General charged with rape vanishes from Pentagon website

Poof!

Just like that, an official biography of Air Force Maj. Gen. Phillip A. Stewart detailing his accomplishments and decorations has vanished from a Pentagon gallery of generals dating back decades.

The apparent reason?

Stewart, former head of the 19th Air Force, the service’s San Antonio-based training arm, has been charged with raping a female subordinate. He’s facing a court-martial in June but has asked to be allowed to retire rather than face trial.

Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said Stewart’s bio and official portrait, which showed him in dress-blue uniform with a chest covered in decorations, were taken down “as a matter of course.”

Stewart was disappeared in phases. First, his bio was removed from the website of the San Antonio-based Air Education and Training Command, the parent organization of the 19th Air Force. Then it was scrubbed from the Pentagon’s “repository of general officer biographies,” Stefanek said.

She added: “It will be restored in the central repository shortly, updated to reflect that he remains in the Air Force but is no longer serving as 19th AF commander.”

Stewart’s biography could not be found on the website Thursday.

He was sacked as commander of the 19th Air Force in May, after military investigators began looking into the rape allegation against him. He is currently assigned to administrative duty.

Stewart is accused of sexually assaulting a female officer at or near Altus AFB in southwestern Oklahoma on April 13 and again the following day. His defense team maintains that Stewart and the woman had a consensual affair. Military prosecutors assert that given Stewart’s rank and power, the officer had no choice but to submit to his advances.

In December, Stewart’s boss — Lt. Gen. Brian Robinson, commander of the AETC — ordered him to stand trial. Stewart is accused of sexual assault, conduct unbecoming an officer, dereliction of duty and other violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. If convicted of all charges, he could be sentenced to up to 63 years in a military penitentiary.

Robinson overruled a recommendation by a hearing examiner that the rape charge should be dismissed and the other allegations resolved through administrative action.

Stewart has petitioned the Air Force to allow him to retire rather than face trial. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall will make the final decision on the request.

Stewart was a command pilot with more than 2,600 hours in the air, including more than 600 hours in combat. He flew nearly a dozen types of aircraft, including the F-15C, a twin-engine tactical fighter; the U-2, a high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance plane; the T-37, a twin-engine jet trainer; and the T-38C, a supersonic trainer.

He led the 362nd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron at Balad Air Base in Iraq and was commanding general of the NATO Train Advise Assist Command-Air

in Afghanistan.

As head of the 19th Air Force, he oversaw 32,000 employees and 1,530 aircraft assigned to 17 wings across the United States.

The 19th leads cadet flight orientation at the Air Force Academy and trains both entry-level and advanced fighter pilots, as well as drone pilots, combat systems officers, and air mobility and special operations combat crews.

Only one other general in Air Force history has faced a courtmartial. Maj. Gen. William T. Cooley, who commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio, was convicted in April 2022 of abusive sexual conduct and was reduced to the rank of colonel.

Cooley retired in June. His general officer bio also has been purged from the Pentagon website.

Stewart