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Published: 05:30 AM, Sat Jun 12, 2010
Bragg colonel's wife barred from 4th Brigade functions
FayObserver.com - <div>Bragg colonel's wife barred from 4th Brigade functions</div>
By John Ramsey
Staff writer
The commander of Fort Bragg has barred the wife of an 82nd Airborne Division colonel from nearly all interaction with her husband's brigade and the unit's families after an investigation found her influence "detrimental to the morale and well-being of both."
Sworn statements from the investigation, ordered in January by Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, accuse Col. Brian Drinkwine's wife, Leslie Drinkwine, of using her husband's position as leverage to repeatedly harass and threaten soldiers and their families.
The statements say the harassment and threats began almost as soon as Col. Drinkwine took command of the 4th Brigade Combat Team in 2008.
A follow-up to Helmick's investigation has reached the highest levels of leadership in Afghanistan. That investigation is exploring whether animosity between the Drinkwines and Col. Drinkwine's battalion commanders and their spouses ever unfairly damaged the officers' careers.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of all NATO forces in Afghanistan, referred a recommendation from Helmick to Lt. Gen. William Webster, who is in charge of all U.S. Army forces in the Middle East, according to a spokesman for McChrystal.
Webster's investigation continues, and no information from it will be released before its completion, a spokesman for his office said in an e-mail.
Col. Drinkwine has denied any unfair treatment of his subordinates.
Leslie Drinkwine declined to comment.
In an interview in May, Helmick said his decision to bar Leslie Drinkwine was based on the investigator's recommendations and Helmick's own 34 years of experience in the Army.
"It was just a dysfunctional situation," Helmick said. "That is not a good thing to have when you have soldiers deployed fighting.
"The last thing we need in an organization that is supposed to take care of families and those people that are left here in the rear detachment is a very unhealthy climate."
The Observer obtained a copy of Helmick's investigative file through the Freedom of Information Act. Names are redacted from the nearly inch-thick stack of paperwork, which includes sworn statements and e-mails from at least 25 people. Ranks and job titles are not blacked out, so the Observer was able to independently confirm most names in the report.
The investigator assigned by Helmick, Col. Chris Spillman, concludes in the report that while there is no direct evidence Col. Drinkwine hurt anyone's career because of retaliation or a vendetta, he recommends a closer look at the matter.
That issue falls outside Helmick's purview, which is why he forwarded the report to commanders in Afghanistan.
Spillman's findings hold Col. Drinkwine partially responsible for his wife's behavior at Fort Bragg.
Spillman calls Col. Drinkwine the "key enabler" of his wife's actions because he failed to dispel the perception that she had a level of authority similar to his own.
"At least three commanders approached Col. Drinkwine with issues they were having," Spillman wrote in the report. "Yet there is no evidence that he took steps to moderate her behavior."
Drinkwine and the FRG
Col. Drinkwine leads the 4th Brigade Combat Team, a group of roughly 3,500 soldiers deployed since August to southern and western Afghanistan.
His wife, Leslie, has a doctorate degree and teaches marketing courses at Campbell University.
During Army ceremonies such as command changes, it is typical for wives to be recognized as part of a "command team" with their officer husbands.
Retired Col. Douglas Macgregor said it was typical 40 or 50 years ago for commanders' wives to have tremendous power.
"You did not cross a commander's wife," he said.
Macgregor said some people still hold onto those "outdated" traditionalist values.
Col. Drinkwine appointed his wife to lead the brigade's official support organization, known as a Family Readiness Group, or FRG.
A Family Readiness Group is made up largely of soldiers' spouses; leadership positions often mirror those of the soldiers. During a unit's deployment, the FRG serves as a network of communication between the unit's families and its commanders.
Helmick said there are no expectations for spouses in the Army. Their participation is strictly voluntary, he said.
Macgregor said that's not exactly true.
"There's the expectation that the commanding officer, whether he's a captain, colonel or general, that his wife will set an example by doing things consistent with her husband's responsibilities," Macgregor said. "Wives are under enormous pressure."
2008 incidents
Sworn statements and timelines included in the investigative file show that problems in the 4th Brigade's Family Readiness Group can be traced as far back as Oct. 30, 2008.
That night, at the 82nd Airborne Division's annual silent auction, Dr. Drinkwine confronted the spouses of some of her husband's subordinates and accused them of disloyalty, the report shows.
