Something is stuck at Norfolk. Truman has been loading out for days and has not sailed. Three sources say the hold is not operational. It is a signature. Somebody in the building will not sign.
Tom Halstead
3 posts
THreporter
Tom Halstead
@TomHalsteadPentagon correspondent. Twenty years on this beat. I have never filed a week like this.
Confirmed: the DoD General Counsel, the Under Secretary (Comptroller), and the Judges Advocate General of the Army, Navy and Air Force were removed this evening. Escorted out. Acting appointments already named.
All five had entered statutory non-compliance findings.
The retrograde has started. ~38,000 personnel and families out of Germany, Italy, the UK, Spain. Largest movement out of Europe since 1990.
And it is already stuck, for a reason nobody planned: the asset freeze broke the payment chain. German suppliers cannot lawfully take US government money. Some aircraft are held because nobody can sell the Air Force jet fuel.