Your 2023 relieved Naval Commander Thread

Army must have felt left out….

Army fires commander of Europe and Africa support brigade

The Army has relieved a colonel in charge of a brigade that provides field support to Army units in Europe and Africa, citing a “loss of trust and confidence in her ability to command.”

The commander, Col. Crystal Hills of the 405th Army Field Support Brigade, was fired in November by Army Sustainment Command boss Maj. Gen. David Wilson, service spokeswoman Kimberly Conrad confirmed Monday.
 
Army must have felt left out….

Army fires commander of Europe and Africa support brigade

The Army has relieved a colonel in charge of a brigade that provides field support to Army units in Europe and Africa, citing a “loss of trust and confidence in her ability to command.”

The commander, Col. Crystal Hills of the 405th Army Field Support Brigade, was fired in November by Army Sustainment Command boss Maj. Gen. David Wilson, service spokeswoman Kimberly Conrad confirmed Monday.

I wonder if they just did a copy-paste of the Navy documents and changed the pertinent facts...
 
Army must have felt left out….

Army fires commander of Europe and Africa support brigade

The Army has relieved a colonel in charge of a brigade that provides field support to Army units in Europe and Africa, citing a “loss of trust and confidence in her ability to command.”

The commander, Col. Crystal Hills of the 405th Army Field Support Brigade, was fired in November by Army Sustainment Command boss Maj. Gen. David Wilson, service spokeswoman Kimberly Conrad confirmed Monday.
Taken off the net, probably scrubbed before I finish typing this.

Meet your 405th AFSB Commander

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany – Colonel Crystal Margie Hills assumed command of the 405th Army Field Support Brigade June 30, 2022.


COL Hills is a proud 1998 graduate of South Carolina State University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in English. She participated in SC State’s ROTC program where she served as Cadet Battalion Commander and was subsequently commissioned (Distinguished Military Graduate) as a Second Lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps.


COL Hills was first assigned to Fort Bragg, NC where she held the following positions: Executive Officer, Automotive Platoon Leader, and Technical Supply Platoon Leader in the 503d Maintenance Company, 1st Corps Support Command. She then served as Supply Officer and Operations Officer for the 264th Corps Support Battalion.


In 2003, COL Hills moved to Camp Humphreys, Korea where she served in the following positions under the 23 Area Support Group: Supply and Services Officer, Wartime Host Nation Officer, and Commander, 348th Quartermaster Company, 194th Maintenance Battalion. While in command, COL Hills earned the General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award and was inducted into the Association of Quartermasters’ Honorable Order of Saint Martin.


In 2008, COL Hills earned a Master of Arts in English, with honors, from Georgia State University. She then served as an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Philosophy for the United States Military Academy. In 2011, she relocated to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii and served as the Brigade Logistics Officer for the 45th Sustainment Brigade and the Executive Officer, Special Troops Battalion, 45th SB. During this tour, she deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan. Upon redeployment, COL Hills was assigned to U.S. Army, Pacific where she served as the command speechwriter.


In 2014, COL Hills was reassigned to the Pentagon as the Logistics, Special Assistant to the Director of Army Staff aka “Dwarf.” While there she served on the Army Transition Team for the 39th Army, Chief of Staff—GEN Milley. COL Hills left the Pentagon to assume command of Army Field Support Battalion-AFRICA in Livorno, Italy 2016-2018.


After command, COL Hills was reassigned to Fort Knox, KY where she served one year as Branch Chief, Quartermaster Enlisted Personnel. She then attended War College at National Defense University’s, Dwight D. Eisenhower School (Washington, DC). Here she earned an MS National Security and Resource Strategy (Global Supply Chain and Logistics Management concentration); supported COVID-19 relief efforts with the White House Supply Chain Task Force and as a mentor for John Hopkins’ COVID Design Challenge; and she maximized the opportunity to also earn an MBA from Webster University.


In 2020, COL Hills served as Senior Supply & Logistics Officer (G4) for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Rapid Deployable Corps Headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey. While in this position, she was selected as a Defense Ventures Fellow where her diverse skills and training aided Structure Capital and defense innovation hubs to leverage dual use technology. Most recently, COL Hills served as a Chief of Staff, Senior Fellow with New America (Washington, DC) where she advanced research in the Army’s adoption of semi-autonomous warehouses.
 
She was practically gifted a star and threw it away.
That's a helluva resume. Especially the degree from Webster University.* ;)













*I have a degree from Webster too. For people who haven't been on the site for long, this is an inside joke--I don't want people to think I'm mocking higher education or Webster University.
 
