. All of his peers are watching his back. The good guys are in retreat.

This noose was discovered only two weeks after CGIS, NCIS and FBI at the Coast Guard Academy, had conducted the most extensive investigation in the history of the Coast Guard trying to find another noose-man. They said they could not determine who had left a noose in a Black cadet’s seabag aboard the Coast Guard Academy training ship, CGC Eagle in July. They also could not determined who left one in August 2007 on the office floor of a white female Coast Guard Academy instructor who conducted race relations training.

The Coast Guard Academy should hire the same Private Investigating firm that investigated the Formal Complaint of Discrimination filed by Webster Smith. They did an excellent job. It is too bad the Coast Guard , and Dept of Homeland Security Civil Rights staff was not educated enough in the law and regulations of Civil Rights to put the Findings of Fact to good use. It was almost as tragic as giving a loaded gun to a three year old child to play with. It was a very dangerous situation. Someone is going to kill someone or himself. In the Case of Webster Smith, it was Webster Smith who was killed. Then the Civil Rights staff pleaded ignorance of the law.

CMDR Carter said the incidents have given the Coast Guard a “heightened awareness” that led to the reporting of the noose aboard the CGC Nantucket. Apparently, without that heightened awareness, this incident would have been kept a tightly held Coast Guard secret.

Those who have been on the receiving end of nooses for years do not need to have their awareness heightened or their sensitivity raised. They don’t need to go to Civil rights Training. Their basic human nature and ordinary sense of civic decency would lead them to report such incidents and to join in the search for the malefactor.

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen visited the Coast Guard Academy in October 2007 and told the cadets that he wouldn’t stand for “symbols of racism” in the Coast Guard.

(Feb 24, 2009)Independent Audit Finds USCG Office of Civil Rights Incompetent.

Employees in the Coast Guard’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) do not have the skills or up-to-date training to handle many of the service’s cases and formal discrimination complaints are not adequately handled, according to an independent report presented to the Coast Guard on February 5.

Terri Dickerson, the office’s director, requested an independent review April 25, 2008, less than one month after an investigation by the Coast Guard Investigative Service, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the FBI failed to determine who left nooses for a Black Coast Guard Academy cadet and an officer conducting race-relations training in the summer of 2007.

At the same time, an unofficial Coast Guard blog was posting regularly about the office and the director’s alleged inefficiencies, reducing morale among employees and casting OCR in a negative light, according to the report.

The findings are “deeply disturbing and completely unacceptable,” Cummings, D-Md., wrote in a letter to Commandant ADM Thad Allen. Cummings, the chairman of the House subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, said he plans to call a hearing in April to further discuss the report.

“The findings of this report demand decisive and comprehensive action to correct what appear to be a number of significant shortfalls in the administration,” he wrote.

The Coast Guard retained Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting firm with offices throughout the country, to review the entire civil rights program in September 2008, according to a letter from Dickerson to the Department of Homeland Security’s Equal Employment Opportunity Programs.

Coast Guard spokesman Cmdr. Ron LaBrec said the service is thankful for the feedback and is conducting a thorough review of the report and its recommendations.

“The [DHS] Office of Civil Rights and Liberties periodically conducts assessments on its civil rights components and the [OCR] director wanted to do this report now with the ongoing modernization initiative to look across the board and improve the practices in the office and address any allegations that were coming out of blogs or even internal discussions. We take allegations of mistreating [privacy issues] seriously,” LaBrec said.

According to the report, the Coast Guardsmen assigned to ORC often come in with little civil rights experience and serve two-year tours, and “often they leave their post just as they are becoming oriented to the position.” The other Coast Guardsmen in the office are on collateral duty, with the same limited backgrounds, according to the report.

Although training is available, the report said, many employees have not completed the legislatively mandated initial or refresher training. In some instances training was behind up to five years.

“Some staff members lack the requisite skills, abilities, and training to effectively perform the duties of their positions, thereby diminishing effectiveness of the divisions/teams,” according to the report.

LaBrec said the “decentralized” structure led to the delinquency in training and the Coast Guard is looking to “standardize” and “improve” its training program. There are 22 full-time positions within OCR, five of which are military, but that likely is not enough to sufficiently handle the additional responsibilities related to the increased caseload, according to the report.

Although Booz Allen acknowledges that some of the recommendations listed in the report cannot be accomplished with the office’s $788,459 budget, OCR’s Web site says the recommendations are under review and lists some that have either already been completed or can be accomplished in the near future.

Those include:

• Restructuring the office to “optimize the use of our military personnel” and take advantage of existing training and resources.

• Analyze the workload to ensure statutory and non-statutory obligations are being met.

LaBrec said it is too early to determine what recommendations would require additional funding or how much additional money would be needed to accomplish those goals.

“The review reaffirmed many positive aspects of the Coast Guard civil rights program. The report also makes clear there is work ahead,” Dickerson wrote in Thursday’s Alcoast. “Foremost, consistent with past similar studies, the BAH team found we must restructure the [equal employment opportunity] function, and secondarily, shore up our equal employment opportunity/equal opportunity product lines so that they more optimally support our civil rights service providers and work force.”

LaBrec also said the 58 formal civil rights complains OCR received in fiscal year 2007, roughly one per 1,000 people, shows the office is doing some things right, since several of the other DHS departments have a much higher number of civil rights complaints per capita.

Allen told Coast Guard Academy cadets and faculty in October 2007 that racial bigotry will not be accepted and goes against the service’s ethos and humanitarian mission. In August 2008, he released a service-wide message outlining plans to improve diversity throughout the service.

As part of the new initiative, every flag officer and senior executive service member is required to attend one diversity conference a year and they are expected to build relationships with minority-based “institutions of higher education.”

The first noose, which garnered national attention, was left in the bag of a Black cadet in July 2007 onboard the Coast Guard cutter Eagle. The second was found in August on the office floor of a white female officer who had been conducting race relations training.


(Meanwhile, Back on the Reservation, The Justice Department Reports:)
ALEXANDRIA, La., Aug 15, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, and Donald W. Washington, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, today announced that Jeremiah Munsen, 19, of Pineville, La., was sentenced to four months in prison for his role in using nooses to threaten marchers who participated in the "Jena Six" civil rights rally. In addition to the four-month prison term, Munsen received one year of supervised release and 125 hours of community service.
On Sept. 20, 2007, in an incident that garnered national media attention, Munsen and another person allegedly attached the nooses to the back of a pickup truck and repeatedly drove slowly and menacingly past a large group of African American individuals who had gathered at a bus depot in Alexandria, La., after attending the civil rights rally in Jena.
The defendant pleaded guilty April 25, 2008, admitting that he displayed two large, life-sized nooses from the back of his pickup truck with the intent to frighten and intimidate the demonstrators. He and the other person with him hung the nooses in a manner so as to be clearly visible to the gathered demonstrators, and Munsen then drove past the group two or three times while the other person glared out the window at the demonstrators. Munsen further admitted that he and the other person had previously discussed the Ku Klux Klan and how they thought the Klan would have responded to the rally in Jena, and he acknowledged that the Jena Six rally followed extensive public discussion regarding, among other things, the history of racial lynchings in the United States and the perception that a noose, when displayed in a racial context, constituted a symbol of racial violence.
"The defendant used a threatening and offensive tactic to intimidate peaceful civil rights marchers who were in Louisiana to rally against racial intolerance," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Grace Chung Becker. "The Civil Rights Division will continue to vigorously pursue racially motivated threats that violate federal law."
"The defendant committed a federal hate crime by using a powerful symbol of hate to intimidate a group of interstate travelers because of their race," said U.S Attorney Donald W. Washington. "It is a violation of federal law to intimidate, oppress, injure or threaten people because of their race and because those people are exercising and enjoying rights guaranteed and protected by the laws and Constitution of the United States. Our civil rights laws protect the civil rights of all Americans, and they emphasize the reality that we are all members of one particular race -- the human race."
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Alexandria Police Department investigated this case, which was prosecuted jointly by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office.
SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

--


A Louisiana teenager who used nooses to intimidate black civil rights demonstrators was sentenced Friday to four months in federal prison.

