Colonel’s Wife Accused of Harassing Soldiers
Jim_Higgins
Mrs. Colonel. What leadership school do these people go to? Dilbert
Pointy Hair School of Leadership? Or is this a course at the Command and
General Staff College?
Colonel’s Wife Accused of Harassing Soldiers
http://www.military.com/news/article/colonels-wife-accused-of-harassing-soldiers.html
June 11, 2010
Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer
The commander of Fort Bragg has barred the wife of an 82nd Airborne
Division colonel from nearly all interaction with her husband's brigade
and the unit's families after an investigation found her influence
"detrimental to the morale and well-being of both."
Sworn statements from the investigation, ordered in January by Lt. Gen.
Frank Helmick, accuse Col. Brian Drinkwine's wife, Leslie Drinkwine, of
using her husband's position as leverage to repeatedly harass and
threaten Soldiers and their families.
The statements say the harassment and threats began almost as soon as
Col. Drinkwine took command of the 4th Brigade Combat Team in 2008.
A follow-up to Helmick's investigation has reached the highest levels of
leadership in Afghanistan. That investigation is exploring whether
animosity between the Drinkwines and Col. Drinkwine's battalion
commanders and their spouses ever unfairly damaged the officers' careers.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of all NATO forces in Afghanistan,
referred a recommendation from Helmick to Lt. Gen. William Webster, who
is in charge of all U.S. Army forces in the Middle East, according to a
spokesman for McChrystal.
Webster's investigation continues, and no information from it will be
released before its completion, a spokesman for his office said in an
e-mail.
Col. Drinkwine has denied any unfair treatment of his subordinates.
Leslie Drinkwine declined to comment.
In an interview in May, Helmick said his decision to bar Leslie
Drinkwine was based on the investigator's recommendations and Helmick's
own 34 years of experience in the Army.
"It was just a dysfunctional situation," Helmick said. "That is not a
good thing to have when you have Soldiers deployed fighting.
"The last thing we need in an organization that is supposed to take care
of families and those people that are left here in the rear detachment
is a very unhealthy climate."
The Observer obtained a copy of Helmick's investigative file through the
Freedom of Information Act. Names are redacted from the nearly
inch-thick stack of paperwork, which includes sworn statements and
e-mails from at least 25 people. Ranks and job titles are not blacked
out, so the Observer was able to independently confirm most names in the
report.
The investigator assigned by Helmick, Col. Chris Spillman, concludes in
the report that while there is no direct evidence Col. Drinkwine hurt
anyone's career because of retaliation or a vendetta, he recommends a
closer look at the matter.
That issue falls outside Helmick's purview, which is why he forwarded
the report to commanders in Afghanistan.
Spillman's findings hold Col. Drinkwine partially responsible for his
wife's behavior at Fort Bragg.
Spillman calls Col. Drinkwine the "key enabler" of his wife's actions
because he failed to dispel the perception that she had a level of
authority similar to his own.
"At least three commanders approached Col. Drinkwine with issues they
were having," Spillman wrote in the report. "Yet there is no evidence
that he took steps to moderate her behavior."
Col. Drinkwine leads the 4th Brigade Combat Team, a group of roughly
3,500 Soldiers deployed since August to southern and western Afghanistan.
His wife, Leslie, has a doctorate degree and teaches marketing courses
at Campbell University.
During Army ceremonies such as command changes, it is typical for wives
to be recognized as part of a "command team" with their officer husbands.
Retired Col. Douglas Macgregor said it was typical 40 or 50 years ago
for commanders' wives to have tremendous power.
"You did not cross a commander's wife," he said.
Macgregor said some people still hold onto those "outdated"
traditionalist values.
Col. Drinkwine appointed his wife to lead the brigade's official support
organization, known as a Family Readiness Group, or FRG.
A Family Readiness Group is made up largely of Soldiers' spouses;
leadership positions often mirror those of the Soldiers. During a unit's
deployment, the FRG serves as a network of communication between the
unit's families and its commanders.