That's a helluva resume. Especially the degree from Webster University.* ;)













*I have a degree from Webster too. For people who haven't been on the site for long, this is an inside joke--I don't want people to think I'm mocking higher education or Webster University.
She should have become a caareer PAO.

My take is she is VERY smart, just not a "people person".
Too bad.
 
I found out a little about one of our illustrious fired COs. Captain Danielle DeFant, former CO of USS Lake Erie. Physically and verbally abused officers and crew, alienated the Chiefs mess, pissed off the Chiefs. Of 80-something surveys submitted regarding command climate, she pulled all of the negative ones about her behavior only allowing six to go through. None of her crew supported her.
 
You want fired? This is how you get fired.
She has more than one article written about her…

Fired Navy Captain created 'toxic' climate, grabbed and struck crew on duty

A Navy captain’s yelling and public “humiliation” of her officers and crew was so severe and frequent — once for the mistake of pointing out dolphins swimming nearby from the ship’s bridge — that sailors were afraid to bring bad news to her attention. That “fear culture” aboard the USS Lake Erie, a scathing Navy investigation found, could have created “a higher risk of having a safety or operational mishap” and an “unsafe command environment where sailors do not … exercise sound judgment.”

The command investigation appears to have led to the firing last year of Capt. Danielle DeFant as commanding officer of the USS Lake Erie, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser.

As the commander of the Lake Erie, the report found, DeFant grabbed or struck her officers while they were on duty on the ship’s bridge, alienated the ship’s senior enlisted crew known as the Chief’s Mess, overreacted to minor transgressions like pointing out the dolphins, and in a briefing to an admiral failed to mention abysmal feedback she had received from the crew.


The Rise and Fall of a Female Captain Bligh

Women are so common in the upper ranks of the U.S. military these days that it's no longer news when they break through another barrier. Unfortunately, the latest benchmark isn't one to brag about: being booted as captain of a billion-dollar warship for "cruelty and maltreatment" of her 400-member crew. According to the Navy inspector general's report that triggered her removal — and the accounts of officers who served with her — Captain Holly Graf was the closest thing the U.S. Navy had to a female Captain Bligh.


Fired San Diego Navy ship captain struck, bullied, screamed at crew, investigation finds

In one incident described in the report, the Lake Erie was conducting a moor to buoy operation off the San Diego coast. On the bridge, DeFant asked out loud “do I have safe bearing” and the ship’s conning officer responded that she did.

But DeFant was apparently speaking to another officer — the officer of the deck — not the conning officer who responded. Witnesses on the bridge said she then walked over to the conning officer, grabbed him by his arm or shirt collar and pulled him close to berate him.

“Was I talking to you?” witnesses recall DeFant asking the officer. She then said “I was talking to the OOD — don’t ever interrupt me again,” or words to that effect, the report says.

The incident left the officer “nearly in tears,” one witness said. According to the investigative report, the contact amounted to criminal battery under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

This officer was the target of much of DeFant’s ire, the investigation says.
 
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She has more than one article written about her…

Fired Navy Captain created 'toxic' climate, grabbed and struck crew on duty

A Navy captain’s yelling and public “humiliation” of her officers and crew was so severe and frequent — once for the mistake of pointing out dolphins swimming nearby from the ship’s bridge — that sailors were afraid to bring bad news to her attention. That “fear culture” aboard the USS Lake Erie, a scathing Navy investigation found, could have created “a higher risk of having a safety or operational mishap” and an “unsafe command environment where sailors do not … exercise sound judgment.”

The command investigation appears to have led to the firing last year of Capt. Danielle DeFant as commanding officer of the USS Lake Erie, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser.

As the commander of the Lake Erie, the report found, DeFant grabbed or struck her officers while they were on duty on the ship’s bridge, alienated the ship’s senior enlisted crew known as the Chief’s Mess, overreacted to minor transgressions like pointing out the dolphins, and in a briefing to an admiral failed to mention abysmal feedback she had received from the crew.


The Rise and Fall of a Female Captain Bligh

Women are so common in the upper ranks of the U.S. military these days that it's no longer news when they break through another barrier. Unfortunately, the latest benchmark isn't one to brag about: being booted as captain of a billion-dollar warship for "cruelty and maltreatment" of her 400-member crew. According to the Navy inspector general's report that triggered her removal — and the accounts of officers who served with her — Captain Holly Graf was the closest thing the U.S. Navy had to a female Captain Bligh.
Needs a CM if she struck individuals.
 
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