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Defense Secretary William Cohen has ordered a review of the entire case. But even before it is taken up, top Pentagon civilians are seething at the Army's public relations blunder and the demoralizing impact the handling of the case could have on the troops. "You don't let someone go until the inspector general has finished the investigation," says a senior civilian overseeing Pentagon personnel matters. Says Lawrence Korb, a former Pentagon personnel chief: "It was stupid for them to let him out. There's no certainty they can get him back if they decide he needs to be punished." Even a senior Army officer concedes, "If we'd known back then what we know now about the severity of the charges, we'd probably have kept him on active duty."
Army officers close to Hale's boss, Army Chief of Staff General Dennis Reimer, have been quick to speak up for the retired general. They acknowledge that they don't know for sure what occurred between him and Carpino. But their comments, designed in part to protect Reimer, the Army's top general, betray a willingness to disparage a female accuser. They suggest it was Carpino who was the harasser, the one "stalking" Hale. The general, they say, wanted to retire quickly to avoid dragging himself and the Army through the mud. "She thought she was going to get to marry a general, so she dumped the colonel," an Army officer volunteers. "But Hale apparently didn't live up to her view of his obligation, so the hell-hath-no-fury syndrome took over."
Hale's career began with great promise, both as a soldier and as a seducer. "Intelligence, ambition, and a huge capacity for consuming alcoholic beverages, coupled with an ability to handle members of the opposite sex, have combined to make Dave one of the most respected cadets in the corps," was the assessment of West Point's 1967 yearbook, The Howitzer. He earned a Purple Heart and a Silver Star in Vietnam, and was regarded as a good and affable officer. An avid hunter, Hale insisted that his troops--and their spouses--call him Dave, even when he was wearing his uniform with the pair of stars on each shoulder.
His slide into early retirement began after Carpino arrived in Turkey with her husband and their five-year-old son Nico. The colonel--who does not want his name used because the scandal might hinder his effort to find a civilian job--was serving as the deputy to Hale, the senior U.S. officer in NATO's Allied Land Forces, Southeastern Europe command. Because Hale was divorced, Carpino, 44, was the senior Army spouse among the 150 military families in Izmir. Hale often called upon her to help him entertain, filling the traditional role of the senior officer's wife.