With all the other news going on lately you might have missed, or only paid minimal attention to a scathing report that came out about the WH pharmacy during the Trump years having been a pill dispensary for anyone wanting uppers or downers. All thanks to by then Chief WH Physician and Trump’s personal doctor Ronny Jackson who retired from the Navy and is currently a Congress Critter representing a district in Texas. Jackson has campaigned on and continues to proclaim he’s a retired Admiral. Except he’s NOT. That’s right folks. The Navy DEMOTED him, back in 2022!
I realize what with the primaries and tonight’s State of the Union this might not seem like much to be concerned with. Except for the fact you know damn well no matter how well Biden does, even if he’s better than last year (when he wiped the floor with the GOP) there is going to be talk about his age. GOPers will insist Biden is a dying earthworm with even less intellectual capacity while Trump is both smarter/sharper mentally than Einstein & Stephen Hawking combined, and also physically fitter than every Olympic Decathlon Gold Medal winner from Jim Thorpe forward. And leading such talk with be DOKTOR Ronny Jackson, retired U.S. Navy Admiral, or so he would have everyone believe.
As reported by The Washington Post however the TRUTH is rather different. Jackson, according to the WaPo routinely cites decades of Navy service as proof he understands the needs of the troops, and his website still presents him as a “Retired Admiral.” He might have once been a competent Navy doctor. I wouldn’t know. My time on active duty as a Marine stationed in the DC area was before Jackson became a Navy Doc. (Whew!)
The point though is that it’s not exactly been a secret that during the Trump years and as not just Chief WH Physician but Trump’s personal doctor Jackson’s medical acumen and credibility fostered questions about that “credibility.” And frankly, as I think about it his capability too. It galls to think Jackson got to retires as a Rear Admiral LH (lower half). However, while the wheels of justice including in the military justice system tend to turn slowly they do sometimes fully turn and though he has hidden it (so has the freaking media until now!) they turned in Jackson’s case:
But Jackson is no longer a retired admiral. The Navy demoted him in July 2022 following a damaging Pentagon inspector general’s report that substantiated allegations about his inappropriate behavior as a White House physician, a previously unreported decision confirmed by a current defense official and a former U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive personnel move.
Jackson is now a retired Navy captain, those people said — a demotion that carries significant financial burden in addition to the social stigma of stripped rank in military circles.
Jackson, who retired from the Navy in 2019 has as you know and I’ve pointed out continued to refer to himself as a retired Admiral. So have Trump and other GOPers. He didn’t respond when the WaPo asked him to comment on the linked article in case you’re wondering. Because there’s an IG report some of the issues are public record. From my time on active duty as a jarhead however I know all too well how jealously the Navy guards its reputation and lengths they will go to to sweep dirt under the rug. So as much as they can they have been reticent to say as much as they should. Still, according to the WaPo:
A Navy official confirmed that the service took unspecified action against Jackson in the wake of the 2021 inspector general report, which found that Jackson berated subordinates in the White House medical unit, “made sexual and denigrating statements” about a female subordinate, consumed alcohol inappropriately with subordinates and consumed the sleep drug Ambien while on duty as the president’s physician. At the time of the report, Jackson was classified by the Navy as a rear admiral (lower half), a one-star admiral that is distinct from the two-star rear admiral position.
“The substantiated allegations in the DoDIG investigation of Rear Adm (lower half) Ronny Jackson are not in keeping with the standards the Navy requires of its leaders and, as such, the Secretary of the Navy took administrative action in July 2022,” Lt. Cmdr. Joe Keiley, a Navy spokesperson, said via email.
The article goes on to say Keiley declined to comment on whether Jackson had been demoted although the report recommended action against Jackson. Jackson is now an actual politician, but his time with the WH Medical Unit which began in 2006 suggests he had the makings of one long ago. He became known for providing round-the-clock care to not just Presidents, but also WH staff and their friends. Apparently some who received (thanks to Jackson) services weren’t entitled to it. Perhaps say some in the WH press corps, who got their own pills from the guy who eventually became known as “Dr. Pill Popper?” In any case Jackson became Obama’s personal physician and wound up being promoted from Captain to Rear Admiral and then Trump came along.
I don’t need to do into how Jackson clearly turned MAGA, and in complete thrall of Trump. But he was Trump’s guy and Trump tried (twice) to get him promoted up a rank but both times it stalled. Gee, I wonder why? In any case Jackson decided to call it a career and retire. And enter politics. Back when it was actually useful he of course got Trump’s endorsement in his long-shot Congressional bid and pulled off the win. Playing up being not just Trump’s doctor but a retired “Rear Admiral” or “Admiral” has helped him in retaining his seat. However, it’s just flat-out wrong for Jackson to LIE about things. He of course responded to the report that led to his demotion (he didn’t talk about the demotion part of course) as politically motivated of course.
Still, while his Congressional salary is awfully nice, the hit to his Navy pension still stings a a bit for Dr. Ronny. Katherine L. Kuzminski, a military policy expert at Center for a New American Security estimates it will cost Jackson roughly $15,000 difference in annual pension payouts between a retired one-star admiral, the rank that he held when he retired from the Navy in December 2019, and a retired Captain. That amount, or difference will almost certainly widen over time due to periodic increases its pay rates for each position.
