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'Swinger' Army general's double life cost him his career

Blackadder1916

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Nothing like a good sex scandal for entertainment value.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/08/24/new-details-show-how-swinger-army-generals-double-life-cost-him-his-career/89220810/
New details show how 'swinger' Army general's double life cost him his career

Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY 11:18 a.m. EDT August 25, 2016

WASHINGTON — Army Maj. Gen. David Haight, Army Ranger, decorated combat veteran and family man, held a key post in Europe this spring and a future with three, maybe four stars.

He also led a double life: an 11-year affair and a “swinger lifestyle” of swapping sexual partners that put him at risk of blackmail and espionage, according to interviews and documents.  Jennifer Armstrong, 49, a government employee, said she and Haight had been involved in the torrid love affair that began more than 10 years ago in Baghdad and ended this spring.

Badly.

His secret discovered, Haight was investigated by the Army inspector general, who issued a report in April, and fired him in May from his job running operations and plans at U.S. European Command, the Pentagon’s front-line bulwark against Russia. The Army hauled him back to Washington, reprimanded him based on an internal investigation and put him a placeholder job awaiting retirement. A board will determine the rank that he last served honorably. A demotion to colonel or lower would cost him tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Haight's removal from European Command was not disclosed. It was first revealed in July by USA TODAY, which received the Army inspector general's report Wednesday after a Freedom of Information Act request.

Armstrong, who told USA TODAY in interviews that the relationship began with a flirty email and ended after assignations with multiple partners at swingers’ clubs, hotels and her home, says Haight had promised a future together. “I gave him the best years of my life,” she said.

In a statement issued after news of his reprimand broke, Haight vowed to work with Army investigators untangling his dark, off-duty life.

"I am truly sorry for the pain I have caused my wife and family," Haight said in a second statement Wednesday. "On their behalf, I ask that their privacy be respected during this difficult time."

Security risks

How Haight, the married father of four adult children who has held a succession of increasingly influential jobs, maintained his intimate secret is unclear. His superiors promoted him three times since his affair with Armstrong began. Screeners of officials for security clearances — particularly those trusted with access to the nation’s most sensitive information like Haight — scrutinize financial and family stability to guard against vulnerability to bribes or blackmail.

If an adversary such as Russia had learned of Haight’s affair and sexual adventures, he would have been a prime target to blackmail, said four senior government officials who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Russia, one of the officials said, aggressively intercepts telephone calls. An investigative report showed that from June to November 2015 Haight used his government cellphone to make 84 private calls for more than 1,400 minutes of conversation. Further, testimony showed that Haight frequently left his office in Stuttgart, Germany, because it was in a building designed for secure communication, a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF.

At European Command, he was in charge of the military’s plans and operations to confront Russia’s increasing aggression in Eastern Europe.

"When MG Haight disappeared and someone need to get a hold of him, (name redacted) knew to check the hallway, outside of the SCIF, where he was usually on his cellphone," the report notes.

More (salacious) details at link
 
Now he is worried about his family ? He certainly isnt the first general officer to think with the wrong head and destroy their career in the process.I knew an officer that participated in a wife swapping club but it never went public and he went on to 4 stars. :eek:
 
tomahawk6 said:
He certainly isnt the first general officer to think with the wrong head and destroy their career in the process.I knew an officer that participated in a wife swapping club but it never went public and he went on to 4 stars.

Or the first Swinger, from what I have read,

According to Terry Gould's The Lifestyle: a look at the erotic rites of swingers, swinging began among American Air Force pilots and their wives during World War II before pilots left for overseas duty. The mortality rate of pilots was so high, as Gould reports, that a close bond arose between pilot families that implied that pilot husbands would care for all the wives as their own – emotionally and sexually – if the husbands were lost. Though the origins of swinging are contested, it is assumed American swinging was practiced in some American military communities in the 1950s. By the time the Korean War ended, swinging had spread from the military to the suburbs. The media dubbed the phenomenon wife-swapping.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swinging_(sexual_practice)#20th_century

"A clean record could have earned Haight as much nearly $123,000 in his first year of retirement. If he’s busted back to colonel, his pay could drop to about $98,000."

I thought it would have been more, based on stories like this,

From 2015,

"The biggest winner among the latest FDNY pensioners is Thomas Jensen, who scored $237,334 a year following his ­retirement in March as assistant chief of department."
http://nypost.com/2015/10/21/more-than-2-dozen-ex-fdny-collecting-200k-in-pensions/

 
Unless things have changed you need 3 years in grade to retire.I think he will retire as a Brigadier General.The problem is that his infidelity lasted 11 years when he was a LTC.But I think retiring as a BG will be punishment enough.If his wife files for divorce she will get half of his retirement,so no life of leisure he will need a job. :camo:
 
tomahawk6 said:
If his wife files for divorce she will get half of his retirement,so no life of leisure he will need a job. :camo:

 

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mariomike said:
Or the first Swinger, from what I have read,

According to Terry Gould's The Lifestyle: a look at the erotic rites of swingers, swinging began among American Air Force pilots and their wives during World War II before pilots left for overseas duty. The mortality rate of pilots was so high, as Gould reports, that a close bond arose between pilot families that implied that pilot husbands would care for all the wives as their own – emotionally and sexually – if the husbands were lost. Though the origins of swinging are contested, it is assumed American swinging was practiced in some American military communities in the 1950s. By the time the Korean War ended, swinging had spread from the military to the suburbs. The media dubbed the phenomenon wife-swapping.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swinging_(sexual_practice)#20th_century

"A clean record could have earned Haight as much nearly $123,000 in his first year of retirement. If he’s busted back to colonel, his pay could drop to about $98,000."

I thought it would have been more, based on stories like this,

From 2015,

"The biggest winner among the latest FDNY pensioners is Thomas Jensen, who scored $237,334 a year following his ­retirement in March as assistant chief of department."
http://nypost.com/2015/10/21/more-than-2-dozen-ex-fdny-collecting-200k-in-pensions/
So sex clubs are a no no for military members? Good to know.
 
cavalryman said:
Dang.  What am I going to do with my old Iltis  key now? [:(

Army trucks have keys now?  :)
 
Altair said:
So sex clubs are a no no for military members? Good to know.


Military don't use sex clubs.  They drive around looking for OMO boxes in the window (or Tide in the US areas).
 
Ludoc said:
Shhh... be quiet. If the reserves find out we have trucks they'll want some too.


Ahem.  You took their's...or, sorry, "borrowed" them until your own arrive...

They don't want them too.  They want them back.  ;)
 
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