The Chapman University of Military Law and its associated AMVETS Legal Clinic are blowing the whistle on what they say is an injustice set to be perpetrated on 157 Air Force majors on the last day of November.
“The Obama administration has ordered massive reductions in forces, resulting in many officers who are near retirement being involuntarily separated without retirement or medical benefits,” explained institute director Maj. Kyndra Rotunda.
The Department of Defense specifies that service members within six years of retirement normally would be retained and allowed to retire on time with benefits, unless extenuating circumstances exist such as disciplinary issues.
According to lawyers at Chapman and the AMVETS Legal Clinic, the Air Force has deviated from the six-year protection “without any legal authority.”
“At the heart of the matter, is whether the Secretary of the Air Force [Michael Donley] can ignore protections that exist in governing regulations,” Rotunda told The Daily Caller. “The Air Force position is that yes, he may. Our position is that nobody is above the law.”
According to an Air Force spokesman, officers who fail to get a promotion two times in a row are subject to involuntary discharge — unless they are within two years of qualifying for retirement. Officers subject to discharge under what the Air Force calls “selective continuation” are almost always retained until retirement if they appeal for continuation to a selection board, are within six years or less from retirement and have no disciplinary issues or negative information on their records.
However, according to the spokesman Air Force Secretary Donley can deviate from the Department of Defense policy provided he notifies the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
Maj. Rotunda disagrees:
Despite the Air Forces’ assertion that the dismissals have been kosher, Rotunda noted that based on the Defense Department’s Instruction 1320.08, “derogatory information” is the only reason officers should be terminated, and that budget shortfalls are not one of the instances.
“The Air Force cites budgetary short falls as the reason to terminate them. But that rationale is nowhere mentioned in the regulation,” Rotunda told TheDC. “In this instant, the officers being separated are within six years of retirement and their records do not contain derogatory information. Thus, they should be allowed to remain in service and retire. The defense department’s own regulation does not authorize what the defense department is doing. The Airmen relied on the law when they entered service and now the Secretary wants to change that law, without authority.”
According to the Air Force Times, this kind of termination without disciplinary infractions or other derogatory information is almost unheard of even in peacetime, let alone when the country is involved in hostilities.
The DC Caller article cites the case of one of the officers in question,Major Kale Mosley, a combat pilot who is just six months shy of getting his 20 years in. He served in 13 combat zones and was recently deployed in Libya with only 30 hours notice, after which he was sent to Iraq.
Major Mosley received notice of his dismissal from the Air Force the same day he arrived in Iraq.
Had this happened to someone working for a private company, does anyone doubt that the Obama Administration's Department of Justice would be filing a lawsuit in record time?
( H/T American Thinker)
This administration just makes you despise them more and more...
ReplyDeleteBut their union thug-filth buddies they take care of just not those that put their lives on the line for this nation. Obama has just been demoted to complete and total scum.
This reeks of being very, very evil and very, very stupid on the part of someone within the Obama Administration. Given the current nature of our missions, the morale of our forces has to be quite low. We need to be doing things to increase troop moreal and not engaging in things that lower troop morale.
ReplyDeleteThe United States is in a fight for its survival. The enemy the nation currently faces is far more dangerous than Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan ever was or ever could have been. Alos, we are going to have to confront Russia and China at some point in the next couple of years. In order to do this, we are going to need experienced officers who have combat experience and leadership experience in combat situations.
As such, this is not a good time to be discharging officers such as Kale Mosley. If any thing, we should be extending their time in the service as has been done in times past when the nation was at war.
I'm sure the American people are largely not aware of this. If they were, I suspect they would be outraged by this. Hopefully something can be done so that these officers will receive fair treatement. Perhaps Congress can get involved and do something. Lets pray so.
What disturbs me about all of this is this administration's desire to gut an organization that is mandated to be funded by the constitution and divert those savings to programs that are not mandated by the constitution. I mean am I missing something here???
ReplyDeleteGiven the very dire financial situation faced by the US and the government, it is clear that EVERYONE in the government including the government employee unions, those who receive government services, and the holders of government debt MUST take a substantial hair cut. At this point, our country is bankrupt. These substantial haircuts are literally the only way to save our country. If done properly, our country can emerge from bankruptcy stronger than when it entered bankruptcy.
ReplyDeleteIt will not be easy but it must be done. In order to get this done, it will require firm leadership at the top who can act in a non partisian manner. Politically the easiest place to cut is going to be in the military. As such, it makes perfect sense to begin in this area when cutting government spending. When one faces a very daunting issue, it often makes sense to break it down into different tasks and to begin with the easiest tasks. Clearly the wasiest area is going to be the military.
Within the government there is large amounts of inefficient bueracracy that consists of fat salaries and fat pensions who provide little benefit. It seems likely that the military is no different. As such, some of the officers probably need to be terminated and probably should have been terminated long ago. They represent beuracratic bloat who are uneccessary to the function of the military which is the defense of our great country. Essentially there retirement benefits are they got to mooch off of the taxpayers for how ever long they worked in these jobs.
The jobs of each of these 157 majors should be reviewed individually to determine if these people fall under the category of beuaracratic bloat or if these are essential to the defense of our country. Furthermore in trying to determine if these people are entitled to retirement benefits we should try and determine have these officers performed functions essential to the defense of our nation, in the past, during their careers. If so, these officers do not fall under the category of beuracratic bloat and should receive some form of retirement benefits.
Now in the case of Major Mosley, based upon the information in the article he clearly does not fall under the category of useless buercrat. In fact, given the nature of the missions we are involved in. Combat pilots who are officers who have combat experience are vitally important. As such, we should be providing incentives personnel such as Major Mosley to remain in the military. If men such as this MUST be terminated due to lack of financial ability to pay their salaries, such officers such as Major Mosley should be entitled to full retirement benefits.
I only hope and pray Congress or someone will get involved in this and make sure justice is properly served. Unfortunately it is hard to envision any one in the US government being willing or able to do this in a non partisian manner.
The last sentence of the post is spot on!! Even if the Justice Department did not move on it, the EEOC or some other alphabet soup government agency would move on this and take action against the private entity engaging in such activity. Providing a military is the most important function of a government who has its priorities right. As such, we should be making sure these officers are treated fairly. We should all monitor this to make sure this is done properly and these officers receive fair and equitable treatment.