Jeremiah Munsen, 19, of Colfax, had nooses hanging from the back of his pickup truck when he drove past people who had attended a massive civil rights march in Jena last September, according to federal prosecutors.

Munsen had faced up to a year in prison after he pleaded guilty in April to a misdemeanor charge of interfering with the marchers’ federally protected right to travel.

U.S. District Judge Dee Drell in Alexandria also sentenced Munsen to 125 hours of community service and one year of supervised release following his prison term, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney William Flanagan.

Munsen was sentenced on the same day that an anti-noose law took effect in Louisiana. The new law makes it a state crime, punishable by up to one year in prison, to try to intimidate someone with a hangman’s noose, a Deep South symbol of racial hatred.

The marchers were waiting in Alexandria for a bus home to Tennessee after protesting the criminal cases against six black teenagers charged with beating a white student at Jena High School in 2006.

A 16-year-old passenger in Munsen’s truck also was arrested, but Flanagan said he couldn’t comment on juvenile proceedings.

In a court filing last month, prosecutors said Munsen cooperated with investigators and asked Drell to impose a sentence that reflected his “substantial assistance.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who helped organize the march in Jena, said in a statement earlier this year that he applauded federal prosecutors for charging Munsen with a hate crime.

Munsen’s attorney, Billy Guin Jr, had no comment.





Thurgood Marshall did more to improve the life of the damned, the dispossessed, and the downtroddened tha any other attorney in the 20th century. He fought for the underdog in American society as an attorney and as a justice of the U. S. Supreme Court.

As chief counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund for over 25 years, he fought Jim Crow segregation in the snake pits and hell holes of the solid South. He won 29 of 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court; and, he should have won all of them. In a perfect and just world, he would have. His record of successful cases before the high court stands today unparalleled in American judicial history. President Lyndon baines Johnson appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1967 where he served for 34 years.



When he traveled in the South, Thurgood Marshall never confronted "Jim Crow" headon; that is, he never sat in railway stations or lunch counters reserved "for whites only". However, in forays down South he could not always avoid person danger. In 1946 in Columbia, Tennessee, along with other defense counsels, he drove 200 miles round-trip daily from Nashville,TN to the trial in Colunbia,TN. There was no safe place for a Black lawyer to stay in Columbia, TN. At one point police officers picked him up and took him alone in their car, and charged him with drunk driving. Carl Rowan wrote a detailed newspaper article about how the police tried to lead Attorney Thurgood Marshall to the banks of a nearby river where a lynch mob had a noose hanging from a tree, ready to lynch him. Brave armed Black citizens came to his rescue. A courageous white magistrate smelled his breath and proclaimed him sober and he was able to return to Nashvill. (Crusaders in the Courts, by Jack Greenberg, 1994, Basic Books, Harper Collins, p. 31,32)

In the Jim Crow segregated South, he was so revered in Black America that people mostly spoke of him in whispered tones. He is easily the most important American of this century. He rose from an humble birth to a position higher than any Black American before him. He built his reputation slowly in jerkwater southern towns where he was outnumbered but never outmatched and never outgunned in the legal arena. In virtually every case he was fighting for the right against a twisted white justice system administered by southern judges and sheriffs who had few second thoughts about beating in black heads.

Thurgood Marshall was the only Black leader in America during the Civil Rights era who could say that he defeated segregation where it really counted; that was, in the courts. He legal strategy was based on the U. S. Constitution. He forced civil and constitutional rights to be extended equally to the poorest and blackest American citizens as well as poor whites. The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King would never have won his first victory, the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, if Thurgood Marshall and his legal team had not first won a Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation on the city buses. Battles were fought in the streets, but the victories were won in the courts.

Also, it was Thurgood Marshall who argued the case of Brown v. Bd of Education before the Supreme Court. This case ended segregation in public schools.

Thomas G. Krattenmaker, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, said it best. He said, "when I think of great American lawyers, I think of Thurgood Marshall,, Abe Lincoln and Daniel Webster. In the 20th Century only Earl Warren approaches Thurgood Marshall. Marshall is certainly the most important American lawyer of the 20th Century."

Drew Days, a former law professor at Yale University Law School, said that "Thurgood Marshall was the living embodiment of how far we as Americans have come on the major concern in our history-race- and how far we still have to go. He was the conscience of this nation. In the law, he remains our supreme conscience."
(Thurgood Marshall, Justice For All, by R. Goldman and D. Gallen, 1992 bt Caroll & Graf Publishers, Inc, Ny,Ny, 141,142.)

Academy Abandons Investigation. No Culprits Found.

The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions, says an old American proverb. Fortunately for all Americans of goodwill, while the CGA and the CGIS were doing a shadow dance, the Connecticut State General Assembly was taking the lead in an area where initiative and strong leadership are drastically needed.
On 25 March 2008, the Legislature's Judiciary Committee voted 43-0 in favor of a bill that makes it a hate crime to hang a noose on public or private property, without permission of the property owner, and with the intent to harass or intimidate.


A probe to find who left hangman's nooses on the CGC Eagle and at USCGA has been abandoned without finding any of those responsible.

This should have been a slam dunk. The perpetrators were hiding in plain sight. In August of 2007 just after the CGC Eagle returned to New London, Ct., An Informed Party from Houston, Texas wrote:
"Funny. The Academy went on an all out man hunt to find who wrote the name "Webster Smith" on the Admiral's(Van Sice) farewell flag when he "resigned" his post(as Superintendent of the Academy), last year, but they can't find out who put a noose in a bag on a ship with less than a quarter of the amount of eligible suspects and nowhere for that suspect to hide? Quickly, I can narrow it down some more. It was a male victim, no female is likely to walk unwelcomed into a male birthing area. The victim was a cadet, no enlisted crew member will walk into the cadets birthing area...there is separate birthing on the Barque Eagle. We can even bet that the person knew the watch rotation and when the black cadet wouldn't be in the room. Despite what happened in other Coast Guard incidents, I'd be surprised if an actual officer would stoop so low as to perform a racist act. Yep, the young white future officer is smiling in exasperation right now. He is off the hook."
Informed Party

This clearly was an informed party. This should have been considered nothing less than a potential "confidential informant". He/she had to be an officer, cadet, or former cadet. It would appear that he/she had been onboard the Eagle, and perhaps had even trained on the Eagle. This would have been a good place to start an investigation. How could a competent agency start an important investigation with this level of apparent insight and wind up with a failed investigation? This is incredible; and it is a big disappointment. I wonder if this person was even consulted by the CGIS, NCIS, or the FBI.

The Investigators should have started by "weeding out" and then focusing in on any cadet, civilian, enlisted person, or officer who was onboard the CGC Eagle while it was at sea when the first noose incident occurred. If a trained investigator had kept an eye peeled for any body language indicating that someone was fabricating or wanted to talk, that might have narrowed the focus of the investigation. Or if they had identified any cadet willing to talk "off the record", or someone willing to trade information for a "perk", that could have led to rumors and gossip in the ranks. The Law of Probabilities says that there was, at least, one person interviewed who wanted to talk, or to give an indication of where to look. The investigators must have missed the cue.

At this point, I believe the perpetrators have "gone to ground" in Chase Hall. I had hoped for the best but expected the worst from this investigation. From the time the Academy finally admitted to the truth of the noose incidents, a ghostly calm (the kind that exists at the eye of a hurricane) has set in. Now that calm has been shattered by the pathetic platitudes that we tried our best and we could not find a culprit.

That is a shame and a tragedy. In a tragedy or a novel, the most difficult part, I am told, is how to invent The END. Contrary to the ending that the Academy Superintendent, RADM Scott Burhoe, has tried to write to this tragedy, this is not the end. Doug Wisniewski had another ending in mind when he decided to court-martial Webster Smith. That was not the end. Wisniewski wrote a tragedy, and he has moved on to the City by the Bay. The Moving Finger writes, and having writ moves on. Man proposes, but God disposes. We have yet to see the last shoe drop.

