Sgrena Investigation Led by BG Peter Vangjel
I’ll be damned: the investigation into the Sgrena shooting incident is being led by Brigadier General Peter Vangjel who, as a major, was my batallion executive officer during Desert Storm.
General Casey mistated his name in his press conference last night:
Brigadier General Dave Vangjel will head our investigation. He is the corps artillery commander for the Multinational Corps.
But seeing it in the transcript, it occured to me that the odds that the Army has another Vangjel in the senior ranks of the field artillery were slim indeed. Sure enough, the NYT (via AP) has the name right:
Casey also told reporters at the Pentagon that another officer, Brig. Gen. Peter Vangjel, is heading the investigation, which is expected to be carried out jointly with Italian officials, and will be completed in three to four weeks.
The last time I saw Vangjel’s name was last July, when he was a colonel (promotable) heading up the Army’s recruiting effort. As I wrote then,
He’s a top-notch guy. If he’s running the day-to-day recruiting operation, it’s being run as well as it possibly can.
In that vein, if anyone can get to the bottom of this mess, Vangjel will do it.
