thedrifter
12-13-05, 12:53 PM
December 19, 2005
Colonel relieved for ‘inappropriate relationship’
By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — A colonel in charge of a training group in California has been relieved for having an “inappropriate relationship” with a female captain, according to a Marine Corps spokesman.
Col. Craig A. Tucker, head of the “Coyotes” of Tactical Exercise Evaluation and Control Group at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif., received nonjudicial punishment Dec. 6, said Lt. Col. Rick Long, a spokesman at Quantico, Va.
The decision was made by Maj. Gen. Keith Stalder, commanding general of Training and Education Command at Quantico, Long said.
“Any comment about Colonel Tucker’s future service is inappropriate pending review of his record by the chain of command,” Long said.
Attempts to reach Tucker for comment were unsuccessful.
It was unclear whether Tucker, who is married and has been reassigned to a staff job at the combat center, would retire or face a board of inquiry. Any documented misconduct against officers within two years of a retirement automatically is reviewed at the Navy secretary level.
No adverse action against the female captain involved had been taken as of Dec. 9, Long said. It was unclear whether any administrative action will be taken.
Tucker’s replacement as “Coyote 6,” or director of TTECG, is Col. Ronald Baczkowski, who on Oct. 24 was assigned as the director, Long said. Tucker had been pulled from duty as the investigation proceeded.
Baczkowski came to Twentynine Palms after relinquishing command of the Okinawa, Japan-based 4th Marines, which he assumed in July 2004. A 1980 graduate of the Naval Academy, he has also commanded 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines.
Tucker, who commanded the Twentynine Palms-based 7th Marines and is former commander of 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, returned in March from a yearlong combat tour leading Regimental Combat Team 7 in the western parts of Iraq’s Anbar province. His forces helped rebuilding operations, oversaw Iraqi elections and fought to stem the flow of weapons, ammunition and foreign fighters crossing into the country from Syria that he believed fed insurgent groups fighting in the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah.
At times last year, notably during the November Fallujah offensive, Tucker was the face and voice of the Marine Corps in a sprawling province that had seen little media coverage outside of operations in Ramadi and Fallujah.
“This is as pure a fight of good against evil as we’re likely to see in our lifetime,” Tucker told reporters at the start of the assault, when his Marines were joined by the Army’s mechanized Task Force 2-2.
“It’s a man-on-man fight, a classic infantry battle,” Tucker said, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
“If you’ve got a guy sitting in a house with two grenades, who knows he is going to die, we’re going to root these guys out, house by house,” he said. “You can’t go into every house and knock it down. It’s the difference between an organization that follows the rules of war, and one that does not.
“The challenge for us is not becoming them.”
Ellie
Colonel relieved for ‘inappropriate relationship’
By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — A colonel in charge of a training group in California has been relieved for having an “inappropriate relationship” with a female captain, according to a Marine Corps spokesman.
Col. Craig A. Tucker, head of the “Coyotes” of Tactical Exercise Evaluation and Control Group at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif., received nonjudicial punishment Dec. 6, said Lt. Col. Rick Long, a spokesman at Quantico, Va.
The decision was made by Maj. Gen. Keith Stalder, commanding general of Training and Education Command at Quantico, Long said.
“Any comment about Colonel Tucker’s future service is inappropriate pending review of his record by the chain of command,” Long said.
Attempts to reach Tucker for comment were unsuccessful.
It was unclear whether Tucker, who is married and has been reassigned to a staff job at the combat center, would retire or face a board of inquiry. Any documented misconduct against officers within two years of a retirement automatically is reviewed at the Navy secretary level.
No adverse action against the female captain involved had been taken as of Dec. 9, Long said. It was unclear whether any administrative action will be taken.
Tucker’s replacement as “Coyote 6,” or director of TTECG, is Col. Ronald Baczkowski, who on Oct. 24 was assigned as the director, Long said. Tucker had been pulled from duty as the investigation proceeded.
Baczkowski came to Twentynine Palms after relinquishing command of the Okinawa, Japan-based 4th Marines, which he assumed in July 2004. A 1980 graduate of the Naval Academy, he has also commanded 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines.
Tucker, who commanded the Twentynine Palms-based 7th Marines and is former commander of 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, returned in March from a yearlong combat tour leading Regimental Combat Team 7 in the western parts of Iraq’s Anbar province. His forces helped rebuilding operations, oversaw Iraqi elections and fought to stem the flow of weapons, ammunition and foreign fighters crossing into the country from Syria that he believed fed insurgent groups fighting in the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah.
At times last year, notably during the November Fallujah offensive, Tucker was the face and voice of the Marine Corps in a sprawling province that had seen little media coverage outside of operations in Ramadi and Fallujah.
“This is as pure a fight of good against evil as we’re likely to see in our lifetime,” Tucker told reporters at the start of the assault, when his Marines were joined by the Army’s mechanized Task Force 2-2.
“It’s a man-on-man fight, a classic infantry battle,” Tucker said, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
“If you’ve got a guy sitting in a house with two grenades, who knows he is going to die, we’re going to root these guys out, house by house,” he said. “You can’t go into every house and knock it down. It’s the difference between an organization that follows the rules of war, and one that does not.
“The challenge for us is not becoming them.”
Ellie