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How timely. Ask Skipper wrote today about the limbo several senior naval officers are in because of the Fat Leonard bribery scandal.

My assumption for this post is that there is a knowledge baseline regarding the ongoing saga that surrounds Fat Leonard, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, and the US Navy. If my assumption is incorrect, you can get a primer here. It’s not the whole story, but you’ll get the basic idea. There have been a handful of charges and arrests, followed by an almost equal number of plea bargains. There are also many others who are wading in the nebulous cesspool that is purgatory – neither heaven nor hell. While they have not been charged with anything, they are not free to go and they are not free to continue forward with their careers. They are tumbling in a timeless abyss with no expiration date. No one tells them anything. Meanwhile, prosecutors and journalists are looking to make a name for themselves and leave a permanent mark on their professions.

Now comes news that administrative action has been taken against three of the officers in that limbo.

From Defense News:

WASHINGTON — Three flag officers have become the highest-ranking officials thus far punished in the Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA) bribery and corruption scandal, each receiving a letter of censure from Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.

Rear admirals Mike Miller, Terry Kraft and David Pimpo were all punished for conduct during the January to July 2006 deployment of the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan. Miller was the strike group commander, Kraft the carrier’s commanding officer, and Pimpo the ship’s supply officer on that cruise.

In a statement, the Navy said the three officers “were found to have improperly accepted gifts from a prohibited source, two were found to have improperly endorsed a commercial business, and one engaged in solicitation of gifts and services from a prohibited source, when they were deployed to the Seventh Fleet area of responsibility during the 2006-2007 timeframe.”

It’s about time. If naval officers were guilty of bribery or other misconduct, by all means, haul them in front of a court martial or a federal court. But do not allow the process to become the punishment, particularly when that process is fouling the duties of others with no direct connection to the scandal.