https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2...nvestigations/
Two-star fired from running top secret program office; under multiple IG investigations
A groundbreaking female fighter pilot was
fired from her current job as director of the Defense Department’s Special Access Programs Central Office — which manages and oversees some of the military’s most secretive classified programs — and is under several
inspector general investigations.
Maj. Gen. Dawn Dunlop is no longer running SAPCO, and is now serving as a special assistant to Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Seve Wilson, DoD spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Andrews confirmed in an emailed statement to
Air Force Times, .Air Force Times has also learned from a knowledgeable source that multiple ongoing
IG investigations convinced Pentagon leadership that Dunlop needed to be removed. Dunlop also may be considering retirement.
It is not apparent exactly what Dunlop is being investigated for, and she was not available for comment by press time. But another source with knowledge of the office, who asked not to be identified, said Dunlop fostered a toxic work environment. Dunlop would call senior leaders from the services “idiots,” he said, and would directly call people from the Army and Air Force and scream at them on the phone.
The source said that things reached a boiling point May 31, when Dunlop lost her temper in a meeting with senior Air Force civilians. An Air Force civilian immediately told Ellen Lord, the Pentagon’s top acquisition official, about the situation in the office, the source said, and Lord walked over to the SAPCO office and removed Dunlop.
In a May 31 email obtained by
Air Force Times, Lord told top Pentagon, Air Force and Army leaders — including Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist and Gen. Wilson — that she had made a change in the office. Army Col. Bruce Monroe is now taking on leadership roles in the office on a temporary basis, according to the email.
Special access programs are among the military’s most closely guarded secrets, and are classified at some of the highest levels of the U.S. government. The office Dunlop directed until recently managed and oversaw those programs........
The Air Force also fired another two-star general, Maj. Gen. Peter Gersten, from his leadership role days after Dunlop was removed. Gersten was relieved of command of the Air Force Warfare Center at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada June 2 over allegations of an unprofessional relationship.