The Hamilton Affair Concludes

With a few loose ends

Earlier today, Military.com reported that General Charles Hamilton was fired by the Secretary of the Army for improperly interfering in the selection process for Battalion Command (a Lieutenant Colonel level position). As the article says, this firing is a “rare and dramatic move,” a comment I would consider understated. It is a shock wave for the institution.

Commendations to Secretary Christine Wormuth for doing the hard right here.

Notably, the Inspector General investigative report that resulted in General Hamilton’s firing also implicated both recently retired Lieutenant General Walter Piatt and serving Army Chief of Staff Randy George. One anonymous general involved in the process described the interference on behalf of Hamilton’s subordinate as an “abuse of authority” by all these senior leaders.

As I noted in my essay (see below) in March, the Army’s relatively new command selection program is one of its most promising institutional innovations. That generals were using their demigod-like status in the Army to undercut this program remains deeply disturbing. Disturbing actions require severe consequences.

Army leaders must now take serious steps to both insulate the command selection programs (they occur at several levels now) against outside interference, and to prevent the results of the process from being marginalized in a way that they have only a minor impact on final selections. Public disclosure of exactly how this will be done would be appropriate, given this past abuse.

Finally, kudos to Military.com’s Steve Beynon, who has been on this story start to finish. Follow him on X at @StevenBeynon.