The next day, she sent an e-mail to several FRG leaders - officers' wives and paid FRG staff members - characterizing her dispute with other women at the auction as "an ambush from hidden domestic insurgents."
The FRG never gained harmony after that, Spillman wrote in his report.
Dr. Drinkwine, in her interview with Spillman, said the e-mail about "hidden domestic insurgents" was one of her biggest mistakes and she regrets it.
The report shows that one morning not long after the auction, Dr. Drinkwine visited Lt. Col. Mike Wawrzyniak's wife, Pam, while her husband was at work. Col. Drinkwine sat outside in his car, according to a sworn statement by Pam Wawrzyniak.
Dr. Drinkwine yelled at Mrs. Wawrzyniak for about half an hour, reducing her to tears, the report says.
Eventually, Mrs. Wawrzyniak said in the report, the colonel came into the house, tried unsuccessfully to calm his wife, and they left.
The investigation also shows that the top paid staff member for the FRG resigned in December 2008, citing a hostile work environment that made it impossible for her to do her job.
In sworn interviews or written statements submitted to Spillman, one former battalion commander, two currently serving battalion commanders and the brigade's rear commander said Dr. Drinkwine told them "that either their careers, or the careers of others, could be adversely impacted by her."
In other sworn statements, five Army officers said they have heard Col. Drinkwine say that when his wife speaks, she speaks for him.
Col. Drinkwine, in his sworn statement, said he meant that only in regard to FRG issues. His wife was the head of that organization, and he said he wanted to make sure people understood that she had authority in the FRG.
In March of last year, before the brigade deployed, all six battalion commanders serving under Col. Drinkwine's command went to his office together to talk to him about his wife.
At that meeting, according to their sworn statements, Col. Drinkwine dismissed their complaints and told them that the relationship between his wife and their wives was a senior-to-subordinate relationship. He reiterated that his wife speaks for him.
"Although he made the statement within the context of FRG-related business, this and (Dr. Drinkwine's) repeated reiteration of this statement to commanders and spouses clearly contributed to the perception that, by extension as the brigade commander's wife and within the context of FRG activities, she held a level of authority that resembled command authority," Spillman wrote in his report.
Spillman said Col. Drinkwine not only failed to dispel that perception in the March meeting with his battalion commanders but he "in fact worsened it."
Col. Drinkwine refused an interview request for this report.
In his written sworn statement from Afghanistan, Col. Drinkwine attributes the problems in his FRG to "an inability of a few ladies being able to work professionally with one another."
In his report, Spillman calls the remark "disingenuous."
Col. Drinkwine said the command climate on the Army side of the brigade is "effective and positive."
Spillman recommended that Col. Drinkwine be required to inform each of his battalion commanders in writing that his wife does not speak for him concerning the 4th Brigade or FRG.
By July 2009, the problems had the attention of Col. Drinkwine's bosses.
Col. Johnny Johnston, the rear commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, said in his sworn statement that he recommended to Maj. Gen. Mike Scaparrotti that Dr. Drinkwine step down from her leadership position in the FRG.
Scaparrotti spoke to his boss at the time, Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, and Austin on or about Aug. 3 spoke to Col. Drinkwine about the issue, according to Johnston's statement.
Col. Drinkwine wrote in his statement that he asked his wife to step down from leading the FRG in July but planned to keep her as a command group adviser. After conversations with Austin and Scaparrotti, he wrote, he decided to remove her from having any influence with the FRG.
But after the brigade deployed the next month, friction resumed.
The perception among many commanders and spouses who gave sworn statements was that Dr. Drinkwine continued to influence the FRG from behind the scenes, the report shows.
Leslie Drinkwine
Dr. Drinkwine said in her sworn statement that when her husband asked her to resign as the FRG leader, she "felt humiliated, her reputation defamed and slandered."
She described herself as "very direct, which some people perceive as insensitive."
"She also described how she is very protective of her husband," Spillman wrote in his report. "(She) admits that people either love her or hate her."
In one instance in which an Army major said she threatened his career, Dr. Drinkwine said she merely mentioned that she would talk to her husband about their disagreement. She said she doesn't see how anyone could construe that as a threat.
