Fraudulent Documents on Liberty
SuptKauffman's and Commandant Kinney's PDF files are unsigned memos that substituted for the official conduct reports, copies of which I saw for the first time on appeal starting in 1991 – with no relationship to the resignation I was forced to sign. Both unsigned documents reference an earlier resignation - a clear violation of the UCMJ which requires a clear and written statement of any charges. The documents were replete with additional errors.
For openers, I was accused of falsifying a muster report on the evening of Dec 18, 1965 which was impossible because the brigade of midshipmen went on Christmas leave at noon on Dec 18 as acknowledged in official Academy records. Facts were never an issue and everyone apparently felt comfortable that the fraudulent performance evaluations would overcome any obstacles. On appeal 25 years later, the Academy recognized the date error as a “typo” and changed the date to the evening of Dec 17 and then rejected a half dozen FOIAs for the policy on liberty for the evening before the start of Christmas leave.
With liberty there was one muster report after evening meals. Without liberty there were two musters after evening meal. And there was no liberty the evening before the start of Christmas leave because of prior midshipmen fatalities reportedly caused by late night partying followed by an all day drive. So there were two musters that evening with the first one delayed because of festivities in the mess hall (acknowledged in official Academy records) after the evening meal marking a milestone for first classmen.
For the second issue, when new roommate Dyer was absent for the first muster, classmate Pete Abel told me that he had been present at the designated time but left before the delayed muster. I had the right to report Dyer present under the honor system. When Dyer didn’t show for the midnight muster, as noted above, classmate Gadberry and I agreed to report him absent, unaware of the Navy Brat agreement to cover for Dyer’s absence – a clear honor offense for the Brats.
I was asked in a brief meeting with Kauffman and the other officers if I signed the muster report. I acknowledged having signed the muster report, thinking he was referring to the first muster report. I was then forced to sign the resignation document after verbal threats from Kauffman (privately in his office) to destroy me if I didn’t sign. The fraudulent performance evaluation was a confirmation of that threat. I learned 25 years after my summary dismissal that I had confessed to signing the midnight muster with Dyer present.
The norm for filing an official conduct report for a black and white issue was about 24 hours with a prompt login at the Main Office. In contrast, it took Kauffman 7 weeks to bypass the normal procedures and to orchestrate a cover-up out of fear that as a former chairman of the honor committee I could not be trusted to approve falsification of events if knowledge of the agreement between the Navy Brats became public during an honor committee hearing.
And the third issue was that classmate Ray Gadberry submitted an affidavit contradicting the unsigned memos because at my direction Ray had reported new roommate Dyer absent for the midnight muster.