New Head of Wounded Warrior Project At Expense of POW MIA Families?

Wounded Warrior Project gets new leader after troubles
Associated Press
By AUDREY McAVOY
June 16, 2016

Ann Mills-Griffiths, chairwoman of the board at the National League of POW/MIA Families, said she was surprised by Linnington’s announcement. She said he had told her group last year he was at the agency for the long haul, meaning the next 10 years. “I can only say it was a total shock. Just stunning and unexpected,” Mills-Griffiths said.

This May 28, 2012 file photo shows President Barack Obama standing with Maj. Gen. Michael S. Linnington, Commander of the U.S. Army Military District of Washington, during a Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Linnington, now retired from the military, plans to leave his post as director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency to become the CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project, Thursday, June 16. 2016. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

HONOLULU (AP) - The head of the military agency that searches for and identifies the remains of missing servicemen is resigning after just one year to take over a troubled nonprofit that cares for wounded troops.

Michael Linnington became the director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency last summer. He plans to leave next month to become the CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project.

Linnington became the leader of the POW/MIA mission at the Pentagon after Congress and groups that advocate for families of the missing had criticized the way the military was handling identifications. Since Linnington took the helm, the agency’s laboratories have nearly doubled the identifications of missing servicemen.

At the Wounded Warrior Project, Linnington will lead a nonprofit that has been criticized for lavish spending. The New York Times and CBS News in January reported employees, veterans and charity watchdogs were complaining the organization was profiteering off veterans.
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