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TOP ARMY COMMANDER AT GRAFENWOHR FIRED
COL. "VANN" SMILEY OUT - RELIEVED BY MAJ GEN
JAMES BOOZER FOR "INAPPROPRIATE CONDUCT"
NO OTHER DETAILS GIVEN - ARMY TIMES KEEPS
NEWS QUIET FOR NOW - STARS AND STRIPES
COMMITS "RANDOM ACT OF JOURNALISM" WHEN
THEY REPORT COLONEL'S OUSTER - WE HOLD
OFF SIFTING RUMOR FROM FACT - DON'T WANT
TO UNFAIRLY TAINT POPULAR BIRD COLONEL
© 2011 MilitaryCorruption.com
The hottest news among U.S. Army troops in Europe is the sudden firing of the Granfenwohr garrison commander, COL Alvanus "Vann" Smiley. MAJ GEN James Boozer was the brass hat who pulled the trigger.
The Washington State native is the second high-ranking officer there to be relieved this year. In January, Col. Frank Zachar (see related stories box below) got the boot.
Very little has been said on the record as to just why Smiley is out. So far, this is all we have: "COL Smiley has been relieved because of inappropriate conduct."
In a cryptic statement Boozer pronounced, "The Army is built on trust, and that trust must be re-earned every day through living our values. Without that trust and without those values, we lose our ability to lead."
Well, it might be a good idea general, not to be so secretive about what actually happened. It's not fair to COL Smiley and has bred a spate of rumors that frankly we aren't publishing because they cover the gamut from "A to Z."
UNFAIR TO COL SMILEY
We do welcome our CI's communicating with us from off-post computers what really happened and we will try and do a follow up for our readers as soon as we receive definitive information.
The elitist, out-of-touch editors at STARS AND STRIPES
actually covered the announced relief of command (albeit not going any further), while the timid souls at
Army TIMES (as of our press time) have earned more than their quota of Pentagon "brownie points" by not reporting the story at all.
Smiley assumed command in July 2010 after combat duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Grafenwohr is located in Bavaria near Nurmberg, Germany and is one of the largest Army installations in the world.
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