"IT'S AN OUTRAGE," FORMER AIDE TO GENERAL
OF THE ARMY OMAR BRADLEY SAYS ON PENDING
PROMOTION OF GEN DAVID HUNTOON TO THREE
STARS - "AN INSULT" TO MEMORY OF MANY FINE
MAJ GENERALS WHO'VE GONE BEFORE - "THEY
WERE COMBAT LEADERS, NOT DESK JOCKEY
SYCOPHANTS" AND FLUNKIES - "HUNTOON PUT
MY FAMILY THROUGH HELL," SAYS CHARLES
HONEYCUTT - HIS TENURE AT CARLISLE BARRACKS
UNWORTHY OF REWARD - FEMALE WORKER SAYS
HUNTOON INDIFFERENT TO HER PLIGHT - "HE'S
CONTEMPTUOUS OF CIVILIAN WORK FORCE"
GENERAL'S WIDOW FILES COMPLAINT WITH THE
DOD-IG OFFICE AGAINST "ARROGANT" HUNTOON

If Gen. David Huntoon's troubled tenure at Carlisle Barracks over the past four years is any measurement of "success," then the Army is in terrible shape.

The thoroughly obnoxious two-star has been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general despite his spotty and undistinguished record. And that has the former aide to Gen. of the Army Omar Bradley seeing red.

"It's an outrage that someone like him (Huntoon) could ever achieve three-star rank, much less become a flag officer," Charles Honeycutt said. "There's many a major general at Arlington National Cemetery spinning in his grave tonight at the thought the likes of Huntoon could rise to such a lofty height. I can tell you this, and I was privileged to know many outstanding general officers, Huntoon doesn't deserve a promotion."

Honeycutt has a special reason to be dismissive of the "wonder boy" of Carlisle Barracks. It was Huntoon, as commandant of the scandal-plagued central Pennsylvania military base, who could have brought the disgraceful "Bradley gun grab" [see "related stories box" at end of this article] to a swift conclusion and given Mr. Honeycutt a sincere apology.

"He put my family through hell," said the former aide, who finally got back his property after enduring 14 months of agony and paying thousands of dollars to hire top attorney, John "Bulldog" Wells to take on the Army and recover the stolen commemorative handgun.

"At any time, Huntoon could have ended my ordeal. He knew I wasn't well, and perhaps he hoped I'd die before the case was settled. Well, he was wrong - just as it's wrong for the Pentagon to promote such a mediocre and sorry excuse for an officer as him to three-star rank."

Honeycutt isn't the only one who holds Huntoon is low regard.

WOMEN MAKE COMPLAINTS AGAINST HUNTOON

MilitaryCorruption.com has received many complaints about the general's management style and lack of leadership since Huntoon took over at Carlisle Barracks in 2003.

One courageous female worker, now retired after 20 years outstanding service there, is Evelyn Varner, who told one of our investigators she'd tried in vain to get help from Huntoon when her job was unfairly taken from her.

"He was indifferent to my plight," she said. "The man is just contemptuous of the civilian work force. I know many people not only didn't like him, they didn't trust him. He seemed to be only out for himself. To hear that he's going to be promoted - that's so typical of his kind. Screw up and move up. The Army should have retired him instead."

Another woman, the widow of the late Gen. Arch Hamblen, we have learned, is one of several individuals who've filed an official complaint against Huntoon with the DOD Inspector General's Office.

We don't have a copy of the document, but we're fairly certain it deals with Huntoon's rude and disrespectful treatment of her and her beloved husband not long before Gen. Hamblen passed away.

"I am also a close friend of Charles Honeycutt," Mrs. Hamblen told MilitaryCorruption.com, "and I was simply appalled at how shamefully Huntoon treated such a good and decent man. My husband was Gen. Bradley's chief-of-staff, and when he and Gen. George Vogel publicly asked Huntoon to "do the right thing" and return Charles his precious handgun, Arch didn't even receive the courtesy of a reply.

"That such a marginal officer as David Huntoon could become a three-star general in the United States Army, boggles the mind," she said.

We agree.

A RECORD UNWORTHY OF PROMOTION TO LIEUTENANT GENERAL

MilitaryCorruption.com has chronicled the various scandals that have blackened the once-high reputation of Carlisle Barracks and The Army War College.

There are many things we could fault Huntoon on, but perhaps one of his worst failings is his seeming inability to properly pick key members of his staff.

We cite two individuals in particular.

Col. Alan C. Cate, forced to retire from the Army after a particularly sordid episode, was Huntoon's choice to head up the Army Heritage and Education Center. This same officer was arrested after threatening to "kill" a female sex partner and her dog (he was married at the time) after an alcohol-fueled argument in his off-post home. Cate was so arrogant and reckless, he advertised for sex swingers on a notorious web site, billing himself as a "high-ranking officer." We can thank God that an enemy intelligence agent didn't compromise Cate before his perverted sexual escapades cost him his Army career.

It is significant to note that in the days after Cate was exposed in the local news media, Huntoon sought to protect his pal and allowed him to continue to work at his office on post as if nothing had happened. We received frantic and frightened e-mails here at MilitaryCorruption.com from several women on Carlisle Barracks wondering why the colonel was being treated with such kid gloves. They feared for their safety. Only after MCC printed their concerns and criticized Huntoon's shocking lack of leadership, was Cate removed and finally slipped out the back door.

"NO COMBAT" COLPO NEVER SERVED OVERSEAS IN 30 YEARS IN THE ARMY

Chief-of-staff is the most significant position in any general's operation. Yet, Huntoon inherited and kept on the controversial Col. Mike "NO COMBAT" Colpo, the "chairBORNE Ranger," despite our numerous stories on Colpo's poor judgment and temper tantrums. In fact, we printed a transcript of a tape-recorded call where the West Point graduate lost control and made a fool of himself on the telephone.

Colpo is widely-known at Carlisle Barracks for being the only West Point, infantry-branch, Ranger-qualified officer to have not served a single day overseas or in a combat zone. To get a free education, thanks to the taxpayers, and then spend the next 30 years playing politics and riding a desk in the United States is not exactly what one would expect of a "warrior" officer.

We wonder what Colpo thinks of himself as he mingles with cadets up at West Point (he is now chief-of-staff there), knowing he never went overseas once, much less risked his neck in combat. Many West Pointers have bravely served "in harms way" since 911, fighting our nation's enemies. Some, including at least one colonel who was on the Military Academy's faculty, paid with their life in Iraq and Afghanistan. They, unlike "NO COMBAT" Colpo, were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

"Mikey" is one of the least-decorated, maybe the least decorated, colonel on active duty today. Former PFC Lyndie England, one of the convicted abusers at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq, had more "ribbons" on her chest than Colpo has on his. What an embarrassment! For Colpo, and those of us who volunteered to go fight in dangerous places like Vietnam.

Cate and Colpo, just two of the men Gen. Huntoon surrounded himself with. And now this "ring-knocker" and under-achieving, overly-unpleasant general is poised to climb one more rung up the ladder. It is a promotion, we think, that is definitely undeserved.