Fired from command to appointed to command

Col. Jason Beers was removed from command of the 91st Security Forces at Minot AFB on May 23rd, for a loss of trust and confidence in his ability to command the unit. Under his command (which began in November) a box of 32 40mm grenades for the Mk.19 launcher went missing. According to security troops they fell out the back of an SUV that was transporting them (the 91st provides security for the missile fields).

After a couple weeks of searching, and a reward, it was made public that there was also an M240 and a pair of night vision goggles missing from the base. Neither the grenades or gun have been found.

Fast forward to today, and the announcement was made that Col. Beers has been assigned as chief of facilities at Hurlburt Field for the Air Force Special Operations Command. A spokesperson said in an email, ""We are fully confident in the colonel's ability to manage our Security Forces and Civil Engineer programs for the command".

www.military.com...

www.military.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

what do you make of this, Zaphod?

Was the missing equipment actually stolen?

Is there insinuendo that the commander was involved, or is this just a Klingon-style "shoot the messenger" exercise?

Do they have grenades and night vision goggles at his new command post?


What do you make of this?

you know as well as I do that once they train them the military does everything they can to keep them around and get their money's worth out of them

also # rolls down hill I'm sure a lot of people got some # for that

a reply to: Zaphod58

Military is up its own ass sometimes. Unless the col. was driving the truck,and im sure he wasnt, its not his fault.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Looks like someone higher up overrode the initial decision. Simple enough, one would think.

P.S. Another possibility is after investigation, that 'trust' was restored. A 'just in case' move. Not unlike 'paid administrative leave' in the civilian sector.

a reply to: Whoisjohngalt

It doesn't matter if he was driving or not. The commander is ultimately responsible. Especially with the M240, as there are reports it went missing in January and wasn't reported.

a reply to: tovenar

Just another case of protecting officers that screw up. If he was enlisted they'd have him out on a less than honorable so fast his head would be spinning.

a reply to: toysforadults

And if they screw up like this, and don't have a patron they get kicked out.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Whoisjohngalt

It doesn't matter if he was driving or not. The commander is ultimately responsible. Especially with the M240, as there are reports it went missing in January and wasn't reported.

I need more details. Was all of this reported to him in January? If it was then thats on him for bad handling. But you cant control what other people actually do. You can order people to move equipment from A to B, you could plan the whole trip for them. But that no assurance that the are going to be competent when they carry it out. It doesnt make sense to fire the boss's boss instead of the person who slips up. Otherwise there still might be an e-3 running around out there losing more machine guns.

a reply to: Whoisjohngalt

And it's on him to ensure that the people under his command have the training and skills to move those machine guns safely and competently. The commander of the unit is responsible for everything that takes place in that unit. Period. End of story. Otherwise you have commanders who don't do their job and blame their subordinates and get away with it.

The commander is responsible for auditing the weapons and ensuring that all equipment is accounted for. And if anything is missing, he's responsible for reporting it to higher. The grenades went missing in May, the M240 may have been missing in January. So either it went missing under his command, and he failed to report it, or it was missing prior to him taking over and he failed to do an audit upon taking over command and didn't report it to keep from looking bad. It's not clear when it went missing though.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yeah... they "fell" of the back of a SUV.

I'm not sure what to think-Was he aware of this and refused to discipline whoever was responsible? did he turn a blind eye and was in the buzzword of the year "collusion" with whoever did this? or is it the work of a lone wolf and he genuinely had no idea?

Either way when you are in logistics this is one hell of a cock up.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I dont agree. If you are going fire a base commander everytime someone #s up on post, youre going to run out of colonels by thursday. All the e3s will have to be kept in cages. NCOs will be castrated when the commander learns a female private is joining a unit.

a reply to: Thecakeisalie

I suspect it was more the command attitude. They didn't report them missing to the media until the following week, the sheriff said he was aware of it, but they didn't seem to be taking it very seriously at first. There's definitely more to this than has been released.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Well at least he is not Navy and this isn't the Obama administration anymore or the guy would be an Admiral now.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Seems like it's more of a promotion.

He gets to move from Minot, North Dakota to the gulf coast of Florida.

Minot, ND - Average January high temp: 20 deg F
Pensacola, FL - Average January high temp: 61 deg F

I've got a feeling this is one of those cases of who you know, rather than what you know...

-dex

a reply to: DexterRiley

The polite version is "screw up to move up".