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Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Army senior officer police blotter: Sex, alcohol, child porn, and something else

Maj. Gen. Ralph Baker, commander of CJTF-Horn of Africa, got the big boot for personal misconduct related to sex and alcohol, the ham and eggs of flag officer troubles. The Washington Post‘s Craig Whitlock reported over the weekend that the Pentagon’s inspector general upheld charges of misconduct by two three-star Army generals, Joseph Fil and ...

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Maj. Gen. Ralph Baker, commander of CJTF-Horn of Africa, got the big boot for personal misconduct related to sex and alcohol, the ham and eggs of flag officer troubles.

Maj. Gen. Ralph Baker, commander of CJTF-Horn of Africa, got the big boot for personal misconduct related to sex and alcohol, the ham and eggs of flag officer troubles.

The Washington Post‘s Craig Whitlock reported over the weekend that the Pentagon’s inspector general upheld charges of misconduct by two three-star Army generals, Joseph Fil and David Huntoon. “Records obtained by The Post,” he wrote, “show that the Pentagon’s inspector general also substantiated misconduct charges last year against Huntoon, the West Point superintendent.” This surprised me because when I heard in late January about Huntoon being investigated, I asked him about it, and he basically flatly denied there was anything to what I had heard. “There is no investigation here,” he said. So this past Saturday morning I sent him a note asking why he said that. As of 10 am this (Monday) morning, I haven’t heard back from him. The Post didn’t have specifics on what the misconduct in question was. For all I know, it could have been aggravated jaywalking. If so, I wish General Huntoon had said that at the time.     

Finally, Col. Robert Rice, who works in war-gaming at the Army War College’s Center for Strategic Leadership and Development, was suspended after being charged on a bunch of counts of having child porn on his personal laptop. 

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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