I had hoped that these incidents would have been solved and that that would signal the start of a new epoch in the Coast Guard after the Webster Smith Affair. I had hoped it would signal the start of a healing period, a time when the Academy's reputation would be repaired. It certainly has been damaged. I should have been more realistic and less optimistic. Now I see there is no way that the Academy is ever going to sacrifice one of its "fair-haired boys" for a crime of this nature. The way the Case of John K. Miller was handled proof enough of that. There is a standard of justice for Webster Smith and his kind; and, there is a standard of justice for John K. Miller and everybody else.

Someone obviously knows something, but no one is talking. In the old days, before the Class of 1976, cadets treasured their collective reputation and their individual honor. There would have been no Code of Silence, or Conspiracy of Silence. The Blue Flu was unheard of and would not have been tolerated. If necessary a "Blanket Party" initiated by upperclass cadets would have persuaded the guilty party to confess. I remember a certain Mr. D. L. Wegenar in the Class of 1968 who finally with a little help from some of his concerned Classmates decided that it would be in the best interests of the Coast Guard and all future Coast Guard officers for him to resign his appointment as a cadet. That was after he was released from sick-bay. In those days the loyalty of cadets went up towards lofty goals, not outwards to tragically flawed classmates who would never amout to much.

A proper sense of values has not been instilled in these cadets. They have misplaced values. They give their greatest loyalty to their classmates, over and above the institution. They would rather protect a flawed classmate than preserve the moral integrity of the cadet corps and the officer corps. They would rather not be seen as a stoolpigeon or as a rat than be worthy of the traditions of the commissioned officers before them who served with honor and distinction. Honor to them is just a hollow word. It is not a concept, certainly not one that they embrace. They have not fully comprehended the oath that they took as cadets. Many of them will not be worthy of the oath that they intend to take as commissioned officers. Cadets today have no sense of loyalty to the institution or to the Constitution.

This aborted investigation should give all American less confidence in the ability of the Department of Homeland Security and its lead agencies to find a dirty bomb or an improvised explosive device (IED) hidden in one of the thousands of cargo containers that come into American ports every day of the week. Perhaps it is harder to find one of your own than it is to find a total stranger. Strangers just tend to stand out. In point of fact, the only cargo loads of contraband; that being, illegal aliens, found being smuggled into the USA have been those whose ships ran aground just off the coast and the cargo containers were accidentally damaged and came open. Many Chinese illegal aliens have been found in sealed containers with enough rice and water for a six month voyage in a sealed container. When RADM Dick Clark, CGA Class of 1968, was the 11th Coast Guard District Commander, Long Beach, California, that is exactly what happened several times. He was a guest speaker at the Los Angeles Adventurers Club when he commented on the fortuitious sequence of events that lead to the discovery of the contraband human cargo.

What happened in this noose investigation, if it can be called that? Did they fail to get any cooperation from any of the officers or cadets who were onboard the CGC Eagle during the last cruise? That is where this all stated, in the aftermath of the Webster Smith court-martial. That was a controlled environment with a finite and identifiable number of suspects. These investigators couldn't find a Russian at Rockaway Beach or in Little Odessa.

Only in basketball or some other great American sport can it be said that it matters not whether you win or lose, but only how you played the game. This is not a game; this is the real world. Good intentions count for very little. We need results. The American public should expect no less. I cannot help but feel that if the victims of these incidents had not been expendable, then the culprits would have been caught, and we would have had signed confessions. And waterboarding techniques would not have been necessary to extract the confessions. no one would have been subjected to "persuasive interrogation".

Where there is a will there is a way. Since the Webster Smith court-martial, the Academy has shown very little will, and has lost its way in matters of equal protection of the law. We have found the enemy, and he am us, as Togo would say.

Fifty agents from the Coast Guard Criminal Investigation Service (CGIS), the Navy Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and the FBI spent more than 2,500 hours conducting 226 interviews and reviewing more than 13,000 e-mails. Officials said it was one of the most extensive Coast Guard investigations ever. This was certainly not their finest hour. The investigation was conducted, no doubt, with kid gloves. No one's rights were imfringed. And no results were obtained.

In the Webster Smith case, they appear to have used far fewer resources and achieved much greater results. They managed to find their man, and they came up with a host of disgruntled female cadets willing to perjure themselves at a General Court-martial, all in the interest of stopping an alleged sexual predator. At least, Doug Wisniewski said that he was a sexual predator; and Doug Wisniewski is an honorable man, by an Act of Congress.

No one confessed to or reported witnessing the incidents. That is the hardest part of all of this for me to swallow. Those who tolerate evil are just as guilty as those who perpetrate evil. This has become a matter of honor. The honor of the entire Corps of Cadets has been tarnished, not just those in the Class of 2010.

In the old days, before the Class of 1976, there was group punishment for individual infractions. I remember when Dick Peyser and his classmates in the Class of 1966 punished my entire platoon in the Class of 1968 with forced exercises doing "Butt-Mussles", and "Sweeps" using out 10.2 pound M-1 rifles until one man collapsed from exhaustion or a heat stroke. The reason we were ALL punished was because someone had gone into the latrine and had spit on the toilette seat. No one would confess to having done it, so the entire platoon was punished. We never did find out who had spit on the toilette seat. It was then that we learned what the limits of our torture would be. We would be punished indefinitely until the first man callapsed. In those days Glenn Pruiskma was the designated the duty "fall guy". When he callapsed, we knew the group punishment would end.

“Even though this investigation is now closed, we will continue our work to further diversify and educate our faculty, staff and corps of cadets,” RADM J. Scott Burhoe, the academy’s superintendent said. “I believe that the sheer depth and scope of these investigations sends a clear signal of the Coast Guard’s commitment to provide all of our people with a safe, professional working environment.

"If that person is still around here, my expectation is that they've clearly learned the inappropriateness of their actions and wouldn't repeat them,” said RADM Burhoe.

That is really nice. If Webster Smith had been given that option, then he would not be a registered sex offender today.

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, said that it is “not a comforting thought” that someone with such “a bigoted, hateful mindset” could still be affiliated with the Coast Guard, an organization with a mission to serve a diverse public.

The first noose was left in the bag of a Black cadet in July on board the CGC Eagle. The second was found in August on the office floor of a white female officer who had been conducting race relations training in response to the first incident.

ADM Burhoe said the nooses were not necessarily left by a cadet, noting that others were on the ship and at the academy, including faculty, staff and civilian guests.
He did not explain why that distinction made any difference. The purpose of the investigation was to find out who was responsible, cadets or otherwise.

“It is so inconsistent with the values we stand for,” Burhoe said.

The Justice Department has said it is investigating noose incidents at schools, workplaces and neighborhoods around the country. It has called a noose “a powerful symbol of hate and racially motivated violence” recalling the days of lynchings of Blacks. Officials say leaving a noose can constitute a federal civil rights offense under some circumstances.

Earlier this year, a white man in Alexandria, La., was indicted on federal hate crime and conspiracy charges after he was accused of driving past a group of Black civil rights activists with two nooses dangling from the back of his pickup truck. The activists had attended a civil rights march in Jena, La.

The noose incidents in Connecticut prompted the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, Commandant ADM Thad W. Allen, to visit the Coast Guard Academy last year during Homecoming Week and to give the cadets, faculty and staff an unprecedented and powerful speech concerning racial hatred and intolerance.

ADM Allen was joined by U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, who called for a thorough investigation and decried the incidents as “an act of terrorism.”
Congressman Cummings said Tuesday, 18 March 2008 that he was disappointed the investigators were unable to determine who left the nooses.

“While I wish they had been able to bring someone to justice, I believe once they got the investigation under way, I think they did the best they could,” Cummings said. “I just wish they had started the investigation earlier.”

The academy has launched a series of discussions about teamwork, hate crimes, symbols of hate, diversity and the importance of respect, officials said. Staff is working on a hate crimes and bias-motivated incidents policy for inclusion in the cadet code of regulations.

The academy created a task force in 2006 to examine the culture after Cadet Webster Smith was court-martialed.

Webster Smith filed a discrimination complaint alleging he was treated differently than any other cadets involved in the 9 or more other incidents of sexual improprieties because he was Black. All of the other cadets were given non-judicial punishment or allowed to voluntarily resign from the Academy. Only Webster Smith was given a General Court-martial. He too was deemed expendable.

