Press Release
For Immediate Release
For more information: (910) 336-5966 or info@mwpa.army
Fort Bragg, NC | May 29, 2024 — The Army Qualitative Management Board decided that Sergeant First Class Michael J. Forbes, of 528th Sustainment Brigade, Fort Bragg, be involuntarily removed from service. This stems from two disputed investigations and the recommendations of SFC Forbes’ Chain of Command. His leaders investigated him (without due process) and recommended his separation after he contacted the Inspector General’s Office and his his Congressman (Hon. Richard Hudson, 9th District, NC), among others, due to violations of the Privacy Act and multiple other federal laws. His complaints pertained to two of his Brigade Commander’s unlawful Command-Directed Behavioral Health Assessments.
SFC Forbes, again, followed the Board’s rules and did not “criticize or reflect on the character, conduct, or motives of any other Soldier,” but notified them of a pending lawsuit filed in federal court and requested they not consider 1st Special Forces Commands recommended separation. Disregarding his pleas, the QMP Board notification memorandum, indicated that SFC Forbes’s last day in the US Army will be December 1, 2024, two months and 11 days from his 18th anniversary of service (February 11, 2025), which is the earliest date he could file paperwork for retirement.
SFC Forbes joined the US Army in 2007 shortly after President Bush announced the ‘surge,’ which caused the Army to raise the maximum age of enlistment to 42 from 35. At the age of 38, he enlisted even though he had a Masters of Science in Business Administration and a successful career as a Financial Adviser; he remarked,
After spending an unblemished 14 years as a licensed Financial Advisor, I wanted to do something that I felt was more important than making money for people that had money to invest already. That coupled with the rising death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan, I wanted to serve my country and put my ethical and analytical skills to serve those that serve us all.
SFC Forbes did just that. In his first three years he made Sergeant and since has 15 unblemished performance reviews and 16 awards, which include 5 Good conduct medals that comprise his first 15 years of military service. All of this is being discarded because his Brigade Commander unlawfully ordered him to two 3rd Party Corporate websites to take a Behavioral Health Assessment and subsequently falsified support for a second order to participate in a baseline psychological data gathering session embedded in a Government funded holistic healthcare program. When SFC Forbes immediately exercised his rights to obtain withheld informed consent information, he was unfairly targeted and now faces separation from the Army and losing his retirement.
“I was simply lawfully protecting my privacy by asking for the information that should have been provided in any Human Research Program to make an opt-in-or out decision and, after that, I was targeted for removal by the Brigade Commander,” said SFC Forbes.
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SFC Michael J. Forbes is a Military whistleblower, protected by the Military Whistleblowers Protection Act (MWPA) of 1988, which has been gutted with the Congressional amendments of 2017. His Federal lawsuit (#5:24-cv-00176-BO-RJ) filed on March 19, 2024, alleges that he has been retaliated against and will soon be involuntarily separated from the US Army only a few months prior to eligibility for retirement because he exercised his right to ask for informed consent information for two unlawfully ordered Behavioral Health Assessments that he had the right to refuse. These federal violations are punitive and carry significant penalties.
NOTICE: For copies of the signed and dated filings, and evidence, associated with this case, visit https://mwpa.army, under Case 5:24-cv-00176 supporting documents tab that feature the FOIA investigation findings. This press release reflects the views of the author alone and does not represent the views of the US Army, Department of Defense or any component of the US government.