Then-Gen. Charles Hamilton, commander of Army Materiel Command, speaks during a symposium in Huntsville, Ala., in March 2023. (Eben Boothby/U.S. Army)
WASHINGTON — Army Secretary Christine Wormuth fired one of the service’s top generals after an inspector general investigation concluded he improperly intervened in a subordinate’s promotion, the service reported Tuesday.
“Based on the findings of a Department of the Army inspector general investigation, the secretary of the Army has relieved Gen. Charles Hamilton of command,” Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said in a statement. “The current acting commander of Army Materiel Command, Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan, will continue in this role pending the nomination of a permanent replacement to serve as the commander of Army Materiel Command.”
Hamilton was one of 12 four-star generals in the Army.
According to officials and documents, Hamilton inappropriately tried to push an assessment board to approve a command assignment for a female lieutenant colonel, the Associated Press reported. He successfully persuaded the board to give the officer a second interview after a board initially voted 5-0 not to recommend her for command.
Before the second interview took place, Hamilton contacted senior leaders who could have been on her second panel to discuss their voting parameters and the candidates. The second panel also deemed her not certified for command, according to the AP.
The Army Inspector General Office’s investigation came after it received an anonymous complaint in December 2023 that Hamilton and the lieutenant colonel were having an “inappropriate, fraternizing, and likely sexual relationship,” the investigation said. Investigators subsequently found that though Hamilton and the lieutenant colonel had an “overly familiar relationship,” there was no “definitive evidence” that the two had a sexual relationship.
At first, the matter was referred to the Defense Department Inspector General’s Office, which closed the case in January after finding “insufficient evidence in the complaint to warrant further investigation.”
But the day after a news report in March that Hamilton pressured Army officials to select the lieutenant colonel for command, the Defense Department Inspector General’s Office referred the matter to the Army Inspector General’s Office for investigation.
Wormuth suspended Hamilton on March 22 and removed the lieutenant colonel’s name from the command selection list, according to the investigation.
Hamilton, who is Black as is the female officer who sought a promotion, wrote a letter to Wormuth in August asking to be reinstated as commander of Army Materiel Command, and he laid out his case in the lieutenant colonel’s promotion and his view on the Command Assessment Program, or CAP.
In the letter, he implored Wormuth to investigate why CAP deems few minority officers as ready to command and the barriers that exist that make qualified Black officers unwilling to subject themselves to the process.
“Although the investigation found that the Command Assessment Program withstood an attempt to interfere with its process, Secretary Wormuth will be issuing a directive that formally establishes CAP as an enduring Army program in order to reinforce the integrity of CAP and increase transparency,” Smith said.
The last Army four-star general fired for misconduct was Gen. Kevin Byrnes, who in 2005 as commander of the service’s Training and Doctrine Command, was dismissed over an extramarital affair.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal resigned in 2010 after a Rolling Stone story published comments from McChrystal and senior aides that were critical of then-Vice President Joe Biden and other officials in former President Barack Obama’s administration.