(Feb 24, 2009)Independent Audit Finds USCG Office of Civil Rights Incompetent.

Employees in the Coast Guard’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) do not have the skills or up-to-date training to handle many of the service’s cases and formal discrimination complaints are not adequately handled, according to an independent report presented to the Coast Guard on February 5.

Terri Dickerson, the office’s director, requested an independent review April 25, 2008, less than one month after an investigation by the Coast Guard Investigative Service, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the FBI failed to determine who left nooses for a Black Coast Guard Academy cadet and an officer conducting race-relations training in the summer of 2007.

At the same time, an unofficial Coast Guard blog was posting regularly about the office and the director’s alleged inefficiencies, reducing morale among employees and casting OCR in a negative light, according to the report.

The findings are “deeply disturbing and completely unacceptable,” Cummings, D-Md., wrote in a letter to Commandant ADM Thad Allen. Cummings, the chairman of the House subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, said he plans to call a hearing in April to further discuss the report.

“The findings of this report demand decisive and comprehensive action to correct what appear to be a number of significant shortfalls in the administration,” he wrote.

The Coast Guard retained Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting firm with offices throughout the country, to review the entire civil rights program in September 2008, according to a letter from Dickerson to the Department of Homeland Security’s Equal Employment Opportunity Programs.

Coast Guard spokesman Cmdr. Ron LaBrec said the service is thankful for the feedback and is conducting a thorough review of the report and its recommendations.

“The [DHS] Office of Civil Rights and Liberties periodically conducts assessments on its civil rights components and the [OCR] director wanted to do this report now with the ongoing modernization initiative to look across the board and improve the practices in the office and address any allegations that were coming out of blogs or even internal discussions. We take allegations of mistreating [privacy issues] seriously,” LaBrec said.

According to the report, the Coast Guardsmen assigned to ORC often come in with little civil rights experience and serve two-year tours, and “often they leave their post just as they are becoming oriented to the position.” The other Coast Guardsmen in the office are on collateral duty, with the same limited backgrounds, according to the report.

Although training is available, the report said, many employees have not completed the legislatively mandated initial or refresher training. In some instances training was behind up to five years.

“Some staff members lack the requisite skills, abilities, and training to effectively perform the duties of their positions, thereby diminishing effectiveness of the divisions/teams,” according to the report.

LaBrec said the “decentralized” structure led to the delinquency in training and the Coast Guard is looking to “standardize” and “improve” its training program. There are 22 full-time positions within OCR, five of which are military, but that likely is not enough to sufficiently handle the additional responsibilities related to the increased caseload, according to the report.

Although Booz Allen acknowledges that some of the recommendations listed in the report cannot be accomplished with the office’s $788,459 budget, OCR’s Web site says the recommendations are under review and lists some that have either already been completed or can be accomplished in the near future.

Those include:

• Restructuring the office to “optimize the use of our military personnel” and take advantage of existing training and resources.

• Analyze the workload to ensure statutory and non-statutory obligations are being met.

LaBrec said it is too early to determine what recommendations would require additional funding or how much additional money would be needed to accomplish those goals.

“The review reaffirmed many positive aspects of the Coast Guard civil rights program. The report also makes clear there is work ahead,” Dickerson wrote in Thursday’s Alcoast. “Foremost, consistent with past similar studies, the BAH team found we must restructure the [equal employment opportunity] function, and secondarily, shore up our equal employment opportunity/equal opportunity product lines so that they more optimally support our civil rights service providers and work force.”

LaBrec also said the 58 formal civil rights complains OCR received in fiscal year 2007, roughly one per 1,000 people, shows the office is doing some things right, since several of the other DHS departments have a much higher number of civil rights complaints per capita.

Allen told Coast Guard Academy cadets and faculty in October 2007 that racial bigotry will not be accepted and goes against the service’s ethos and humanitarian mission. In August 2008, he released a service-wide message outlining plans to improve diversity throughout the service.

As part of the new initiative, every flag officer and senior executive service member is required to attend one diversity conference a year and they are expected to build relationships with minority-based “institutions of higher education.”

The first noose, which garnered national attention, was left in the bag of a Black cadet in July 2007 onboard the Coast Guard cutter Eagle. The second was found in August on the office floor of a white female officer who had been conducting race relations training.




Thurgood Marshall did more to improve the life of the damned, the dispossessed, and the downtroddened tha any other attorney in the 20th century. He fought for the underdog in American society as an attorney and as a justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. As chief counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund for over 25 years, he fought Jim Crow segregation in the snake pits and hell holes of the solid South. He won 29 of 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court; and, he should have won all of them. In a perfect and just world, he would have. His record of successful cases before the high court stands today unparalleled in American judicial history. President Lyndon baines Johnson appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1967 where he served for 34 years.



When he traveled in the South, Thurgood Marshall never confronted "Jim Crow" headon; that is, he never sat in railway stations or lunch counters reserved "for whites only". However, in forays down South he could not always avoid person danger. In 1946 in Columbia, Tennessee, along with other defense counsels, he drove 200 miles round-trip daily from Nashville,TN to the trial in Colunbia,TN. There was no safe place for a Black lawyer to stay in Columbia, TN. At one point police officers picked him up and took him alone in their car, and charged him with drunk driving. Carl Rowan wrote a detailed newspaper article about how the police tried to lead Attorney Thurgood Marshall to the banks of a nearby river where a lynch mob had a noose hanging from a tree, ready to lynch him. Brave armed Black citizens came to his rescue. A courageous white magistrate smelled his breath and proclaimed him sober and he was able to return to Nashvill. (Crusaders in the Courts, by Jack Greenberg, 1994, Basic Books, Harper Collins, p. 31,32)

In the Jim Crow segregated South, he was so revered in Black America that people mostly spoke of him in whispered tones. He is easily the most important American of this century. He rose from an humble birth to a position higher than any Black American before him. He built his reputation slowly in jerkwater southern towns where he was outnumbered but never outmatched and never outgunned in the legal arena. In virtually every case he was fighting for the right against a twisted white justice system administered by southern judges and sheriffs who had few second thoughts about beating in black heads.

Thurgood Marshall was the only Black leader in America during the Civil Rights era who could say that he defeated segregation where it really counted; that was, in the courts. He legal strategy was based on the U. S. Constitution. He forced civil and constitutional rights to be extended equally to the poorest and blackest American citizens as well as poor whites. The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King would never have won his first victory, the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, if Thurgood Marshall and his legal team had not first won a Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation on the city buses. Battles were fought in the streets, but the victories were won in the courts.

Also, it was Thurgood Marshall who argued the case of Brown v. Bd of Education before the Supreme Court. This case ended segregation in public schools.

Thomas G. Krattenmaker, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, said it best. He said, "when I think of great American lawyers, I think of Thurgood Marshall,, Abe Lincoln and Daniel Webster. In the 20th Century only Earl Warren approaches Thurgood Marshall. Marshall is certainly the most important American lawyer of the 20th Century."


Drew Days, a former law professor at Yale University Law School, said that "Thurgood Marshall was the living embodiment of how far we as Americans have come on the major concern in our history-race- and how far we still have to go. He was the conscience of this nation. In the law, he remains our supreme conscience."
(Thurgood Marshall, Justice For All, by R. Goldman and D. Gallen, 1992 bt Caroll & Graf Publishers, Inc, Ny,Ny, 141,142.)

They Rose To The Top of Their Game; Became Weak In Fundamentals.

(L-R:Capt Mike Sullivan,Capt Bruce Baffer,Capt Brian Perkins)
USCG CAPT Mike Sullivan Has Been Charged With Use of Cocaine.

ALAMEDA, Calif.(8/20/08) - CAPT Sullivan, a senior officer on the Coast
Guard's Pacific Area staff has been charged with
wrongfully using cocaine and has been temporarily
reassigned to a non-supervisory position.



CAPT Michael Sullivan, who had been serving as
Pacific Area's Chief of Response, was charged with one
specification of wrongful use of cocaine under Article
112(a) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and one
charge of obstruction of justice under Article 133 of
the UCMJ.

