{"id":51431,"date":"2020-03-09T14:16:58","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T14:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/03\/09\/commandant-mistakenly-sends-letter-of-appreciation-to-marine-who-had-been-center-of-child-sex-abuse-case\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:42:13","slug":"commandant-mistakenly-sends-letter-of-appreciation-to-marine-who-had-been-center-of-child-sex-abuse-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2020\/03\/09\/commandant-mistakenly-sends-letter-of-appreciation-to-marine-who-had-been-center-of-child-sex-abuse-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter of appreciation signed by commandant \u2018mistakenly\u2019 sent to Marine who had been center of child sex abuse case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Marine Corps said it accidentally sent a letter of appreciation signed by the commandant to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2020\/02\/11\/corps-makes-retirement-decision-on-marine-colonel-whose-child-sexual-abuse-conviction-was-dropped\/\" target=_blank>Marine who recently retired <\/a>as part of an agreement with the Corps after several legal convictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now retired as a lieutenant colonel, in 2017 then-Col. Dan Wilson had been convicted of child sexual assault, but in July 2019 a military appeals court overturned that conviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though Wilson\u2019s child sexual assault conviction was dropped, his convictions for seven other relatively minor violations remained. In October 2019 Wilson came to an agreement with the Corps that saw him <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/marine-corps-times\/2019\/10\/23\/no-punishment-marine-colonel-originally-convicted-for-child-sex-abuse-released-from-brig-awaits-retirement-decision\/\">request retirement in exchange for being released from confinement<\/a> and avoiding a re-sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In late February <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/marine-corps-times\/2019\/10\/23\/no-punishment-marine-colonel-originally-convicted-for-child-sex-abuse-released-from-brig-awaits-retirement-decision\/\" target=_blank>Wilson <\/a>received two letters \u2015 one from Berger and one from President Donald Trump \u2015 thanking him for his long career as a Marine. It is relatively common for retired Marines to receive letters of appreciation. But the Corps said its letter to Wilson was an accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cA retirement letter to Lt. Col. Daniel Wilson was mistakenly generated and delivered due to an administrative oversight by staff at Headquarters Marine Corps,&#8221; according to a Friday statement from the Marine Corps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The White House has not yet replied to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The nature of Wilson\u2019s retirement left even him surprised to receive the letters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTypically, you get those at retirement, but I didn\u2019t expect they would send them in my case, and I was mildly surprised and pleasantly so,\u201d Wilson told Marine Corps Times in a Wednesday phone call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even if both letters of appreciation end up being mistakes, Wilson said he does not care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhy should I care, if it was a mistake or if it was an oversight?\u201d Wilson asked. \u201cIt might take away the meaning for you, it doesn\u2019t take away the meaning for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Bungled accusations<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The mistake was just another example of how the Marine Corps bungled the accusations against Wilson from beginning to end, according to a retired Air Force colonel and military sexual assault prevention activist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s like the final nail in a series of events that show that they didn\u2019t take this case seriously from the beginning,\u201d retired Col. Don Christensen, the president of Protect Our Defenders, an organization dedicated to ending rape and sexual assault in the military, said in a Friday phone call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2017 Wilson was convicted by a jury of peers for sexually abusing a child, six counts of conduct unbecoming an officer and one count of unauthorized absence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2017\/09\/12\/convicted-marine-colonel-will-lose-benefits-have-to-register-as-sex-offender\/\" target=_blank>originally was sentenced to 66 months in confinement<\/a> and dismissal from the Marine Corps \u2015 a ruling that would have caused him to lose his retirement benefits and register as a sex offender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In July 2019 a three-judge panel with the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2019\/07\/02\/military-appeals-court-dismisses-child-sexual-abuse-charge-against-marine-colonel\/\" target=_blank>ov<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2019\/07\/02\/military-appeals-court-dismisses-child-sexual-abuse-charge-against-marine-colonel\/\" target=_blank>erturned the child sexual assault charge<\/a>, based on an appeals power unique to the military justice system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The panel found the witness \u2015 his alleged victim who was 7-years-old during her testimony \u2015 inconsistent and unreliable, and used the court\u2019s unique <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/marine-corps-times\/2019\/10\/07\/sexual-abuse-conviction-was-dropped-for-this-marine-colonel-now-the-alleged-victims-family-is-calling-on-congress-to-remove-appeals-process\/\">factual sufficiency powers to overturn his previous child sexual abuse conviction<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The alleged victim \u201cwas inconsistent in non-trivial ways that cannot solely be attributed to her young age,\u201d the court said in its opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The appeals court did reaffirm the seven other charges brought against Wilson, and in lieu of re-sentencing for those charges Wilson and the Marine Corps came to an agreement that saw Wilson request retirement from the Corps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After taking the child\u2019s testimony into consideration, Lt. Gen. Brian Beaudreault, the commander of II Marine Expeditionary Force, recommended Wilson be retired as a major.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Wilson was only reduced to lieutenant colonel when he retired due to \u201cjudicial efficiency and administrative clarity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition to being reduced and rank and receiving an other than honorable characterization of service, Wilson has been barred from all Marine Corps bases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both letters of appreciation have Wilson\u2019s former rank as colonel on them. But Wilson saw them as accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs of 1, March at 00:01 I was demoted to lieutenant colonel with an other than honorable characterization of service,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both certificates were sent in February, before he was officially demoted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shortly after receiving the two letters, Wilson took to Twitter to show his appreciation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThank you for the kind words, Mister President (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\">@realDonaldTrump<\/a>), my Commander-In-Chief. I truly enjoyed my service to our Corps &amp; Country. Also appreciate the letter from the Commandant&#8230;Semper Fidelis!,\u201d Wilson said in the Tweet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a letter Wilson said he sent to the White House, he thanked the president while comparing his trial for child sexual assault to the president\u2019s impeachment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou and I share a similar history in the recent past,\u201d Wilson wrote. \u201cLike you, I was subjected to an illicit \u2018witch hunt.