GOMOR 2.0

“GOMOR” is a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand. To anyone in the military, you know this is a very “bad word”. This is something no soldier wants on their record.

There are 2 ways to file a GOMOR, on a permanent record or locally. If you are in receipt of a GOMOR you pray it gets filed locally. Permanently filed follows you for ever. 

I didn’t know what one was until recently. I am so intimate with it now that it is no longer a dirty little 5 letter acronym. It’s almost lost its meaning from having been said so much, gomor, gomor, gomor, gomor. 

There doesn’t seem to be rhyme or reason to the issuing of a GOMOR. From my experience as a military wife, all you need is a vindictive command and you may very well receive one! (That’s just my opinion.)  One lawyers opinion, (you can read article here), states the “AR 600-37 , “Unfavorable Information”, requires only an “objective decision by competent authority.” ”  I have read AR 600-37 myself and its just way beyond me. I can’t make heads or tails of it. 

In my last post, “I will NOT go away”, I talk about a “document with an error”. This document was the reason my husband was issued a GOMOR. This GOMOR was filed locally. End of saga, right? Wrong! Turns out a General can rescind a GOMOR. Sounds like a good thing, right? Wrong! They pulled this GOMOR only to give him a NEW ONE!!!!! What!???? Let me try to explain. 

In the first one he was being reprimanded for the document with an error. Why this wasn’t good enough, I don’t know. So, they got rid of that one and drew up a new one.

The NEW GOMOR (in which I like to call GOMOR 2.0) has more reprimands than the first. It contains 5 points. I am going to paraphrase and give the gist of what each one is.

The reprimand is for the following:

1. an investigation that took place in 2013 (back at Ft. Sam Houston, TX) that resulted in no findings and is a closed matter
2. an email to the company commander about the wearing of his green beret 
3. a counseling statement in May 2014
4. comments on an in-processing worksheet about his strengths and weaknesses 
5. the document with the error on it

So to recap we have a reprimand for something old, something new, something borrowed and something out of the blue. What???? 

I can’t wrap my mind around what is happening. I feel like just when it can’t get any worse, it does. Not only does it get worse, it gets more ridiculous! 

They have confiscated my husbands work computer and pager because of my blog. Yes, this blog you are reading right now. Civilian little ‘ole me has caused a stir amongst the command and IPAP. Why is that? Is it because they know what they are doing is wrong? They are afraid of the truth getting out, because the truth hurts. 

I hope they learn a lesson from all this and truly understand the power their soldiers families have. I have the 1st amendment on my side and I will tell my side of the story. I will not sit idly by while they trash my husbands career. My husband has proudly served his country for almost 17 years and is being blindsided by his own command and advisors!! This is not the example of American leadership I am used to or will stand for! They are bullies and control with fear. Soldiers can’t say anything but civilians can. We as Americans, as responsible people of the world, need to stand up and be a voice for these soldiers that are unfairly backed into a corner through toxic leadership.