Congress of the Hnitea States Washington, BE 20515 ‘October 3, 2016 ‘The Honorable John McCain, Chairman Senate Armed Services Committee 218 Russell Senate Office Building ‘Washington, DC 20510 ‘The Honorable Jack Reed, Ranking Member Senate Armed Services Committee ‘728 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Chairman McCain and Ranking Member Reed: thas come to our attention thatthe U.S. Air Force has nominated Colonel Brian Hastings for promotion to Brigadier General. The nomination was recently presented to your committee for consideration. Itis our strongest recommendation—based strictly on our experience with Col. Hastings and his command leadership—that the nomination be thoroughly scrutinized and rejected. Previously, under the leadership of the previous Air Force Chief of Staff, we intervened ina case in which several Air Force officers were falsely accused of illegal drug use and bution by Col, Hastings, When Col, Hastings and his command investigated a rumored unprofessional relationship among two instructor pilots, personal text messages, not connected to the investigation underway, were misrepresented and wrongfully utilized >y the command to Justify stripping them of their aeronautical orders and the issuance of career-ending reprimands. “Multiple atempte to clarify the personal text messages were ignored, despite the fact thatthe texts were sent on personal cell phones and playfully cited song lyrics and movie references, Also ignored by Col. Hastings was the full body of evidence that included drug tests and property searches that provided no confirmation of illegal drug use. ‘We began a campaign on behalf ofthe Air Foree officers and their ordeal was widely reported under the banner of "Miley-Gate,” due to Miley Cyrus references within personal text ‘messages on personal cell phones that were seized by the command. After multiple personal interactions with the Air Force Chief of Staff, and a subsequent intemal investigation, the Air Force officers involved were cleared of wrongdoing and their flight status was restored. Two of them are still serving in the Air Force. The third is now a civilian pilot. It is worth noting,however, that other Air Force officers were also identified by Col. Hastings and their cases were similarly the subject of the Air Force investigation. ‘To provide more background and a concise summary of Col. Hastings’ poor judgment and abuse of command authority, we are providing a report with ths letter. We can state that the report is accurate and encompasses the full experience ofthe Air Foree officers—but, again, the situation was only addressed and resolved after our intervention. tis our belief that promoting Col. Hastings would undermine the credibility ofthe Air Force and perpetuate the typeof leadership and decision-making tht must be avoided at all cost. nour estimation, Col. Hastings’ actions and subsequent defense of his ation, which were overtumed, ae unforgivable and represent direct voltion of legal and moral authority We arc available to provide any additional information and investigatory documents to support your review. ‘Thank you for your attention to our concerns. Sincerely. (AP ‘Adam Kinzinger Member of Congress “Member of CongressJap Joun Q. rubiie Jahn O Publis vbr Is. 2061 Air Force Rewards Miley Gate Commander with General’s Star America’s Air Force is in trouble. Anyone who can read the headlines can see that. It's understaffed by 70,000 airmen, doesn't have enough pilots to fly its planes, hasn't passed a financial audit in nearly two decades, and is leveraging is future (and our national defense) on the $1T lemon known as the F-35. But the most toxic and intractable problem the service faces is one only close observers have noted: its unwillingness to hold senior commanders to eecount for abuses of power, which has created a cultural sickness capable of trumping any and all policy Jnitatives that might otherwise succeed in pling the Ait Fore out ofits institutional tailspin, ‘Thelatest example of this problem will likely leave even the mos: jaded student of the service's ctonyism gobsmacked, Colonel Brian Hastings, who falsely accused three officers of drug use based on isinterpretations of their private text messages, has been rewarded for his toxicity with ‘a nomination for promotion to Brigadier General. The Air Force quiet'y announced the ‘move in an internal memo. Hastings took aim at unprofessional relationships during his stint as the wing commander at Laughlin Air Force Base. His focus on unwinding a long-entrenched party culture and re-establishing clear professional boundaries is defensible, if deeply hypocritical. Afterall, it was his generation that laid the groundwork for this culture in ‘the first place, as he discussed openly in a "wingman day” mentorship session during his ‘command. If nothing else, Hastings recognized that times had changed, and that polities now required the appearance of total intolerance to even the vaguest implication of ‘sexual impropriety. He set out to create that appearance.But ifhis objectives were valid, his tactics were fascist and unforgivable. Hastings sought formal administrative punishments against officers for failing to report mere rumors of errant relationships, creating a paranoid climate that destroyed trust and degraded teamwork among instructors. Here's an excerpt from an October 2015 report detailing Hastings’ illegal reprisal campaign, for which he has never been called to account: “One officer's performance report had already been signed when Col. Brian Hastings, then Laughlin’ wing commander, learned he had written a letter forthe defense of another offcer Hastings was punishing under Art. 1. The performance appraisal was intercepted by the wing commander's office before it could be file unl held there past the deadline when it should have been filed in the officer's record. The officer pressed administrative personnel for an explanation, Instead, he