“He overruled the advice of the captain who said ‘We shouldn’t do this mission,’ but what they’re holding him accountable for is not that - it’s the pre-deployment stuff,” explained Don Bolduc, a retired brigadier general who commanded special operations troops in Africa during the two years leading up to the Niger ambush, in an interview. In ordering that mission change, Painter overruled the Green Beret team commander in the field, The New York Times reported last year. He then ordered a second, more dangerous phase of the mission, during which local militants affiliated with the Islamic State ambushed the team near Tongo Tongo and killed four Americans, an investigation by the military’s Africa Command found last year. Painter is being punished not for his role in launching the failed 2017 Tongo Tongo mission but for what the military investigations characterized as failures to adequately prepare his Green Beret teams for their Africa deployment during a period of turnover of leaders in their unit.Īs the commander responsible for special operations troops in several West African countries at the time, Painter signed off on the first phase of the 2017 mission by one of his Green Beret teams in Niger. The service is also placing a formal reprimand in Painter’s “local” personnel file rather than his permanent file, a move less damaging to his future career.Ī spokesperson for the Army command overseeing the adviser units confirmed the change of command had taken place, but would not otherwise comment on it.īut removing a commander just before a deployment is an extraordinary step, especially for a newly established unit with a risky, high-visibility combat mission - and it has raised concerns that the Army is creating similar conditions in the adviser unit to those the investigations identified as contributing to the Tongo Tongo tragedy. During a recent visit to the adviser unit, Milley even described the change as a promotion, according to a current member of the adviser brigade who agreed to speak about sensitive personnel on condition of anonymity. Painter will now assume a key staff position in a larger adviser headquarters. Instead, it is calling the move a “directed change of command,” according to a current special operations officer and the former senior special operations officer, neither of whom was authorized to discuss the subject on the record. The Army is not using the word “relieved” to describe Painter’s removal. Mark Milley, whom Trump recently picked as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Intended to institutionalize the task of training and advising foreign troops, they have been a centerpiece of the Afghanistan strategy that President Donald Trump approved in 2017 and are the brainchild of Army chief of staff Gen. The new Army adviser units are relatively small groups of experienced soldiers, led by officers who have already commanded regular units.
“Painter built that battalion, and now at the eleventh hour they put in a new officer who doesn’t know the unit?” “I’m just dumbfounded by it, especially with a high-priority unit that’s about to go into combat for the first time,” said a former senior special operations officer.
David Painter had been cleared of wrongdoing in two investigations into the October 2017 battle near the Nigerien village of Tongo Tongo and had been selected to lead a battalion in one of the Army’s new security force assistance brigades when it deploys to Afghanistan later this month.īut then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis expressed dissatisfaction with the conclusions in November, leading top Army and special operations leaders to reprimand Painter last month and remove him from command of the Afghanistan-bound adviser unit.
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