Panel to decide if former Special Forces officer Matt Golsteyn will be thrown out of Army
By Dan Lamothe
The Washington Post
Published: April 8, 2015
WASHINGTON — A former Green Beret officer who was stripped of one of the military’s top awards for heroism by the Army secretary will soon face a panel of officers that can throw him out of the service, according to the officer’s lawyer and Army officials.
Army Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn will face an administrative hearing known as a board of inquiry the week of May 18, according to a memorandum sent March 26 by the panel’s top officer, Col. Stuart Goldsmith. It is believed the board will review evidence against Golsteyn in the 2010 death of a Taliban bomb maker that the Army Criminal Investigation Command already has reviewed. That probe closed last year without Golsteyn being charged with any crime, according to officials familiar with the case.
Golsteyn’s lawyer, Phil Stackhouse, confirmed the tentative hearing date and said that his client is concerned about being separated from the Army under other-than-honorable circumstances because it would eliminate medical benefits that most veterans receive. An Army medical board is currently evaluating a medical retirement for Golsteyn based on an operation he had on his heart while serving, spinal damage, a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress, Stackhouse said.
A spokesman for U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Lt. Col. Mark Lastoria, said the Army began moving to separate Golsteyn from the service in February. The board of inquiry will be convened by Army Special Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., and will allow Golsteyn to make a case for why he should remain on active duty, Lastoria said.
Golsteyn’s case garnered widespread attention after he received several other forms of punishment following the launch of an Army investigation. Among them, the Army threw him out of the Special Forces, reassigned him as a conventional infantry officer and took away his Special Forces tab, a qualification that goes to any soldier who completes Special Forces training.
Golsteyn also was denied a major valor award for heroism during the iconic Battle of Marja in Afghanistan on Feb. 20, 2010. He later received the Silver Star for heroism that day and was eventually approved for an upgrade to the Distinguished Service Cross, which is second only to the Medal of Honor in recognizing battlefield heroism. But Army Secretary John McHugh took back the awards, deciding Golsteyn deserved neither because of his actions in the alleged bomb maker incident, which occurred later on in the same 2010 deployment.
The case has been shrouded in mystery in part because of the secretive nature of the Army’s investigation into Golsteyn, a former member of 3rd Special Forces Group, and the special operations missions he led in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. Neither Army officials nor Golsteyn’s advocates have been willing to elaborate on the allegations leveled against him. The Army began investigating him after he interviewed for a job with the CIA, three sources with knowledge of the probe told The Post in February.
A number of influential people have advocated on Golsteyn’s behalf, especially Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, R-Calif., a Marine veteran. He has blasted the Army and McHugh specifically for taking action against Golsteyn after the criminal investigation failed to yield any charges.
A spokesman for Hunter, Joe Kasper, said Wednesday that McHugh had "plenty of opportunities to make things right" with Golsteyn, but decided not do so.
"If they actually found something, they would have charged Matt criminally," Kasper said. "They tried, and they wanted to charge him, but they couldn’t. So the administrative proceeding is the Army’s way of saying it didn’t find a thing on its own. There was no supporting evidence to the allegation of the dead bomb maker - plain and simple."
A spokesman for McHugh, Lt. Col. Christopher Kasker, declined to comment. But McHugh defended his decision in a Feb. 26 letter to Hunter.
"Every step in the process of investigating Major Golsteyn’s actions, and reviewing and subsequently revoking his valor awards has been thorough, objective and justified," McHugh wrote in the letter, obtained by The Washington Post. "The Army’s investigation demonstrated that Major Golsteyn’s service during or at the time of the distinguished act, achievement or meritorious service was not honorable, which led to the revocation of the Distinguished Service Cross."
http://www.stripes.com/news/army/panel-to-decide-if-former-special-forces-officer-matt-golsteyn-will-be-thrown-out-of-army-1.339027
