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Airmen accused former wing leader of bullying

Life in the 11th Wing, by most accounts, was simply miserable when former Col. Jon Roop was in charge. He threatened senior officers with their careers. He stood inches from lower-ranking airmen, attacking them so viciously that some broke down in tears. He dropped the F-bomb for effect.

The findings of an investigation that led to Roop’s dismissal a year ago paint a picture of a commander who made life a living hell at Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, D.C. Roop retired June 1, ending a 24-year career.

“Without a doubt in my mind, this tour of duty since July 2008 has been by far the most difficult, stressful and hard to face that I can remember,” an officer at Bolling told the officer conducting the investigation ordered by Roop’s boss, Lt. Gen. Ralph Jodice, the commander of Air Force District of Washington.

Another airman testified: “It was common knowledge around the wing that his name was the equivalent of a verb, as in ‘Have you been Rooped today?’Ÿ”

Even those who did not accuse Roop of inappropriate behavior acknowledged his confrontational style.

“Col. Roop does tend to invade personal space to get his point across,” a witness said.

Thirteen days after the investigating officer presented his findings, on Oct. 6, 2009, Jodice fired Roop. In a statement released at the time, Jodice said he had lost faith in Roop’s ability to lead.

Jodice declined to comment further to Air Force Times and could not be reached directly for this story because he was overseeing a training exercise as part of his duties now as NATO’s commander of Allied Air Component Command Headquarters Izmir, Turkey. Through spokeswoman Susan Strednansky, however, Jodice told Air Force Times that he stands behind his decision to dismiss Roop.

At the time of his firing, Roop refused to speak publicly. But after the release of the year-old report Oct. 18, he called Air Force Times and spent the better part of an hour defending himself.

Roop, who now works as a consultant for a defense contractor in the Washington area, vehemently denied the three allegations the Air Force did not redact from the 38-page report. In all, lawyers for the Air Force secretary blacked out 24 pages, including the investigating officer’s recommendations to Jodice on disciplinary actions or criminal charges against Roop. All names except Roop’s were deleted for what the lawyers cited as “privacy interests.”

Despite possibly violating military law, Roop had no other actions taken against him by the Air Force other than losing his command.

To help repair his reputation, Roop wants the Air Force Board for the Correction of Military Records to expunge his last officer performance report, the one that he claims ended his career.

“I don’t expect to get my command back,” Roop told Air Force Times.

The OPR, according to Roop, should be discarded because it was based, in part, on the investigation’s incorrect determinations.

“Was I mean or cruel? No,” he said. “Did I curse? I don’t remember it.”

Roop insists Jodice never laid out the reasons for his firing or the abysmal OPR.

“I’m sure the commander-directed investigation influenced the decision,” Roop said.

Air Force Times learned about the investigation in March and requested a copy of the report through the Freedom of Information Act. The Air Force District of Washington rejected the request in April and Air Force Times immediately appealed the decision. The report was released six month later.

Trouble times two

During his time as commander of the 11th, Roop oversaw day-to-day operations at Bolling. The base itself doesn’t host flying squadrons but is home to about 1,800 airmen and several high-profile units, including the Air Force Honor Guard and the Air Force Band.

As of Oct. 1, the Navy took over most of Bolling’s support operations as part of a joint basing agreement between the services. The 11th — today led by Col. Kenneth Rizer — moved 10 miles to Joint Base Andrews, Md., and took over management of Andrews’ support missions.

Roop assumed command of the 11th in late June 2008 after serving about a year as vice commander of the Air Force District of Washington.

After a little more than year on the base, Roop had two complaints — one signed, one anonymous — filed against him. The complainants went first to the Defense Department inspector general and then to Jodice. The order from Jodice for the investigation came down in late August 2009.

The investigating officer looked into at least six allegations. Only three — Nos. 1, 5 and 6 — made it into the report released to Air Force Times.

The first states Roop grabbed a subordinate by the collar of his jacket and used the F-word, a violation of Article 93 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that prohibits cruelty and maltreatment.

Roop acknowledges only that he met with the subordinate.

“I did not curse at him,” Roop told Air Force Times. “I did not [grab the jacket.]”

Allegation No. 5 also accuses Roop of maltreating his subordinates and creating “an atmosphere of oppression and fear by vicious and relentless personal attacks” and intimidating one subordinate to the point of tears. Again, the investigating officer cited violation of Article 93.

Roop told Air Force Times that the subordinate who he allegedly made cry related two versions of the incident to the investigating officer.

“She gave two statements and in one of the statements she said I did not make her cry,” Roop said.

The subordinate allegedly cried often, and Roop told Air Force Times that he had counseled the airman not to become emotional in public.

The last allegation, No. 6, stated Roop “ridiculed an airman not in his chain of command over a trivial point” and the subordinate became “visibly upset.” The airman had been presenting a mission briefing to a visiting officer.

Roop insists he didn’t belittle the airman.

