Female Army Command Sgt. Maj. Teresa King Back in Job
Command Sgt. Maj. Teresa King, left, thanks her lawyer James Smith, right, for helping her get her job back.
Columbia, S.C. — The first female boss at the Army’s prestigious drill sergeant school is being reinstated after she was suspended in November for reasons the Army has never explained, her attorney and the Army said Friday.
Command Sgt. Maj. Teresa King, who is black, filed a military legal complaint over the suspension, arguing it was a result of racism and sexism from soldiers who resented her promotion and the national attention it attracted.
“To the Army leadership, I have devoted my life to train American soldiers. My removal was without justification,” King said Friday.
Her attorney, James Smith, said she would return to her job as commandant of the drill sergeant school at Fort Jackson, the nation’s largest military training installation.
“She’s going to get reinstated,” he said. “She’s been vindicated.”
The decision to reinstate her was made by Maj. Gen. Bradley May, the deputy commandant of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.
“Maj. Gen. May determined after a thorough review of the case that a release for cause was unwarranted and her suspension be lifted immediately,” said Col. Christian Kubik, a TRADOC spokesman.
King’s voice cracked briefly as she spoke to reporters Friday. She thanked God and the friends, family and fellow soldiers who believed in her and told the Army the allegations against her were untrue.
“There were dark days, and I wanted to quit,” King said. “But the mission was too great. Had I quit, I believe I would have literally died.”
The move comes after King’s attorney filed a legal complaint Monday against two of her superiors. He also sought a congressional investigation into the matter, appealing directly to South Carolina’s two senior members of Congress, Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rep. James Clyburn.
The complaint cited statements from King’s deputy at the school and an Army colonel who worked with King. The attorney said younger soldiers who had spoken out against King had recanted their statements and that his own investigation had uncovered more than three dozen people who vouched for her high standards and good name.
In her rebuttal to the Army, King wrote her superiors, “My instincts tell me that if I were a male, that none of this would have happened.”
King’s attorney is a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives and a captain in the South Carolina Army National Guard. He trained under King when she was a drill sergeant at Fort Jackson.
In his complaint Smith provided an affidavit from Col. John Bessler, who was King’s commanding officer when she was a drill sergeant and who visited her at the drill school after she was named commandant.
Bessler said “a good-ole boy ‘network of disgruntlement’” had led to what he called “a character assassination campaign” against King because “her standards are higher than theirs are.”
The complaint was filed against Maj. Gen. Richard Longo, who ordered King suspended, and his top enlisted aide, Command Sgt. Maj. John Calpena. The two men did not respond to email requests for comment on the story.
Calpena has done this to fellow soldiers before, Smith said. He was especially jealous of King because she was a woman and had not been in combat, the lawyer said.
“He would continue to use these facts as a way to undermine and cultivate others in opposition. He’d say, ‘I shouldn’t have to work for you. You’re a woman, you’re not combat arms,’ and the fact is, that is not the Army,” Smith said.
At the time of the decision, Longo was the head of the Army’s basic and advanced military training at the Training and Doctrine Command, which has responsibility for the drill sergeant school. He is now serving in Afghanistan.
Kubik said he could not speak for Longo, but that Calpena had no comment on the developments in the case.
King said she was ready to get back to work as soon as she can.
“We have lost over five months of training momentum and there is much work to do. This we’ll defend, and victory starts here,” King said.
After she took charge of the training program, reporters and TV crews descended on King, making much of her background as the daughter of a North Carolina sharecropper who dispensed stern discipline to his 12 children. She was featured on national TV, on newspaper front pages and in women’s magazines, sometimes with photos of her car sporting “noslack” vanity plates.
May 9, 2012 - 11:16 pm
CSM thank you for standing up for yourself and your great standards. No they aren’t tough standards just right things to do. May God continue to give you the strength and endurance to continue the fight.
May 10, 2012 - 12:50 am
Congratulation CSM King keep up the good work. What God has for you it’s for you. He will make your enemies your foot stool.
May God continue to bless you.
