Special Operations Command, Veterans Association Under Loupe

By Aero-News Senior Correspondent Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien

Boeing is back in the news, and this time it's not for a record year selling commercial aircraft or for the effectiveness of its military products. The company stands accused -- again -- of misconduct relating to military contracts.

According to a copyrighted story by Leslie Wayne in the New York Times, military investigators are "looking into accusations... that one former military procurement official who oversaw millions of dollars in Boeing Company contracts went to work for Boeing after leaving the [United States Special Operations] command."

Making the accusations is the US Special Operations Command Inspector General's Office, which is conducting one of several investigations into procurement wrongdoing at the command. The FBI, the US Attorney in Tampa, and the Defense Criminal Investigation Service are digging as well.

The United States Special Operations Command is a unique unified command in the US military, in that it serves both as a force-provider command that organizes, equips and trains forces for special operations, and also as a combatant command that plans and executes the operations. No other four-star command wears two hats in this manner.

These new charges appear to result from, but not be directly connected to, the bribery and kickback scandal centered on USSOCOM purchasing official William E. Burke. Burke, a civilian procurement officer at the command, pled guilty to accepting payments from a contractors' representative in a bribery and kickback scheme, and is cooperating with investigators.

If the judge maxes Burke out at his sentencing -- unlikely, if his cooperation brings others to justice -- Burke could get 15 years in the Federal pen, and a quarter-million-dollar fine -- a laughably small sum, given that he has admitted foul play in millions and millions of dollars in contracts. He received a total of $12,000 in kickbacks, but was promised more money as the contracts were fulfilled.

That isn't going to be happening now. Indeed, he may want all fifteen years, if it turns out he took money to send SEALs, Rangers and Special Forces into combat with second-rate gear.

Burke was involved with the purchasing of items like body armor, night vision devices, and small arms, not with big-ticket items like aircraft. But investigators are looking at all of USSOCOM's $6 billion budget for signs of more wrongdoing.

So far, the others who participated in Burke's scheme have not been charged, but both civilian and uniformed officials, as well as industry figures, are under scrutiny. One officer fingered by the Times as an investigation target is senior Special Operations officer General Bryan D. "Doug" Brown.

Brown is the first 4-star commander of USSOCOM to have been primarily an Army Aviator in his career. His past assignments include command of Army special operations aviation elements at several levels, although he's also headed the Special Forces Command and commanded classified elements.

Also under investigation, according to the Times, is the Night Stalkers Association and whether it was used to channel corporate largesse to the benefit of United States Special Operations Command senior officials. Boeing was one of many donors to the association, which is the veterans' association of Army special operations aviators. (Wayne's story didn't seem to quite grasp this point).

The name "Night Stalkers" is the nickname of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, who prefer to fly at night, and many of the companies that make gear the active duty Night Stalkers depend on -- such as the Boeing MH-47 helicopter, to name one rather critical piece of 160th kit -- contribute generously to the organization, support its functions, and help fund its scholarships.

The Times says the Association, "provides entertainment and parties for command officials." There's little about parties on the Night Stalker Association website, although there is a list of 31 scholarships the association offers to survivors of the regiment's fallen. The charges against the Night Stalkers Association appear, on their face, unlikely.

For Boeing, this can only lead to a headache. There will be a lot of rehashing of the Darleen A. Druyun scandal which landed former Pentagon official and Boeing executive Druyun, and Boeing CFO Michael M. Sears in the calaboose (Federal Inmates Number 47614-083 ['til 2009] and 70040-083 [released 7/05] respectively).

So far that scandal looks much bigger than this new one. Druyun steered Air Force contracts worth five times the entire USSOCOM budget to Boeing; according to CBS, Boeing gave her daughter and son-in-law jobs for a $4 billion C-130 upgrade contract, and the price of Druyun's own job with the company was a $24 billion tanker leasing deal (on which the DOD reneged when it found out the contract was let unlawfully).

Exposure of the misconduct locked Boeing out of competition for Federal contracts for months, cost CEO Phil Condit his job, and brought back former CEO Harry Stonecipher. Even then, the snakebitten company couldn't escape scandal. After making every single one of Boeing's employees sign an ethics pledge, the autocratic Stonecipher was caught advancing the career of a female executive over thirty years his junior, with whom he was carrying on a sexual relationship. Stonecipher had to follow Condit into disgraceful (if extremely well-compensated) retirement.

Perhaps it was a portent of things to come when Stonecipher moved the company's HQ from squeaky-clean Seattle to crime-family Chicago, half a continent removed from most of Boeing's manufacturing, during his first stint as CEO.

FMI: www.socom.mil, www.nightstalkers.com, www.boeing.com , www.bop.gov