General demoted after affair and multiple sex partners - Air Force Generals play too!

[Ooh-Rah]

Sex can be a tempting mistress, but now he has given up 'a lot' of money in pension, his family, and likely a good portion of what's left of that pension to his soon to be ex wife (I would assume).

Stories like this piss me off, this guy had 'everything', and he pissed it away. Hope it was worth it, but I have to think it wasn't.

An Army major general has been stripped of his stars and demoted to lieutenant colonel after a 30-year military career because of a long extramarital affair and a 'swinger' lifestyle.

Embattled Army Major General David Haight was demoted by three steps to the rank of lieutenant colonel, a steep and rare downgrade for a senior officer, Army Secretary Eric Fanning said Friday.

The demotion will cost him $43,000 in annual retirement pay, based on pay scales for a lieutenant colonel and a two-star general with 30 years in the Army. And it slams the door on what was once a promising career.

'Swinging' two-star general is demoted and his career is effectively ended after 11-year affair and multiple sexual partners are discovered | Daily Mail Online



To add - damn you Army guys like to put bobbles on your uniforms! LOL

 

[RackMaster]

If him and his wife were truly "swingers" than it wasn't an affair and his wife won't leave him.

 

[Ooh-Rah]

If him and his wife were truly "swingers" than it wasn't an affair and his wife won't leave him.

Yeah, I could not find any reference to his wife being part of it though. Either way, they had (have) kids - it's still fucked up.

Will be interested to read if any of the Rangers on the board know of him - (since he served in the 75th)

 

[Gunz]

If wifey was a swinger too, and they were "into" that lifestyle, seems to me, under the new DoD directives where everybody gets a free pass to bugger whoever or whatever they want when they're off-duty, a demotion would constitute discrimination based on sexual preference. The General/Lt Col needs to take a stand for the Swinger Minority.

Look at Marine Air Wingers...Swing with the Wing...they've been doing it for years.

 

[Red Flag 1]

T

 

[TLDR20]

If wifey was a swinger too, and they were "into" that lifestyle, seems to me, under the new DoD directives where everybody gets a free pass to bugger whoever or whatever they want when they're off-duty, a demotion would constitute discrimination based on sexual preference. The General/Lt Col needs to take a stand for the Swinger Minority.

Look at Marine Air Wingers...Swing with the Wing...they've been doing it for years.

Being gay doesn't allow you to have marital indiscretion. Gay people that are married fall under the same rules as everyone else.

 

[Gunz]

Being gay doesn't allow you to have marital indiscretion. Gay people that are married fall under the same rules as everyone else.

I was sorta half-joking, but I stand corrected.

 

[Diamondback 2/2]

I've always thought the DoD stance on extra marital affairs, as stupid. Spending years at a time away from you spouse, the spouse can bang the planet and suffer no repercussions. You find some strange and the first thing they want to do is crush your career and make it known to the wife you fucked around.

If it's not affecting your ability to do your job, than it shouldn't be any of their fucking business. I don't know the inns and outs of the story, not going to waste my time reading it, but being dropped from two stars to a silver oak leaf seems a bit fucking harsh for getting caught with some strange. I would bet there is a lot more to the story...

 

[Ooh-Rah]

Look at Marine Air Wingers...Swing with the Wing...they've been doing it for years.

I may have disagreed with your overall post, but the 'quoted' is funny. All these years and I've never thought of that saying in that particular way!

@Diamondback 2/2 -
Disagree because regardless of rank, but especially when we are getting up in the "Generals", the opportunity to be held hostage for secrets (or certain decisions) is very real. And not necessarily only by foreign operatives - I'd not put it past a "buddy" to demand a favorable assignment, promotion, etc because (s)he happened upon the General's backdoor action.

 

[Il Duce]

I know several people who served under now LTC(R) Haight. He had an affair with a woman he met when he was a LTC (maybe a BN CDR) who was a contractor in IZ. They led a 'swinger' lifestyle in the sense that she procured additional partners for him through swinging clubs and internet sites in all of his subsequent assignments and his wife apparently didn't know anything about it (they were active members of the Mormon church). I guess after he broke up with his mistress she did not take it well and started talking.