was presented with a revised version of his report — one that removed the superior performance ‘assessment he'd earned and which had already been certified, replacing that assessment with lukewarm words painting him as a mediocre performer.” Worse yet, Hastings unchained a cabal of toxic lawyers and investigators, authorizing a wide-ranging witch hunt on the prow! for political scapegoats wherever they could be found. ‘This led to false drug accusations against three instructor plots whose cellphones were seized and searched in conjunction with a separate investigation. Some oftheir texts playfully joked about drug use, referencing Iris from Miley Cyrus and quotes from the movie Entourage. Hastings promptly issued orders to permanently ground the three and issued them career-ending reprimands. This without drug tests or any other form of corroboration. This despite reasonable and factually supported explanations from the officers involved, ‘The way Hastings went about addressing these text messages tells us all we need to know to judge him unsuitable for generalship. Confronted with evidence to thin to support a court conviction, he conducted an administrative end-run around the justice system, issuing unchallengeable reprimands that had the same impact. The absurdity of issuing mere reprimands for drug use — serious misconduct entitled to severe punishments only available at court — reveals the gaping maw between the facts and the results, If Brian Hastings really believed he was looking at conduct so serious it should lead to permanent disqualification from flying, then by definition he should have had plenty enough evidence to goto court. He didn't, and it's because his interpretation of the evidence was dead wrong. ‘When commanders find a way to ruin someone based on their subjective beliefs about the person's culpability rather than what the evidence objectively shows, they demonstrate fundamental unsuitability for any role that includes legal authority over ‘others. Commanders of appropriate conscience and temperament dor't look for ways to ruin people. They certainly don't do so as a means of soothing their own egos by supplying an official conclusion that spares the wrongnese of thei initial assessment,‘They evaluate the facts dispassionately and take appropriate action, They ive withi bounds of their power by tethering it to an ethical baseline. ‘Hastings didn't do that. And the rendition here merely seratches the surface of the ‘mishandling and misconduct he demonstrated during the Miley Gate scandal. He and his fellow commanders overreached, pre-judged, over-punished, and refused to adjust in the face of clear evidence upending their predetermined conclusions. The Air Force has admitted as much by honorably discharging one ofthe three pilots while sending the other two forward in their careers. Both are now flying major weapon systems. This happened because Congress and the media pressured the service into taking a loser Jook at the case. But it also means the Air Force is certain the Molly Three never abused drugs, even ifit has tried to have it both ways by exonerating both the accused and thei accusers. But this in turn means the Air Force believes Hastings was wrong. And yet, he is now being invited to the elite level, where his ability to influence subordinate commanders and infect the justice process will be exponentially greater than before. It also means that airmen who have watched this scandal unfold and know how wrong his actions ‘were will continue to hemorrhage confidence in the moral and ethical core of their service's leadership. His promotion reinforces the cynical belief that advancement in the Air Farce is dependent on who you know or how politically favored you are rather than the potential to lead wel at the next level “That's the real puzzle here. Brian Hastings’ promotion will be politically costly for the Air Foree, especially with certain members of Congress and among its own airmen, And ‘yet it's happening, which means either someone very powerful is sponsoring hie advancement .. or he has some serious dirt on some very powerful people. Perhaps both ‘things are true. In any case, it's a damning statement about the service's ethical posture ‘that Hastings’ abuses are being heralded rather than condemned. It reeks of eronyism, In the few months since Gen. Dave Goldfein took over as Chief of Staff there have beet ‘many hopeful signals thatthe long-awaited organizational turnaround many have wished for might be finally underway. Goldfein has confronted with refreshing honesty +the plot shortage, the degradation of Air Foree squadrons, and the unchecked growth of administrative and self-support task saturation among airmen. But all cf that will be for naught with the wrong leaders running the show. Policy changesare a great and necessary start, but they require committed leaders implement them. Brian Hastings railroaded three people and tried to ruin their lives bhecansehe judged them guilty and couldn't stand to be wrong. This is the conduct of a toxic and self-obsessed commander who thinks he knows better than the system he has signed up to support and has no respect for the rue of law. Promoting the toxic and self-obsessed to the highest level threatens the focus on airmen, necessary to rebuild the street-level Air Force. This is a horrible move by Goldfein that threatens to start undoing all he secks to do before he is able t genuinely start doing it,Ifwe're to have one rule forall, where commanders and commanded are treated ‘equitably rather than senior officers being given a break over serious misconduct whi they bum subordinates for far less... people like Hastings should be disciplined, not promoted. But since the service was dumb enough to uuminate the guy, it now falls to the Senate to- refuse his confirmation. This will send the appropriate mescage to the Air Foree that abuse of power by commanders will uot be tolerated, much less rewarded,