Pentagon Whistleblower Ernie Fitzgerald Dies at 92
By Debbie Gregory.
A. Ernest Fitzgerald, called the “patron saint of government whistleblowers” has died at the age of 92.
Fitzgerald was a member of the Senior Executive Service, a management systems deputy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management and Comptroller, Headquarters U.S. Air Force. Fitzgerald was responsible for the development of improved management controls, including cost estimating and analysis, and productivity enhancement and measurement.
In November In 1968, Fitzgerald reported a $2.3 billion cost overrun in the Lockheed C-5 aircraft program. As a congressional witness before the Joint Economic Committee, he rejected the advice of Air Force officials and testified with candor and transparency about billions of dollars in avionics program cost overruns and other technical problems.
Less than a year later, the Air Force said Fitzgerald would be losing his job in January 1970 as part of a wholesale trimming of civilian personnel that had nothing to do with his testimony.
But it was in response to Fitzgerald’s testimony that President Richard M. Nixon directed he be fired, and Fitzgerald was ultimately terminated.
Fitzgerald fought his dismissal, and in 1973 won his case before the Civil Service Commission, which ordered him reinstated with $80,000 in back pay.
Believing that the Air Force assigned him to matters beneath his pay grade, in 1974 Fitzgerald once again sued the U.S. government, this time to regain his original responsibilities. He won again.
Fitzgerald continued to fight a four-decade-long campaign against fraud, waste, and abuse within the department. Consequently, he was instrumental in the enactment of the Civil Reform Act of 1978, a precursor to the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989.
Ernie Fitzgerald’s true legacy will be the trail he blazed for those willing to challenge those in power who have abused the system.
“Mr. Fitzgerald’s fight to retain his job after blowing the whistle on cost overruns on the C-5 aircraft program was a landmark moment in the effort to protect the rights of whistleblowers,” then-acting Pentagon Inspector General Thomas Gimble said as he presented him with the IG’s Distinguished Civilian Service Medal when Fitzgerald stepped down from his Pentagon job 13 years ago.
Veteran and Military Business Owners Association, VAMBOA,
