The Navy judge advocate who represented Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama’s supposed driver and unlawful enemy combatant of the first order at Gitmo and before the US Sup Ct, Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift, is being thrown out on his ear. Here is the story from a mainline media source. Here is a more complete version from the Wichita, Kansas newspaper. The armed forces have an “up or out” policy on promotion. If you have been in grade and in service for a certain number of years you are eligible for promotion. If you are not promoted then you are discharged. Promotion is not a simple mater of seniority. The decision is made by an administrative body, a promotion board. While a fair number of the factors considered by the board are objective, e.g., meeting educational requirements and good efficiency reports, there is a significant subjective element.
So here we have an officer of nearly twenty years service, whose service has been characterized as “distinguished” by his boss, a USMC full bird no less, picked as one of the one-hundred best lawyers in the country by The National Law Journal, no leftist rag, who is going to be unceremoniously dumped. Remembering what happened to the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a guy can’t help but wonder what this uniformed lawyers participation in the Humdan case had to do with this. You can’t help but wonder if this is the proper reward for one of our government’s bravest and most skillful servants.
I doubt if he’ll get a “you did a heck of a job” metal on the way out.
Second of all do you know ANYTHING about the military? It’s been this way forever. Officers either get promoted, or they get released. We are not guaranteed a career thru retirement in the military. It’s like this in every branch of the military. It’s notoriously difficult to get promoted as a JAG, MD or Chaplin. The reason is that they enter the military at a much higher pay grade, they don’t have command authority and they are non-combatants, except JAGs in certain situations. They don’t promote on the same cycle as your run of the mill line officer (every officer other than JAG, MD or Chaplin), though that is changing shortly for JAGs. It’s not uncommon at all for JAGs to retire as Majors but many get booted because the military doesn’t need a bunch of high ranking lawyers.
Third, your comment of “one of our government’s bravest and most skillful servants” is going more than just a little overboard for a JAG. I mean, give me a break here. He’s a lawyer. I have friends that are JAGs and it’s a really cush job.
Fourth, just FYI, an officer recieving an endorsement or praise from a Colonel, or full bird as you called him, is nothing special at all. Colonels are a dime a dozen and almost every officer has one in his chain of command. Hell, I’m only a Lt and I have a stratification from a 2 star on my last OPR ranking me as one of the top 10 Lts out of the 200+ on the base. It still doesn’t mean a whole lot in the end.
FWIW if this guy was on as high-profile of a case as the one you mentioned, I’m suprised that his highest kudos came from a Colonel. Especially at nearly 20 years service. If makes me wonder if he was a mediocre troop overall.
I agree that it appears to be an injustice but how is it the fault of the Bush administration? According to the article in the OP, this has been going on for a while through many administrations.
It would be nice if we could see the efficeincy reports, etc, instead of just the Colonel’s word that his service was “distinctive.” But since we cannot be privy to every aspect of LtCmdr Swift’s service record, we cannot know enough to judge the board’s call not to promote him.
And , actually, most service members do get some kind of little “thank you/good job” ribbon when they leave the service, unless they’re doing so under other than honorable conditions.
So, hard to judge this one since we don’t know all the facts/never will know all the facts.
At first, I thought you’d mis-typed “Rear” in the title, but on reading, it appears you actually meant ear.
I’m curious to hear what the SDMB legal eagles have to say about this, but as one who has experienced Naval nonsense firsthand, I’m not terribly surprised by this.
It may be a case of “If you’re not with us, your agin’ us” mentality, or a less severe “We don’t think you’re the candidate we’re looking for at this time.” type of thing. IIRC, the jump from O-4 to O-5 is fairly significant and is as much about politics as it is about competence. No hard cites, but from conversations I have had with former military officers, this is the point at which a fair number of officers are released from duty. O-6 to O-7 is the main one. There aren’t that many billets at the higher ranks.
There could be other (slightly) less nefarious reasons as well. During the Reagan administration many career officers and enlisted were discouraged or prevented from re-enlisting for financial reasons. Military pensions were a considerable expense that the Reagan administration wished to spend on military hardware instead.
What with the timing: “notification came about two weeks after the Supreme Court sided with him and against the White House in the case involving Salim Ahmed Hamdan”, this has the appearance of impropriety.
Glad you took the time to italicize the word “appearance.” But, if I’m not mistaken, the time counts from when you were promoted to your present rank. What I mean is: Swift was promoted to LtCmdr On (day/month/year); he then has XX amount of time to become a Commander, or he’s history. That time has elapsed close to the same time as his case before the Supreme Court. Coincidence. No one knew where he would be XX amount of time after he was promoted to LtCmdr.
Am I making sense on my time in grade/promotion date?
Great Pit thread. When I read this in the paper this AM, I thought about starting it myself. This guy won his freakin’ case in front of the SCOTUS. How much better a lawyer does he have to be??? The article I read said he had been nominated by the ABA as one of the 100 best lawyers in the US. I mean WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK???
Just one point of correction in the OP-- I believe that if you get passed over twice in the Navy, you’re out (it’s not a matter of time, just chances). Been that way for a long time. A minor nitpick, and I’ll stand corrected if I’m wrong.
FTR it’s not like he got to CHOOSE to take the case or not. He is employeed as a defense attorney for the navy. They needed a defense attorney for this case. They said “Here you go!”
But, John, being a great lawyer is not all there is to being a great JAG officer. He is first and foremost a sailor, a member of the armed forces. He must be a great sailor with all the requirements. Hell, I’ve not seen a photo of the guy, so I don’t know if he appears to be in the required weight range/physical shape for a 44-year-old sailor. I don’t know if he has completed all the educational/leadership courses required for advancement to Commander.
Again, I’ll beat this to fucking death, we SIMPLY DO NOT KNOW ALL THE FACTS as to why he was not promoted.
He won in a darn major case against the US Government: I’d say that that’d make him a pretty good choice for promotion.
You know, I hear all the time about how military justice is beyond repute, despite being one extremely giant conflict of interest. They sure make it hard to believe it though.