May 14, 2012 - 9:22 pm
CSM King, You are truly one of the best Noncommissioned officers I have ever met in my 28 years as a Soldier / Leader. I didn’t hesitate to bring you back Fort Jackson to serve as the 369th AG BN CSM. I knew your leadership skills and discipline were needed to drive that battalion to success. Those that do wrong will get punished for their prejudice and using their rank and position to cause harm to others. You are the best and I’m glad you didn’t quit. By not quitting, you showed them who the “Biggest” person and Soldier “WAS / IS”. Remember: you don’t have to be in the “Fight” to be apart of the “Fight”. You helped train others to be better Soldiers. By you not deploying in your 31 year career is an excuse for them to speak badly about you. You served where the Army sent you and that’s all we ask of our Soldiers,…regardless
Andre
May 20, 2012 - 4:53 am
Disloyal F#*&@
May 20, 2012 - 4:55 am
Good Job CSM
May 30, 2012 - 9:21 am
31 years never in combat? That was when the nation was at war with two countries, and other conflicts around the world. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. I spent 7 years in Iraq from 2003-2010 as a civilian DOD security contractor. I worked,laughed, cried, medavaced,defended with your soldiers. Also stood with them at too many memorials. Where were you? I saw some of your soldiers and officers come back again and again on multiple tours over seven years. Some of them came back on another tour with only one leg or arm with a prothesis and still they served well and provided leadership. You are what you are, I’m so happy that you stayed stateside so much. I am not sure where we would billet your lawyer at the FOB,Op, or if he could keep up on patrol.
August 24, 2012 - 8:04 pm
I am sure that most of the negative blogs are from “individuals” who have never deployed either. They hide behind the Internet. I have deployed four times and I am very proud of the fact. I also know CSM King. What many do not realize is that she has struggled to deploy and never received the honor because of the jobs or positions that she held. This has no bearing on the type of leader that she is…….one of the highest standard bearing CSM’s I have had the honor to serve with. Many of her slanderers can not hold a candle to her, nor have they even met her. You will never see her rebut any of these slanders to defend herself. She will never lower herself to that level. Continue to serve as you have CSM King. Wherever the Army sends you!
August 29, 2012 - 11:21 am
Have been studying your case with interest since my daughter now has completed, under your capable training, the Drill Sargeant School.
Today she graduates and I pray she follows in your bold bootprints.
God bless you and God keep the United States Army.
(signed by a Vietnam and desert Storm combat vet)
October 18, 2012 - 8:43 pm
CSM King, I strongly support your fight towards the envy and fear they have towards your ethics and values. I fall in the same category as you but in a different position. I was the Sr. Truckmaster for the unit I was assigned too and they (Officers and Enlisted) did the same thing to me. They concocted derogatory statements against me and the higher echleons supported them. It was the same as what I have read in your reports. I wish I had your lawyer to look into my case too because I did not have the professional and proper support. I was character assassinated and defamation of character was done against me also. I fought by requesting assistance by Congressional Silvestre Reyes and also SMA Raymond Chandler which I did not get a professional investigation or response to my case. I am still fighting my case, but with minimum support. For those who send you derogatory comments they speak from experience from those who like to judge others without exactly knowing the real truth behind what really happened (narrow minded/ignorant). I am also a female who served for almost 27 years in the service and now I was released with a unwarranted involuntary separation. I also had send a letter to The First Lady to share with our Commander in Chief, but never received a response back. You are not alone, a lot of corruption is going on in the military but the higher echleons are afraid to face the truth. The corruption extends to soldiers who want to do the right thing and return to proper and professional standards. It is preached everyday in the Army Times about going back to discipline, respect, and proper standards but in actuality it’s all a political false statement. Standards and Values in the services are gone and you can not fix it overnight. Look at all the higher echleons (mostly Officers) committing corruption, but they get to forcefully retire with their benefits on hand. We all know that even if a higher echleon is forced to retire they still retire with the last highest rank they served so do they really loose. Tell that to someone who doesn’t know any better.