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Article excerpts (emphasis added):
“A Black female U.S. Army captain and Adjutant General (AG) officer claims that her supervisor, a chaplain superior, made a remark last year that involved having her ‘tied to a tree,’ with official documentation of the alleged incident showing different sides of the story.
“Tatyana Jordan, 30, of Columbia, S.C., spoke with Military.com about remarks allegedly made towards her while at work last year at Fort Jackson. ...”
[…]
“That was when [Chaplain Maj. Edward] Blackledge allegedly said the following to her: ‘You need to focus on getting that spreadsheet done before the meeting or I’ll need to tie you to a tree and beat you.’
“‘This is something I will never forget,’ Jordan told Military.com. ‘This was not said in isolation. It was said by a senior leader, in uniform, in a professional Army environment. As a Black woman, that statement carried a weight far beyond the words themselves. It evoked a deeply painful and violent history in this country: lynching, racial terror, and the dehumanization of people who look like me.’”
[…]
“‘I do not recall making the statement, ‘I need to tie you to a tree and beat you,’’ Blackledge said in his statement. ‘I’m not denying that I said it, but I do not recall making that statement. I do recall telling CPT Jordan, in jest, that I would have to punch her in the face if she did not complete a specific project on time. I may have made the alleged statement during the same conversation.’”
[…]
“Late last year, following the findings relayed within the 15-6, Jordan surveyed her options. It led to her reaching out for guidance to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), which represents in excess of 100,000 military personnel.
“‘After exhausting internal channels and being left without meaningful recourse, I reached out to MRFF because I felt completely helpless,’ she said. ‘MRFF advocates for the constitutional rights of scores of thousands of service members and provides support to those facing religious harassment, abuse of authority, and leadership misconduct. This is exactly what my family and I needed.’
“MRFF President and founder Mikey Weinstein told Military.com that the Fort Jackson Chaplain School has always been a ‘hot spot‘ for these types of complaints, saying Jordan’s ‘hardly the first chaplain’ or non-chaplain enlisted or civilian personnel from there to seek assistance from the organization.
“Jordan wanted ‘to give the Army a chance’ and let the investigation unfold before going to the media or through other avenues, he said.
“‘You don't tell a subordinate anywhere, particularly in the U.S. military, that you’re going to tie them to a tree and beat them,’ Weinstein said. ‘But least of all, a Black woman in a military installation in a ruby red state like South Carolina because that happened a lot there in history.’”
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