Still, for someone like me that’s not the worst of it. It’s flat-out wrong for Jackson to go around (and if not outright encourage then allow others to do so on his behalf) being a flag officer, an Admiral when he’s not. It’s something that I’m sure grates on the Navy brass too but as I said they don’t like scandal so they try to look the other way. Still, it’s another indicator how much of a sleaze Jackson is:
Kuzminski also said that it was inappropriate for Jackson to describe himself as a retired rear admiral. “While it is possible that others will mistakenly refer to him as ‘Admiral’ in perpetuity, he himself should not make that mistake,” she said.
It’s not a mistake. It’s a f**king LIE and Jackson shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it. When, as is sure to happen he starts mouthing off to the cameras about how awesome Trump is and how “old and feeble” Biden is reporters need to HOUND him with the question Why should we take the word of someone who lies about having been DEMOTED in rank over his actions in the WH while he was Trump’s doctor? It’s long past time to put that sumbitch Jackson in his place by exposing him as both a hack and a liar.
Maybe what he meant to say was “retired AS an admiral”…
I wasn’t aware, although I had hoped given flynn’s disgraceful (and illegal?) behavior, the DoD could take away rank. Good to know! So here’s the question: why isn’t the army dealing with flynn? It’s not just that he needs to be demoted, because at the VERY LEAST that needs to happen, it’s why he isn’t having it ALL taken away. If they can demote, surely his behavior should elicit a complete removal of all retirement rank, privileges, and benefits.
U.S. Army officials–do your duty. You have an absolute criminal and in fact perhaps a TRAITOR getting all kinds of goodies and quite undeservedly. Time to take care of this waste.
The man responsible for the establishment of this Democracy, George Washington, and who willingly stepped away from the presidency, had no qualms about dealing with traitors. If Benedict Arnold had returned to the country, he would have been hung for treason. The conspirators that plotted the assassination of Lincoln were hung. When did we start acting like treason, conspiracy to overthrow the government, and collusion with enemies that want to destroy us, by looking the other way? The American Indians and the slaves certainly didn’t get such coddling. The main guy will address the nation tonight to lie once again and further his attempt to establish a dictatorship. We are courting disaster.
Another thumbs down nazi. Truth hurts doesn’t it? Glad to see you visit a site that cracks your shell of lies!
Maybe he can shoot his mouth off to the extent that he ends up being demoted to Oribnary Seaman.
Anyway – thius side of thje pond he wouldn’t have been an ‘admiral’ anyway. The Brits (and the Irish) have Commodores but for some reason the USN renamed the rank of Commodore to Rear Admiral (LH)
I was on active duty when this whole changing of that rank from Commodore to Rear Admiral was going on. There were articles in The Navy Times which is something I read regularly once upon a time. It seems that in the other branches all four flag ranks got the title General. One star = Brigadier General, two star = Major General, three star = Lt. General and finally four stars gets one the simple title of General.
So our one star Naval officers were all butt-hurt over the other branches having THEIR people get the title General (of some sort) but felt that the title “Commodore” was, if not demeaning then not giving them their due. That they weren’t considered “equals” of “Generals” but with the other branches but also abroad. Of course, there were some quips when this was written about that stood out. In one Navy Times article the author suggested Commodore was too much like “Commode” which I thought was pretty funny. Another was that it brought up “Popeye” thoughts from people who liked the cartoon.
It apparently got testy, as two stars that already had the title Rear Admiral didn’t like the suggestion of sharing it with the LH (lower half) and UH (upper half) qualifiers because they (correctly) believed the LH and UH would often get left off, ignored or misunderstood by non Naval service people. Other qualifiers were suggested such as Tug Admiral and some I can’t remember. But the Commodes, oops Commodores got their way and we wound up with Rear Admiral Lower Half. And believe me when that happened they were ALL puffed up and taking digs at Brigadier Generals because they knew that to the public/uneducated in such matters that they were going to be seen as higher ranking!
I’m long removed from that world but I’ll bet two star Rear Admirals still resent the f**k out of one stars strutting around pretending they are higher ranking than they are. Same for Brigadier Generals in the other branches.
So that’s the story. I’d imagine the Royal Navy, from whom our own got most of its traditions still snickers over it all. I can’t say as I blame them for our own Navy’s ridiculousness. One more reason I’m glad I chose to be a Marine! (and yes, we drew many of our own traditions from the Royal Marines)
The Brits got round the ‘problem’ of Brigadier General by simply changinbg the rank to ‘Brigadier’ (and dropped the ‘General’ bit). The RAF (which has sort of naval style titles) has an ‘Air Commodore’ between Group Captain and the three upper ‘Marshal’ ranks.
Then again, the Brits don’t go in for a fruit salad of ribbons on the chest – you only get any if you are (a) on active service in a zone where you can be shot at or (b) long service and good conduct (aka ‘undetected crime’) for 20 plus years.