SO LONG TO “THE TYRANT” AT DUNHAM
CLINIC – AND THE DAY “CHUCKIE CHEESE”
WENT BALLISTIC

Dunham Clinic at Carlisle Barracks, Pa. has been the scene of turmoil and turnover in the past 18 months. Thanks to a certain “creep-like” lieutenant colonel we’ll nickname “THE TYRANT,” morale fell to new lows, and only recently has the over-worked, unappreciated staff seen a cause for hope.

While the “official version” is, the obnoxious 0-5 “chose to put in for retirement,” our CI’s on the scene tell us he was “pushed.” One source said he was actually “relieved of command.”

It’s a pattern as old as the Army itself. A “power-mad control freak” abuses his staff and earns their undying enmity. Why can’t officers like that realize the best and surest path to success is not on the backs of your workers, but in providing firm but fair leadership? That’s the way to earn respect – instead of a bevy of complaints, some of which ended up on the Commandant’s desk.

THE TYRANT may be only a bad memory in a matter of months, but the damage he did with his “brutal management style,” will linger on for some time to come.

AN EXODUS OF EXPERIENCED WORKERS

Along with Nancy Bennett, the well-liked and super-efficient former nurse at Dunham, now-retired chief pharmacist LTC Theodore Rudberg, left the clinic during the TYRANT’s reign.

A “Mustang” officer and Special Forces NCO in Vietnam at the start of his long and distinguished military career, Rudberg never joined the “knee-pad brigade.”

Usually our CI’s don’t want their name revealed, but Ted is the type of officer who “tells it like it is.” His honesty and integrity are unassailable. So when he told MilitaryCorruption.com a story about former Carlisle Barracks resident WAR CRIMES “expert,” the imperious colonel known derisively on post as “Chuckie Cheese,” we couldn’t resist passing the story on to you.

Since LTC Rudberg played a major role in the incident, he told us he wanted to go “on the record” with the following account of ARROGANCE unchecked:

THE DAY “CHUCKIE CHEESE” WENT BALLISTIC

“The colonel came to the pharmacy window to pick up his prescriptions at the end of the day. I was closing up shop as he pulled up to the window,” Rudberg said.

“Can I help you, sir?”

“Oh, yeah,” Chuckie Cheese replied, “I need to pick up my prescriptions.”

“Well, you know the drill, colonel. I need your ID card. What’s the last two digits of your Social Security number? He gave me them to me and I pulled his prescriptions out of the bin, “ Rudberg recalled.

“I don’t have it with me - I can’t give you my ID card. But you know who I am.”

“And you know who I am,” Rudberg replied. “I’m chief of pharmacy, and the regulations are that you must perform the act of giving me some sort of ID – such as a military identification card. I can’t give you the pills without that.”

At that point, Rudberg told MilitaryCorruption.com that “(Chuckie Cheese) went absolutely BALLISTIC! He was FURIOUS at me!”

“WELL, I’M GOING TO THE COMMANDER!” Chuckie snarled.

“You do what you got to do, sir,” Rudberg calmly replied.

[COL Louis Heib, commander of the clinic, happened to be walking down the hall at this time.]

As the commander passed by, he leaned his head into the pharmacy and said: “What’s going on, Ted?”

“The colonel here has to present me with his ID card and he doesn’t have it with him.”

“WELL, I’M VOUCHING FOR HIM!” Heib huffed.

“I’m sorry, but that’s not the way the system works, sir. He has to have a photo ID card of himself. That’s the only way I can do it.”

Heib was not “amused.” But LTC Ted Rudberg, the Green Beret from Vietnam, held his ground.

“Come on, sir. You’re talking to a guy who’s been in the Army for nearly 40 years,” Rudberg said. “I’m not ready to compromise my integrity on this.

“Sir, with all due respect, there is a CFR that says – by law – that I cannot do that. You could report me. Or the colonel himself. You could report me after I did it, and I wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. This way, I don’t have to worry about it. I’ve abided by the law and Army regulations.”

“Can you let ME in the pharmacy?” an agitated Heib said.

“Yes, of course I can, commander. You’re authorized to be in here.”

“So I let him in,” Rudberg told MCC, “and COL Heib walked over to the bin, picked up his pal’s prescriptions and went down the hall and gave them to him.”

We can’t help but wonder what “Chuckie Cheese” would have said about a lowly sergeant stopping by the pharmacy window at closing time with no military ID and demanding to get a prescription.

Of course, the soldier would be told to come back another time with proper identification. But apparently “Chuckie,” who always had an inordinately high opinion of himself, felt he was “special” because HE was a full bird colonel! Rank has its privileges all right, but not to come off looking like a JERK. “Chuckie” always did have a talent for that.