Why have the careers of so many of America’s highest level flag officers been under such severe storm clouds lately?

Four-Star Generals  John Allen, Carter Ham, David Patraeus and  Kip Ward have all suffered severe setbacks to their careers lately — Ham’s, Ward’s and Patraeus’ military careers are over or soon will be. Marine Corps General John Allen’s confirmation hearings related to his latest proposed command have been put on “hold”. 

Ward and Ham have both been the head of  “Africom.” Africom is the area command that has administrative and tactical authority over the geographical area that includes Benghazi. General Carter Ham took over the command from Ward last year, gaining accolades as one of two key U.S. military leaders directing operations in the Libya conflict

Patraeus and Allen have been associated with Centcom, whose headquarters in the Tampa area is a key connector in the current scandal that now embroils them.  However, since his move into his position as the CIA Director, General David Patraeus has been directly involved in several aspects of the Benghazi fiasco.

Around the time these other flaps were percolating, in what was described as “an unusual move,” the Navy replaced an admiral commanding an aircraft carrier strike group while it was deployed to the Middle East.

Rear Admiral Charles M. Gaouette, the commander of the USS John C. Stennis carrier strike group, is being returned to the United States for temporary reassignment.  In a formal statement the U.S. Navy said it had approved a request made by Vice Admiral John W. Miller, the Commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, to temporarily reassign Gaouette  “pending the results of an investigation by the Navy Inspector General.” The replacement of Gaouette was prompted by an Inspector General’s investigation of allegations of some undescribed “inappropriate leadership judgment.” An addendum to that was a statement that what was being investigated did not involve personal conduct. The Stennis group arrived in the Fifth Fleet’s area of operations on October 17th.  The allegations are recent and were made within a couple of weeks of the October 27th announcement.

General Ward’s case involved a very long period of investigation (fourteen months) and a formal demotion was ordered after he had retired, while the investigations of the other generals have popped up recently and suddenly.