Soldiers participating in the Guard Recruiting Assistance Program were illegally incentivized by the National Guard for their participation in the Guard Recruiting Assistance Program in a number of different ways to include awards, paid days off and gifts purchased by the National Guard.

According to the Department of Defense’s guidelines “The government may award government personnel using a variety of methods, ranging from certificates of appreciation to time off and a monetary bonus. The government does not have the same authority to recognize contractor employees.”

It is important to note that the soldiers were working as contactor employees and as such, they were not entitled to awards by the US government. However, as shown below, many soldiers such as SGT Dana Kline, received military medals for their involvement acting as contractors for the Guard Recruiting Assistance Program.

In another instance the Oregon National Guard (ORARNG) offered the Red Leg Challenge where they offered to give soldiers paid days off for successfully recruiting individuals into the National Guard. As shown below, the ORARNG provided soldiers with paid days off for their actions conducted as a government contractor. Not only is this a form of a gift but the National Guard cannot pay a solider as a soldier for something they do as a contractor. Further, the soldiers were incentivized with gifts in the form of a backpack which also violated DoD guidelines. Again, the National Guard illegally incentivized soldiers to participate in the G-RAP program.

While the National Guard illegally incentivized soldiers to participate in the G-RAP program, no leadership has been questions or held accountable for their actions or for implementing an illegal program. Instead, the soldiers who participated in the program and being criminally prosecuted for a set of rules and guidelines that was inherently misleading.

According to the February 2014 congressional testimony, one Major General committed fraud; 18 full Colonels, 11 Lieutenant Colonels and dozens of other mid-level and Junior Officers also potentially committed fraud under the Recruiting Assistance Program. During the hearing Senator McCaskill confronted National Guard and Army leadership regarding the omission of prosecution towards officers and senior leadership:

“Senator McCaskill– To your knowledge, have any of them gone to prison?

General Quantock– No, ma’am. To my knowledge, none have gone to prison.

Senator McCaskill– Have any of them lost benefits, to your knowledge?

General Quantock– No, ma’am, not to my knowledge.

Senator McCaskill– Have any of them been forced to resign from their service?

General Quontock– I would have to take that one for the record, ma’am.”

02 February 2014 FCO Hearing Transcript Page 27.

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It is clear that only enlisted soldiers have been investigated and or prosecuted in an evident move by the National Guard and US Army leadership to transfer blame to lower enlisted personnel.

This is further exacerbated by the fact that the entire Recruiting Assistance Program was later deemed to be illegally acquired by the military as it was granted under a sole sourced award to Docupak. However, even though the program was illegally procured, mismanaged and violated Anti Deficiency Act guidelines no leadership has been reprimanded held accountable or questioned for their involvement or implementation of the program. This shows that leadership has used enlisted soldiers to mask their actions and thwart prosecution.   If the leadership truly sought justice all soldiers, regardless of rank should be held accountable for either participating in the program or for mismanaging a program in which they claim wide spread fraud occurred.

It is evident that the leadership will continue to use soldiers and punish soldiers regardless of whether or not they conducted illegal activity in an effort to direct congress away from their own actions and deficiencies.

Soldiers prosecuted on a never before distributed handbook

Soldiers are being prosecuted for their participation in the Recruiting Assistance Program based on a handbook that CID claims they received that outlined the Do’s and Don’ts of the program.

In the prosecuted soldiers’ discovery is a never before seen handbook listed as Version 2.0. We have further discrepancies of the Version 2 handbook being used for prosecution and how it differs from the widely distributed Version 1.5 handbook however this blog focuses on the fact that no handbook was ever distributed.

In 2011 a Recruiting Assistant named David Remsberg sued Docupak