Dover Air Force Base Officials Reportedly Retaliated Against Whistleblowers Over Mortuary Issues

This Aug. 9, 2011 file photo shows the closed gates at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark, File)

The New York Times:

A report says that officials at Dover Air Force Base retaliated against four employees after they raised concerns about the mishandling of service members’ remains.

Read the whole story at The New York Times

Comments

[JoePenn]

10:28 AM on 02/01/2012

Whistle-blowers have a lot of guts - it's a lose-possible-win situation, in that they lose, 100% of the time, in the end --- but the situation may be fixed, as in this case.

[JoePenn]

10:42 AM on 02/01/2012

Severing body parts and firing someone bring it to an authority's attention is a bit worse.

[FatherH]

10:05 AM on 02/01/2012

What a message to send to the troops. If an enlisted Airman committs a minor incident the Air Force does not hesitate to severly discilpline the enlisted. These clowns do this and they get reassigned. The Air Force is a joke.

[JoePenn]

10:44 AM on 02/01/2012

Agreed, and I spent 3 decades in the AF. Saw many an infraction covered up by the officer types, or if found out, only re-assigned elsewhere ----- whereas the enlisted folks (who OFTEN have higher education levels than the officers appointed "over them," and 100% of the time have more experience on the job) have to serve as examples for others.

[jqcitizen]

09:44 AM on 02/01/2012

Early on it was forbidden for anyone to witness and especially illegal to photograph the removal of coffins from aircraft at Dover AFB. -Was the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld administration fearful the country would realize that wars, even ILLEGAL ones, result in casualties?

There were some bad things going on at Dover. These did not occur in the battle field, but on US soil. Anyone that was aware of wrong doing and said nothing could later be considered part of the problem. JAG officers are available to offer advice on how to report illegal activities, on military installations. The Air Force can now set the record straight by protecting the 'whistle blowers' or the officials that are charged with this mess.

[evilchihuahua]

09:40 AM on 02/01/2012

Make that bird Colonel retire as a Lt. Colonel.
That would be my idea of "substantial".

[JoePenn]

10:46 AM on 02/01/2012

F/F - for two reasons: 'cause I agree - and because you can spell 'chi-wa-wa' correctly.

[evilchihuahua]

10:57 AM on 02/01/2012

But I pronounce it Chee who a who a. ;)

[ReadMyLipstick1]

09:29 AM on 02/01/2012

The individuals who were concerned enough about this situation to report it should be protected, with their jobs secure. The military supevisors, or non-military people in charge of the mortuary who apparently allowed these events, or ignored them, should at the very least be fired.

This is another example of why our country is in the condition it is: alleged good people who saw the mishandling of these bodies reported it and now they bear the brunt of the offenses. There is something very wrong with this mentality wherein no good deed goes unpunished. I think it's time to start cleaning up our act.

[Trustfunded1]

09:24 AM on 02/01/2012

This administration has actively gone after whistleblowers of every stripe.

No crime ever to be punished and No Rule of Law is to be followed.

[blurredmolly]

09:23 AM on 02/01/2012

the bush Legacy lives on.

[rothomaha]

08:23 AM on 02/01/2012

So, the leader of this band of hypocrites cannot be promoted further? What a terrible shame! When will the military get it through its stainless steel head that WE, THE PEOPLE pay salaries and bills for their tinker toys, lock, stock and barrel for them? What would happen to a civilian owner of a mortuary which tossed body parts onto a trash heap? How does this SOB rate a colonel's salary and retirement pension at our expense? And the others?They got "lesser jobs"? In an economy where people willing to bust butt cannot even find a minimum wage job???!!! And we pay for them, too? The colonel should be summarily courtmartialed and tossed out, the civilians should go to jail!

[KellyJohnson]

08:17 AM on 02/01/2012

When our Administration goes after any whistleblower with a vengeance, this incident is not surprising. We have a culture of retribution within our govt., no matter what the criminal activity exposed. No matter what rhetoric the President spouts, he is responsible for this. Meanwhile, the criminals or perpetrators get off scott free, or with a slap on the wrist.

[glitterik]

08:28 AM on 02/01/2012

Letting criminal government officials off is an honored and truly American tradition. Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush, Cheney and Bush ... They all should have spent the rest of their lives in prison. Or at least been water boarded!

[Meggie]

08:12 AM on 02/01/2012

At least they're not Bradley Manning. That's proof whistle blowing could be a lot worse.

[PatTheHat]

08:11 AM on 02/01/2012

Retaliatory actions against honorable personnel at Dover, should be met with the introduction of piles of big rocks desperately seeking to become much smaller ones.

[evilchihuahua]

09:41 AM on 02/01/2012

In the hot sun!

[USMC9298]

08:06 AM on 02/01/2012

"Counter to the core values of the Air Force"...Eight years of a wild west command structure with two wars going is not going to disappear overnight. It took a good 15 years the last time the military was allowed off the reservation to get real discipline back into the assorted branches. My experience was always the opposite of this. We never "protected our own", if you were not performing you were done, shipped off to where you could do no harm or were under constant supervision and you were not getting an opportunity to stick around after your latest enlistment was up.

[hcinco]

07:49 AM on 02/01/2012

Americans don't like people that "snitch." We have allowed ourselves to believe that we are either "with" the program, or not. Until this attitude changes, whistleblowers will always be few, and they will be ostracized. Law enforcement agencies aren't much help, either. They claim to be overworked, or underfunded, and generally don't respond well to whistleblowers. The claim to have "more important" things to do.

[ReadMyLipstick1]

09:34 AM on 02/01/2012

You're right. We learned about that as far back as kindergarten: don't be a tattle tale. I can think of several issues immediately where horrendous events allegedly continued while people turned their heads: Sandusky at Penn State takes first place at this moment.

[SmotPoker]

07:40 AM on 02/01/2012

All the right words, full of false rage, and all the wrong actions. This stuff doesn't even raise an eyebrow these days. What an utter wasteland we have become.