Yet another
military commander has been reassigned for reasons that underline just how bad an idea it is to have these commanders making decisions about sexual assault prosecutions:
The Navy announced Friday that it had relieved Capt. Gregory McWherter, a two-time commander of the Blue Angels, of duty for alleged misconduct. At the time, the Navy did not describe the nature of the accusations or provide other details except to say that the case remained under investigation.
But an internal military document that a Navy official inadvertently e-mailed to a Washington Post editor states that a former member of the Blue Angels filed a complaint last month accusing McWherter of promoting a hostile work environment and tolerating sexual harassment. The complaint described an atmosphere rife with sexually explicit speech, the open display of pornography and jokes about sexual orientation.
This news emerges shortly after the news that
the Army reassigned a general after he failed to act on allegations of sexual misconduct and sexual assault against a colonel he'd known for two decades. And these aren't isolated incidents, either. The Pentagon keeps promising things will change, and while Congress did pass some important reforms, ultimately, the military continues to be allowed to fail on its own terms. That needs to change.