Anyway I have no clue what his politics are. I have no clue to anything about him except he made a call recently that if done on the up and up for reasons of justice and principal will place him as the most honorable General Officer I know of in the Military today. Not to say there are not others of course, and I really hope there are, but the action of General Franklin if sincere proves he has what it takes to be a true leader and will be deserving of trust.
Last year an Air Force Lt. Colonel named James Wilkerson was accused of sexual assault by a woman who I believe is not military but had a contract working as a physicians assistant at an Air Force base in Italy.
IG to Return to Duty After Conviction Tossed
I suggest you read the article I linked above but if you don't wish to the bottom line is that the woman who accused Colonel Wilkerson had some questionable motives after being asked to leave by Mrs. Wilkerson. A friend of the so called victim even had evidence of text messages and conversations that occurred while the "victim" was saying the attack was going on.
Bottom line the evidence was not allowed in the Military court and it was basically a "He said/She said" thing with absolutely not one shred of any physical evidence an attack occurred. Colonel Wilkerson's Wife insisted he had never left his own bed and stood by him throughout the entire ordeal.
Yet the officers of the Military court convicted Colonel Wilkerson anyway. A popular consensus is they were afraid not to convict him for political and career reasons.
The friend of the "victim" then sent a letter and the evidence to General Franklin and on February 26th as is his right as the unit commander within the UCMJ under an appeal to a military court decision General Franklin threw the verdict out.
For once sanity and personal fortitude triumphed over Feminist religious dogma and personal career politics.
I don't care what anyone says, nor about anything else. That one call took guts and personal honor and for that alone I salute General Franklin. The world and the US Military need more men like you Sir!!!
And it also pissed off Claire McCaskill which means you get a double salute in my book!!!
HOOOOOZAAAAAAH General!!!
Please carry on.
I know him personally and he IS one of the most honorable men I know. He is thoughtful in his actions and has never been a man who put forth effort to move ahead in his career but instead he worked hard, made decisions purely based on what he felt was right and is a solid Christian man. He shouldn't be held accountable for problem DOD has with sexual assault right now and that's what's happening. If this case was about drugs or some other type of crime, we would never hear about it. This may be precisely why Wilkerson was convicted in the first place...climate issues.
ReplyDeleteAnon - Thank you for commenting and letting us in on that information.
DeleteI am totally sure you are correct on the "climate" explanation.
I, too worked for Lt Gen Franklin and consider him to be the finest senior officer for whom I've worked in 22+ years of service. He is a man of absolute integrity and fairness. Any thinking person must recognize the silliness of accusations against him in this instance by pondering what, exactly, he might expect to gain by ruling as he has. On the contrary, being the very intelligent man that he is, he must have known he had nothing to gain and everything to lose; meaning, he could only be motivated by a careful consideration of the evidence and a conscience-bound decision to do what is right. Sadly, I fear those with agendas are motivated by political expediency will drive a great man and a great American from an organization desperately in need of men like him.
ReplyDeleteI went to school with Lt Gen Franklin, he was my roommate. After 30 years I had opportunity to meet with him last Nov to find that he is the same solid individual I started my AF career with. Craig epitomizes the AF core values of integrity, service before self and excellence in all he does. And as previously mentioned, he is devout in his Christianity. He made the right decision because guys like him do the right thing, regardless of any political or professional bias.
ReplyDelete"Yet the officers of the Military court convicted Colonel Wilkerson anyway. A popular consensus is they were afraid not to convict him for political and career reasons." I'm curious, can/will Gen Franklin pursue disciplinary action against the officers of the court? I think it is Gen Franklin's responsibility to do so if the "popular consensus" holds any weight. Otherwise, those officers will likely continue on in their career and be given more and more responsibilities as they progress in rank which makes me think they've compromised their integrity once and they'll likely do it again. Although, their careers may already be doomed by the attention this gets if in fact they convicted based on a weak case. Comments welcomed.
ReplyDeleteI have been allowing this post to go on it's own and not responding to each comment since the first one. However JES I am not sure Gen. Franklin would be the one to level charges against the officers from the original hearing. I am not a Military lawyer and in fact outside of a few UCMJ things I was required to learn (and have not forgotten in 25 years) I don't believe the charging is usually handled so far up the chain of command.
DeleteDo you honestly believe a commissioned officer serving on a jury can be charged with agreeing with the prosecution at the conclusion of a court-martial? In the case of the US v. Wilkerson, Lt Gen Franklin was the officer who preferred the charges against Lt Col Wilkerson, initiating the court-martial. He also appointed each member of the jury personally. You really need to wake up.
DeleteNo. The charges actually originate at the Brigade level for this case but are signed off on as going to trial by the air force commander. It was still his final decision in the end if he was not comfortable with the verdict. Not sure what we have to wake up to exactly. It was his duty to allow the thing to go to a courts marshal but also his duty to see it was properly executed after the facts were found.
DeleteI agree with his move. I believe you need to wake up.
I know Craig Franklin, too. He's about the straightest arrow I've ever known -- not dull, not stuffy, not "holier-than-thou" -- a great example of what we should expect in our professional military. I sincerely hope that this situation will work out for the best for him; he's very deserving of being at the TOP of our nation's military. Come what may, I strongly believe that he did the RIGHT THING.
ReplyDeleteSo you guys don't believe the woman at all. That just explains so much about the military and about what has happened in America. You just wrote her off, no problem.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm glad your penises told you that guy was right to try and rape her.
I have known Craig since 6th grade, even then he was the straightest arrow I ever met
ReplyDelete