Today brings sad news of the arrest and relief of another member of the U.S. military who was assigned to the Sexual Harassment and Assault Response Prevention (SHARP) and Equal Opportunity Program. (Edit: The third of three, recent, high-profile cases)
This event may be considered less shocking than the other two, but equally telling.
Here's a recap of the wheels coming off the DoD's program designed to arm units with responsible leaders who can help solve the sexual assault and harassment problems, and it's probably not inclusive.
- Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, a guy at the headquarters of the Air Force is relieved, charged by local police with sexual assault.
- Sgt. 1st Class Gregory McQueen, from the Army's SHARP office at Ft. Hood is charged with allegedly running a small-time prostitution ring and for the sexual assault of another soldier.
The latest high-profile case:
- Lt. Col. Darin Haas was relieved of his duties as the manager of Fort Campbell's Sexual Harassment and Assault Response Prevention/Equal Opportunity today after his arrest in a domestic dispute.
I don't have much editorial comment on this. There's not much to say. I'm a retired solider and I still work for Uncle Sam.
It's a shame. It's dangerous. It probably isn't over.
I would also interject here that around the DoD, there's a growing resentment of the mandatory training we have to sit through on this topic. We all know it's coming back around again too. The "all hands" training done during a "Stand Down Day" that everyone did last year was good. It was well-produced, and it was believable. However, in my opinion, training like that won't ever work as intended. It's resented as group punishment. The hard questions and difficult answers are glossed over. (That should sound familiar to anyone in the U.S., we tend to do that.)
To pull back to the macro level and offer an opinion, I would say the upswing in sexual assault and sexual harassment is a symptom of an organization that has been running too hard and too fast for more than a decade. This in no way excuses the criminal behavior of individuals. It also offers no comfort to the victims, both the ones we know about and the ones who, for various reasons, don't report what happened to them.
But, at some point, leaders are going to have to pull back and look at this from a macro view. I know. I know. They're getting ready to cut the DOD, mostly the people, rather than the programs. But even so, someone has to realize that when you run fast and hard, you ignore things. You ignore important things. You let things slide. You move problems around rather than solve them. We've got to stop that. Leaders must get in there and lead.
For the few details on this most-recent case jump over the swirl.
This article from NBC does not name the officer relived at Fort Campbell, but has a few details.
The head of the Army’s equal opportunity and sexual assault-prevention office at Fort Campbell, Ky., has been relieved of his duties, the Pentagon said.
He is the third sex-abuse prevention officer to be dismissed in the past to 10 days.
However, the Fort Campbell Army officer, whose name was not released, was dismissed over a domestic dispute with his wife, not a sexual-assault case, the Pentagon said.
Another article that provides the name of the accused is here,
from the Army Times.
Lt. Col. Darin Haas (HAHZ’) turned himself in to police late Wednesday on charges of violating an order of protection and stalking. A spokesman for the post on the Tennessee-Kentucky line say Haas was immediately removed as manager of a program meant to prevent sexual harassment and assault and encourage equal opportunity.
Master Sgt. Pete Mayes said Haas and his ex-wife have orders of protection against each other.
Sgt. Chuck Gill of the Clarksville, Tenn., police said Haas’ ex-wife said he repeatedly contacted her Wednesday night despite the order.