By Pete W. | AuxBeacon News Contributor

From: Phil Boylan [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, August 02, 2013 11:27 AM
To: ‘Lt Col Larry Julian’
Subject: RE: Currahee Report

Sir,

To provide closure to this discussion, you should know that we already contacted NHQ about the status of my complaint back on 6 June (see attached).

Lt Col Kettell never replied at all to either me or Col Boylan even though as you can see, he was ordered to do so. Tonya Boylan (unofficially) remarked to me recently that the IG system seems to be broken again similar to the way it was when Maj Gen Pineda commanded CAP. Complaints are sidelined and delayed while the implicated commanders are allowed to turn the heat up on the plaintiffs so that they are driven from CAP before the complaint is processed. Then when it’s finally processed the plaintiffs are gone (no surprise there!) and the complaint is quietly dismissed for the “good of the organization”.

Regarding Philip’s attendance in the ICS-300 course, he is a paramedic with Floyd EMS. He needed ICS-300 on his resume to qualify for a lieutenant position that was opening up in his department.

Regarding your highlighted sentence below, I commanded Group 1 for 18 months. The previous commander was Lt Col John Aden. When I took over Group 1 was fragmented, it was every squadron for themselves. Aden’s leadership style is completely autocratic/dictatorial, which offends most CAP volunteers. Within just two months of taking command I had everything settled down and all squadrons working together except for Atlanta-#1, Aden’s old squadron.

Soon after Aden transferred to Group 2 and orchestrated a campaign of operational maneuvers and slander/libel attacks that were designed to inject chaos into Group 1, he had the support of the PDK squadron commander Roy Villers, the wing DO (Bret Slagle), the wing COS Joe Knight III, and the wing VC Richard Greenwood. This campaign continued all through last summer and into the fall.

Finally to relieve household tensions, Tonya agreed with Richard and Joe that I should be asked to step down. I did, gracefully, with the understanding that if I left it would free Tonya to “clean house”. I did, but she didn’t complete the job. She removed Slagle as DO, but never explained to anyone except her closest staff why he was being removed.

This allowed Slagle to publish and circulate his own spin on the affair, which of course had him as the “martyr” and me, and Tonya Boylan as the unfair persecutors. Completely untrue, but most in the pilot community bought into the spin because it’s what they wanted to believe. It protected their turf.

My replacement Lt Col O’Hara lasted only about 3 months in the job before resigning under the pressure of the conflict between Tonya and the “operations chain of command” headed by Joe Knight, Richard Greenwood, Wil Hargrove, etc.

Now, Aden is back in command, the unauthorized “operations chain of command” is back in full force, he’s been given far more power and authority than I ever was (including complete custodial control of all Group 1 aircraft), and everyone in Group 1 is pretty much on strike with only basic grudging compliance with his orders, except Atlanta-1 (and perhaps Ellijay who still seems to think they are part of Group 2 and PDK).

You can readily see this by comparing Group 1 aircraft utilization and who’s flying them from May-Jul 2012 to May-July 2013.

– Phil Boylan, Maj, CAP