Yongsan First Sergeant Busted for Fraternizing with Soldier

Unfortunately the environment of a tour in Korea is a breeding ground for these types of things to happen:

The former first sergeant of a military police company here was demoted one rank after pleading guilty Wednesday to fraternization and making a false official statement, according to proceedings at his court-martial.

Master Sgt. Glen E. Gibbons was demoted to sergeant first class and must submit his resignation from the U.S. Army within 90 days, according to a plea agreement. He was the first sergeant of the 142nd Military Police Company, 94th Military Police Battalion, 8th Military Police Brigade.

Gibbons, who has served more than 18 years in the Army, also had faced charges of adultery with two different soldiers and one charge of cruelty and maltreatment. In that charge, he was accused of threatening to transfer a female soldier if she continued to talk about their relationship. He pleaded not guilty to those charges, the military prosecutor dismissed them and the judge accepted the plea.

A first sergeant should know way better than this:

On Wednesday, Gibbons admitted in court he let a platonic relationship with a junior female soldier grow from a mentorship into a close friendship that included giving her rides on off-duty time, letting the soldier and her boyfriend stay at his off-base home to avoid curfew violations and sharing a room with her on a group vacation to Thailand.

(…)

Gibbons said that during the time they spent together ? volunteering for a youth sports program, working out, shopping out of town and escorting her to a modeling photography shoot ? he didn?t feel he was doing anything beyond helping a younger soldier as he had been helped earlier in his career. As the rumors grew, Gibbons said he later realized there was an impact on the company.
How is taking a soldier to a modeling shoot considered mentoring? If you want to mentor her, help her practice for a promotion board or train on CTT skills, you don’t take a trip to Thailand with her. Some how I think he was doing a lot more than “helping” a young soldier out.

I have seen this type of scenario play out before where you have a senior leader who may either be recently divorced or away from his family for a year in Korea and thinks they can get away with fooling around with a younger soldier. The problem in Korea is that the soldiers live on top of each other here 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, so they gossip all the time which creates a huge rumor mill which often exposes leaders that engage in this activity. I have seen senior leaders ruin their careers just by creating the perception of a relationship even though they didn’t do anything sexually with the soldier but the perception was there which is enough to get you in trouble.

Leaders, especially a first sergeant lose all creditability when they fraternize with soldiers and the Army is serious about prosecuting these cases. This guy lost more than just his rank but also he was under two years from hitting his 20 year retirement window. Now that is all gone because he wanted to be unprofessional and fraternize with the soldiers. What makes this even worse is that the guy is an MP responsible for upholding military laws. Stupid.