Topic: Commander of Carrier Strike Group 3 Repaced Mid-Deployment

[Libertas]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/navy-replaces-admiral-leading-mideast-strike-group-because-of-ongoing-investigation/

This is a a rare occurrence.  Sacking a commander while on station in the gulf?  Something here doesn't smell right.  Just what does “inappropriate leadership judgment” encompass?  Could be anything, but it sure seems to fly in the face of an otherwise stellar bio.

http://www.navy.mil/navydata/bios/navybio.asp?bioID=590

How does a guy go from a model of efficiency and leadership to being under investigation by the Navy IG?

I cannot help but think being a theater commander at sea...I wonder if some of the alerts hitting the wires when Benghazi went to sh*t might have been monitored and perhaps the good Admiral was apoplectic over the lack of response and said something of a direct fashion in a flash of his own?

Anyway, sure seems quite odd.

[BigAlSouth]

Odds are the AFRICOM commander being replaced by some Obama boot-licker:

BENGHAZI'S SMOKING GUN: OBAMA REPLACES AFRICOM'S COMMANDER
VIA GLENN REYNOLDS:

AS THE RETIRED MILITARY MAN WHO CALLED INTO RUSH EARLIER IN THE WEEK RELATED, AFRICOM HAS RESPONSIBILITY FOR LIBYA - AND, (AS ALL REGIONAL COMMANDS HAVE), HAD A RAPID RESPONSE FORCE READY TO INSERT INTO BENGHAZI.

NOW COMES NEWS THAT ON THE 18TH OF OCTOBER, OBAMA OFFICIALLY RELIEVED THE AFRICOM COMMANDER WHO WAS IN COMMAND ON 9/11/12 - GENERAL HAM, AND REPLACED HIM WITH GENERAL RODRIGUEZ.

THE RUMOR IS THAT WHEN GENERAL HAM RECEIVED THE ORDER FROM WASHINGTON TO STAND DOWN, HE DISOBEYED THE ORDER AND COMMANDED HIS FORCE TO TAKE ACTION TO SAVE THE AMBASSADOR.

AND THEN HIS SECOND IN COMMAND COUNTERMANDED HAM'S ORDER, OBEYED WASHINGTON AND MADE THE FORCE STAND DOWN.

IF THIS IS TRUE, THEN IT LEADS DIRECTLY TO PANETTA AND DEMPSEY AND THE WHITE HOUSE.

http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2012/10/benghazis-smoking-gun-obama-replaces.html

Note: This needs its own thread.

[Libertas]

The stench grows stronger!   

[charlesoakwood]

 I did a search for the admiral's name before I started the now pulled topic. Sorry.

What's up?  Did he command the crew moon China
as they passed?  Or did CentCom think he might
disregard a "stand down" and be a little too
quick on the draw?


Rear Adm. Charles M. Gaouette, the commander of the USS John C. Stennis strike group, is being returned to the United States for temporary reassignment.

[charlesoakwood]

"AND THEN HIS SECOND IN COMMAND COUNTERMANDED HAM'S ORDER, OBEYED WASHINGTON AND MADE THE FORCE STAND DOWN."

Who makes the choice to disobey a superior officer and who makes the decision whom to follow? Not being military I don't understand the protocol.
 

[AmericanPatriot]

Sounds the the show "Last Resort"

[Libertas]

Either SecDef at the order of POTUS or SecDef on his own sacked the commander and the second in command was given an order to stand down and obeyed.  If true, then, I do not think much of the second in command, nor does it portend well for us if orders are ever given to detain/kill citizens ever comes down.

[Glock32]

"AND THEN HIS SECOND IN COMMAND COUNTERMANDED HAM'S ORDER, OBEYED WASHINGTON AND MADE THE FORCE STAND DOWN."

Who makes the choice to disobey a superior officer and who makes the decision whom to follow? Not being military I don't understand the protocol.
 

I think it ends up being a variation of "the victors write the history books" and whichever of the competing interests prevails will determine who was in the "wrong".  In other words, it's entirely up to the whim and caprice of men.

[Pandora]

Somebody please tutor me in matters military.

Does the AFRICOM Commander have authority over the Mid-East Carrier group (which I presume is Navy), or only ground-forces?

[Libertas]

Somebody please tutor me in matters military.

Does the AFRICOM Commander have authority over the Mid-East Carrier group (which I presume is Navy), or only ground-forces?

No AfriCom is a joint serivce commander with "operational" authority over his region (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines), he cannot tell people under CentCom anything, they may liase between them as operations/targets cross lines on the map, but they all (regional commanders) report to SecDef and POTUS in that ascending order.  JCS advise SecDef and POTUS and are the titular military heads of their branches, but there is a civilian Asst/UnderSecDef between department heads and SecDef.  Kick around the link to see the relationships.  In the case of this General in AfriCom since he was willing to let the CIEF repsonse teams go in, he had to have been sacked by DecDef or POTUS, no other person could have ordered that.  For the Admiral the route was more curious, it went through administrative channels back in the Pentagon supposedly through the IG's office, and then an operational decision had to have been made and I am thinking that came through the Navy to CentCom.  It may be the Admiral's situation is not related, but I find it curious that such a seemingly pristine guy is called back on a leadership issue at this same time.  Either the good Admiral heard the alert chatter that day and expressed an opinion in support of AfriCom, or perhaps it is a concidence and he merely parked a torpedo where it shouldn't have been.  Curious times, these.

http://www.defense.gov/orgchart/#45