Cross confirmation could be early
test for Barbour

By Staff
January 13, 2004
Judging from comments he made the other day, Gov. Haley Barbour considers his appointment of Maj. Gen. Harold Cross as Adjutant General a closed case. He said when he asked a group of retired generals to recommend a new Adjutant General he was trying to take the National Guard out of politics, and that is certainly an admirable goal.
But because the Adjutant General reports directly to the governor, it is hard to completely remove politics from the equation, especially in the Guard, which is as close to a good-old-boy network as still exists in Mississippi.
Cross was second-in-command of the Mississippi National Guard, and in command of the Air Guard component, while questionable activities were under way at the Meridian-based 186th Air Refueling Wing. Not only did Cross do nothing to stop the practices before they surfaced publicly and many allegations of racism, fraudulent record-keeping, favoritism and corruption have been substantiated whistleblowers believe he has also been less than cooperative with subsequent investigations.
Now, a new element has been introduced. The 186th ARW is on a list of potential bases facing possible closure in the 2005 round of a federal base closing initiative called BRAC, for base realignment and closure.
It is now more important than ever that cloudy activities be cleared up quickly, publicly and with finality so the 186th can be reviewed on its own merits, without the excess baggage of pending probes. Any parties found to have violated Air Force standards or other regulations should be punished and the Guard's state leadership specifically Gen. Cross would be in charge of punishment. If there are no grounds for punishment, then that should be made public, too.
Given his status, can Cross be truly objective? While he reportedly has been cleared personally of an allegation against him, a question of leadership remains. That question and others are likely to be put to him during his Senate confirmation hearings, and Barbour is apparently prepared to go to the mat in his behalf.
We continue to believe the 186th ARW is an invaluable asset for the national defense and will be shown so during BRAC reviews. The brave men and women who do their jobs so well for this country deserve fair and impartial treatment from their leaders. We're just guessing here, but it is possible that the Cross confirmation may be one of the new Barbour administration's first legislative tests. And it has implications well beyond who holds the position as Adjutant General.