Baltimore-bred Genl. William E. ‘Kip’ Ward stands accused of misconduct, including stays at posh hotels and allowing his wife to send a member of his staff on a personal errand to buy Snickers bars.
AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENCLAVE
NORTHWEST OF ROLAND PARK
Accused of unauthorized, lavish spending,
including lengthy stays in luxury hotels
WIFE SENT AIDE FOR SNICKERS BARS
UPDATE (Nov. 13th): Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta today stripped Gen. William E. “Kip” Ward of one of his four stars, allowing him to retire as a three-star lieutenant general. Panetta also ordered Ward to repay the government $82,000.
Retiring as a three-star general will cost Ward nearly $30,000 a year in retirement pay, affording him about $208,800 a year rather than the $236,650 he would have received in retirement as a four-star general.
By Alan Z. Forman
When fighter pilot and Tuskegee Institute graduate Chappie James became the first African-American to achieve the rank of four-star general in the United States armed forces, William E. “Kip” Ward was barely out of college and into graduate school at Penn State University.
The year was 1975, and Ward was finishing a B.A. in political science at Morgan State. Three decades earlier, when James was first commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in 1943, the Army was segregated. There were no black officers of senior rank.
Ward grew up in Northwest Baltimore, just over the county line in a small suburban enclave of historically black-owned homes not far from Roland Park and Mount Washington — Bare Hills, where his mother still lives — then went on to become one of only five African-American four-star generals in the history of the U.S. Army, the best known of these being former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
He stands to lose as many as two of those stars before the end of August when Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is expected to rule on his punishment for misuse of government funds and military aircraft in the wake of an Army Inspector General’s report released to the Associated Press at week’s end charging him with excessive, unauthorized spending and travel costs, including lengthy stays at posh hotels for himself, his wife and staff members.
Following a 17-month investigation the IG has also charged Ward with using military vehicles to shuttle his wife on shopping trips and to a spa, and for allowing her to dispatch a staff member on a personal errand to buy a bag of dark chocolate Snickers bars.
He and his wife frequently used staff to run personal errands, the IG’s 99-page report reveals. In addition, Ward was warned several times by staff that his activities were over the top, but he rejected their concerns and apparently found ways to get around them.
Daniel ‘Chappie’ James Jr. (dec. 1978) was the U.S. military's first African-American four-star general.
“We conclude General Ward engaged in multiple forms of misconduct related to official and unofficial travel,” the Inspector General’s report declares, adding that he conducted official travel “for primarily personal reasons” and misused military aircraft, and that he charged and received reimbursement for travel expenses far exceeding approved levels.
It is not clear whether Ward will be forced to repay the government or if he might be criminally charged. However investigators disagreed with several of his explanations as documented in the report, in several cases catching him making statements contradictory to the facts.
He and his wife Joyce routinely stayed in high-priced suites in luxury hotels, the Inspector General found, and often extended his largesse by giving what the IG termed “needless and extravagant” gifts to others at government expense, and spent upwards of $34,000 on holiday parties in 2009 and 2010.
Since March 2011 he has been serving in a two-star major-general billet, as a special assistant to the Army’s vice chief of staff. Despite a retirement ceremony held for him at that time, he remains on active duty.
In addition to his B.A. from Morgan State, Ward holds an M.A. Degree from Pennsylvania State University, both in political science.
alforman@voiceofbaltimore.org
Editor’s note: Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. trained pilots during World War II for the all-black 9th Pursuit Squadron of what was then the Army Air Corps, later to become the U.S. Air Force. He also served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars before achieving the rank of Air Force general in 1975. He died in 1978.
Bare Hills is northeast of Mount Washington, northwest of Roland Park and Robert E. Lee Park, in Baltimore County, a stone’s throw from CBS Sports Radio Station 105.7-The Fan, where former city and state Police Commissioner and Superintendent Ed Norris does his on-air sports-talk show, with co-host Steve Davis, weekday mornings from 5:30 to 10 a.m.
The Boston Globe and San Francisco Chronicle both ran the Associated Press coverage of the IG’s report on General Ward. The story in the Globe (click here) includes the reporter’s byline.
