Summary

Undersecretary of Defense Vernard D. Rostker, Chief of Staff of the Army General Eric Shinseki, and Under Secretary of the Air Force Carol DiBattiste conducted a news briefing. Rostker and DiBattiste discussed the Defense Department's Anti-Harrassment Action Plan. Shinseki discussed the Army Inspector General's investigation into allegations of violations of the Homosexual Conduct Policy at Fort Campbell.

Source CONUS Archive
Record ID 258461
Story Slug ARMY BRIEFING (2000)
Location WASHINGTON, DC
Format TVD
Date 07/21/2000
Archive Time :11
TRT 4:49
Video Description Speakers at podium w/ cuts
Description Undersecretary of Defense Vernard D. Rostker, Chief of Staff of the Army General Eric Shinseki, and Under Secretary of the Air Force Carol DiBattiste conducted a news briefing. Rostker and DiBattiste discussed the Defense Department's Anti-Harrassment Action Plan. Shinseki discussed the Army Inspector General's investigation into allegations of violations of the Homosexual Conduct Policy at Fort Campbell.
Script (SUGGESTED TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO) 00:00 They should have your record as a cover up and is there any merit to her case? 00:04 Well, I would I would tell you if this were a cover up, I wouldn't be standing here today. I do know about that lawsuit and as I said, with respect to the Mrs. Cuddles is statement I will tell you that the army sympathizes with we take full responsibility what what happened to private Winchell but frankly, the cover up of this is incorrect. And I will tell you that whatever else prior to Winchell may have been he was one of us. He was a soldier in uniform and a good soldier. My understanding is the month of July a year ago he was being considered for soldier of the month and it was being prepared by his noncommissioned officer leadership to stand that selection process. And when it was time to take him home, those two noncommissioned officers were also those who escorted him home to Kansas, and there was a soldier formation serving at his funeral. No two issues presented to them. While the investigation found that the overall command climate at Fort Campbell to be positive and healthy, it also determined after interviewing 50% of unit personnel that the command climate within the company to which Barry Winchell was assigned was poor. The investigation attributed this finding to personnel shortages, underage drinking in the barracks, and the presence of an abusive noncommissioned officer in a leadership position in that unit. The IG has carefully examined the actions of that company commander and found that he acted responsibly as the commander and where appropriate held individuals accountable. The leadership at Fort Campbell has taken appropriate action to include removing the noncommissioned that noncommissioned officer from the unit. The investigation discovered that since the chain of command took this corrective action, morale in the company has improved these corrective actions, morale, and the company has improved dramatically. 02:19 The cases that may or may not talk to this. But the policy is clear and our obligation to carry out that policy of clear the question or you homosexual is never in order ever. The requirement to answer that question is never required. It's not required to get gain full protection from hassle free and harassment, three free environment and to the extent that there is any confusion about those answers that the inappropriateness of the question the the right not to answer that question. That'll be cleared up in in the training, we're talking about 03:02 how someone would report harassment without getting into the details of the nature of the harassment, 03:09 they can get into the details of the nature of the harassment, but there's no need for them to say, and I'm homosexual. They can say someone harassed me and said I was homosexual. That's very different from saying, and I am homosexual. We are saying they report the circumstances of harassment, and nothing about their sexual orientation. I think that's pretty clear. All right. We worked very hard over the last four months to develop an action plan where we think the key tools are in place. The overarching principle which is key training, to teach the overarching principle and then enforcement and measurement. I think we've put together a plan that will work. It took us a lot of work. A lot of
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