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

Category: National Guard

  • NG/AF Rivalry in Ohio

    Since we’re hating on Big Air Force this week for rationalizing dumping the A-10, let’s hate on them a little longer for more stupid shit from the Washington Post;

    After spending almost $600 million to buy a tiny fleet of the planes over the past six years, stationing them in Mansfield and at two other National Guard bases, the Air Force flew all of them to a junkyard earlier this year. Five more planes, which the Pentagon already has paid for, will be mothballed as soon as they are built.

    To Air Force leaders, it was all about economics. They deemed the small planes less efficient than larger, more commonly used transport aircraft.

    To National Guard leaders in Ohio, how­ever, it was all about politics. The decision to get rid of perfectly good planes, they argue, was driven by a desire among active-duty Air Force leaders to shift the burden of budget cuts onto the National Guard.

    With no planes at the Mansfield base, the Pentagon would no longer pay for it — or the jobs there. Local leaders howled, and the state’s congressional delegation confronted the Air Force. The ensuing battle, which escalated into an intense political dogfight in Washington, was an opening skirmish in what many federal and state officials predict will be the next big clash over defense spending.

    Haven’t we been hearing about how the National Guard and the Reserves are going to play a bigger role in the near future as the Pentagon draws down the active force? And, in the meantime, they’re spending money on aircraft that will be mothballed as it rolls off the assembly line. Yeah, I understand that contracts must be filled, but still, someone should have seen this coming six years ago and maybe not ordered the planes that they don’t really want.

    As shrinking budgets force the military to thin its ranks, many active-duty leaders, seeking to protect their ilk, want the pain to fall disproportionately on National Guard and reserve forces.

    I’m starting to get the feeling that someone in Washington doesn’t know what they’re doing. It looks like by the time the active force gets drawn down, there will be no National Guard or Reserve units left to fill their gaps.

  • That pesky 10th Amendment thing

    12H sends us a link from US News which tells of the problems that the DoD’s decision to grant dependent status to same sex couples is causing among the various states in contradiction to their own laws;

    Texas was the first of nine states that have said it will not issue military identity cards to the same-sex spouses of troops within their National Guard units. The Department of defense lifted its ban on gays serving openly in the military following the June 26 Supreme Court ruling that struck down parts of the Defense of Marriage Act. In September the Department of Defense began issuing full military benefits to the spouses of these gay troops.

    The state of Texas, followed by Indiana, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia have all declined to issue the cards to National Guard troops, citing potential conflicts between these new federal policies and state laws at home.

    Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is furious about this, I guess, because he doesn’t understand that state governments have laws of their own because the 10th Amendment guarantees that States have a right to their own laws.

    “This is wrong,” [Hagel] said. “It causes division among the ranks, and it furthers prejudice, which DOD has fought to extinguish.”

    Under Hagel’s orders, National Guard Bureau Chief Gen. Frank Grass will meet with each of these states’ adjutant general, who commands the state National Guard when it isn’t federalized. These officers will be “expected to comply with both lawful direction and DOD policy, in line with the practices of 45 other states and jurisdictions,” the secretary said.

    I guess like everything else this administration does, they only half-assed their assessment of the scope of their pronouncement. Sending an emissary to the various states won’t change the laws, will it?

  • Marine/Guardsman sacrificed himself for middle school kids

    There was a shooting at a Middle school in Nevada today, if you hadn’t heard. Two people died in the gunfire – a teacher and the shooter, according to Business Insider. the teacher was Michael Landsberry a former Marine (in the mid-80s) and a current member of the Nevada National Guard;

    A witness told the Gazette-Journal that a teacher told the shooter to put the gun down before he was shot.

    The student said: “We were at school, we were by the basketball court and we heard a pop, like a loud pop, and everybody was screaming. And then the teacher came to investigate. I thought it was a firecracker at first, but the student was pointing a gun at the teacher after the teacher told him to put it down. And then the student fired a shot at the teacher and the teacher fell and everybody ran away. … While we were running, we heard about four or five more shots.”

    Apparently, one of those shots was the shooter (a boy wearing a Sparks Middle School uniform) offing himself. From the Associated Press;

    “In my estimation, he is a hero. … We do know he was trying to intervene,” Reno Deputy Police Chief Tom Robinson said of the teacher who was killed, who initially was identified only as a staff member.

    Family members identified him as math teacher Michael Landsberry, a 45-year-old military veteran who leaves behind a wife and two stepdaughters.

    Two other students were injured, but many more were uninjured, thanks to Michael Landsberry.

  • #@&!! TDY Fraud

    I alluded earlier to a problem in the Arizona Air National Guard.  It looks like the subject of this article was the reason.

    It appears as if some of those assigned to the 214th Reconnaissance Squadron, Arizona Air National Guard and based in Tucson, were really enduring a hardship tour operating those remotely-piloted aircraft (RPAs).