Vice Adm. David Pekoske, the Coast Guard Pacific Area
Commander, has directed that the charges against
Sullivan be investigated in accordance with Article 32
of the UCMJ. Such an investigation is required before
charges could be referred for trial to a general
court-martial.

An Article 32 hearing is a preliminary hearing in
which an investigating officer inquires into the truth
of the matters set forth in the charges and recommends
disposition of the charges. The accused member and his
counsel are present and have the right to question
witnesses at such a proceeding. A date has not yet
been set for the Article 32 hearing.

If found guilty of both charges, Sullivan faces a
potential maximum sentence of a dismissal from the
Coast Guard, 10 years confinement and forfeiture of
all pay and allowances.

Capt. Michael Sullivan, formerly commanding officer of the USCGC Morgenthau (WHEC), has 26 years of service in the Coast Guard.

CAPT Sullivan, the Pacific area's Chief of Response since May 2007, supervised the operation of 20 major Coast Guard cutters and directed law enforcement units that protect ports and fisheries and fight drug trafficking and illegal immigration.

CAPT Sullivan earlier commanded three cutters, and his assignments have included acting as the Coast Guard's liaison to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.

The Coast Guard's Pacific area, based in Alameda, extends from South America to the Arctic Circle and west to the Far East.





CAPT Elmo Alexander, the CO of the CGC Midgett, a Seattle-based 378-foot Coast Guard cutter has admitted in an official inquiry that he berated and struck an enlisted man when the ship was in Mexico.

CAPT Alexander, a 31-year Coast Guard veteran, acknowledged at a Flag Mast that he struck a subordinate during a port call in Mexico and also announced plans to retire from the service, according to agency spokesman Lt. Dave Oney.

CAPT Alexander stated after the hearing that he wanted to leave the Coast Guard.

Vice Adm. Charles Wurster of the Coast Guard's Pacific Area command issued a Letter of Reprimand and a fine that amounts to half his base pay for a two-month period. This was the final action of the NJP, a "nonjudicial punishment," an action typically taken for minor disciplinary offenses. LT. Oney said Alexander "struck an enlisted crewmember in the head while counseling him on his performance as a security watchstander."

CAPT Lance Bardo assumed command of the Midgett until a change of command ceremony could be held.

Last year, CAPT Bardo became the commander of the San Diego-based cutter Hamilton. Coast Guard officials had lost confidence in the Hamilton's previous commander, LT Oney said.

Prior to the incident in Mexico, CAPT Alexander had an "unblemished" record, officials reported.

In 2006, he led CGC Midgett on a scheduled seven-month tour to the Persian Gulf, marking the first time a Seattle-based cutter was deployed to the Iraq war.

In addition to the Midgett, CAPT Alexander has commanded the cutters Tampa, Sturgeon Bay and Cape Jellison.

CAPT Alexander also is a former commanding officer of the Coast Guard's special missions training center in North Carolina. He was responsible for training Coast Guard, Navy and Marine Corps personnel, according to his official biography.

He decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, Coast Guard Commendation Medal, the Commandant's Letter of Commendation Ribbon, the National Defense Medal and one for humanitarian service.

CGC Midgett is one of ten "high endurance" cutters on the West Coast. Its crew is responsible for homeland security, search-and-rescue missions, law enforcement and migrant interdiction operations.

The CGC Midgett usually patrols the Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska and waters in Central America. It typically has a crew of 24 officers and 160 enlisted personnel, according to the Coast Guard's Web site.

The ship is named after Chief Warrant Officer John Allen Midgett Jr., a recipient of the Gold Lifesaving Medal




Lt. Kerry D. McKeever, CO CGC Monomoy, a 110-foot patrol boat, stationed in the Persian Gulf has been “temporarily relieved for cause,” the Coast Guard announced in February 2008.

Lt. McKeever was reassigned to the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area command in Portsmouth, Va., said Atlantic Area spokesman Lt. Rob Wyman.

The Woods Hole, Mass.-based CGC Monomoy has been assigned a temporary commanding officer. The Coast Guard did not disclose more information on the cause of McKeever’s relief.

“The Coast Guard takes the responsibility of command very seriously, and we’re following the established administrative processes to determine the most appropriate course of action from here,” said Atlantic Area commander Adm. Brian Peterman.

The CGC Monomoy is attached to Coalition Task Force 158, a multinational naval force that conducts maritime security operations and specifically protects the oil terminals of the Persian Gulf.


Rear Adm. Timothy Sullivan, Commander of the First Coast Guard District, on 1 February 2008 relieved CDR Jeffrey Dow, as CO of the 225 foot CGC Willow, a Newport, Rhode Island-based cutter following reports of an improper relationship.

(left to right) CDR Jeffrey Dow, LT Grant Thomas, and CAPT Roy Nash.navytimesfilephoto


Commander Dow was relieved of his command following allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate and subsequent loss of confidence by the operational commander. The executive officer or second in command of the Willow, Coast Guard Lt. Mark Crysler, has assumed command of the CGC Willow.
The case remains under investigation.
"We take these types of allegations very seriously, and we will investigate this case fully," said Capt. Timothy Skuby, the chief of staff of the First Coast Guard District.
Commander Jeffrey Dow graduated from the U S Coast Guard Academy in the Class of 1991.
His first duty station was onboard the USCGC Laurel in Mayport, FL. In 1993 he was assigned as XO of the USCGC Asateague in Honolulu, Hi. In 1995 he became an instructor in the Leadership and Management School at the Coast Guard Training center at Petaluma, Ca.
In 1998 he reported aboard the CGC Grand Isle out of Gloucester, Massachusetts as Commanding Officer.
In 2001 he was sent to Post Graduate School at the University of San Diego where he earned a Masters Degree in Leadership Studies. In January 2002 he reported to Coast Guard Headquarters as Chief, Administration and Coordination Staff for the Assistant Commandant for Operations. In 2003 he became the Headquarters Quality Performance Consultant for the Office of Personnel Management.

CDR Dow is a native of Plaistow, New Hampshire and is married to the former Rebecca Brechler of Wausau, Wisconsin.

This is not the first time a Coast Guard Commanding Officer of a seagoing vessel has been relieved of duty for fraternization in the last year.
Commander Karl Gabrielsen,the CO of the USCGC Alex Haley, a 282 foot medium endurance law enforcement vessel stationed in Kodiak, Alaska, was permanently relieved of command following nonjudicial punishment June 13, 2007 for conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, and other charges.
Cmdr. Gabrielsen received a punitive letter of reprimand and fines worth up to $5,000during an NJP (non-judicial punishment) conducted by Pacific Area Commander Vice Admiral Charles Wurster.

Few details were released concerning the specifics of Commander Gabrielsen’s relationships. It was not revealed whether these relationships were while Commander Gabrielson was acting in an official capacity or while he was in a leave status unrelated to his official duties. Nor was it stated whether these were social relationships that only amounted to a possible embarrassment to his wife and the officer corps. However, he was relieved of duty April 24, 2007 for “loss of confidence.”

An administrative investigation confirmed that CDR Gabrielsen had several “inappropriate relationships” which “compromised his leadership ability,” according to Public Affairs Senior Chief Keith Alholm on June 18, 2007. All available information indicates that none of the relationships were with male or female members of his ship's officers or crew.

Did Someone Forget To Put The Salt-Peter In The Chow At The Coast Guard Academy?
What's Going On With The Coast Guard's New Breed Of Officers?

M. J. Smith Relieved of Command.
The captain of the CGC Mobile Bay, an icebreaking tug, was temporarily relieved of command 4 April 2008 by RADM John E. Crowley, commander of the Coast Guard’s 9th District.

RADM Crowley relieved LCDR Matthew J. Smith after “a series of discussions” led RADM Crowley to decide that “a change of leadership was in order” aboard the 140-foot Mobile Bay, based in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, said Chief Public Affairs Specialist Robert Lanier, 9th District spokesman.

The relief from command allegedly was not the result of wrongdoing or misconduct of any nature. LCDR Smith is not currently under any kind of investigation, Lanier said.
All prelimiary inquiries are over.

Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Wirth, captain of the buoy tender CGC Alder, a buoy tender, homeported in Duluth, Minn., will take over as captain of the Mobile Bay, Lanier said.


