Problems in the Arizona National Guard
The Arizona Republic reports that they conducted a five month investigation of allegations that members, mostly of their recruiting operations engaged several illegal and immoral acts;
NCOs engaged in sexual misconduct, collected recruiting fees to which they were not entitled, forged Guard documents, and committed other offenses such as hunting the homeless with paintball guns.
Investigators asserted that National Guard commanders failed to hold subordinates accountable, in part because many supervisors also engaged in unethical behavior. Many high-ranking officers contend an atmosphere of disdain for discipline persists.
Non-commissioned officers caught driving drunk in military vehicles were given reprimands. Recruiters found to have forged enlistment records or taken fraudulent bonus pay received transfers. Sergeants who had affairs with teenage recruits were given counseling.
One NCO who allegedly got drunk with privates and had sex with a female enlistee was allowed to deploy overseas, where he was disciplined for inappropriate sexual relations with two more subordinates. Instead of being discharged from the military, records show, he transferred to the California National Guard as a recruiter.
Some who sought to uphold Army standards by reporting unethical behavior were shunned, harassed and threatened with demotions.
I know there are a number of you in Arizona who would have a clearer picture of these allegations. I know that if these are found to be true, there isn’t anyone among us who wouldn’t want these folks to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. By the same token, neither should the entire military service be tainted by the actions of a few.
Category: Military issues
There was recent story about the top leadership – Major General Hugo Salazar and Brig Gen. Michael Colangelo feuding.
BG Colangelo was allegedly given walking papers for a derogatory Inspector General report and apparently also had frequent arguments w/ his boss MG Salazar – including disrespectfully toned e-mails. BG Colangelo appealed his termination to Arizona Gov Janet Brewer – hadn’t heard anything more on this.
I’m looking at some of these charges and I’m wondering why these assclowns aren’t at Leavenworth. I know if I had pulled any of this shit on AD or in recruiting I sure as hell would be there.
Sorry-above was from the ANG.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20120824air-national-guard-leader-dismissed.html
I did a tour in Recruiting Command from 2004 to 2007. Those who produced got paid, period. If you were a high roller, things like APFT’s, weight standards, attendance, and even stuff like DUI’s went in to the “sorry to much static, can’t hear you!” file. On the flip side, if you were a donut roller, life sucked donkey balls and got worse from there. NOTHING else mattered. I had a fellow NCO collapse on the office floor in agony, holding his chest (he was in his 40’s). Ambulance is there, running a 12 lead on him, giving him nitro, the whole nine yards. During my call to inform the First Sergeant what was happening, the man, a career recruiter doesn’t ask how he’s doing, if his wife has been contacted, none of that….he wants to know if this guys pending contract will still have transportation in the morning, you know, in case his recruiter is otherwise occupied. NUMBERS, contracts, applicants, thats the currency that can be spent in some pretty creative ways out there. Doesn’t suprise me at all that these guys got a commander who set up a command climate encouraging this behavior to be overlooked. A good number of them are getting a second chance having dorked up their first go around at a command. On the enlisted side, I blame the career recruiters in that chain of command. My reasoning? Said career recruiter comes out from the Big Army to a nice comfy office job in a nice market. He rolls some big numbers and he gets invited to change over to the “Dark Side” and stay as careerist. Nothing wrong with that, except this guy hasn’t demonstrated one ounce of leadership skill, just the numbers part. He WILL make E-6 (if he’s not already) and he WILL make E-7….it’s how it works in Recruiting Command. They put this succesful SALESMAN in a small station, same general area, where he is again succesful. Not because of anything he really does, but because his detailed recruiters are professional NCO’s who go out and get it, regardeless of… Read more »
Now you know why we called our CRF (Career Recruiting Force) guys “Can’t Remember Fleet.”
Oh, the stories I could tell…
I’ll wait on this one. The wrongdoing alleged extends over the past decade. The AZ Republic did its Woodward and Bernstein thing and talked with some unspecified and unidentified officers. Right now, it looks plug ugly but no one is under oath and the AZ National Guard has been a leadership horror story for quite some time.
That’s not the only place that’s happened. We have a saying about the “full time” National Guard folks. I won’t repeat it. out of hundreds of them I knew, only a handful were worth a shit and honest.
