This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: National Guard

  • Guardsmen win “Best Ranger”

    Guardsmen win “Best Ranger”

    Best Ranger 2016

    Army.mil reports that for the first time in the 33 year history of the Lt. Gen. David E. Grange Jr. Best Ranger Competition, a team from the National Guard won first place;

    Capt. Robert Killian, from the Colorado Army National Guard, and Staff Sgt. Erich Friedlein, with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, were named the Army’s best Rangers after the 60-hour crucible came to an end Sunday.

    Competing five times, with two second-place finishes in 2014 and 2015, Killian, a detachment commander with B Company, 5th Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne), said the win was humbling.

    “It’s a big thing for the Guard and I’m humbled and honored to be the first,” Killian said. “I’m ecstatic and honored and I hope I’m an inspiration for others.”

    Best Ranger 2016 finishline

  • James Joseph; Pennsylvania Adjutant General resigns

    James Joseph; Pennsylvania Adjutant General resigns

    James Joseph

    Philly.com reports that the Pennsylvania Adjutant General, James Joseph has resigned his position. He has been on paid administrative leave since early this year when a couple of legislators got a tip about his bad behavior since taking the helm of the National Guard early last year;

    In announcing Joseph’s resignation Friday, the governor also did not say why the adjutant general had stepped down.

    […]

    WITF, the public radio station in Harrisburg, first reported on the anonymous letter last month, saying it alleged sexual harassment.

    [PA Governor] Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan would not comment on the letter or even confirm its existence.

    Thanks to Hack Stone for the link.

  • Specialist Skylar Anderson; the first female Army Combat Engineer

    Specialist Skylar Anderson; the first female Army Combat Engineer

    Skylar Anderson

    Since we’ve been on Private Lopez’ case all morning, I think it’s only fair that we mention the first female graduate of the Army’s Combat Engineer course, Skylar Anderson, who lives in Colchester, Vermont while she attends the University of Vermont. The big difference between Specialist Anderson and Private Lopez is that Anderson wasn’t even aware of her status as the first woman graduate until after the fact, according to the Associated Press;

    Anderson, 20, said it was a “big eye-opener” when her instructors told her that she was the first woman to complete the course allowing her to work alongside combat troops to solve battlefield challenges as varied — and dangerous — as clearing minefields, building bridges under fire or destroying structures to block the enemy’s advance.

    Such an opportunity comes with responsibility, Anderson said.

    “It’s time to step up and not hide in the shadows,” she said.

    [..]

    Anderson, of Derry, New Hampshire, said her interest in the military was sparked by her grandfather. She began talking to a recruiter in high school and took the oath on her 18th birthday, while still a senior in high school, and left for training days after graduation. She first joined the New Hampshire National Guard and transferred to the Vermont National Guard after enrolling at the University of Vermont.

    […]

    In civilian life, Anderson hopes to become an equine veterinarian, but she plans to stay with the National Guard, never knowing when her unit could be called to active duty.

  • Guard and Reserve deployments

    The Army will reduce it’s strength by 12,000 more jobs this year, meanwhile deployments are on the rise. The Wisconsin National Guard is sending troops to Iraq and Kuwait to augment the 101st Division, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The Arizona National Guard is sending two helicopter units to Europe and the Middle East according to the Tucson News. The Stars & Stripes reports that more than 6,000 Reservists and National Guard soldiers deployed to Europe last year and that number is expected to increase this year.

    Last month, the commander of US Army Europe, Lieutenant general Ben Hodges told the Fayetteville Observer that he doesn’t have the forces that he needs in Europe, that he is going to depend on Guard and Reserve rotational deployments to hold back the Russian hordes.

    On paper, that almost makes sense, however, how many people are going to enlist for the Guard and Reserves when the new enlistees are looking at endless rounds of deployments to slog through mud at Grafenwoer or Hohenfels. It was one thing to expect them to deploy to a war like in Afghanistan or Iraq, quite another to deploy reserve troops to Germany or Poland. How forgiving will employers be? Honestly, would you consider hiring an employee who will disappear every few years to Europe?

    I don’t think anyone thought this thing through.