File Photo of Ensign Jason Frank in rabbit fur cap.

LT Jason Frank, a 36-year-old Coast Guard officer, assigned to the Command Center Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington DC was arrested 10 August 2007 after being caught "in flagrante delicto" in the Stafford, Va., in the bedroom of a 14-year-old girl by her mother.

Lt. Jason Frank, of Gaithersburg, Md., allegedly visited the girl’s home on three different occasions and had sex with her at least twice, according to a 15 August Stafford County Sheriff’s Office announcement.

The girl’s mother allegedly found Frank in her daughter’s bedroom in the early hours of August 1. The mother told deputies that after she told the Coast Guard officer her daughter was only 14, he jumped out the window and fled.Informed sources said that Lieutenant Frank met the 14 year old girl in an Internet chat room. He was posing as a 28-year-old.

Frank has been charged with two counts of carnal knowledge of a child (statutory rape), taking indecent liberties with a child, soliciting a juvenile with an electronic device, breaking and entering, vandalism, and misdemeanor assault and battery.


Vice Adm. John “Boomer” Stufflebeem was relieved by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead because , the CNO lost confidence in Admiral Stufflebeem’s judgment and his continuing ability to lead in the office of the CNO,” said Rear Adm. Frank Thorp, the Navy’s chief of information. It appears that he also lied about having sex in the White House with a State Department staffer.

A DoD IG investigation began after officials received an anonymous letter in January this year accusing VADM Stufflebeem of having an inappropriate relationship while serving as President George H.W. Bush’s military aide in 1990. Thorp was careful to point out that VADM Stufflebeem was relieved directly due to the misleading testimony, not because of the allegations in the letter. The letter accused Stufflebeem of carrying on an eight-month affair with a female State Department staffer while the two were assigned to the White House in 1990. Stufflebeem, then a 37-year-old commander, pretended to be a widower. He is alleged to have told the woman that his wife had died of breast cancer and that he was raising his two children on his own. The Admiral allegedly had sex with the State Department staffer in sleeping quarters in the White House basement and when the two traveled abroad with the White House travel team. it is also alleged that the two engaged in “passionate kissing” in a car parked near the White House grounds, and he even sexually propositioned the woman’s close friend on a trip to London.

An earlier anonymous letter regarding VADM Stufflebeem was sent in 1999, but at the time, the Navy and DoD deemed there was “insufficient evidence to pursue the matter,” Thorp said.


At an admiral’s mast, NJP, April 18, 2008 he received a punitive letter of reprimand. A 39-year Navy career was in ruins. At mast, Stufflebeem was found guilty of Article 107 — making a false official statement — by Adm. Kirkland Donald, director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion, who read the IG investigation and endorsed the full report.

On May 7, in a letter he said that he never intentionally misled anybody about the affair. In letters he sent to the IG, he said he had “spent a lot of time trying to forget who she was.”

In another statement to Navy Times, he wrote: “It is regrettable that an investigation into an 18-year-old accusation has caused embarrassment to the Navy and my family. It was never my intent to harm or deceive either of them.”
Stufflebeem has put in paperwork requesting retirement.

The woman told investigators that Stufflebeem apologized for lying to her.
“‘I’m very sorry,’” the woman quoted him as saying. “‘I’m married. I didn’t know how long this charade could go on.

If Stufflebeem had told the IG the truth about the affair, he probably would not have advanced but would have avoided nonjudicial punishment and been able to stay in the Navy. That’s because the five-year statute of limitations on adultery has long since expired.

When investigators asked whether he had been held accountable by military authorities for his relationship with the woman, Stufflebeem said he had not been by military superiors, but had been in his personal life.
“My wife held me accountable,” he told investigators, adding that he and his wife had undergone marital counseling for the strain caused by the White House relationship. The two are still married, he said. “I held myself accountable. And it took me a long time to come around to beg God for forgiveness for what had been going on in my life, and this just contributed to it.
“So I have had a great 18-year career since I left the White House,” he said in a letter in response to the report. “If this is the end of it, then I still leave a rewarded individual, thankful for the blessings that I have had.”

VADM Stufflebeem’s rank has reverted to rear admiral, which is typically done when an officer is not serving in a three-star billet. Officers need congressional approval to serve as vice admiral or above, and can only maintain that rank when actually serving in those jobs.

RADM Stufflebeem, a career naval aviator, rose to prominence in the opening days of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001, frequently briefing reporters as the deputy director for global operations on the Joint Staff. After graduating from the Naval Academy Class of 1975, RADM Stufflebeem was a practice-squad punter for the Detroit Lions under a special program that allowed the NFL to carry military players in a reserve status while they are on active duty. The Lions asked Stufflebeem to join them full time, but the aviator opted to fly jets.




CMDR Michael Sabellico, the commanding officer of the CGC Escanaba, a Boston-based Coast Guard cutter was arrested and charged with assault Tuesday following a scuffle during a port call in Key West, Fla.

CMDR Sabellico, 42, of Scituate, Mass., the skipper of the 270-foot cutter, was arrested May 15 by Key West police around 1:15 a.m. The Coast Guard temporarily reassigned him.

According to the police report, CMDR Sabellico and several crew members were drinking at establishments along the island’s famed Duval Street when they argued with a bartender at an Irish pub.

CMDR Sabellico and the crew members allegedly were loitering in an alley when the bartender at Irish Kevin’s asked them to leave. They left as requested, but according to the report, CMDR Sabellico returned and scuffled with the man. He then left the scene. CMDR Sabellico was apprehended later and charged with simple assault.

The Coast Guard conducted an administrative investigation into the incident. According to Atlantic Area spokesman Lt. Rob Wyman, CMDR Sabellico was reassigned temporarily to the Coast Guard’s 1st District.

CMDR Chris Austin, the CO of the Portsmouth, Va.-based CGC Northland, assumed temporary command of the CGC Escanaba.
(POST SCRIPT) Here was a real MAN, a ship's captain who is a throwback to the days of the "rocks and shoals". This is the kind of a ship's captain that anyone would want to sail with. He is no wimp or wuss.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

And, we all know that You can't keep a good man down.
"This is me...CDR Mike Sabellico, now retired. I was formally releived for cause as a result of my
arrest in Key West that unfortunate evening. These types of events are never easy for anyone but
I've moved on and the ship has done well despite the circumstances of the summer. I remain extremely
proud of the Coast Guard and of my service for over 20 years. I made a serious mistake in judgement
and was held fully accountable.

I'm working for a company in San Diego and love it. I'm home every night which makes life a little bit better.


Everyone makes mistakes some just gain more noteriety than others. I've learned from it and now it's in my wake.

All my best
Mike"





Capt. Jeffrey S. Lee, CO of the 378-foot USCGC Hamilton, was relieved of command on 23 Septtember 2007 by Pacific Area commander Vice Adm. Charles Wurster.

Wurster cited “loss of confidence” in Lee’s ability to command as reason for the relief, Lt. Dave Oney said. He was flown back to the United States from the CGC Hamilton.

An investigation was conducted by the command and Coast Guard Investigative Service. No further details were forthcoming.

The San Diego-based CGC Hamilton was in the middle of a scheduled deployment to the eastern Pacific. CAPT Lee was removed from the ship as it made a stop in Central America.

CGC Hamilton was Lee’s fourth cutter command. He has been cited for outstanding leadership on numerous occasions and, from 2003 to 2005, served as school chief at the Coast Guard’s Command and Operations School where he instructed future cutter commanders and executive officers for duty afloat.

He has been in the Coast Guard since 1983.

CAPT Lance Bardo, prospective CO of the national security cutter Waesche, temporarily assumed command of CGC Hamilton.

CAPT Douglas G. Russell, the CO of the Seattle-based Coast Guard icebreaker CGC Healy lost command of the ship, two weeks after two of the ship's divers died on a research expedition in the Arctic Ocean.

CAPT Russell was temporarily relieved of his post after the Coast Guard's chief in the Pacific, Vice Adm. Charles D. Wurster, had a "loss of confidence in the officer's ability to command," the Coast Guard announced.