It’s not a new story,,, recruiters have always been given a long leash as far as being away from the “real” military. You get guys that are often hundreds of miles away from the nearest base and a 1 hour drive from direct supervisors. Many give in to “dipping a DEP” misuse of funds or vehicles, etc. As long as they bring numbers in no one gives a crap. In the Corps Most of the recruiters did not volunteer. The career recruiters tendedto be a mixed bag, Some were good Marines, period, and did well on recruiting or in the fleet. Others sometimes grew pampered and civilianized and were worthless as tits on a bull upon return to the fleet. I had a Battery GySgt who lasted about 6 weeks with us at 10th Marines in 83′. The guy would take off at noon about 2 days a week. The kicker for him was when we were at a fire-ex at Ft Bragg and he took off with a jeep to go to the rear and take a shower and no one knew where he went.
I’ve heard many stories about recruiting and none of them were good. Well, except for the ex-recruiter who bragged that he never got more poontang than when he was recruiting.
As for the NG issues, I spent almost half my career in the NG and it seemed like these kinds of things were constant issues. Hell, in the 1980s, before Desert Shield/Storm woke people up and made them realize that “yes, we might actually have to go to war!” there was so much ‘pencil whipping’ of PT tests and weapons qualification scores that it’s a wonder we weren’t all overweight POS’s who couldn’t shoot worth a damn.
I think the problem with the NG in particular is that, being a state-centered organization, there’s a strong “old boy network” that comes into play: If you are favored by the “in crowd”, you can do no wrong and if you aren’t, you don’t stay around very long anyway.
The pressure to keep the rosters full means that commanders have to keep shitbags on the rolls, even if they aren’t performing (in my last NG unit, we were exhorted at every final formation to try to recruit our friends and neighbors because the Army Guard was trying to get its numbers up.)
It’s easy to imagine that the same pressure to keep up the numbers also means that if a recruiter is bringing in fresh meat, the Chain of Command isn’t going to look real hard at how he does that.
This movie clip from “Glengarry Glenn Ross” reminds me of the good ‘ol recruiting days:
The worst that ever happened to me was that I got busted from an E-5 down to a SPC. I was talking one of my close friends (I used to baby sit her) into joining. She was a hell of an athlete, great grades, and really interested in signing up for National Guard as a stepping point for a Commission in Active while she got college out of the way.
I set up the appointment and even drove her into the armory to meet with the decruiter. Well, after about half an hour, she came into the admin office in tears and asked me to drive her home. I got permission from the TNCO and in the car she told me that the decruiter told her she wasn’t qualified for the job she wanted to do… Finance. (She was taking college level mathematics).
After getting the whole story from her and letting it simmer on the way back to the armory, I confronted the decruiter about it. His comment was this: “Well, this is an Infantry Armory, she can’t work here because there is no place for females here.”
Yeah, the commander was a little upset when he learned that I broke the decruiters nose and gave him a mild concussion. I said that the concussion was due to the floor, not my punch… he wasn’t amused. I got kicked a pay grade until the next NCOER, at which point I got my 5’s back.
My friend ended up joining the Marines and got the job she wanted. She is now a Major and on the Light Colonel list.
The funniest no-shit story about recruiting duty I Heard was from a friend of my Bro-in Law Who was a retired MSgt. Sometime in the early 70’s he was the SNCOIC of a RS somewhere in East BF. They had a recruiter wayyyyyyy out in the sticks who was doing his twilight tour. This was way back before cell phones, email, etc, so it want any biggie when they went a day or so without getting a hold of him. Well for 6 months the guy rolled donuts or got maybe 1 contract, and just seemed a bit off when he came to the RS for the weekly meetings. Well one Wednesday Morning After not being able to get a hold of this guy for 3 days straight the OIC said “Hey we got nothing better to do,,, lets driver the 2 hours to see WTF is going on with this guy”. Well They drove over hill and dale to reach the town the guy was in and went to the Recruiting center. Of course the other services were all in the same little office space. The Army, Navy and Air Force recruiters were all present and accounted for, the Marine office was locked up with the lights out. They ask where the Marine recruiter was and the Answer was “Oh he’s across the street at his USED CAR LOT”. The recruiter in question was found sitting behind his car salesmen desk, feet propped up, neck tie off making a sales pitch to some guy about a used Skylark. I dont think the rest of the day went too well for him.
No suprise here.
16 yrs in the AZNG, really really wish I could say I was surprised, but, I’m not.