23-03-2010, 07:55 PM
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
The Los Angeles Times
EL TORO, Calif. — The Marine Corps on Wednesday removed the commanding general of the Western air bases from his post and reassigned him to Virginia amid an investigation into the general's use of base planes for personal purposes.
"This action was deemed necessary to ensure a fair and thorough investigation and to preserve the efficient and orderly functioning of the commands," officials from Marines Corps Headquarters said in a prepared statement.
The decision to remove Brig. Gen. Wayne T. Adams, 51, from his post at the
Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro, Calif., came less than a month after the
Los Angeles Times detailed five flights taken by Adams on a Marine-owned C-12 Beechcraft that raised questions about his use of base planes.
Named as a temporary replacement for Adams was Brig. Gen. Harold W. Blot,
assistant commander (rear) of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, based at El Toro.
Blot was out of the state Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.
Adams was said to be in Washington, D.C., or on his way back to California
and also was unavailable to discuss the reassignment.
Lt. Col. Ron Stokes, a spokesman for the Marine Corps in Washington, said
that "basically, Gen.-Adams is being assigned as a special assistant" to the commanding general of the Quantico command, Lt. Gen. Ernest T. Cook Jr. "His specific duties have not been determined."
Adams suspended two of his top aides in January after allegations centering on their own use of the Beechcraft for golfing jaunts around the country.
One of the aides, Col. James E. Sabow, killed himself as the Inspector General's Office in Washington investigated the case. But just three months before disciplining Sabow and Col. Joseph E. Underwood, then chief of staff at El Toro, the Times investigation found, Adams had ordered a base plane to shuttle him between the El Toro Air Station and a Marine lodge at a Southern California mountain resort during a combination military inspection and vacation with his fiancee.
En route to a military convention in Virginia, Adams had flown a 552-mile side trip to Florida during a tropical storm in the C-12 turboprop and signed a divorce decree. He also met his fiancee in Washington state after flying there on a training mission and spent a weekend with a friend and golf partner in Pennsylvania during another training exercise.
Moreover, he ordered a plane to pick him up from the suburban Burbank Airport, just north of downtown Los Angeles, after a family emergency in 1987
and to fly him to the air station at Yuma. Adams, a 28-year veteran of the Marine Corps, has defended the trips as proper, paying he was getting in flight time at the controls of an aircraft. Military officials have said that all of the flights raise questions about the mix of business travel and personal flights. Such a mix is strictly prohibited by military guidelines.
--European Stars and Stripes - May 10, 1991
--------------------
Pacific Stars and Stripes - May 16, 1994
Investigation of apparent suicide death reopened
EL TORO MARINE
CORPS AIR STATION ,CA —The military has reopened the investigation into the death of a Marine colonel amid allegations that he was killed and did not commit suicide. Two previous inquiries by the military found that Col. James E. Sabow shot himself in the head with a shotgun after being suspended for allegedly using base planes for golfing jaunts and other improper trips. His family denied he did anything wrong and speculated that he was killed because of information he had on drug trafficking at the base. An expert hired by the family said blood found in Sabow's lungs showed that he didn't die immediately, as would have happened with a shotgun blast in the head, indicating a possible prior head blow.
The Los Angeles Times
EL TORO, Calif. — The Marine Corps on Wednesday removed the commanding general of the Western air bases from his post and reassigned him to Virginia amid an investigation into the general's use of base planes for personal purposes.
"This action was deemed necessary to ensure a fair and thorough investigation and to preserve the efficient and orderly functioning of the commands," officials from Marines Corps Headquarters said in a prepared statement.
The decision to remove Brig. Gen. Wayne T. Adams, 51, from his post at the
Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro, Calif., came less than a month after the
Los Angeles Times detailed five flights taken by Adams on a Marine-owned C-12 Beechcraft that raised questions about his use of base planes.
Named as a temporary replacement for Adams was Brig. Gen. Harold W. Blot,
assistant commander (rear) of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, based at El Toro.
Blot was out of the state Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.
Adams was said to be in Washington, D.C., or on his way back to California
and also was unavailable to discuss the reassignment.
Lt. Col. Ron Stokes, a spokesman for the Marine Corps in Washington, said
that "basically, Gen.-Adams is being assigned as a special assistant" to the commanding general of the Quantico command, Lt. Gen. Ernest T. Cook Jr. "His specific duties have not been determined."
Adams suspended two of his top aides in January after allegations centering on their own use of the Beechcraft for golfing jaunts around the country.
One of the aides, Col. James E. Sabow, killed himself as the Inspector General's Office in Washington investigated the case. But just three months before disciplining Sabow and Col. Joseph E. Underwood, then chief of staff at El Toro, the Times investigation found, Adams had ordered a base plane to shuttle him between the El Toro Air Station and a Marine lodge at a Southern California mountain resort during a combination military inspection and vacation with his fiancee.
En route to a military convention in Virginia, Adams had flown a 552-mile side trip to Florida during a tropical storm in the C-12 turboprop and signed a divorce decree. He also met his fiancee in Washington state after flying there on a training mission and spent a weekend with a friend and golf partner in Pennsylvania during another training exercise.
Moreover, he ordered a plane to pick him up from the suburban Burbank Airport, just north of downtown Los Angeles, after a family emergency in 1987
and to fly him to the air station at Yuma. Adams, a 28-year veteran of the Marine Corps, has defended the trips as proper, paying he was getting in flight time at the controls of an aircraft. Military officials have said that all of the flights raise questions about the mix of business travel and personal flights. Such a mix is strictly prohibited by military guidelines.
--European Stars and Stripes - May 10, 1991
--------------------
Pacific Stars and Stripes - May 16, 1994
Investigation of apparent suicide death reopened
EL TORO MARINE
CORPS AIR STATION ,CA —The military has reopened the investigation into the death of a Marine colonel amid allegations that he was killed and did not commit suicide. Two previous inquiries by the military found that Col. James E. Sabow shot himself in the head with a shotgun after being suspended for allegedly using base planes for golfing jaunts and other improper trips. His family denied he did anything wrong and speculated that he was killed because of information he had on drug trafficking at the base. An expert hired by the family said blood found in Sabow's lungs showed that he didn't die immediately, as would have happened with a shotgun blast in the head, indicating a possible prior head blow.
"History records that the Money Changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance." --James Madison