Coast Guard officials wouldn't say specifically what led to that conclusion, but it's not a routine step after a fatal accident, said Lt. Cmdr. Glynn Smith, a spokesman for the Coast Guard's Pacific Area.

"It depends on the facts of the case," he said.

CAPT Russell had been in charge of the ship since June. He is being replaced by Capt. Daniel K. Oliver, the Healy's previous commanding officer.

The Coast Guard has disclosed little about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of LT Jessica Hill, 31, of St. Augustine, Fla., and BM2 Steven Duque, 22, of Miami.

The two died Aug. 17 during a routine dive about 60 feet off the bow of the Healy as it floated 500 miles north of Barrow, Alaska, Smith said. The pair were diving to check equipment and become familiar with diving in the frigid water, according to the Coast Guard.



Not to be outdone by the Coast Guard, the Navy has its share of senior officers stepping knee-deep in ca-ca.



Commander Robert Schetky, 54 years old, should know discipline and should have been able to control his impulses toward the 12 year old girl, Juneau Superior Judge Larry Weeks said on 21 June2007 as he handed down the sentence, which includes two more years that were suspended.

"No one will ever know the damage done to her," Judge Weeks said. Prosecutors said Schetky touched the girl's breasts multiple times last year.

He was arrested and pleaded guilty in January. As part of the plea deal, he spent time at a treatment facility in Arizona that specializes in substance and sexual addictions.

Following his release from prison, Schetky will be required to register as a sex offender for 15 years. He is prohibited from contact with his victim without prior approval and from contact with girls under 17 and must submit a DNA sample.

Before his arrest, Schetky was the Navy's liaison to the Coast Guard as head of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Maritime Homeland Defense Detachment. It was not clear from the evidence whether his close association with some Coast Guard officers led to the decline in his moral character. Bad company corrupts good morals.



Admiral Peter J. Williams,USN fired over improper relationship.


Rear Adm. Peter J. Williams was fired from his position and reassigned 21 June 2007 for having an inappropriate relationship and misusing government property, according to the Navy.

RADM Williams, the program executive officer for tactical aircraft programs, was sent to another position within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, following an NJP, admiral’s mast, before ADM Patrick Walsh, vice chief of naval operations.

Delores M. Etter, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, reassigned Williams.

Lt. Ryan Perry, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon, said that during the mast proceeding, “it was determined that Williams had engaged in an inappropriate relationship and misused government property.” Perry said the government property was a cellular phone. He would not characterize the improper relationship. RADM Williams is married.

LT Perry would not disclose the details of the inappropriate relationship. ADM Walsh convened the Admiral's Mast under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That gives a commanding officer authority to conduct an immediate non-judicial proceeding for misconduct.

“Adm. Walsh believed he had sufficient information to conduct an Article 15 hearing,” LT Perry said. “An individual notified the chain of command with credible concerns about an inappropriate relationship. The Navy takes such allegations seriously and began the investigation.”

SAN DIEGO, CA (1 march 2008) — CMDR Steven R. Rasmussen the skipper of the frigate Thach was fired this week for a “loss of confidence” in his ability to lead his crew, a Navy official said Friday, 29 February.

CMDR Rasmussen, a 1988 graduate of the Naval Academy who took command of the ship Oct. 6, 2006, was relieved of command by CAPT Michael Gilday, according to CMDR Jane Campbell, a Naval Surface Forces spokeswoman. CAPT Gilday is commodore of San Diego-based Destroyer Squadron 7.

“Loss of confidence is the reason behind it,” Campbell said, declining to provide details. CMDR Rasmussen did not go to flag mast, and his firing “is administrative, at this point,” she added.

Rasmussen was scheduled to hand over command in about a month, Campbell said. He was temporarily reassigned, but no other details were available.

CMDR Dave Haas, who was slated to replace Rasmussen this spring, took command of the ship Thursday, 28 February.

Haas most recently commanded the littoral combat ship Independence “gold crew” in San Diego.

Rasmussen’s assignments include serving as XO of the destroyer O’Kane and flag secretary for Cruiser-Destroyer Group 5 aboard the aircraft carrier Nimitz.

His firing came about a week after he and Thach’s crew were recognized by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy for interdiction missions during their six-month deployment in 2006 to Central and South America.

During a Feb. 19 ceremony aboard the ship, Patrick M. Ward, the acting director for supply reduction, cited Thach’s crew for interdicting 29 tons of cocaine, the most of any Navy asset that year, and presented the United States Interdiction Coordinator Award and special coins to 50 crew members.

“We were extremely fortunate to be part of such a robust and capable team. Everyone in the process worked tirelessly to complete these operations in a safe and effective manner,” CMDR Rasmussen said, according to a Feb. 27 Navy News article about the ceremony.



Naval Academy Female Officer Had To Work As A Prostitute To Make Ends Meet.

LCDR Rebecca Dickinson, a former Naval Academy instructor moonlighted as a prostitute for the D.C. Madam, a California woman accused of running an escort service.

LCDR Dickinson said that she had sex with nearly every client she met while working for Deborah Jeane Palfrey from October 2005 until April 2006.

She was paid between $250 and $300 for 90-minute appointments at Washington-area homes, hotels and offices.

Navy spokesman CAPT Jack Hanzlik said that LCDR Dickinson, 38, was fired from her position as an instructor at Naval Supply Corps School in Athens, Georgia in April 2008.

LCDR Dickinson received nonjudicial punishment (NJP) and was given a punitive letter of reprimand. Hanzlik said she could face additional punishment in the future and has been placed on leave.

“We expect the men and women who serve in our nation’s Navy to adhere to a standard of conduct that reflects our core values of honor, courage and commitment,” Hanzlik said. “LCDR Dickinson’s conduct will prevent her from wearing this uniform again in the service of our country.”

While at the Naval Academy, Navy officials say, Dickinson worked as food services officer, responsible for feeding more than 4,000 midshipmen each day, from 2004 until 2007. She also taught one class — Naval Leadership — for a semester.

LCDR Dickinson’s decision might have been motivated by financial issues — she had filed for bankruptcy in the months before she responded to an advertisement placed by Palfrey in a local newspaper.

LCDR Dickinson joined the Navy in 1986 and served as an aviation electronics technician for three years before attending Auburn University. After she was commissioned in 2003, Dickinson attended Naval Supply Corps School and then served aboard the cruiser Bunker Hill, the fast combat support ship Camden and the ammunition supply ship Santa Barbara.

LCDR Dickinson has 19 years of service time. Hanzlik said no decision has been made on whether she will be allowed to retire, but said if she is, it could be at a lower rank because a retirement grade determination might find that her service as a lieutenant commander was not honorable.

(POST SCRIPT)The woman who hires LCDR Dickinson, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, dubbed the Washington D C Madam, was convicted 15 April 2008 on all counts of money laundering, racketeering, and using the mail for illegal purposes by a federal jury in Washington DC. She was convicted of running a prostituton service that catered to members of Washington's political elite. Ms. Palfrey caused a minor sensation in 2007 when she announced that she was going to sell her client list in order to raise money to pay her attorneys' fees. She alleged that her defunct business, Pamela Martin & Associates, was a legal, high-end erotic fantasy service.

The trial concluded without revealing many new details about the service or its clients. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., was among possible witnesses, but did not take the stand.
Vitter has acknowledged being involved with Palfrey’s escort service. But after issuing brief statements apologizing for “a very serious sin,” he has avoided follow-up questions.
Harlan Ullman, a military strategist who created the concept of “shock and awe” that the United States used to open hostilities against Iraq, also did not testify. Palfrey says Ullman was a regular client; Ullman has declined to discuss what he has called “outrageous allegations.”
Randall L. Tobias, who resigned as a deputy secretary of state after acknowledging to ABC News that he used Palfrey’s service for massages, also did not testify.
Defense attorney Preston Burton argued that what went on during appointments was between the client and the escort. He compared Palfrey to a taxi dispatcher, who shouldn’t be penalized for “the route the cab driver took.”
Palfrey was freed pending her sentencing July 24, 2008.
Prosecutors urged U.S. District Judge James Robertson to lock Palfrey up immediately, arguing that the verdict gives her a motive to flee. But the judge noted that Palfrey has never missed a court appearance.