Dr. Drinkwine told Spillman during the investigation that the stress of the situation and the demands of raising two children were weighing heavily on her.
Spillman recommends in his report that the 82nd Airborne Division make sure to monitor Mrs. Drinkwine because he felt the stress had "led her to a state of mental duress."
Jenio and Oclander
Col. Drinkwine wrote in his sworn statement that he never let personal issues creep into his professional evaluations of soldiers.
But two battalion commanders - Lt. Col Frank Jenio and Lt. Col. David Oclander - told Spillman they believe disputes with Dr. Drinkwine were an unstated cause for professional retaliation.
Jenio, who was in charge of 800 troops operating just outside Kandahar, was relieved of command in Afghanistan along with his top enlisted adviser, Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Bert Puckett, on Jan. 13. They were sent home to Fort Bragg for "using poor judgment" that "fostered a command climate that was not consistent with our Army values," an 82nd Airborne Division spokesman said at the time.
The Observer later discovered that racially and sexually offensive PowerPoint slides shown during briefings led to their removal.
Jenio, who declined an interview request, paints a different picture in his sworn statement.
Dr. Drinkwine and Jenio's wife, Sherri, were often at odds, according to multiple statements
Frank Jenio said in his statement that during one heated phone conversation last year, Dr. Drinkwine threatened to have him fired.
Jenio said Col. Drinkwine failed to address the problems his wife was causing and stayed isolated from his subordinates. Dr. Drinkwine would often use the threat of "telling Brian" when she had a disagreement with a family member or soldier, he said, and Col. Drinkwine made matters worse by giving the impression that she had influence over him.
Jenio said in his statement that the need to deal with the FRG challenges nearly every other day took away valuable time he could have been using to focus on the war.
Dr. Drinkwine sometimes used a pseudonym on the website Fortbragglife.com. She told Spillman she "lurked" on the site to get a pulse of the issues and to benefit the brigade.
Once, she became an online friend of a soldier's wife who worried that her husband was cheating on her, according to the report.
Dr. Drinkwine found out the woman's name, as well as the soldier's name and unit, which turned out to be Jenio's.
She then passed along the name to her husband. Col. Drinkwine directed Jenio to order counseling for the soldier, according to multiple sworn statements.
The woman had spoken in confidence to an FRG staff member but had never planned to involve her husband's chain of command and never suspected she was confiding online to the brigade commander's wife, according to a statement from an FRG staff member. After the counseling was ordered, the report shows, the woman thought she had been betrayed by the FRG staff member.
"Mrs. Drinkwine's overbearing influence on the entire command, combined with Col. Drinkwine's self isolation from the battalion commanders and his subordinate battalions, has alienated the battalions from the brigade and created the most dysfunctional military unit I've ever seen or heard of," Jenio wrote in his sworn statement.
On Jan. 20, one of Drinkwine's battalion commanders - Lt. Col. David Oclander - sent an e-mail to a three-star general. The e-mail was attached to Spillman's report. Oclander wrote that someone needed to stand up for Jenio because he believed the firing was due to an ongoing feud between the Drinkwines and the Jenios.
Oclander said Jenio may have used poor judgment but he doesn't think the crime fit the punishment.
He called the firing "inappropriate and motivated by unethical influence." He said Dr. Drinkwine's influence on her husband and the brigade's command environment was "toxic and beyond destructive."
In the same e-mail, Oclander wrote that since Jenio's dismissal, "I feel as though I have been indirectly threatened 2-3 times to keep me quiet or my command will be in jeopardy next."
Oclander in his sworn statement said he believes a mediocre assessment he received on a performance review was related to personal disputes with the Drinkwines.
Oclander said he tried at least three times to speak personally with Col. Drinkwine about the uncomfortable command climate. None of the meetings resulted in any meaningful changes, he said.
Helmick said Jenio's relief of command has nothing to do with Dr. Drinkwine.
"There is no link between that and this. None whatsoever. Not even close," said Helmick, whose investigation began the week after Jenio's dismissal.
Col. Drinkwine, in his sworn statement, said he never let the personal problems become professional ones.
"Although there were at times tension between my spouse and one or two of the battalion commanders' spouses, it in no way affected my judgment, or my assessments of their abilities to be effective commanders or how I viewed them," he wrote.
He said Jenio's battalion FRG consistently operated on the fringes of his guidance.
