Wow. This Marine Colonel was a scumbag.

via The Australian.

The Australian has confirmed new details behind the highly unusual removal of USMC Colonel Daniel Hunter Wilson from his role as liaison to the US Marine Rotational Force in Darwin in February 2016.

Colonel Wilson was returned to a new posting in the US where he was alleged to have gone on to sexually molest the young daughters of another officer and sexually assaulted a female friend of his family.
Last week he faced a court martial over the offences and was found guilty of sexual abuse of a six-year-old child and sentenced to five and half years in a military jail.
The Australian understands that high level US commanders are under scrutiny over a decision to return Colonel Wilson to another posting after his conduct in Darwin in 2016 had been flagged by his highly respected Aussie counterpart Royal Australian Navy Commander Greg Mapson.

Story here. 

Note:  I usually don't dabble in punishments handed out to Marines.  Even the people that are involved in questionable behavior (like attending a white supremacists rally) I feel deserve the benefit of the doubt(that famous "oh shit moment I talk about).  That's why I don't post about it.  But this particular thing  needs to be highlighted.  You might have read about his case down in Lejeune but the story coming out of Darwin shows that the warning signs were glaring and the Officers Club/Fraternity protected their own at the cost of a molested child.

I know what you're saying.  Doesn't this count as an "oh shit moment"? In my opinion no.  The higher in rank, the less tolerance for poor judgement.  This dude was a Colonel in the United States Marine Corps.  One step away from General and potentially could have been in command of a Regiment.

To cut an individual at that grade any slack when it comes to not being able to handle his alcohol, not knowing when chasing tail turns into harassment and we won't even talk about what he did to a child means that the only thing he rates is 20 plus years in jail, not slack of any kind.

I hope this is isolated and not a canary in the coal mine of a breakdown in discipline in the Marine Corps.  If the officers are starting to go bat shit stupid its gonna roll downhill and we're gonna be looking at the Marine Corps of the 70's...and from what I heard that was a real bad time for the Corps.