Helmick said there are no expectations for spouses in the Army. Their
participation is strictly voluntary, he said.
Macgregor said that's not exactly true.
"There's the expectation that the commanding officer, whether he's a
captain, colonel or general, that his wife will set an example by doing
things consistent with her husband's responsibilities," Macgregor said.
"Wives are under enormous pressure."
2008 incidents
Sworn statements and timelines included in the investigative file show
that problems in the 4th Brigade's Family Readiness Group can be traced
as far back as Oct. 30, 2008.
That night, at the 82nd Airborne Division's annual silent auction, Dr.
Drinkwine confronted the spouses of some of her husband's subordinates
and accused them of disloyalty, the report shows.
The next day, she sent an e-mail to several FRG leaders -- officers'
wives and paid FRG staff members -- characterizing her dispute with
other women at the auction as "an ambush from hidden domestic insurgents."
The FRG never gained harmony after that, Spillman wrote in his report.
Dr. Drinkwine, in her interview with Spillman, said the e-mail about
"hidden domestic insurgents" was one of her biggest mistakes and she
regrets it.
The report shows that one morning not long after the auction, Dr.
Drinkwine visited Lt. Col. Mike Wawrzyniak's wife, Pam, while her
husband was at work. Col. Drinkwine sat outside in his car, according to
a sworn statement by Pam Wawrzyniak.
Dr. Drinkwine yelled at Mrs. Wawrzyniak for about half an hour, reducing
her to tears, the report says.
Eventually, Mrs. Wawrzyniak said in the report, the colonel came into
the house, tried unsuccessfully to calm his wife, and they left.
The investigation also shows that the top paid staff member for the FRG
resigned in December 2008, citing a hostile work environment that made
it impossible for her to do her job.
In sworn interviews or written statements submitted to Spillman, one
former battalion commander, two currently serving battalion commanders
and the brigade's rear commander said Dr. Drinkwine told them "that
either their careers, or the careers of others, could be adversely
impacted by her."
In other sworn statements, five Army officers said they have heard Col.
Drinkwine say that when his wife speaks, she speaks for him.
Col. Drinkwine, in his sworn statement, said he meant that only in
regard to FRG issues. His wife was the head of that organization, and he
said he wanted to make sure people understood that she had authority in
the FRG.
In March of last year, before the brigade deployed, all six battalion
commanders serving under Col. Drinkwine's command went to his office
together to talk to him about his wife.
At that meeting, according to their sworn statements, Col. Drinkwine
dismissed their complaints and told them that the relationship between
his wife and their wives was a senior-to-subordinate relationship. He
reiterated that his wife speaks for him.
"Although he made the statement within the context of FRG-related
business, this and [Dr. Drinkwine's] repeated reiteration of this
statement to commanders and spouses clearly contributed to the
perception that, by extension as the brigade commander's wife and within
the context of FRG activities, she held a level of authority that
resembled command authority," Spillman wrote in his report.
Spillman said Col. Drinkwine not only failed to dispel that perception
in the March meeting with his battalion commanders but he "in fact
worsened it."
Col. Drinkwine refused an interview request for this report.
In his written sworn statement from Afghanistan, Col. Drinkwine
attributes the problems in his FRG to "an inability of a few ladies
being able to work professionally with one another."
In his report, Spillman calls the remark "disingenuous."
Col. Drinkwine said the command climate on the Army side of the brigade
is "effective and positive."
Spillman recommended that Col. Drinkwine be required to inform each of
his battalion commanders in writing that his wife does not speak for him
concerning the 4th Brigade or FRG.
By July 2009, the problems had the attention of Col. Drinkwine's bosses.
Col. Johnny Johnston, the rear commander of the 82nd Airborne Division,
said in his sworn statement that he recommended to Maj. Gen. Mike
Scaparrotti that Dr. Drinkwine step down from her leadership position in
the FRG.