He also said that at least one battalion commander "is in denial of his shortfalls" and has convinced himself that the real issue is the relationship between their spouses.
Col. Drinkwine has supporters.
Lt. Col. Kelly Ivanoff, who was the brigade's deputy commanding officer from June 2008 to June 2009, said the problems came from the bottom up, not the top down. "The resistance put forth by some of the battalions is nearly equivalent to a mutiny," Ivanoff wrote in a sworn statement.
Helmick's order
Helmick, who took command of Fort Bragg in November, said he was told that the former Fort Bragg commander, Gen. Lloyd Austin, had told Col. Drinkwine before the deployment to take care of the issues.
But the situation festered.
Helmick, in a letter addressed to Dr. Drinkwine, wrote, "even though (Lt. Gen. Austin) and (Maj. Gen. Scaparrotti) have discussed the command climate within the 4th Brigade Combat Team with your husband, the actions that he took have not been sufficient."
Helmick's order bans Dr. Drinkwine from holding any leadership position, directly or indirectly, in the 4th Brigade or its FRG; participation in any activity or function of the 4th BCT or its FRG, except for attendance at memorial services; being present in any 4th BCT building, including barracks and headquarters buildings; and contacting any member of the 4th BCT leadership or FRG leadership except contact with her husband.
The order remains in effect until Col. Drinkwine no longer commands the 4th BCT or until the Drinkwines leave Fort Bragg, whichever happens later.
"Sometimes, you've got to do things that are in the best interest of the organization, not in the best interest of the person, and that's what I did," Helmick said. "As a commander, you've got to make those decisions."
Helmick said tension among commanders' spouses isn't uncommon. He once had to deal with a similar case in Italy, he said. But Helmick said he has never heard of a written order like his because most similar situations are resolved verbally.
Violation of Helmick's order could result in banishment from Fort Bragg, a step Helmick said he would not want to take.
Helmick said the climate in the 4th Brigade rear leadership and FRG has improved since he issued the order in February.
"I'm not saying it's perfect, but it is working OK." Helmick said. "We're going to make this work. We're going to muddle through until the unit comes home. We have to."
Staff writer John Ramsey can be reached at
Bragg colonel's wife barred from 4th Brigade functions
FayObserver.com - <div>Bragg colonel's wife barred from 4th Brigade functions</div>
By John Ramsey
Staff writer
The commander of Fort Bragg has barred the wife of an 82nd Airborne Division colonel from nearly all interaction with her husband's brigade and the unit's families after an investigation found her influence "detrimental to the morale and well-being of both."
Sworn statements from the investigation, ordered in January by Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, accuse Col. Brian Drinkwine's wife, Leslie Drinkwine, of using her husband's position as leverage to repeatedly harass and threaten soldiers and their families.
The statements say the harassment and threats began almost as soon as Col. Drinkwine took command of the 4th Brigade Combat Team in 2008.
A follow-up to Helmick's investigation has reached the highest levels of leadership in Afghanistan. That investigation is exploring whether animosity between the Drinkwines and Col. Drinkwine's battalion commanders and their spouses ever unfairly damaged the officers' careers.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of all NATO forces in Afghanistan, referred a recommendation from Helmick to Lt. Gen. William Webster, who is in charge of all U.S. Army forces in the Middle East, according to a spokesman for McChrystal.
Webster's investigation continues, and no information from it will be released before its completion, a spokesman for his office said in an e-mail.
Col. Drinkwine has denied any unfair treatment of his subordinates.
Leslie Drinkwine declined to comment.
In an interview in May, Helmick said his decision to bar Leslie Drinkwine was based on the investigator's recommendations and Helmick's own 34 years of experience in the Army.
"It was just a dysfunctional situation," Helmick said. "That is not a good thing to have when you have soldiers deployed fighting.
"The last thing we need in an organization that is supposed to take care of families and those people that are left here in the rear detachment is a very unhealthy climate."
The Observer obtained a copy of Helmick's investigative file through the Freedom of Information Act. Names are redacted from the nearly inch-thick stack of paperwork, which includes sworn statements and e-mails from at least 25 people. Ranks and job titles are not blacked out, so the Observer was able to independently confirm most names in the report.
