Well, we were going to row, hard, against the tide.
I started reaching out to a few very trusted friends and mentors for advice. When you are close to the flame on an issue as deep and emotional as this, you should always seek counsel.
I started calling this board of advisers the “Vikings” in my longboat, and started seeing the Corps as the monastery on the hill, stuffed with monks and gold.
For motivation and to build my resolve in launching an attack upon the very institution I had served for twenty years, I started watching Nicolas Winding Refn's Valhalla Rising as I was trying to go to sleep every night. I thought that maybe I was starting to lose it a bit.
I knew we had to be careful engaging with the press, because Kate was still on active duty. The Marine Corps likes to trick you into thinking your First Amendment rights are completely gone when you join the military, but you're well within your rights to speak out to defend yourself.
The day Kate was fired, a Pentagon contact of mine called to tell me he heard that General Dunford, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, told his staff that he didn't care who they had to keep up for twenty-four hours, but that he wanted a copy of the investigation leading to Kate's relief in the hands of the press the following morning. The higher-ups wanted to get their side of the story out first.
My source said that a member of the staff questioned Dunford's decision, asking him if he knew to whom she was married and if he knew that I had deep contacts with the press. According to my source, Dunford doubted that I would get involved. While I was unable to confirm this with a second source, I believe it to be true. It sounds like the Dunford I know, so I'll let that thought float with you for a bit.
Still, I was astounded things got to this point.
Think about it. Let's do a mental experiment together based on game theory.
Any issue involving women in the military receives increased scrutiny from lawmakers on Capitol Hill and the press—especially since, for years, the military has been failing in its efforts to address the issue of sexual assault.
Now let's consider a situation in which a female commander in the last all-female unit in the entire Department of Defense is making historic and sudden gains in female performance after decades of poor performance. Additionally, she is tightening discipline and holding Marines accountable for their actions.
And let's also consider that this officer's boss, with whom she has clashed, is three weeks away from transferring to another job on another base. He is demanding her relief.
If you were the decision-maker, what would you do?
Let's draw the quad and examine the potential outcomes.
If you back the male commander and fire his subordinate, the female commander, you'll have a firestorm in the press.
If you back the female commander, and reprimand the male commander, you'll have a firestorm in the press.
If you fire both of them, you'll have a firestorm in the press.
The only clean way through this minefield is to have them both put their guns back in their holsters, have the male commander transfer as scheduled, have the female commander report to you for three weeks, and start again fresh with the next regimental commander.
It's the only win-win solution.
This is why I was hopeful that adult leadership would step in.
Game theory.
Boy, was I wrong.
Okay, back to reality.
Not only was this a viable solution, but also my wife isn't the awful person the Marine Corps said she is.
I had emails from Williams spanning a period of months, in which he praised Kate's performance and admitted Haas was an issue.
Does that sound like someone who wants to fire my wife?
Nevertheless, my contacts in the Pentagon started telling me that the Corps planned to kill the messenger who proved that women could succeed if trained to higher expectations.
Shortly after Kate's relief on June 30, a reporter from Marine Corps Times called me and said, “Hey. This is really weird. I think they're gaming this.” She said that the Marine Corps is never forthcoming with information about someone who's been fired—they usually hide behind the Freedom of Information Act and administrative-relief rules. “But not only did they give me Kate's investigation,” she told me, “they also made comments that I took as a swipe against your wife, which I thought was unprofessional.”
This conversation corroborated my Pentagon source's account of the commandant telling his staff to release their investigation on Kate to the press.
Reporters are inquisitive by nature. That's cool. It's their job. But it is highly unusual to have a reporter call you to say that the Marine Corps was offering up too much information. That further confirmed my suspicion that the folks at Headquarters Marine Corps were mounting an information campaign against Kate.
I had to move fast and strike from an unexpected direction.
The brass would be watching for the story to first break in Marine Corps Times.
That's the way things usually go.
So I reached out to Gretel Kovach, a war correspondent I knew at the San Diego Union-Tribune. Gretel had spent a lot of time covering Marines in combat, and she was also reporting on the Marine Corps’ gender-integration efforts. I gave her a call and caught her as she was driving from Twentynine Palms back to her office in San Diego. She was willing to hear me out. During the conversation, she told me that she had been