Scaparrotti spoke to his boss at the time, Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, and
Austin on or about Aug. 3 spoke to Col. Drinkwine about the issue,
according to Johnston's statement.
Col. Drinkwine wrote in his statement that he asked his wife to step
down from leading the FRG in July but planned to keep her as a command
group adviser. After conversations with Austin and Scaparrotti, he
wrote, he decided to remove her from having any influence with the FRG.
But after the brigade deployed the next month, friction resumed.
The perception among many commanders and spouses who gave sworn
statements was that Dr. Drinkwine continued to influence the FRG from
behind the scenes, the report shows.
Leslie Drinkwine
Dr. Drinkwine said in her sworn statement that when her husband asked
her to resign as the FRG leader, she "felt humiliated, her reputation
defamed and slandered."
She described herself as "very direct, which some people perceive as
insensitive."
"She also described how she is very protective of her husband," Spillman
wrote in his report. "[She] admits that people either love her or hate her."
In one instance in which an Army major said she threatened his career,
Dr. Drinkwine said she merely mentioned that she would talk to her
husband about their disagreement. She said she doesn't see how anyone
could construe that as a threat.
Dr. Drinkwine told Spillman during the investigation that the stress of
the situation and the demands of raising two children were weighing
heavily on her.
Spillman recommends in his report that the 82nd Airborne Division make
sure to monitor Mrs. Drinkwine because he felt the stress had "led her
to a state of mental duress."
Jenio and Oclander
Col. Drinkwine wrote in his sworn statement that he never let personal
issues creep into his professional evaluations of Soldiers.
But two battalion commanders -- Lt. Col Frank Jenio and Lt. Col. David
Oclander -- told Spillman they believe disputes with Dr. Drinkwine were
an unstated cause for professional retaliation.
Jenio, who was in charge of 800 troops operating just outside Kandahar,
was relieved of command in Afghanistan along with his top enlisted
adviser, Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Bert Puckett, on Jan. 13. They were sent home to
Fort Bragg for "using poor judgment" that "fostered a command climate
that was not consistent with our Army values," an 82nd Airborne Division
spokesman said at the time.
The Observer later discovered that racially and sexually offensive
Powerpoint slides shown during briefings led to their removal.
Jenio, who declined an interview request, paints a different picture in
his sworn statement.
Dr. Drinkwine and Jenio's wife, Sherri, were often at odds, according to
multiple statements
Frank Jenio said in his statement that during one heated phone
conversation last year, Dr. Drinkwine threatened to have him fired.
Jenio said Col. Drinkwine failed to address the problems his wife was
causing and stayed isolated from his subordinates. Dr. Drinkwine would
often use the threat of "telling Brian" when she had a disagreement with
a family member or Soldier, he said, and Col. Drinkwine made matters
worse by giving the impression that she had influence over him.
Jenio said in his statement that the need to deal with the FRG
challenges nearly every other day took away valuable time he could have
been using to focus on the war.
Dr. Drinkwine sometimes used a pseudonym on the website
Fortbragglife.com. She told Spillman she "lurked" on the site to get a
pulse of the issues and to benefit the brigade.
Once, she became an online friend of a Soldier's wife who worried that
her husband was cheating on her, according to the report.
Dr. Drinkwine found out the woman's name, as well as the Soldier's name
and unit, which turned out to be Jenio's.
She then passed along the name to her husband. Col. Drinkwine directed
Jenio to order counseling for the Soldier, according to multiple sworn
statements.
The woman had spoken in confidence to an FRG staff member but had never
planned to involve her husband's chain of command and never suspected
she was confiding online to the brigade commander's wife, according to a
statement from an FRG staff member. After the counseling was ordered,
the report shows, the woman thought she had been betrayed by the FRG
staff member.
"Mrs. Drinkwine's overbearing influence on the entire command, combined
with Col. Drinkwine's self isolation from the battalion commanders and
his subordinate battalions, has alienated the battalions from the
brigade and created the most dysfunctional military unit I've ever seen
or heard of," Jenio wrote in his sworn statement.
