Provost Marshal General/Commanding General United States Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID), Donna W. Martin, has earned the third Star rank, Lieutenant General and will become the service’s Inspector General.
The soon-to-be Lieutenant General exits her old role after a tumultuous year and at a time when CID is being overhauled due to poorly handled criminal cases. She assumed office at the Command in July 2020 and was to exit in August 5, 2021.
She is the second female Provost Marshal General since Colleen L. McGuire
Martin was previously the Commanding General, United States Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and Fort Leonard Wood, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri (August 18-June 20) where she was the first female Commander.
General Martin was also Commandant, United States Army Military Police School, United States Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri (July 2017-August 2018) and Deputy Commanding General, United States Army Recruiting Command, Fort Knox, Kentucky (March 2015-July 2017.
But she wasn’t the first black to rise to the rank of a Lieutenant General. That honour belongs to Nadja West in 2016 when she became the first black female Lieutenant General and the highest-ranking woman to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy. West became the first black Surgeon General of the U.S. Army, Dec. 11, 2015.
And in summer of 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Stayce Harris to be promoted to Lieutenant General and became the Assistant Vice Chief of Staff and Director of the Air Staff for the U.S. Air Force. It’s the first time that a reservist has held the rank of three-star Lieutenant General other than the Chief of the Air Force Reserve.
It was a road made possible by Marcelite Harris, who was the first female African-American Major General. At the time of her retirement in 1997, she was the highest-ranking African-American woman in the U.S. military, according to the Air Force.
Lieutenant General Martin exits the CID amidst challenges that necessitated its overhauling. And although she didn’t create those problems, which have been around for years, CID personnel faulted her and other leaders at the organization for not tackling the pervasive issues until pressured by outside authorities.
However, Army Spokeswoman Colonel Cathy Wilkinson listed CID’s ongoing restructuring among the strong points on Martin’s resume.
“Maj. Gen. Martin led CID through a restructure plan and oversaw its support to the Capitol Response mission where in four days, CID vetted more than 26,000 service members for that important mission,” Wilkinson said in a prepared statement.
“Under her leadership, CID initiated almost 13,000 investigations, returned more than $450 million dollars to the U.S. Treasury from procurement fraud investigations, and increased cooperation with federal and local law enforcement partners.”
“Maj. Gen. Martin is trusted leader with deep experience in the most sensitive issues facing our Army today,” Wilkinson added.
Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth also defended the decision to elevate Martin to the Inspector General post, citing her “proven leadership in challenging times.”
Military police officers are “trying to run CID units like normal Army units, and that is absolutely impossible to do,” one special agent said.
Martin’s “law enforcement and Inspector General investigative background, and her compassion make her an excellent choice to serve as the Army’s Inspector General,” Wormuth said in a statement to Army Times.
Martin’s promotion to lieutenant general was confirmed by the Senate on July 29 and she relinquished command of CID late last week.
Martin was dual-hatted in her old role, leading both CID and the military Police Corps. But unlike the criminal investigative arms of the Air Force and Navy, she and other military Police officers in CID are not criminal investigators.
That has been a source of friction for the more than half-a-dozen agents with whom Army Times has spoken this year. Those agents have said that CID is mismanaged by military police officers who focus too much energy on soldiering skills and Army tasks, rather than investigative training and acquiring crime-solving resources.
During a tense exchange in Congress this March, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., made note of the odd leadership dynamic.
Speier, who chairs the House Armed Services subcommittee on military personnel, also said she was “truly disappointed” in the lack of improvements that CID leaders had “gleaned” from a 152-page report on Fort Hood that was compiled by an independent committee and released Dec. 8.
A congressional hearing came one week after two proposals to reform CID were outlined in briefing documents obtained by Army Times.
The committee found that CID agents assigned to the central Texas post were inexperienced and overworked, leading to missteps during the high-profile search for slain soldier Spc. Vanessa Guillen, as well as other lesser-known cases.
Fort Hood’s CID detachment was “basically being used as a training ground,” Chris Swecker, a former FBI inspector who served on the committee, said in December. “They had a difficult time, and it’s not their fault.”
Not long after the March congressional hearing, the Army decided to overhaul CID, putting a high-ranking civilian director in charge, ending the use of agents as body guards for senior Army leaders, and creating a career field for officer special agents. Previously, CID agents could be enlisted, warrants or civilians, but military police officers largely ran the organization.
The issues found at Fort Hood’s CID detachment weren’t limited to that installation, special agents later told Army Times, and restructuring the organization that Martin is now exiting has been overdue.
Martin has been replaced in her role as the Provost Marshal General by Brig. Gen. Duane Miller. The high-ranking civilian director who will eventually take control of CID has yet to be announced.