The investigator assigned by Helmick, Col. Chris Spillman, concludes in the report that while there is no direct evidence Col. Drinkwine hurt anyone's career because of retaliation or a vendetta, he recommends a closer look at the matter.
That issue falls outside Helmick's purview, which is why he forwarded the report to commanders in Afghanistan.
Spillman's findings hold Col. Drinkwine partially responsible for his wife's behavior at Fort Bragg.
Spillman calls Col. Drinkwine the "key enabler" of his wife's actions because he failed to dispel the perception that she had a level of authority similar to his own.
"At least three commanders approached Col. Drinkwine with issues they were having," Spillman wrote in the report. "Yet there is no evidence that he took steps to moderate her behavior."
Drinkwine and the FRG
Col. Drinkwine leads the 4th Brigade Combat Team, a group of roughly 3,500 soldiers deployed since August to southern and western Afghanistan.
His wife, Leslie, has a doctorate degree and teaches marketing courses at Campbell University.
During Army ceremonies such as command changes, it is typical for wives to be recognized as part of a "command team" with their officer husbands.
Retired Col. Douglas Macgregor said it was typical 40 or 50 years ago for commanders' wives to have tremendous power.
"You did not cross a commander's wife," he said.
Macgregor said some people still hold onto those "outdated" traditionalist values.
Col. Drinkwine appointed his wife to lead the brigade's official support organization, known as a Family Readiness Group, or FRG.
A Family Readiness Group is made up largely of soldiers' spouses; leadership positions often mirror those of the soldiers. During a unit's deployment, the FRG serves as a network of communication between the unit's families and its commanders.
Helmick said there are no expectations for spouses in the Army. Their participation is strictly voluntary, he said.
Macgregor said that's not exactly true.
"There's the expectation that the commanding officer, whether he's a captain, colonel or general, that his wife will set an example by doing things consistent with her husband's responsibilities," Macgregor said. "Wives are under enormous pressure."
2008 incidents
Sworn statements and timelines included in the investigative file show that problems in the 4th Brigade's Family Readiness Group can be traced as far back as Oct. 30, 2008.
That night, at the 82nd Airborne Division's annual silent auction, Dr. Drinkwine confronted the spouses of some of her husband's subordinates and accused them of disloyalty, the report shows.
The next day, she sent an e-mail to several FRG leaders - officers' wives and paid FRG staff members - characterizing her dispute with other women at the auction as "an ambush from hidden domestic insurgents."
The FRG never gained harmony after that, Spillman wrote in his report.
Dr. Drinkwine, in her interview with Spillman, said the e-mail about "hidden domestic insurgents" was one of her biggest mistakes and she regrets it.
The report shows that one morning not long after the auction, Dr. Drinkwine visited Lt. Col. Mike Wawrzyniak's wife, Pam, while her husband was at work. Col. Drinkwine sat outside in his car, according to a sworn statement by Pam Wawrzyniak.
Dr. Drinkwine yelled at Mrs. Wawrzyniak for about half an hour, reducing her to tears, the report says.
Eventually, Mrs. Wawrzyniak said in the report, the colonel came into the house, tried unsuccessfully to calm his wife, and they left.
The investigation also shows that the top paid staff member for the FRG resigned in December 2008, citing a hostile work environment that made it impossible for her to do her job.
In sworn interviews or written statements submitted to Spillman, one former battalion commander, two currently serving battalion commanders and the brigade's rear commander said Dr. Drinkwine told them "that either their careers, or the careers of others, could be adversely impacted by her."
In other sworn statements, five Army officers said they have heard Col. Drinkwine say that when his wife speaks, she speaks for him.
Col. Drinkwine, in his sworn statement, said he meant that only in regard to FRG issues. His wife was the head of that organization, and he said he wanted to make sure people understood that she had authority in the FRG.
In March of last year, before the brigade deployed, all six battalion commanders serving under Col. Drinkwine's command went to his office together to talk to him about his wife.
At that meeting, according to their sworn statements, Col. Drinkwine dismissed their complaints and told them that the relationship between his wife and their wives was a senior-to-subordinate relationship. He reiterated that his wife speaks for him.
"Although he made the statement within the context of FRG-related business, this and (Dr. Drinkwine's) repeated reiteration of this statement to commanders and spouses clearly contributed to the perception that, by extension as the brigade commander's wife and within the context of FRG activities, she held a level of authority that resembled command authority," Spillman wrote in his report.