“In his testimony,” Roop told Air Force Times, the officer who was briefed “said I didn’t do that.”

The report doesn’t state how many subordinates talked with the investigating officer; Roop put the number of witnesses at 18, eight of whom had meetings with him. The others, he said, told the investigating officer about what they had overheard or learned secondhand.

Much of the report addressed the workplace climate created by Roop or cited other encounters between Roop and subordinates.

On the working environment Roop created:

• “He personally attacks people for no reason at all. He has threatened virtually every commander not to use their functional chain of command and when they do he reprises.”

• “Col. Roop’s leadership style was one of using fear, intimidation and verbal bullying to get his way. He was very friendly and endearing with the young airmen and junior-ranking military and civilians but was extremely brash and confrontational with middle management and squadron and group leadership.”

• “When he spoke to us at the squadron commanders-level of other field grade officers, he could be intimidating and would often speak down to us or make disparaging statements in public meetings.”

Specific examples back up the statements about the overall tone that Roop set.

In January 2009, for example, Roop confronted a subordinate who was coordinating a request from Congress for 10 buses for lawmakers and their guests to attend a prayer breakfast.

The subordinate “had not properly coordinated the request,” leaving Roop furious, the report said.

According to the investigating officer, Roop grabbed the junior officer by the collar of his winter coat and swore at him. “You’re young and you’ll learn loyalty. ... You f----ed me another time with [blanked out] by going around me to your functional [commander].”

Shortly after taking command, in October 2008, Roop took on a subordinate during a staff meeting for doing work requested by a commander outside the wing’s chain of command. The confrontation caused the subordinate to break down.

“You brought this all on yourself,” Roop told the airman, according to a witness.

A harbinger, supporters

Roop, according to the report, had worked with several of the 11th’s group and squadron commanders as vice commander of the Air Force District of Washington, a position he held from July 2007 until he took over at Bolling 11 months later.

One witness told the investigating officer: “I personally feel he came from the AFDW vice commander position with the mindset that the [blanked out] was broken and he had an agenda to personally fix every problem.”

A witness recalled a confrontation in late 2007 after a meeting about the Air Force Charity Ball. Roop summoned a briefer to his office, stood inches from the airman and stated in a raised voice, “How dare you go toe-to-toe with a two-star and never once call him ‘Sir’ ... Who the hell do you think you are?”

Roop, though, contends he would never have been appointed commander of the 11th if his performance as vice commander had not been acceptable.

As proof of his leadership skills, Roop pointed to his 20-plus years of service before arriving at the 11th. After graduating from the Air Force Academy in 1986, Roop spent most of his career in civil engineering and related assignments. He earned a Bronze Star in 2006 for his yearlong tour at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, as the commander of the 332d Expeditionary Mission Support Group.

The report overall fails to put the events in context and leaves out the wing’s accomplishments in setting the stage for the 2010 merger of Bolling and Naval Support Facility Anacostia, Roop said. The combined installations are now called Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling.

Preparing for the merger along with privatizing base housing became what Roop described as top priorities for him as soon as he took command of the 11th. The clock was ticking for both projects.

“I was more hands on,” Roop said, comparing his leadership style to his predecessor.

Roop spoke about the high expectations he had for his group and squadron leaders. He acknowledged becoming abrasive — but always within bounds — when they disappointed him.

In his conversation with Air Force Times, Roop kept returning to the comments of his supporters that the report, as he characterized it, mostly ignored.

Roop provided comments from unnamed officials who wrote letters in support of him. He didn’t identify the authors because their letters weren’t included in the redacted report.

Excerpts from the letters:

• “The best part of Col. Roop’s leadership style was that after he gave you a job to do, he left you alone until it was accomplished. I never saw him micromanage any task unless the person assigned was failing.”

• “You knew when you met with him that you needed to know your subject and be ready to articulate it well. If you did not, he would respectfully ask you to return when you were more prepared.”

• “Col. Roop has an engineering background, which I think gives him a detailed way of doing things ... And I think doing that enforced the standards that were set ... I admire the man.”

• “He enjoyed meeting one-on-one in a friendly atmosphere, lay out the issues and would ask the right questions and made quick, detailed, informed decisions.”

• “He’s a man of honor and a great role model.”

When asked how his subordinates could have such differing opinions of his performance at Bolling, Roop didn’t have an answer.

In the months before the investigation and OPR, Roop said Jodice had given him high scores in nominating him to attend courses at the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, N.C., a school whose graduates include several general officers.

After Jodice received the report, Roop said he heard nothing from his boss until he was summoned to Jodice’s office on the afternoon he was fired.

Roop recalled that Jodice read a statement announcing he was being relieved of command. The two never spoke again.

A year after the dismissal, Roop said he still doesn’t understand how anyone — especially officers he worked with — could have believed the complaints.

“I didn’t do this,” Roop said. “It is so widely out of character.”