Credential padding alleged by Navy brass

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- A former U.S. Navy surgeon general who listed questionable academic credentials on his resume has raised questions about promotions vetting, experts say.

Retired Navy Surgeon General Vice Adm. Donald Arthur says the inclusion on his resume of a law degree from an alleged diploma mill and a doctorate from an unaccredited university made no difference in his promotion to the surgeon general post and that a Navy investigation cleared him any wrongdoing, The Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.

But others say such credentials padding can make a difference when Congress considers awarding top military jobs and is an increasingly common occurrence.

Retired Rear Adm. John Hutson, the Navy's top uniformed lawyer from 1997 to 2000, told the newspaper, "(Arthur) may or may not be promoted without it. But one, he had it in his record, and two, there's a pretty good argument that he knew or should have known that people would rely on it, not knowing that they were unaccredited degrees."

Meanwhile, Dr. Benjamin Newman, a retired veteran of the Navy medical corps, told the Tribune that Arthur's "credentials should have been picked up by someone to show that they're not legitimate."