The case could not have come at a worse time for the army. A “hot line” set up after several drill instructors were accused of sexual assault and fraternization at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., has logged thousands of complaints. Meanwhile, army Chief of Staff Gen. Dennis Reimer suggested the army may re-examine whether men and women should be trained together–a question that’s hotly argued in the barracks but almost never publicly acknowledged by the Pentagon (page 47).
Hoster’s charges will surely inflame the debate. After ABC sent a corporate jet to Texas to pick up Hoster, who now works as a dental assistant, she told her story on four net-work-news shows. McKinney has so far refused to speak to the press. In a statement released by the army, he “denies he ever engaged in any form of sexual misconduct or improper treatment” with Hoster. The Pentagon brass isn’t sure what to believe about McKinney: some military officials say there are still unconfirmed reports that McKinney made unwelcome sexual advances toward other women in the army. (McKinney’s lawyer declined to comment.) According to Hoster’s account, McKinney is a soldier guilty of grossly unprofessional conduct. Judged in another light, he is a man who may have made a serious mistake under severe personal stress.
He appeared to have had a difficult relationship with Hoster. McKinney personally chose her, a former drill sergeant who won a Bronze Star for her PR work in the gulf war, to be his public-affairs officer. But Hoster claims that McKinney made her life a “living hell,” often shouting at her for poor work performance and then accusing her of being “defensive.” Yelling would seem like unexceptional behavior between sergeants, but Hoster claims McKinney went farther. She claims he once physically pinned her against a couch and said, “You just need a good butt-whupping.”
Like McKinney, Hoster found a home in the army after growing up poor, and she was regarded as a no-nonsense soldier. In 1978, while serving as a drill instructor at Fort Jackson, S.C., she turned in another sergeant for having sex with his recruits.
While serving with McKinney, Hoster claims, she grew close to his wife, Wilhemina, often going shopping and taking walks with her. Hoster claims that Wilhemina told her there were problems in their marriage. “He put her down a lot,” says Hoster.
In March of last year, McKinney experienced a personal tragedy: his only son died after a ear crash. A month later, according to Hoster, he appeared at her hotel-room door one night when the two were on an official trip to Hawaii. Wilhemina McKinney was in another room nearby. McKinney said he was distraught about his son’s death. Hoster says she responded that “he wasn’t the only one grieving, that Wilhemina was down the hall having just as hard a time… as he was, and that’s where he needed to be.” Hoster says that McKinney told her, “You know, you’re just what I need right now.” He leaned over and kissed her on the lips. She pushed him away, but, she claims, he insisted that “I need someone who can comfort me right now.” He indicated to her that he had become sexually excited. “I could take you right here, right now,” he allegedly said. Hoster said she responded, “If you do such a stupid thing, you better kill me, because if I live, I will tell.” Hoster, who is 5 feet 4, 120 pounds, says that McKinney, who is 6 feet 2, 230 pounds, picked her up and said, “Ah, what a nice body you have, and you’re so small.” She told him to put her down, and he finally left the room.
Hoster says she told at least seven people about the incident shortly after it happened. (Four of them were reached by NEWSWEEK, and they corroborated her story.) One of Hoster’s colleagues told Col. Robert Gaylord, a senior army public-affairs officer. Weeping, Hoster informed Gaylord she was going to have to retire. Gaylord, she said, did nothing with her complaint. (Gaylord refused to comment.) In June she told McKinney why she was leaving the army. According to Hoster, he said, “There are no excuses for what I did,” adding, “I’m sorry.”
Hoster says that she did not want to go public out of concern for the army and because she did not think her word would be believed against McKinney’s. But when she learned in November that McKinney had been appointed to the task force examining the army’s sexual-harassment policies, she angrily went to see an earlier sergeant major of the army, Bill Wooldridge. “She became unglued,” Wooldridge told NEWSWEEK. “She said, ‘I am not going to put up with that’.” She hired a lawyer, but says she is not seeking money and does not intend to file a lawsuit. Her aim is to force an army inquiry–one that could result in anything from a reprimand to a court-martial.
McKinney, one of nine children, cut sugar cane while growing up in Florida. He has always been proud of his army career. His sister Essie told NEWSWEEK, “He worked so hard to get that job, to throw it away on a few minutes of gratification, he wouldn’t do that.” The charges “hurt,” she says. But, she added, “he went to Vietnam and lived. He’ll survive this.” For McKinney, though, this is a very different battlefield.
title: “Trouble In The Ranks” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-31” author: “Gary Anderson”
But what the troops were protesting remains a critical problem–one of the weakest links in efforts to combat terrorism in the region. The Philippine Armed Forces are in tatters and show no signs of eliminating the corruption that have made them one of the country’s most notorious institutions. As one of the mutineers said last week, “There are 70 officers here. There must be something wrong. You do the math.”
Almost no one disagrees with the sum of their logic. “When they came out of the building at the end, they were hugging their generals,” says Clarence Henderson, a Manila-based political columnist. “People realize these guys have real grievances.” The coup plotters were graduates of the national military academy, whose elite officer training earns them about $250 a month. As young officers, they spend most of their time waging the country’s ongoing war against Muslim insurgents–a –battle in which many have died and little, if any, progress has been made. The same goes for the battle against Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, in which hundreds of soldiers have died in the last two years.
Part of the reason both wars are going nowhere, according to separatists as well as soldiers, is that higher-level officers supplement their paltry incomes by selling arms to the enemy. (Even generals make only $500 per month.) “We have firearms and ammunition that are obviously from the [military] arsenal,” says Eid Kabalu, spokesman for one Muslim rebel group. “They are commodities. If you can sell them, you do.”
Arroyo has taken some steps to clamp down on corruption in the government–conducting lifestyle checks on tax officials, for instance. But observers question whether she is willing to take on the military, whose support was key to her coming to power. Political commentators note that the national police chief remains on the job, even after a key member of Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiah escaped from his Manila jail cell with inside help earlier this month. Henderson believes it boils down to whether “she has the guts to kick [corrupt soldiers] out.” Until then, Arroyo’s successes may be less than they appear.