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wilson told Marine Corps Times he was convicted by a \u201ccorrupt\u201d military justice system only because of \u201cpolitical correctness\u201d and the desire for those who served on his jury to get promoted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn today\u2019s Me Too, Me Three generation &#8230; literally, if a female Marine or any person comes up and points a finger at you, you\u2019re guilty and then they\u2019re going to prove you\u2019re guilty,\u201d Wilson said in the Wednesday phone call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/315728247_The_Prevalence_of_False_Allegations_of_Rape_in_the_United_States_from_2006-2010\" target=_blank>2017 study using FBI<\/a> data showed that roughly 5 percent of rape allegations from 2006 to 2010 were false.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sapr.mil\/sites\/default\/files\/Appendix_B_Statistical_Data_on_Sexual_Assault.pdf\" target=_blank>According to Department of Defense sexual assault statistics<\/a>, 23.4 percent of military sexual assault accusations were referred to court-martial in fiscal 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Out of the 482 courts-martial completed in fiscal 2018, 23 percent resulted in a service member being convicted on sexual assault charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Christensen said he hopes that in the future the Marine Corps puts safeguards up, preventing these types of mistakes from happening again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTo have somebody who is convicted of felony charges and receives an other than honorable conditions discharge receive those kind of documents is a slap in the face of those who do serve honorably,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Marine Corps\u2019 statement said the Corps has sent Wilson a second notification correcting the \u201cerrors\u201d and letting Wilson know the letter of appreciation was a mistake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cA retirement letter to Lt. Col. Daniel Wilson was mistakenly generated and delivered due to an administrative oversight by staff at Headquarters Marine Corps.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":58319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":88,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[28,29,116,117,15,88],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3287],"class_list":["post-51431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disaster","category-home","category-left-column","category-middle-column","category-news","category-your-military"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"35W7YW7XXNEYJDVM3MTR7A2GJM","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2020\/03\/09\/commandant-mistakenly-sends-letter-of-appreciation-to-marine-who-had-been-center-of-child-sex-abuse-case\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Letter of appreciation signed by commandant \u2018mistakenly\u2019 sent to Marine who had been center of child sex abuse case - Military Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cA retirement letter to Lt. Col. Daniel Wilson was mistakenly generated and delivered due to an administrative oversight by staff at Headquarters Marine Corps.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Letter of appreciation signed by commandant \u2018mistakenly\u2019 sent to Marine who had been center of child sex abuse case\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cA retirement letter to Lt. Col. Daniel Wilson was mistakenly generated and delivered due to an administrative oversight by staff at Headquarters Marine Corps.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2020\/03\/09\/commandant-mistakenly-sends-letter-of-appreciation-to-marine-who-had-been-center-of-child-sex-abuse-case\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Military Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-09T14:16:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T20:42:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Athey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Athey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/militarytimes\\\/news\\\/your-military\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/09\\\/commandant-mistakenly-sends-letter-of-appreciation-to-marine-who-had-been-center-of-child-sex-abuse-case\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/militarytimes\\\/news\\\/your-military\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/09\\\/commandant-mistakenly-sends-letter-of-appreciation-to-marine-who-had-been-center-of-child-sex-abuse-case\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/militarytimes\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"headline\": \"Letter of appreciation signed by commandant \u2018mistakenly\u2019 sent to Marine who had been center of child sex abuse case\",\n\t            \"datePublished\": \"2020-03-09T14:16:58+00:00\",\n\t            \"dateModified\": \"2026-08-08T20:42:13+00:00\",\n\t            \"mainEntityOfPage\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/militarytimes\\\/news\\\/your-military\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/09\\\/commandant-mistakenly-sends-letter-of-appreciation-to-marine-who-had-been-center-of-child-sex-abuse-case\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"wordCount\": 1023,\n\t            \"commentCount\": 0,\n\t            \"publisher\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/militarytimes\\\/#organization\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/militarytimes\\\/news\\\/your-military\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/09\\\/commandant-mistakenly-sends-letter-of-appreciation-to-marine-who-had-been-center-of-child-sex-abuse-case\\\/#primaryimage\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"thumbnailUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/wilson.jpg_d94e73.jpg\",\n\t            \"articleSection\": [\n\t                \"Disaster | Advertiser Safety\",\n\t                \"Home\",\n\t                \"Left Column\",\n\t                \"Middle Column\",\n\t                \"News\",\n\t                \"Your Military\"\n\t            ],\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t            \"potentialAction\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"CommentAction\",\n\t                    \"name\": \"Comment\",\n\t                    \"target\": [\n\t                        \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/militarytimes\\\/news\\\/your-military\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/09\\\/commandant-mistakenly-sends-letter-of-appreciation-to-marine-who-had-been-center-of-child-sex-abuse-case\\\/#respond\"\n\t                    ]\n\t                }\n\t            ]\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/militarytimes\\\/news\\\/your-military\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/09\\\/commandant-mistakenly-sends-letter-of-appreciation-to-marine-who-had-been-center-of-child-sex-abuse-case\\\/\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/militarytimes\\\/news\\\/your-military\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/09\\\/commandant-mistakenly-sends-letter-of-appreciation-to-marine-who-had-been-center-of-child-sex-abuse-case\\\/\",\n\t            \"name\": \"Letter of appreciation signed by commandant \u2018mistakenly\u2019 sent to Marine who had been center of child sex abuse case - 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