However, the so-called “D.C. Madam” was found dead on 2 May in Tarpon Springa, Florida. In suicide notes she said that she couldn’t bear to go to prison, and apologized to her mother and sister.
Florida police released the two notes Deborah Jean Palfrey wrote before she hanged herself in a shed outside her mother’s mobile home.
Palfrey was convicted April 15 of running a prostitution service that catered to members of Washington’s political elite — including Sen. David Vitter, R-La. — and employed a Naval Academy instructor, LCDR Rebecca Dickinson, as a call girl.
Another of the escort service employees was former University of Maryland, Baltimore County, professor Brandy Britton, who was arrested on prostitution charges in 2006. She committed suicide in January before she was scheduled to go to trial.
Last year, Palfrey said she, too, was humiliated by her prostitution charges, but said: “I guess I’m made of something that Brandy Britton wasn’t made of.”
Palfrey faced a maximum of 55 years in prison. Sentencing was scheduled for July 24.
She said in a note to her mother that the case was a “modern-day lynching.” She said she didn’t want to come out of prison “broken, penniless and very much alone.”

HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS OF AN ASEXUAL NATURE.
Not all crimes commited by senior military officers and Senior Executive Service members are of a sexual nature. Some are more serious. "There is nothing more important than the security of nuclear weapons" said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., the Chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley and Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne were forced to resign Thursday 5 June 2008because of problems stemming from the Air Force’s mishandling nuclear weapons. A report, by Navy ADM Kirkland Donald, director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion, revealed widespread problems in the mishandling of nuclear weapons and convinced Defense Secretary Robert Gates that General Moseley and Secretary Wynne must be held accountable. Both men have tendered their resignations.

Defense Secretary Gates started his career as an Air Force missile officer in the 1960s. He said that a “substantial” number of Air Force general officers and colonels more immediately responsible for recent lapses could still be reprimanded or fired in the wake of the report.

It is not clear how quickly Secretary Wynne and General Moseley will leave their positions. General Moseley has requested retirement effective August 1 and will take terminal leave before that.

“I think the honorable thing to do is to step aside,” General Moseley said in a statement released to the press. “After consulting with my family, I intend to submit my request for retirement to Secretary Gates.

Female Officer Fraternization Cases A Serious Problem.

On March 16, 1997 Lt. Col. Karen Tew found her 19-year career as an Air Force officer over. It was destroyed by her admission that she had an improper relationship with an enlisted man.

As soon as her guilty plea and dismissal were upheld on automatic appeal Colonel Karen Tew would lose her rank and all her benefits, including her military life insurance and death benefits for her survivors.

Her two teen-age daughters would get nothing from the Air Force unless Tew died before her discharge was final.
That Sunday, as Tew sat alone in her parents’ St. Charles, Mo., home, she didn't reach for the phone to call the mental health counselor she had been seeing since early December.

She reached for a shotgun and put it to her head. She was dead at age 41.

Tew is at least the third military member in 1997 to commit suicide after being charged with sexual misconduct. Her case was among those cited in a Time magazine article. But unlike the two others — an Army private charged with rape and an Army staff sergeant accused of indecent assault on a female soldier — Tew’s crime is not even illegal in the civilian world.

She's not alone — the Air Force's first female bomber pilot, 1st Lt. Kelly Flinn, was charged with fraternizing with an enlisted airman, adultery with the civilian husband of an enlisted woman, and disobeying orders to stay away from the men.

The Air Force has seen an almost yearly increase in adultery cases since 1990 and cases of fraternization — an officer having an improper relationship with a subordinate — shot up in 1994.

Both charges can get the offender kicked out of the service, but fraternization is considered the worst — it can bring up to two years in prison, while adultery has a maximum of one year.

With more women in the military, and units spending more time away from home, more opportunity exists for improper actions.

At the same time, Air Force leaders have been cracking down on such relationships, which then chief of staff, Gen. Ronald Fogleman, has described as part of the “climate of corrosion” and “culture of compromise” that threatens the service unless it returns to core values of integrity and honesty.

Capt. Bill Barksdale, a spokesman for Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base, said fraternization especially can destroy a unit’s ability to work together.

“It’s tough, when you’re not in the military, to understand just what it can do to a unit,” he said. “It’s about fairness and equity in your workplace. It’s about professional working relationships — that’s what you want to maintain.”

It’s not clear why Tew would have jeopardized a career she had pursued her entire adult life.

Initially, Scott Air Force Base officials did not publicize the fact that a senior officer was charged with two counts of adultery, sodomy and fraternization. Barksdale said his office was not notified until after Tew committed suicide.

The Air Force has not released the record of Tew’s court-martial and the investigation that preceded it.

One supposition is that Tew, who was under counseling because she was considered suicidal, wanted to preserve benefits for her daughters, ages 15 and 16.
If she died before being kicked out, survivors would receive her military life insurance, a death payment and keep other benefits, such as health care.
“She understood that,” Barksdale said. “I know she knew exactly what would happen if she committed suicide.”
Until a year ago, Tew was what the Air Force calls a “fast burner,” especially considering she was not a pilot but a finance officer.

She was commissioned as a second lieutenant in May 1978, through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program at Southeast Missouri State University..
Tew held a variety of Air Force finance jobs with increasing responsibility, earning two Air Force Achievement medals, two Air Force Commendation medals and two Meritorious Service medals.
On March 2, 1994, Tew reported to Air Mobility Command headquarters at Scott, where she became chief of the resource section for the command’s inspector general — a high-profile job that required frequent travel to inspect subordinate units all over the world.
Such an assignment, and the master’s degree she had completed, made her a likely candidate for promotion to full colonel.
Before coming to Scott, Tew served as a comptroller with an Air Force wing at Hurlburt Field, Fla. Her husband and their daughters, Mary and Lisa, remained in Florida when she moved there.

On April 15, 1996, the judge advocate general’s (JAG) office of Scott’s 375th Airlift Wing received a call from someone — the Air Force has not said who — accusing Tew of adultery with a major in the Marine Corps Reserve.
The JAG is the military’s lawyers. It passed the information on to the regional Office of Special Investigations (OSI), the Air Force’s detectives.
On April 25, investigators contacted Master Sgt. Craig Collier, another member of the inspector general’s team, who rented Tew an apartment in the basement of his house.

According to Barksdale, the investigators wanted to know whether Tew’s landlord knew anything about the Marine but got a surprise: When they asked Collier whether he knew why they were there, he told them he assumed it was because he had an affair with Tew.
Collier was given immunity from prosecution and ordered to tell the truth about his relationship with Tew.

Collier told investigators that between March and November 1994, he and Tew had sex at various temporary duty stations, including after he got married.
The relationship was dormant until August 1995, when it resumed and ended again within the same week.
Collier since has been transferred to McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey.

The Air Force ordered an Article 32 investtigation, roughly the equivalent of a civilian grand jury investigation. Because of scheduling conflicts, it was not held until Nov. 25. Tew did not present a defense.

Tew’s defense counsel expressed concern that Tew was suicidal — she already had met with a chaplain a dozen times — and persuaded commanders to appoint a mental health professional who could meet with Tew in a confidential manner.
Between Dec. 4, when the Article 32 officer recommended the case be sent to trial, and her March 11 court martial, Tew met with the mental health professional 30 times as well as talking to him on the phone 40 to 50 times, an average of four contacts a week.
On March 11, Tew pleaded guilty to fraternization — the most serious charge — under a pretrial agreement, and two charges of adultery and a charge of sodomy were dropped.

Tew was sentenced to dismissal from the service and loss of benefits. Immediately after the sentencing, the mental health counselor spent between 90 minutes and two hours talking to Tew. They spoke for a similar amount of time on Thursday, March 13, and Tew confirmed an appointment for the following Monday.
She never kept it.
Viola Dwyer, Tew’s mother, said she knew her daughter was in trouble, but Tew told her little.
“I didn't even discuss that with her when she came home,” Dwyer said. “I asked her what her chances were (with the appeal), and she said she didn't think it would make a bit of difference.
“I know why she didn't want us there — she didn't want us to hear all of it.”