USA TODAY International Edition
‘ Swinger’ life ruins general’s career
Secret sex, 11- year affair put him at risk of blackmail, spying
Army Maj. Gen. WASHINGTON David Haight, Army Ranger, decorated combat veteran and family man, held a key post in Europe this spring and a future with three, maybe four stars.
He also led a double life: an 11year affair and a “swinger lifestyle” of swapping sexual partners that put him at risk of blackmail and espionage, according to interviews and documents. Jennifer Armstrong, 49, a government employee, said she and Haight had been involved in the torrid love affair that began more than 10 years ago in Baghdad and ended this spring. Badly. His secret discovered, Haight was investigated by the Army inspector general, who issued a report in April, and he was fired in May from his job running operations and plans at U. S. European Command, the Pentagon’s frontline bulwark against Russia. The Army hauled him back to Washington, reprimanded him based on an internal investigation and put him in a placeholder job awaiting retirement. A board will determine the rank that he last served honorably. A demotion to colonel or lower would cost him tens of thousands of dollars a year.
Haight’s removal from European Command was not disclosed. It was revealed in July by USA TODAY, which received the Army inspector general’s report Wednesday after a Freedom of Information Act request.
Armstrong, who told USA TODAY in interviews that the relationship began with a flirty email and ended after assignations with multiple partners at swingers’ clubs, hotels and her home, said Haight had promised a future together. “I gave him the best years of my life,” she said.
In a statement issued after
news of his reprimand broke, Haight vowed to work with Army investigators untangling his dark, off- duty life.
“I am truly sorry for the pain I have caused my wife and family,” Haight said in a second statement Wednesday. “On their behalf, I ask that their privacy be respected during this difficult time.” SECURITY RISKS How Haight, the married father of four adult children who has held a succession of increasingly influential jobs, maintained his intimate secret is unclear. His superiors promoted him three times since his affair with Armstrong began.
Screeners of officials for security clearances — particularly those trusted with access to the nation’s most sensitive information like Haight — scrutinize financial and family stability to guard against vulnerability to bribes or blackmail.
If an adversary such as Russia had learned of Haight’s affair and sexual adventures, he would have been a prime target for blackmail, said four senior government officials who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Russia, one of the officials said, aggressively intercepts telephone calls.
An investigative report showed that from June to November 2015, Haight used his government cellphone to make 84 private calls for more than 1,400 minutes of conversation. Further, testimony showed that Haight frequently left his office in Stuttgart, Germany, because it was in a building designed for secure communication, a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF.
At European Command, he was in charge of the military’s plans and operations to confront Russia’s increasing aggression in Eastern Europe.
“When MG Haight disappeared and someone needed to get ahold of him, ( name redacted) knew to check the hallway, outside of the SCIF, where he was usually on his cellphone,” the report noted.
Haight, in his job overseeing operations at European Command and previously as a top aide to Adm. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would have had access to the most sensitive national security information. Indeed, Haight was a key adviser to Mullen at the time of the raid in 2011 that killed Osama bin Laden and during the peak of U. S. involvement in Afghanistan.
Haight’s case underscores the military’s problem with misconduct among its most senior officers. In November, Defense Secretary Ash Carter abruptly fired his senior military adviser, Army Lt. Gen. Ron Lewis, for personal misconduct; the Pentagon inspector general continues to investigate Lewis. In March, the Air Force fired one of its top officers, Lt. Gen. John Hesterman, after investigators determined that he had sent sexually suggestive emails to a married female officer. The Navy is investigating a slew of commanders ensnared in the “Fat Leonard” bribery scandal in which they allegedly traded secret information about ship movements for prostitutes and other blandishments to enrich Glenn Defense Marine Asia and its flamboyant owner “Fat Leonard” Glenn Francis.
A senior Army official indicated that incidents of misconduct are rare among the service’s 1,000 senior leaders. Less than 6% of allegations made against senior leaders were substantiated in fiscal year 2015, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because officials were not authorized to comment publicly. Haight was removed promptly, reprimanded and effectively forced to retire after the allegations against him were substantiated, the official said. HOW IT BEGAN
The inspector general’s report dates the affair to Feb. 12, 2005, when Armstrong worked as a contractor in Iraq handling the remains of combat fatalities. Smitten after seeing Haight at a base, she emailed every David Haight in the Army directory, saying he had a “terrific smile.” Eventually, she found the right Haight — Lt. Col. David B. Haight, commander of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, elite troops who accompanied commandos on sensitive, dangerous raids. Haight is a distant relation of an apostle of the Church of Latter Day Saints.
Haight eventually responded to Armstrong’s email, and they hit it off. Haight’s honesty and sociability were attractive, she said, but he had a “hard part,” a mark left by the war. They quickly became romantic, and he promised her they would spend their lives together after he left the military, she said.
Armstrong’s account of their affair is backed up by emails she said the two shared, indicating trysts involving other women, other couples and encounters with strangers at swingers’ clubs.
Armstrong’s name is redacted in the Army inspector general’s report about Haight. She identified herself to USA TODAY as his longtime girlfriend and swinging companion. Armstrong provided copies of emails from Haight’s official military account that show their relationship continued into 2015.
Haight’s trajectory in the Army had been ever upward after graduating from the Army ROTC program at Brigham Young University and commissioning as a second lieutenant in 1986, according to his EUCOM biography. He graduated from the Army’s Ranger school and would go on to command its elite platoons and battalions in combat in Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2015, anonymous tips about Haight’s extramarital affairs were brought to the Pentagon’s inspector general.
Ultimately, the Army’s inspector general took the case. The Army ordered Haight to sever contact with Armstrong.
Investigators interviewed her and others and substantiated allegations that he had “had an affair and lived a ‘ swinger lifestyle.’ ”
The inspector general’s report refers to testimony that indicates Armstrong and Haight “visited swingers’ clubs while he was stationed at Fort Benning, Ga.” Haight was assigned to Benning from July 2012 to October 2013.
They had parties at Armstrong’s house, she said. Some of the sex parties were arranged with partners through emails pinged back and forth to find convenient times.
A board will determine Haight’s retirement rank. A clean record could have earned him nearly $ 123,000 in his first year of retirement. If he’s busted back to colonel, his pay could drop to about $ 98,000.
“I am truly sorry for the pain I have caused my wife and family. On their behalf, I ask that their privacy be respected during this difficult time.” Army Maj. Gen. David Haight