Brigadier General Williams, who at that point been stopping by to tell me I was doing good work, told investigators that he recalled me “really laying into them about the types of recruits they might be sending to the depot and to Fourth Battalion in particular.”5 He said he had asked me to “tone it down.”6 Again, completely not true.
Colonel Haas told the IG investigator that when I told him I wanted to relieve November Company's commander of duty in December, he responded to me with, “Do nothing while I look for another solution,” but that within ten minutes, I had fired her and violated his explicit directions.7 I imagine if that had been what he had actually told me, I could be accused of violating explicit directions. But it's not what he said. Haas's comments in the report are simply not true.
In the IG investigation, General Williams claimed that he didn't believe I intentionally disobeyed orders, but that I had misinterpreted what Colonel Haas had told me. “Brigadier Williams believed the frustration between [Colonel Haas] and [me] had reached a point where they were not communicating clearly and that led to [me] disobeying [Colonel Haas's] order,” the investigator wrote.8 Yet if this was truly what Williams believed, why did he then do nothing, as a senior leader, to solve the problem? If he believed Colonel Haas and I were not communicating clearly, he should have, as a leader, helped us overcome that problem. He did not; and, I suspect—based on the feedback I received from him at the time—that he didn't see me as the problem.
Colonel Haas also told the IG investigator that he didn't learn that I had requested mast against him until long after I did it, which is of course untrue, because I had to deliver the signed envelope to him in person for him to then hand-deliver to General Williams. He said he became aware that “there was some sort of allegation against me” in mid-May, but that he didn't know what my request mast entailed until he was told by the investigating officer on June 12, 2015.9
When I spoke to him on the phone after I requested mast, General Williams had told me he was going to look into my complaints and get back to me. He didn't. But Williams told the investigator that he informed me he was already conducting an investigation, and that he would include my request mast as part of the investigation.10 Except this part of our phone conversation never happened. In fact, I was unaware that he had convened an investigation into my leadership until I was contacted the week of Memorial Day by the investigating officer. Brigadier General Williams also told the IG investigator that he later talked with his lawyer, who determined it might be better to keep the request mast separate from the command investigation.11 Williams stated to the IG investigator that within ten days of receiving the opinion of his counsel, he talked with General Lukeman and that they decided to have a female colonel look into my complaints of gender bias and a hostile work environment.12
As I've already mentioned, the female colonel assigned to look into my request mast found no gender bias or hostile work environment. She recommended that Fourth Battalion's staffing levels be reviewed, that they do a fitness report by the book for the commander I had fired, and that a new command-climate survey be conducted. In other words, she knew that the one that was being used by Williams and Haas was full of holes. Unfortunately, General Lukeman did not concur with her recommendation, seemingly because he had already made the decision to fire me.
And Brigadier Williams said he did say he was a big fan of me just before he fired me.
“Brigadier Williams explained that his decision to relieve [Germano] was not an easy decision and that, ‘I'm a fan of [Germano], but I think at the end of the day, as I'm seeing these things unfold, this is what I think I need to do,’” the investigator wrote.13 Brigadier Williams explained in his statement to the IG that no one told him to relieve me, and they all told him, “It's your call.”14 Ultimately, the inspector general determined that Brigadier General Williams and Colonel Haas had not been responsible for retaliating against me.
However, the investigator did substantiate that Williams had failed to adhere to military regulations by failing to investigate my request-mast complaints and providing a response to me within seventy-two hours—or at all—as is required. The investigator also found that Training and Education Command had failed to follow the equal-opportunity investigation regulations by ensuring I was out-briefed about the results of my gender-bias complaint and given the opportunity to provide a rebuttal statement regarding the outcome of the investigation. Finally, the investigator substantiated my allegations that Colonel Haas had failed to follow the regulation on Marine Corps fitness reports.
But that was it.
I was supremely disappointed and continued to wrestle with bouts of depression and anger about the injustice of the situation. It was exhausting to feel like every day I had my shoulder against a huge boulder, pushing uphill, only to gain an inch and then slide backward. I continued to wrestle with angst about whether I had really done the right things. After a while, when you read over and over that you are abusive and mean, it's hard not to start doubting that you are not that person.
But every time I stepped to the edge of the abyss of self-doubt and self-flagellation, Joe would coax me back to reality. He would point out that I was a good, kind person, one who cared about animals and little kids, and that I was right in pushing for greater equality and better treatment for
