Wynne blocks promotion of Khobar Towers CO

[unhappycamper]

Wynne blocks promotion of Khobar Towers CO
By Erik Holmes - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Apr 4, 2008 16:42:49 EDT

The Pentagon has successfully blocked the promotion of Brig. Gen. Terry Schwalier — commander of the Khobar Towers housing complex in Saudi Arabia when 19 airmen were killed by a terrorist’s bomb June 25, 1996 — to major general, according to a document obtained by Air Force Times.

In a March 28 letter to Joe Lineberger, director of the Air Force Review Boards Agency, Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne ordered that action taken Dec. 20 to grant Schwalier his second star be rescinded.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Acting Defense Department General Counsel Daniel J. Dell’Orto and the Justice Department agree the Air Force’s decision to push through Schwalier’s promotion is beyond the service’s legal authority, according to Wynne’s letter.

A spokeswoman for Wynne declined to comment.

The decision is an apparent victory by the Pentagon in this 11-year battle to assert its primacy over the Air Force in issues of promotion procedures and the correction of military records. The case is the latest in a series of disputes between the civilian general counsel’s office and members of the military, who charge that the general counsel’s office seeks to exert improper and politically motivated control over the uniformed military.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/04/airforce_schwalier_040408w/

[aquart]

1. The Air Force wanted to promote him?

Why, exactly?