angelburst29
The Living Force
From some of the information I came across - Rear-Admiral John Ring has a very impressive military record in the Navy, working his way up through the ranks. He's also a naval flight officer (NFO). Ring took command of JTF-GTMO in April 2018. Digging deeper, it seems that Admiral Ring's greatest offense - is that he posses "a moral conscious"? Can't have that attribute at Gitmo!
Rear Adm. John Ring - Joint Task Force Guantanamo Commander
Rear Admiral John C. Ring > Joint Task Force Guantanamo > Bio Article View
Rear Adm. John Ring is a native of San Diego and was commissioned in 1988 through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps, University of Arizona after receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science.
He holds a Masters in Strategic Studies from the Air Command and Staff College and in Public Administration from Auburn
University. He was designated as a naval flight officer (NFO) in May1990.
Ring’s command tours include USS Nimitz (CVN 68), USS Comstock (LSD 45) and the Black Eagles of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 113.
Ring served at sea with VAW-123 on board USS America (CV-66) during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was selected to serve as the Air
Defense Officer on board USS Chancellorsville (CG-62) and USS Port Royal (CG-73) where he qualified in Surface Warfare. Additional sea
duty assignments include VAW-112, Carrier Strike Force Training Pacific and as the executive officer of USS Nimitz.
Ashore, his assignments included Carrier Airborne Early Warning Weapons School (CAEWWS), Joint Theater Air and Missile Defense Office (JTAMDO), Joint Staff, J8 Directorate where he worked Ballistic Missile Defense issues and was aircraft carrier requirements officer for Commander, Naval Air Forces, Atlantic. Previously, Ring served as the executive assistant to the director, Air Warfare (OPNAV N98).
Ring’s awards include the Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Strike Flight Air Medals, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals and other various personal and campaign medals. Ring was recognized as Hawkeye NFO of the Year and awarded the Navy and Marine Association peer selected leadership award.
Guantanamo Bay Admiral Fired Due to Loss of Confidence
A spokesman for SOUTHCOM told Military.com that Ring has been temporarily assigned duties at the command's Miami headquarters pending forthcoming permanent reassignment. He would not comment on the reasons for Ring's relief or any additional actions that might be taken.
Ring took command of JTF-GTMO in April 2018. A naval flight officer, he was commissioned in 1988 and previously served as the executive assistant to the Navy's director of air warfare. He has also completed command tours with the carrier Nimitz, the dock landing ship Comstock, and Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 113.
Gitmo Task Force Commander's Firing Comes After Criticism of Detainee Treatment
Gitmo Task Force Commander's Firing Comes After Criticism of Detainee Treatment
Rear Adm. John Ring, Joint Task Force Guantanamo Commander, speaks to JTF Troopers during an All Hands meeting at the Camp Bulkeley Lyceum on May 17, 2018. (National Guard/Sgt. Zachary Tomesh/112th MPAD/JTF GTMO PAO)
Just one day before his abrupt firing as commander of detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Rear Adm. John Ring said publicly that detainees there may not be receiving adequate medical treatment.
On Friday, Ring was quoted in a Defense One article as questioning the U.S. policy that prevents the transfer of detainees to the United States, even in the case of a medical emergency.
"I'm sort of caught between a rock and a hard place," Ring said in Defense One. "The Geneva Conventions' Article III, that says that I have to give the detainees equivalent medical care that I would give to a trooper. But if a trooper got sick, I'd send him home to the United States. And so I'm stuck. Whatever I'm going to do, I have to do here."
Ring was scheduled to move onto another assignment after a change of command in June, but his abrupt firing "had nothing to do" with his comments in the Defense One story, Army Col. Amanda Azubuike, spokeswoman for SOUTHCOM, told Military.com on Monday.
Guantanamo Bay currently houses 40 detainees, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who allegedly planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Ring was also quoted as saying that some of the detainees are "pre-diabetic" and could develop serious health conditions as they get older.
"Am I going to do dialysis down here? I don't know. Somebody has got to tell me that," he told Defense One. "Are we going to do complex cancer care down here? I don't know; somebody has got to tell me that."
Ring was relieved as a result of an investigation that began in March and ended in mid-April, before the Defense One story was published, Azubuike said.
The New York Times reported Sunday that Ring had been outspoken in the past about the facilities at Guantanamo Bay. Last June, he told reporters that the "top-secret prison where the military segregates high-value detainees, called Camp 7, would become inadequate as the prisoners aged," according to The New York Times.
The timing of Ring's firing seemed interesting, however, to human rights attorney Patricia Stottlemyer, who posted this tweet Sunday:
"JTF GTMO commander is fired days after he stated that the inadequate medical care at #Guantanamo placed him at odds with his obligations under the Geneva Conventions. There's a statutory bar on transferring detainees to US even for emergency medical care."
The bar on transfers has been part of the National Defense Authorization Act for several years, Stottlemyer told Military.com in an interview.
"The Senate has, for several years, included in its version of the NDAA a provision that would allow for the temporary transfer of detainees to the US for emergency medical treatment, but it has not made it into the final bill," said Stottlemyer, an associate attorney at Human Rights First, an independent advocacy organization.
