11-24-2024 11:38am

1000 Military Promotions Advance Except Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue

Chris Edwards Editor

Promotions within the military should be based on merit, competency and integrity not based upon political considerations and gamesmanship. However in recent years, promotions especially to the General ranks of the US Military gamesmanship is the game played and careers of men that have given their life to service to our country is the pawn.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and seven former defense secretaries who served under presidents from both parties have said that promotion delays present a national security risk. We are experiencing a different sort of risk — crippling uncertainty.

First, it creates a leadership vacuum for some missions and units that are awaiting new commanders. Our men and women in uniform know their responsibilities and perform them dutifully but also deserve a clear chain of command.

For an officer, the uncertainty as to when or if they will receive a hard-earned promotion can cause great anxiety and stress for his or her whole family. They don’t know when they will move or where their children will start the next school year. Their spouse’s job search is likely put on hold. In many cases, these senior officers are well-known and respected members of our communities who contribute a great deal to their neighbors, and it’s disheartening to see them put in such a situation.

And every day that a senior military officer is denied promotion to a new assignment is a day when a junior officer is denied the opportunity to advance.

When men and women sign up to serve their fellow Americans, they trust that our nation will have their back just as they have ours. Defense community leaders and our neighbors work hard to support those military families, and elected leaders should keep the same promise.

Step forward to this week and a notable Army lieutenant general’s promotion was stalled Thursday when his name was left off a list of nearly 1,000 military promotions.

Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, the current commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, which oversees the 82nd Airborne Division, 10th Mountain Division and 3rd Infantry Division, among other units, was among the names on the Pentagon’s recommended promotion list approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this week.

However, once the list went to the full upper chamber of the Senate, his name did not advance, Politico reported Thursday.

Donahue has declined to comment on the potential promotion.

Donahue’s stalled promotion comes amid media reports, including NBC News, that President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is “compiling a list of current and former officers for possible court-martial” who were involved in the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Trump representatives did not immediately respond to an email request for comment Friday.

Trump’s transition team is contemplating making a commission to investigate the withdrawal, according to reports. The investigation would seek to identify individuals who were directly involved in the military leaders’ decisions about the conduct of the exit.

An independent review published in 2022 by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction placed blame on both the Trump and Biden administrations for the calamity of the event.

Defense Secretary nominee and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth has previously said the U.S. military needs to be “radically overhauled” and that “lots of people need to be fired,” using the “debacle” of the Afghanistan exit as an example in his 2024 book, “The War on Warriors.”

Stalled military promotions are not unprecedented. Last year, the Senate relied on a Senate floor vote procedure to bypass a hold by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., which stalled the promotions of hundreds of flag and general officers for months in an effort to overturn a Pentagon policy that provides reproductive health care and abortion access for troops.

In addition to pinning a fourth star, Donahue has been tapped to lead U.S. Army Europe Command at a volatile time with the current state of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Donahue served in special operations before commanding the Army’s Infantry School and Soldier Lethality Cross Functional Team. He then went back to his roots briefly to lead the Special Operations Joint Task Force-Afghanistan in 2019.

By 2021, Donahue was thrust into the public’s attention when he was featured in a photo as the last U.S. soldier on the ground in Afghanistan.

He led the 18th Airborne Corps and was on a contingent of 82nd Airborne Division soldiers who responded in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine.

If confirmed, he would take charge of the Army’s Europe-based assets and personnel as the United States continues in its support of NATO allies and Ukraine through training and military equipment.

His military education includes the Infantry Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, the Naval War College, and the US Army War College Fellowship at Harvard University.

Brigadier General Donahue’s awards and decorations include: Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal (two with “V” device, four Oak Leaf Clusters), Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (with Oak Leaf Clusters), Joint Service Commendation Medal (with Oak Leaf Cluster), Army Commendation Medal (with two Oak Leaf Clusters), Army Achievement Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, Expert Infantryman Badge, Master Parachutist Badge, Military Freefall Parachutist Badge and Ranger Tab.

Given the incoming administration's viewpoints on Ukraine and NATO in general the prospects of a future military career for Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue is looking bleaker this week under the new administration.