Spillman said Col. Drinkwine not only failed to dispel that perception in the March meeting with his battalion commanders but he "in fact worsened it."
Col. Drinkwine refused an interview request for this report.
In his written sworn statement from Afghanistan, Col. Drinkwine attributes the problems in his FRG to "an inability of a few ladies being able to work professionally with one another."
In his report, Spillman calls the remark "disingenuous."
Col. Drinkwine said the command climate on the Army side of the brigade is "effective and positive."
Spillman recommended that Col. Drinkwine be required to inform each of his battalion commanders in writing that his wife does not speak for him concerning the 4th Brigade or FRG.
By July 2009, the problems had the attention of Col. Drinkwine's bosses.
Col. Johnny Johnston, the rear commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, said in his sworn statement that he recommended to Maj. Gen. Mike Scaparrotti that Dr. Drinkwine step down from her leadership position in the FRG.
Scaparrotti spoke to his boss at the time, Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, and Austin on or about Aug. 3 spoke to Col. Drinkwine about the issue, according to Johnston's statement.
Col. Drinkwine wrote in his statement that he asked his wife to step down from leading the FRG in July but planned to keep her as a command group adviser. After conversations with Austin and Scaparrotti, he wrote, he decided to remove her from having any influence with the FRG.
But after the brigade deployed the next month, friction resumed.
The perception among many commanders and spouses who gave sworn statements was that Dr. Drinkwine continued to influence the FRG from behind the scenes, the report shows.
Leslie Drinkwine
Dr. Drinkwine said in her sworn statement that when her husband asked her to resign as the FRG leader, she "felt humiliated, her reputation defamed and slandered."
She described herself as "very direct, which some people perceive as insensitive."
"She also described how she is very protective of her husband," Spillman wrote in his report. "(She) admits that people either love her or hate her."
In one instance in which an Army major said she threatened his career, Dr. Drinkwine said she merely mentioned that she would talk to her husband about their disagreement. She said she doesn't see how anyone could construe that as a threat.
Dr. Drinkwine told Spillman during the investigation that the stress of the situation and the demands of raising two children were weighing heavily on her.
Spillman recommends in his report that the 82nd Airborne Division make sure to monitor Mrs. Drinkwine because he felt the stress had "led her to a state of mental duress."
Jenio and Oclander
Col. Drinkwine wrote in his sworn statement that he never let personal issues creep into his professional evaluations of soldiers.
But two battalion commanders - Lt. Col Frank Jenio and Lt. Col. David Oclander - told Spillman they believe disputes with Dr. Drinkwine were an unstated cause for professional retaliation.
Jenio, who was in charge of 800 troops operating just outside Kandahar, was relieved of command in Afghanistan along with his top enlisted adviser, Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Bert Puckett, on Jan. 13. They were sent home to Fort Bragg for "using poor judgment" that "fostered a command climate that was not consistent with our Army values," an 82nd Airborne Division spokesman said at the time.
The Observer later discovered that racially and sexually offensive PowerPoint slides shown during briefings led to their removal.
Jenio, who declined an interview request, paints a different picture in his sworn statement.
Dr. Drinkwine and Jenio's wife, Sherri, were often at odds, according to multiple statements
Frank Jenio said in his statement that during one heated phone conversation last year, Dr. Drinkwine threatened to have him fired.
Jenio said Col. Drinkwine failed to address the problems his wife was causing and stayed isolated from his subordinates. Dr. Drinkwine would often use the threat of "telling Brian" when she had a disagreement with a family member or soldier, he said, and Col. Drinkwine made matters worse by giving the impression that she had influence over him.
Jenio said in his statement that the need to deal with the FRG challenges nearly every other day took away valuable time he could have been using to focus on the war.
Dr. Drinkwine sometimes used a pseudonym on the website Fortbragglife.com. She told Spillman she "lurked" on the site to get a pulse of the issues and to benefit the brigade.
Once, she became an online friend of a soldier's wife who worried that her husband was cheating on her, according to the report.
Dr. Drinkwine found out the woman's name, as well as the soldier's name and unit, which turned out to be Jenio's.
She then passed along the name to her husband. Col. Drinkwine directed Jenio to order counseling for the soldier, according to multiple sworn statements.