What's interesting to me about this is that reduction is an administrative action by Army leadership. The success of the Army in actually prosecuting and holding senior people responsible for this type of behavior (the way they consistently do for junior personnel) is very poor. The anecdotal evidence that comes to mind is the ADC of the 82nd that was court martialed a few years ago and the 173rd CDR very similarly - both got off very lightly as I remember.

 

[Marauder06]

Sinclair (ADC of 82nd) was fined 20k, pled guilty to a number of offenses, and got busted two pay grades. Johnson (the 173rd commander) got busted back to LTC, fined $300,000, and has convictions for fraud and bigamy. Those don't seem like light punishments.

If going to jail isn't on the table, then administrative action makes a lot of sense. It saves the time, money, and public spectacle of a trial and can often have the same end result.

It's common practice, and I think appropriate, for officers convicted of misconduct to be busted back to the highest pay grade at which they served honorably. That seems to be the case with LTC(R) Haight.

 

[Red Flag 1]

I know several people who served under now LTC(R) Haight. He had an affair with a woman he met when he was a LTC (maybe a BN CDR) who was a contractor in IZ. They led a 'swinger' lifestyle in the sense that she procured additional partners for him through swinging clubs and internet sites in all of his subsequent assignments and his wife apparently didn't know anything about it (they were active members of the Mormon church). I guess after he broke up with his mistress she did not take it well and started talking.

What's interesting to me about this is that reduction is an administrative action by Army leadership. The success of the Army in actually prosecuting and holding senior people responsible for this type of behavior (the way they consistently do for junior personnel) is very poor. The anecdotal evidence that comes to mind is the ADC of the 82nd that was court martialed a few years ago and the 173rd CDR very similarly - both got off very lightly as I remember.

There are probably hundreds of "affairs" going on across all services. If you are caught, something will happen to you. In this case, the new LTC got screwed by his GF via the military management. His life has just turned to crap. I wonder if he will be able to get the kind of job he was once able to. He is the same person, with all the same skill sets, and management abilities; that he got caught and punished closes many doors.

As bad as this has been for this, and other officers, it won't make a dent in the number of guys that are stepping out.

 

[Gunz]

Being gay doesn't allow you to have marital indiscretion. Gay people that are married fall under the same rules as everyone else.

Are the rules about infidelity for officers the same for NCOs and enlisteds? I would think the penalties would increase with rank.

 

[CDG]

I agree with @Diamondback 2/2 that the UCMJ article on affairs is ridiculous. It's none of the DoDs business who someone is fucking, unless it affects work. If they get sucked in by a honeypot, that's an entirely different issue. Outside of Tom Clancy novels, when was the last time that happened? The notion that an affair, or being a swinger, will lead to foreign intelligence exploitation is quite a leap. I would like to see that particular article removed from the UCMJ. With all of the other issues going on, wasting time and resources on prosecuting those who have affairs is pointless, IMHO.

 

[Red Flag 1]

T

 

[pardus]

The precocial view would follow the broken vow of marriage as perhaps the first domino to fall. Once that goes, will other promises be broken? I'm just saying.

I'm sure that is probably one reason for it. I've always thought the ban on anything but penis+vagina to be illegal, absurd. That must have been fueled by puritan fervor.

 

[CDG]

The precocial view would follow the broken vow of marriage as perhaps the first domino to fall. Once that goes, will other promises be broken? I'm just saying.

Perhaps, but let's be realistic. Affairs happen all the time in the military. TDYs, deployments, graduation night from a course, people fuck. I know a lot of really solid dudes who cheat on their wives. I have never once seen that trickle over into reduced job performance, or not stepping up when they needed to. I believe that argument is a non-starter. It's a textbook example of false equivocation.

 

[TLDR20]

Perhaps, but let's be realistic. Affairs happen all the time in the military. TDYs, deployments, graduation night from a course, people fuck. I know a lot of really solid dudes who cheat on their wives. I have never once seen that trickle over into reduced job performance, or not stepping up when they needed to. I believe that argument is a non-starter. It's a textbook example of false equivocation.

TDY man, TDY....

 

[Kraut783]

If you play, you might have to pay....he knew the risks, shame though...he seemed to have had a good career.

 

[Red Flag 1]

[Q