We have yet to see the final act of the Fat Leonard saga. I don’t know who is going to write the definitive book on the wide, deep, and fetid smear on our Navy’s honor this has turned out to be, but I hope that the author has a bit of nuance in their toolbox. I hope they are a reader of Franz Kafka and Nietzsche.
The Fat Leonard saga, as with any broad based corrupt enterprise that spanned over years, in addition to bringing the willing guilty in to its net of corruption, it also has a fair bit of side-catch. Individuals who may or may not have been involved, but by their proximity were caught up in it all the same, are in the net. Throw in a little of our parents warning about guilt by association. History is clear on this point; not all guilty parties are caught and not all who are caught are guilty parties.
Scandals can catch both hight and low, guilty and innocent. The smart professional should study scandals because there is a pattern to them. Avoid if you can and you increase the odds of surviving – maybe.
There is the trick of time, context, place. You can find yourself at a certain place in time, in a certain culture, and in a place where things are going on that you may not be aware of at the moment. In time, and with hindsight, it becomes clear that you would have been better off having the flu that week. When the circumstances are brought in to your host culture without context and judged by people who have never been in similar circumstances, you have a problem.
You can never discount the role of chance, or the ability of the past to find you – long after it matters and well past the details of your memory – of finding you at the wrong moment.
All these things came to mind while reading Craig Whitlock’s strange story of how a decade after the events that took place, a man poised to be selected for the highest military position in our country was dragged down and out; Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, Jr USN (Ret.).
When the Pentagon last chose a new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it was rattled by a last-minute surprise: A corrupt defense contractor known as “Fat Leonard” confided to federal agents that he had an unsavory past with one of the finalists to become the nation’s top military officer.
Francis also shared with investigators several photographs of him drinking and socializing with Locklear, who was one of four contenders to head the Joint Chiefs. Some photos were from a banquet in Singapore that Francis had hosted for the admiral and other Navy officers that featured prostitutes as entertainment, according to the documents and people familiar with the case.
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…he told federal agents he met Locklear in September 2003 when the admiral was commander of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group. That month, during a port visit by the Nimitz to Singapore, Francis hosted a “lavish” dinner for Locklear, several other officers and their wives, Navy records show.
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“I can tell you right now for a fact that I was standing there talking . . . when the doors opened and Fat Leonard brought in the girls,” said David Fravor, a since-retired fighter pilot who served on the Nimitz. “There were probably about 15 girls, at least, who barged in.”But Fravor said he, Locklear and a few other officers left the room immediately.
“I can tell you 100 percent, I have absolutely no doubt that I watched Sam Locklear and his aide walk out as soon as the hookers came in the room,” he said. “They walked out, shook Leonard’s hand, said ‘thank you’ and left.”
There are more details in the article. Read them all, and ponder.
In addition to a warning for future leaders who will, yes you will, find yourself in sketchy scenarios, what does this story tell us our institutional attitude towards investigations? Do we assume guilt too fast? Do they take too long? Do they have us cowed? Can anyone survive having an IG look back a decade in to every thing you may or – as it seems in this case – may not have done?
Locklear told The Washington Post that he was at the party but was unaware of any prostitutes, and he said he had limited contact with Francis over the years. After separate investigations, the Justice Department declined to press charges, and the Navy cleared the four-star admiral of wrongdoing. But his association with the 350-pound contractor helped sink his chances to lead the Joint Chiefs, other documents show.
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In a letter to The Post, Locklear confirmed attending the dinner, which he said included “some dancing, lots of picture taking, and nothing inappropriate.” He said he was the first to leave and headed directly back to the Nimitz.He denied the allegation that Francis provided him with a prostitute. “Any assertions he may have made along these lines are false,” he wrote.
“It is inconceivable to me, as it is to others who know me, that I would engage in such activity no matter the circumstances,” Locklear added. “So once again let me be clear: I was never offered a prostitute by Leonard Francis. I never requested a prostitute from him, and I never discussed prostitutes or escorts with him. If there were prostitutes . . . they did not present themselves to me as such and I had no reason to suspect they were.”
n his letter to The Post, Locklear said he had obtained “legal reviews” clearing him to attend both dinners. One of his attorneys, J. Stanley Pottinger, said that there was no written record of the legal reviews but that the admiral’s chief of staff had recommended he attend the events and verbally assured him they posed no ethical problems.
Did Locklear do anything wrong worthy of such treatment? No. Did he do what we have all seen senior general officers and flag officers do as part of their official duties? From the perspective of a recidivist staff weenie, yes. Did the comport himself better than many? It appears so.
And yet, he was punished. Locklear, who dedicated decades of exemplary service, was never charged, but he was punished. He left under a cloud, his nation no longer having access to the decades of investment they made in to building a top-level leader.
Who will apologize to him? How will he get his good name back?
How will we fix a system that time and time again destroys good people?