The woman had spoken in confidence to an FRG staff member but had never planned to involve her husband's chain of command and never suspected she was confiding online to the brigade commander's wife, according to a statement from an FRG staff member. After the counseling was ordered, the report shows, the woman thought she had been betrayed by the FRG staff member.
"Mrs. Drinkwine's overbearing influence on the entire command, combined with Col. Drinkwine's self isolation from the battalion commanders and his subordinate battalions, has alienated the battalions from the brigade and created the most dysfunctional military unit I've ever seen or heard of," Jenio wrote in his sworn statement.
On Jan. 20, one of Drinkwine's battalion commanders - Lt. Col. David Oclander - sent an e-mail to a three-star general. The e-mail was attached to Spillman's report. Oclander wrote that someone needed to stand up for Jenio because he believed the firing was due to an ongoing feud between the Drinkwines and the Jenios.
Oclander said Jenio may have used poor judgment but he doesn't think the crime fit the punishment.
He called the firing "inappropriate and motivated by unethical influence." He said Dr. Drinkwine's influence on her husband and the brigade's command environment was "toxic and beyond destructive."
In the same e-mail, Oclander wrote that since Jenio's dismissal, "I feel as though I have been indirectly threatened 2-3 times to keep me quiet or my command will be in jeopardy next."
Oclander in his sworn statement said he believes a mediocre assessment he received on a performance review was related to personal disputes with the Drinkwines.
Oclander said he tried at least three times to speak personally with Col. Drinkwine about the uncomfortable command climate. None of the meetings resulted in any meaningful changes, he said.
Helmick said Jenio's relief of command has nothing to do with Dr. Drinkwine.
"There is no link between that and this. None whatsoever. Not even close," said Helmick, whose investigation began the week after Jenio's dismissal.
Col. Drinkwine, in his sworn statement, said he never let the personal problems become professional ones.
"Although there were at times tension between my spouse and one or two of the battalion commanders' spouses, it in no way affected my judgment, or my assessments of their abilities to be effective commanders or how I viewed them," he wrote.
He said Jenio's battalion FRG consistently operated on the fringes of his guidance.
He also said that at least one battalion commander "is in denial of his shortfalls" and has convinced himself that the real issue is the relationship between their spouses.
Col. Drinkwine has supporters.
Lt. Col. Kelly Ivanoff, who was the brigade's deputy commanding officer from June 2008 to June 2009, said the problems came from the bottom up, not the top down. "The resistance put forth by some of the battalions is nearly equivalent to a mutiny," Ivanoff wrote in a sworn statement.
Helmick's order
Helmick, who took command of Fort Bragg in November, said he was told that the former Fort Bragg commander, Gen. Lloyd Austin, had told Col. Drinkwine before the deployment to take care of the issues.
But the situation festered.
Helmick, in a letter addressed to Dr. Drinkwine, wrote, "even though (Lt. Gen. Austin) and (Maj. Gen. Scaparrotti) have discussed the command climate within the 4th Brigade Combat Team with your husband, the actions that he took have not been sufficient."
Helmick's order bans Dr. Drinkwine from holding any leadership position, directly or indirectly, in the 4th Brigade or its FRG; participation in any activity or function of the 4th BCT or its FRG, except for attendance at memorial services; being present in any 4th BCT building, including barracks and headquarters buildings; and contacting any member of the 4th BCT leadership or FRG leadership except contact with her husband.
The order remains in effect until Col. Drinkwine no longer commands the 4th BCT or until the Drinkwines leave Fort Bragg, whichever happens later.
"Sometimes, you've got to do things that are in the best interest of the organization, not in the best interest of the person, and that's what I did," Helmick said. "As a commander, you've got to make those decisions."
Helmick said tension among commanders' spouses isn't uncommon. He once had to deal with a similar case in Italy, he said. But Helmick said he has never heard of a written order like his because most similar situations are resolved verbally.
Violation of Helmick's order could result in banishment from Fort Bragg, a step Helmick said he would not want to take.
Helmick said the climate in the 4th Brigade rear leadership and FRG has improved since he issued the order in February.
"I'm not saying it's perfect, but it is working OK." Helmick said. "We're going to make this work. We're going to muddle through until the unit comes home. We have to."
Staff writer John Ramsey can be reached at
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