Alvin Greene reacts to release of military records
Staff and wire reports
Originally published 02:23 p.m., July 22, 2010
Updated 06:09 p.m., July 22, 2010
COLUMBIA — Alvin Greene dismissed highly critical assessments of his military service today, calling his supervisors in the Air Force and Army “ridiculous.”
Greene, who The Post and Courier reached by phone at his Manning home, said he was passed over for promotions in the military and ultimately discharged involuntarily, but honorably, due to discrimination.
“Those folks are ridiculous and yes and they only promote the terrorists and the communists and I haven’t gotten a promotion since I graduated from college and that’s just what I’m saying,” Greene said. “This is why we need to have things done differently. This is why we need to overhaul the military. We need get rid of these folks.”
Greene’s military record, obtained by The Associated Press, show that the veteran who has called himself an “American hero” was considered a lackluster service member at best. He has frequently mentioned to his 13 years of military service.
The military records, which document his superiors’ decisions to pass over Greene for promotion, cite mistakes as severe as improperly uploading sensitive intelligence information to a military server, and as basic as an overall inability to clearly express his thoughts and perform basic tasks.
...Greene wouldn’t specify why he felt discriminated against, other than that he suspected it was for his “general background.” He said his allegation that the military promotes “the terrorists and the communist” is based on the ranked given to Maj. Nidal Hasan, the psychiatrist accused of gunning down 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 9, 2009.
Greene has often mentioned his military service, saying he first came up with the idea to seek political office while serving in Korea. But the veteran also has refused to go into detail about his service, merely saying he won numerous decorations and left the military honorably but involuntarily.
The records obtained by The Associated Press reveal only a small slice of Greene’s service record, his three years with the U.S. Air Force. After serving in junior ROTC in high school, Greene entered the Air National Guard in 1995, serving there until 2002.
In July of that year, he entered the Air Force, serving first as an intelligence librarian responsible for analyzing reports and briefings at Shaw Air Force Base near Sumter.
“They dismissed my potential,” Greene said. “They didn’t care what I could do ... like I said, I didn’t get a promotion after I got my college degree. There are very few enlisted troops that have college degrees. ... I was groomed and trained and educated.”
In a performance report in 2004, Greene received adequate marks for performing tasks assigned to him, complying with standards and training requirements. But Greene’s reviewer marked him as an ineffective leader who lacked organization and was “unable to express thoughts clearly.”
Greene is “usually capable of handling mundane tasks with supervision” but is “not able to adapt to any changes to daily routine,” the reviewer wrote, also noting that Greene had received multiple disciplinary actions for failing to perform his duties.
Greene also was written up for posting sensitive information on a military Internet server, a mistake that resulted in a three-day work stoppage. Records showed Greene was kept at Shaw while the rest of his unit deployed after leadership “recognized his inability to contribute to the wartime mission.”
Greene protested the denial, writing that the reviewer “only concentrates on presenting a negative perception of me by making false statements of my character” and saying the reviewer and other airmen “create a hostile work environment.”
A year later, Greene was evaluated again, this time in his new job as an analyst working with the weapons of mass destruction section. But Greene’s job had little to do with intelligence analysis and more to do with shredding documents and escorting contractors around the base, records show.
Again receiving low marks for ineffective leadership, Green also was rated as not knowing much about his duties, not performing them effectively and not complying with minimum training requirements.
The reviewer also wrote Greene “required a daily to-do list” to perform basic duties and had a “consistent inability to follow instructions or maintain basic job knowledge.” Most seriously, the reviewer wrote that Greene would represent “a threat to others” because of his inability to grasp the basics of military training.
In additional comments, the reviewer said she would not recommend Greene for promotion but did note his community service work and fundraising efforts for a holiday party. “While Alvin is a decent person, he lacks the basic skills necessary for promotion,” the summary said.
Greene also objected to that appraisal, writing that corruption to his computer “can often make it impossible for me to accomplish tasks in a timely fashion” and said another airman “cursed me out and told me I am wanted out.”
Greene said the airman who allegedly cursed at him is an example of the problems in the military.
“That’s unacceptable behavior,” Greene said. “That’s not an acceptable environment. We need to overhaul the military of those ridiculous folks and do things right. Looks like we need some oversight in the system. We need a better, there needs to be, the promotion system needs to be different. That’s an example of how we need to do things better.”
Six months after that evaluation, Greene was honorably discharged from the Air Force. A year later, he joined the Army National Guard, in which he served about six months before joining the U.S. Army.
When asked to discuss his discharge from the Army, Greene said he would not provide any records or talk about it, saying that the press would have to wait until the Army released the records.
The Post and Courier obtained Greene's Army records late this afternoon from George Wright, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon. The records are limited in the information provided. The reason for his discharge was not released, due to the provisions of the Privacy Act. The only exception to the release of a soldier’s discharge record is for bad conduct or dishonorable discharge imposed by a jury in a trail by court-martial, according to Wright.
The records show that Greene was promoted to specialist six months before his honorable, but involuntary discharge. Wright said that promotions are made in “due course for soldiers who perform their duties and display the potential for greater responsibility in that next rank.”
Greene enlisted in the Army in February 2007, and was discharged before his 3-year obligation had expired. He was last stationed with the 1st Infantry Division in Fort Riley, Kansas.
The records detail his service in the military: South Carolina Air Force National Guard from July 1995 to June 2002 and South Carolina Army National Guard from July 2006 to February 2007. He served in Korea from June 2007 to July 2008.
Greene did received awards for his services, including Air Force Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Korean Defense Service Medal and the Non-Commissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon.
.......gotta go
