General Carter Ham Fired for Ignoring Stand Down Order- Fiction!

General Carter Ham Fired for Ignoring Stand Down Order- Fiction!

Summary of eRumor:
 

This is a forwarded email that appears to be an article that alleges that AFRICOM commanding officer, U.S. General Carter Ham, was fired for his response to the the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Lybia.   The email alleges that the General ignored a stand down order and activated Special Forces teams.

The Truth:
The U.S. Department of Defense released a statement on October 31, 2012 that said that “General Ham is doing an exceptional job leading Africa Command. He has the full confidence of the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His decision to retire has been an entirely personal decision to move on. People retire at certain stages of their career and that’s what’s happening in this case.”
The release also said that on October 18th, President Barack Obama announced his plans to nominate Army Gen. David M. Rodriguez to replace the exiting General Ham.
General Ham has been serving as commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) since March 2011 and has been responsible for the working relationships between the militaries of African countries and the United States military.
The statement went on to say, “There’s been a lot of rumor and speculation, particularly in the blogosphere, about General Ham, and that speculation and those rumors are absolutely, categorically false.”

Updated 11/01/12