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“When the senior U.S. Army officer in Italy ordered the gyms on Army installations in Vicenza closed starting Feb. 24, it wasn’t a popular decision.

One particularly upset fitness fanatic went to the trouble of writing “OPEN THE GYM” several hundred times in the comments section of an anonymous customer feedback site, two days in a row.

At the time, there were no reported coronavirus cases in Vicenza, a town of about 112,000 roughly 255 miles north of Rome, and only about 200 in the whole of Italy. None of the cases were from the U.S. Army community, which includes about 4,000 soldiers, 2,750 Army civilians and 8,750 dependents, split between Vicenza and Camp Darby, about 140 miles away to the southwest near Pisa. And that was how Maj. Gen. Roger Cloutier wanted to keep it when he shut down the gyms, as well as on-post schools, child development centers and churches that served both locations.

A 55-year-old infantry officer, Cloutier is formally the commander of U.S. Army Africa, but his headquarters’ location in Vicenza makes him what the Defense Department calls the “senior responsible officer” for U.S. Army forces in Italy, meaning he has administrative control over all U.S. soldiers in the country, even though most of them belong to U.S. Army Europe, which is headquartered in Germany, for operational purposes.

Cloutier is one of two generals that Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville have highlighted repeatedly in recent press conferences as examples of military leaders who have excelled in keeping their forces largely safe from the coronavirus. The other is Gen. Robert “Abe” Abrams, who commands all U.S. forces in South Korea.”

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2020 03:13PM by Speedy.

And if either ever criticizes top brass they’ll be fired, regardless of how safe they keep our service personnel.

Quote
deckeda
And if either ever criticizes top brass they’ll be fired, regardless of how safe they keep our service personnel.

It's what you sign up for.

Quote
deckeda
And if either ever criticizes top brass they’ll be fired, regardless of how safe they keep our service personnel.

Billy Mitchell

"He antagonized many administrative leaders of the Army with his arguments and criticism and, in 1925, was returned from appointment as a brigadier general to his permanent rank of colonel due to his insubordination. Later that year, he was court-martialed for insubordination after accusing Army and Navy leaders of an 'almost treasonable administration of the national defense' for investing in battleships instead of aircraft carriers. He resigned from the service shortly afterward.

Mitchell received many honors following his death, including a commission by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a major general. He is also the first person for whom an American military aircraft design, the North American B-25 Mitchell, is named."

The thing about insubordination is that it implies its own sort of treason, which is always a red herring absent of any consideration of common sense or analysis. It’s about power and control, with “what’s right” secondarily.