  • NJ’s General Michael L. Cunniff makes fitness standards

    NJ’s General Michael L. Cunniff makes fitness standards

    Christie and Cunniff

    In September we wrote about New Jersey’s Adjutant General (the commander) Air Force Brigadier General Michael L. Cunniff and his weight problem. The Pentagon gave him 90 days to make weight and pass a PT test. According to the Army Times, he made it;

    Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie, said Wednesday that Cunniff informed the governor that he was administered his fitness test Tuesday and passed.

    It was not clear how much weight the general had to lose. Cunniff flunked his first fitness test in more than three years in November 2013 when his waist size was measured at 43.5 inches — 4.5 inches larger than allowed.

    I was a Master Fitness trainer when I was in the Army and it seems impossible for me, looking at the general in the “before” picture above, for this to be true. But, you know, who am I to argue with the State of New Jersey? I’m surprised that he didn’t have a stroke while taking the test.

  • National Guard Recruiting Assistance Program kick back indictments

    Chief Tango sends us a link to the Washington Post which reports that an Army CID investigation of the “National Guard Recruiting Assistance Program” has netted about a hundred folks who were defrauding the program for personal gain;

    According to federal court documents, they simply entered the potential recruit’s name, date of birth and Social Security number into an online account, then told the company under contract with the National Guard that they had signed up another soldier when they had not. When the bonuses was wired to their bank account, they gave half the money to the recruiters, who were barred from getting payments themselves.

    These fraudulent bounties were collected for seven years by recruiters and “recruiters assistants” for the Puerto Rico National Guard. The arrangement was laid out in federal indictments Thursday of 25 current and former guardsmen on charges of conspiracy to defraud the government, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Officials said close to $1 million was stolen.

    […]

    A criminal enterprise in every state that military officials say included hundreds of officers and enlisted soldiers has led so far to 108 prosecutions in civilian courts; another 70 soldiers and officers have been fired, reprimanded or demoted, Army officials said Thursday.

    The contracting company, Docupak, alerted CID to discrepancies in their records back in 2007. That initial investigation led CID to investigate the entire program and has led to 108 prosecutions.

    A final note to the Washington Post; these are not members of the US military in this photo.

    WTF

  • Ohio Guardsman charged for false funeral expenses

    According to the Dayton Daily News, Sergeant First Class Jason Daniel Edwards, of the Ohio National Guard, a member of the area honor guard, filed for expenses for 130 funerals that he didn’t attend, racking up over $10,000 from his scam;

    From September 2013 to July 2014, investigators found Edwards claimed mileage reimbursements for 89 funerals that paperwork did not list him as attending. On another 17 funerals, he was listed as attending but claimed mileage to a funeral farther away. And 24 times he claimed reimbursement for mileage to a location where there was no funeral.

    Edwards told investigators that he was receiving complaints about some of the soldiers on funeral details, so he went to the funerals and observed them covertly. He said he didn’t tell his bosses he was doing this because “It would never be authorized.”

    He said the days he claimed mileage when there was no funeral were probably days when he got a late call and rushed out to do a funeral by himself.

    His supervisors would say his covert trips to funerals wouldn’t be authorized, but he filed for expenses regardless. Nice.

  • Guard and Reserves can’t account for their troops

    Chief Tango sends a link from Stars & Stripes which reports that the Government Accountability Office has determined that the National Guard and the Reserves have no idea how many of their soldiers are ready to deploy. You might remember that is important because the Pentagon and the White House are expecting the gaps in staffing and manning in the active force left by sequestration are supposed to filled by the part-time services.

    The nonpartisan GAO also determined that hundreds of soldiers who were reported as ready to to serve were actually ineligible to mobilize and deploy under Army guidance.

    The inconsistencies suggest the components’ overall nonavailability rates as of January — 22 percent in the Reserve and 21 percent in the National Guard — could be even higher.

    […]

    Without quality data that is readily available to leaders at all levels … the Army and its Reserve component leaders will not be able to adequately monitor and manage the availability of soldiers who make up over half of the total Army force,” the GAO said.

    The GAO blames the inconsistencies on the inability of some data systems to interface. Gee, where have we heard that before? Also, that personnel clerks are improperly trained and units have staffing shortages.

    So basically, the Pentagon cobbled together a plan to deal with personnel cuts and presented it to the White House, but they didn’t have a way to implement that plan. That’s the first time that’s ever happened.