Colonel Meghann Sullivan has reportedly been relieved of her command after allegedly assaulting male underlings
A feminine US Military commander who was accused of sexually assaulting and harassing a number of male subordinates has reportedly been fired from her management function advising allied nations.
Colonel Meghann Sullivan has been relieved of command of the Fifth Brigadier Engineer Battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, Navy.com reported on Tuesday, citing a navy spokesperson. Nonetheless, she apparently isn’t going through court-martial proceedings, and she or he has been reassigned to a different job on the identical base, the report stated.
Sullivan was touted as a “trailblazing” feminine officer by media shops, and she or he made historical past when she took command of the Fifth Brigadier Engineer Battalion in June 2021. She turned the primary lady to steer a battalion in a so-called Safety Pressure Help Brigade (SFAB), a specialised US Military unit that advises and trains the troops of Washington’s allies.
Navy.com stated Sullivan had been relieved of command in October, however her firing wasn’t publicly revealed till Tuesday. The outlet reported in April that she had been suspended amid an investigation into her conduct. She was accused of assaulting not less than two male subordinates – forcibly kissing a person in a single case and grabbing one other beneath the belt with out his consent – in addition to a “sample of sexual harassment” involving a number of different troops. A number of the incidents have been allegedly tied to alcohol abuse.
Navy.com was unable to succeed in the previous commander for touch upon her firing. On the time of her promotion, she celebrated her historic appointment, saying, “I’ve been within the Military over 20 years as an engineer. Range, fairness and inclusion makes us stronger. I’m excited for younger girls to see you can look and act totally different and achieve success.”
Sullivan’s job concerned making ready SFAB advisers to coach allied troops within the Indo-Pacific area. She’s a graduate of the US Navy Academy at West Level and served a one-year stint in Afghanistan, beginning in 2018.
Sullivan’s ouster comes lower than one yr after her boss, Colonel Jonathan Chung, was fired as commander of the Fifth Safety Pressure Help Brigade amid allegations of abusive and counterproductive management. He was accused of micromanaging subordinates and harshly rebuking them for minor infractions.
The Pentagon has lengthy struggled to eradicate sexual assaults in its ranks, which have been on the rise lately. Gil Cisneros, then the Pentagon’s undersecretary for personnel, referred to as the issue “persistent and corrosive” within the division’s newest annual report on sexual assaults. Navy.com stated male victims account for 10% of documented sexual assault instances, although many different incidents go unreported as a result of males are extra reluctant to report such incidents.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord, the place Sullivan nonetheless works, has an Military anesthesiologist who faces a court-martial during which he’s accused of inappropriately touching or his sufferers. Main Michael Stockin, who has labored on the base’s hospital, is charged with 48 counts of abusive sexual contact and 5 counts of indecent viewing.
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