On Jan. 20, one of Drinkwine's battalion commanders -- Lt. Col. David
Oclander -- sent an e-mail to a three-star general. The e-mail was
attached to Spillman's report. Oclander wrote that someone needed to
stand up for Jenio because he believed the firing was due to an ongoing
feud between the Drinkwines and the Jenios.
Oclander said Jenio may have used poor judgment but he doesn't think the
crime fit the punishment.
He called the firing "inappropriate and motivated by unethical
influence." He said Dr. Drinkwine's influence on her husband and the
brigade's command environment was "toxic and beyond destructive."
In the same e-mail, Oclander wrote that since Jenio's dismissal, "I feel
as though I have been indirectly threatened 2-3 times to keep me quiet
or my command will be in jeopardy next."
Oclander in his sworn statement said he believes a mediocre assessment
he received on a performance review was related to personal disputes
with the Drinkwines.
Oclander said he tried at least three times to speak personally with
Col. Drinkwine about the uncomfortable command climate. None of the
meetings resulted in any meaningful changes, he said.
Helmick said Jenio's relief of command has nothing to do with Dr. Drinkwine.
"There is no link between that and this. None whatsoever. Not even
close," said Helmick, whose investigation began the week after Jenio's
dismissal.
Col. Drinkwine, in his sworn statement, said he never let the personal
problems become professional ones.
"Although there were at times tension between my spouse and one or two
of the battalion commanders' spouses, it in no way affected my judgment,
or my assessments of their abilities to be effective commanders or how I
viewed them," he wrote.
He said Jenio's battalion FRG consistently operated on the fringes of
his guidance.
He also said that at least one battalion commander "is in denial of his
shortfalls" and has convinced himself that the real issue is the
relationship between their spouses.
Col. Drinkwine has supporters.
Lt. Col. Kelly Ivanoff, who was the brigade's deputy commanding officer
from June 2008 to June 2009, said the problems came from the bottom up,
not the top down. "The resistance put forth by some of the battalions is
nearly equivalent to a mutiny," Ivanoff wrote in a sworn statement.
Helmick's order
Helmick, who took command of Fort Bragg in November, said he was told
that the former Fort Bragg commander, Gen. Lloyd Austin, had told Col.
Drinkwine before the deployment to take care of the issues.
But the situation festered.
Helmick, in a letter addressed to Dr. Drinkwine, wrote, "even though
[Lt. Gen. Austin] and [Maj. Gen. Scaparrotti] have discussed the command
climate within the 4th Brigade Combat Team with your husband, the
actions that he took have not been sufficient."
Helmick's order bans Dr. Drinkwine from holding any leadership position,
directly or indirectly, in the 4th Brigade or its FRG; participation in
any activity or function of the 4th BCT or its FRG, except for
attendance at memorial services; being present in any 4th BCT building,
including barracks and headquarters buildings; and contacting any member
of the 4th BCT leadership or FRG leadership except contact with her husband.
The order remains in effect until Col. Drinkwine no longer commands the
4th BCT or until the Drinkwines leave Fort Bragg, whichever happens later.
"Sometimes, you've got to do things that are in the best interest of the
organization, not in the best interest of the person, and that's what I
did," Helmick said. "As a commander, you've got to make those decisions."
Helmick said tension among commanders' spouses isn't uncommon. He once
had to deal with a similar case in Italy, he said. But Helmick said he
has never heard of a written order like his because most similar
situations are resolved verbally.
Violation of Helmick's order could result in banishment from Fort Bragg,
a step Helmick said he would not want to take.
Helmick said the climate in the 4th Brigade rear leadership and FRG has
improved since he issued the order in February.
"I'm not saying it's perfect, but it is working OK." Helmick said.
"We're going to make this work. We're going to muddle through until the
unit comes home. We have to."
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