    How bad, you ask?  As in drawing TDY allowances while living at home and flying RPA missions in support of deployed troops.

    One of the indicted was an O6 – Colonel Gregg Davies.  Ranks of the remaining personnel indicted were not immediately available.

    Davies reportedly used his position “to circumvent measures that were supposed to prevent unauthorized temporary duty entitlements when military members are neither deployed nor away for training from their home.”  The others apparently just raked in their unauthorized cash – to the tune of over $1 million total.  Many individuals involved are thought to have pocketed upwards of $100,000.

    I hope the justice system burns the hell out of these fools.

  • Colorado National Guard rescue hundreds

    CONG rescue

    The Associated Press reports that the Colorado National Guard has broken through the flood waters there to rescue about 1750 Coloradans from the rising waters;

    National Guard helicopters and truck convoys broke through to paralyzed canyon communities where thousands of stranded residents were eager to escape the Rocky Mountain foothills. But not everybody was willing to go. Dozens of people in the isolated community of Jamestown wanted to stay to watch over their homes.

    Authorities warned residents who chose not to leave that they might not get another chance for a while and should be prepared to endure weeks without electricity, running water and basic supplies.

    “We’re not trying to force anyone from their home. We’re not trying to be forceful, but we’re trying to be very factual and definitive about the consequences of their decision, and we hope that they will come down,” Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said.

  • Guardsmen plead guilty in bonus scam

    Four former and current National Guardsmen pleaded guilty in almost a quarter-million dollar scam to defraud the Guard Recruiting Assistance Program (G-RAP) which paid bonuses as enticement to attract folks to enlist according to the Department of Justice;

    Melanie D. Moraida, 33, of Pearland, Texas; Kimberly N. Hartgraves, 28, of League City, Texas; Lashae C. Hawkins, 27, of San Antonio; and Vanessa Phillips, 35, of Houston, all pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of bribery.

    […]

    Moraida, Hartgraves, Hawkins and Phillips all admitted that they paid Army National Guard recruiters for the names and Social Security numbers of potential Army National Guard soldiers. They further admitted that they used the personal identifying information for these potential soldiers in claiming that they were responsible for referring the potential soldiers to join the Army National Guard, when in fact they had not referred them.

    As a result of these fraudulent representations, Moraida collected approximately $14,500 in fraudulent bonuses; Hartgraves collected approximately $2,000 in fraudulent bonuses; Hawkins collected approximately $33,000 in fraudulent bonuses; and Phillips collected approximately $10,000 in fraudulent bonuses.

    The charge of bribery carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the pecuniary gain or loss. The charge of conspiracy carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the pecuniary gain or loss.

    They are scheduled to be sentenced in December.

  • Guardsman reinstated in Postal Service; cleans up

    Stars & Stripes reports that SGM Richard Erickson was reinstated by an administrative judge from the Merit Systems Protection Board after he was fired by the Postal Service for “excessive use of military service”, whatever that is. He was fired back in 2000;

    Garry Wade Klein, the administrative judge from the Merit Systems Protection Board, ruled Erickson must be reinstated and compensated no more than 60 days after the decision becomes final Jan. 14 pending no further legal action by USPS, which will have to follow the order even if it decides to appeal.

    The legal proceedings have dragged on for years as USPS continued to pursue the case even after Erickson won two decisions before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

    When the USPS refused to reinstate Erickson in 2000, the father of three from Ft. Meyers, Fla., re-enlisted in the National Guard and deployed to Afghanistan as part of a Special Forces team. He has received over 35 medals and decorations, including three combat distinguished valor awards and the Purple Heart.

    By the way, the Postal Service owes him over $2 million in back pay. And they have to pay his hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. They couldn’t fire Newman or Cliff Claven, but they thought they could fire a Guardsman.

  • Happy Birthday, National Guard

    Today the National Guard celebrates it’s 376th Birthday. The Guard has changed a lot in the thirty-plus years since I joined when their annual training was was a two week kegger.

    The military organization we know today as the National Guard came into existence with a direct declaration on December 13, 1636. On this date, the Massachusetts General Court in Salem, for the first time in the history of the North American continent, established that all able-bodied men between the ages of 16 and 60 were required to join the militia. The North, South, and East Regiments were established. The decree excluded ministers and judges. Simply stated, Citizen-Soldiers who mustered for military training could be and would be called upon to fight when needed.

    The National Guard has grown into a worldwide military force, yet it still retains the core characteristics that came into being on December 13, 1636. It is a community cornerstone rooted in the rule of law across the land. It enabled the early colonial settlers to meet the challenges of an uncertain world then as it does now. The National Guard will continue to be always ready and always there for the citizens that it serves.