Update - 2004 IG Report Cleared USAF Academy Officials Including UA President Gamble

When General Gamble was an applicant for the UA President's position, I'd found that he'd been head of the US Air Force Academy in between two national reports on sexual assault and harassment at the US military academies.  The second report said that things had gotten worse.  I raised a question, given his stated management style - whether his style at the Academy hadn't worked in regard to this issue or whether it hadn't bee one of his priorities.

When I talked to him after he spoke to the UAA Faculty Senate about how he'd appointed General Case to be UAA's Chancellor, he told me that he'd been cleared or any wrongdoing by an investigatory board.  He said he'd send me the information.  I never heard from him.

Until recently.  I don't use my UAA office often.  I share it with another emeritus faculty member who makes good use of it.  But when I stopped in recently, there was a big manila envelope on my desk.  In it was a note, dated Feb 21, 2011, from President Gamble and a copy of the Cover of a Department of Defense Inspector General's report entitled, "Evaluation of Sexual Assault, Reprisal, and Related Leadership Challenges at the United States Air Force Academy."

There was a second page which said:

Our evaluation found that the below officials were not responsible for, and did not contribute to or abide, sexual assault problems at USAFA.  When informed of problems, they took appropriate action.  For current (2003-2004) leadership, they took aggressive action from the time of the January 2003 notification of the problems.  Recent evidence, that some senior officials may have been notified of sexual assault issues as early as July 2002, is still being assessed and could affect the conclusions regarding one or more of the individuals below.  Of course, those ongoing investigative activities could also turn up new evidence concerning any other officer, whether in the civil service or uniformed service, associated with the Air Force's response to sexual assault problems at the United States Air Force Academy.  However, we do not anticipate the ongoing activity will affect the systemic findings or recommendations in the report. 

This is followed by a list of 21 names including:

MajGen Patrick K. Gamble (Commandant of Cadets, Jun. 1993-Nov. 1994)

Given that the caveat suggests any changes might come from an ongoing study, and this report is dated Dec. 2004, and Gamble headed the USAFA from 1993-94, I'm confident that  his name remained on the cleared list.

I think the questions I raised were legitimate ones to be raised by a selection committee about someone being considered for an important position.  And I'm glad that the Inspector General found nothing to be concerned about in President Gamble's case.

I am sorry that it took so long for me to get this correction up.  While I was expecting an email response since I was traveling a lot at the time, it's perfectly understandable that he sent the response to my University office.