thedrifter
07-27-08, 06:13 AM
Suspect Soldiers: California National Guard scrutinizes recruiter offenses
By Russell Carollo - rcarollo@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, July 27, 2008
Dozens of California National Guard recruiters and support staff were punished or remain under investigation for a variety of offenses that include forging criminal and other enlistment records, The Bee has learned.
One recruiter who worked out of the Roseville office told The Bee she was demoted after processing a recruit with a domestic violence conviction and fabricating a physical exam for another applicant. She said she felt pressured to meet quotas and that two other recruiters helped her.
Statewide, 48 recruiters, supervisors and support staff were investigated, and in 27 cases the allegations were deemed to be valid. Punishment ranged from demotions to reprimands.
Nine investigations are pending, six involving fraudulent enlistment practices, and two other cases were handled by civilian authorities, one for alleged possession of pornography and another for alleged sex with a minor in the Fresno area. Ten cases were deemed unfounded.
The California National Guard has about 530 people in its recruiting command, with well over half of them recruiters and supervisors. The majority of those targeted for investigation were recruiters and supervisors.
A few of the investigations date back two years or more, but the vast majority occurred after March 2007, when Col. Diana L. Bodner, an Iraq war and military police veteran, took command of California Guard recruiters.
"These (investigations) are our problems. We embraced them, and she (Bodner) is aggressive about going after them," Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Jon Siepmann said on Thursday.
Bodner told The Bee on Friday that the number of cases reflect what she called her "command philosophy of intolerance."
"It's important that we do it right," she said. "The American public is trusting us with their sons and daughters. … My message is loud and clear: Do the hard right (thing) over the easy wrong."
Bodner said recruiting for the Guard is different from recruiting for the regular services because the Guard has closer links to the community and recruits often are able to continue to hold down a civilian job. She said the California National Guard has had no problem finding qualified applicants.
"There's not a need to bring people in with questionable backgrounds," she said.
All of the military cases were handled administratively, and none was sent to courts-martial, where the military's most serious cases are heard.
A tip about the Guard investigations came within days of The Bee's publication of a four-part series, "Suspect Soldiers." That examination of 250 military personnel from across the country identified 120 with questionable backgrounds, including criminal histories, and linked 70 of them to incidents in the military, most occurring in Iraq.
The soldiers and Marines examined by The Bee were recruited or retained as the armed services, entering the sixth year of the Iraq war, lowered educational, age and moral standards and granted an increasing number of waivers to applicants whose backgrounds would otherwise have barred them from serving.
Siepmann said some in the California Guard welcomed disclosures made in The Bee's series.
"Some of us around here don't like the idea that people think that sending people to Iraq turns them into criminals," he said. "We tend not to believe that. We tend to believe that they were probably criminals before they ever showed up in the military."
The Bee series also reported that the percentage of Army recruits receiving criminal waivers has more than doubled, from 4.6 percent in 2003 to 11.2 percent in 2007.
In December, however, the National Guard quit granting felony waivers. The Guard's chief recruiting officer, Col. Mike Jones, was quoted in the Army Times as calling the previous policy "a risk," but he later told The Bee that an increased number of applicants had made the policy no longer necessary.
Bodner said the California National Guard quit granting felony waivers two months earlier, in October. During fiscal 2007, she said, the Guard granted 1,062 waivers of various types. So far this fiscal year – beginning Oct. 1 – it has granted 626.
The California Guard, Bodner said, has recruited about 2,800 soldiers since October, and it rejected 121 applicants who would have required waivers.
Several of the investigations by the California Guard, The Bee learned, involved personnel attached to the Roseville recruiting office.
"I made (up a record for) a physical for somebody to get in. I didn't have time to get him down to get a physical," said Cassandra Holmes, adding that she was demoted from staff sergeant to specialist for her offenses. "They had to put somebody in by the end of the month, and I didn't have time to do that. And so I made a physical for him."
Holmes said she also was accused of recruiting someone with a conviction for domestic violence. Asked why she didn't try to obtain a waiver for the applicant, she said, "It's non-waiverable."
The Guard, Holmes said, also transferred her to Stockton as part of her punishment, forcing her to drive 75 miles one-way to work. Holmes, who has been a recruiter only two years, said two other recruiters were investigated for helping her.
"They are veteran recruiters, and they helped me do what I did," she said.
The two other recruiters she referenced did not return telephone calls from The Bee, and though the Guard acknowledged that other recruiters and staff were under investigation, it would not say where they worked.
Holmes and several other former and current members of the recruiting command reached by The Bee blamed the investigations on the intense pressure put on recruiters.
Guard officials acknowledged that recruiters are required to enlist two applicants a month in order to "make mission," and recruiters are offered bonuses of up to thousands of dollars for successfully recruiting greater numbers of people.
"And if you don't put your numbers in, they put you on what's called the 'Production Improvement Plan,' which means you work 12 hours a day, Monday through Friday," Holmes said. "It's too much stress and too much pressure. I was on it (the plan) for a while."
Bodner acknowledged that the Guard has a Production Improvement Plan, which she said is administered by supervisors and can involve more training and hours to help recruits become better at their jobs.
Holmes said recruiting is not as easy as some Guard officials may claim.
"It's really hard to find somebody who's clean with no background, all the stuff we're not allowed to put in," she said. "All they care about is the numbers."
Ellie
By Russell Carollo - rcarollo@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, July 27, 2008
Dozens of California National Guard recruiters and support staff were punished or remain under investigation for a variety of offenses that include forging criminal and other enlistment records, The Bee has learned.
One recruiter who worked out of the Roseville office told The Bee she was demoted after processing a recruit with a domestic violence conviction and fabricating a physical exam for another applicant. She said she felt pressured to meet quotas and that two other recruiters helped her.
Statewide, 48 recruiters, supervisors and support staff were investigated, and in 27 cases the allegations were deemed to be valid. Punishment ranged from demotions to reprimands.
Nine investigations are pending, six involving fraudulent enlistment practices, and two other cases were handled by civilian authorities, one for alleged possession of pornography and another for alleged sex with a minor in the Fresno area. Ten cases were deemed unfounded.
The California National Guard has about 530 people in its recruiting command, with well over half of them recruiters and supervisors. The majority of those targeted for investigation were recruiters and supervisors.
A few of the investigations date back two years or more, but the vast majority occurred after March 2007, when Col. Diana L. Bodner, an Iraq war and military police veteran, took command of California Guard recruiters.
"These (investigations) are our problems. We embraced them, and she (Bodner) is aggressive about going after them," Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Jon Siepmann said on Thursday.
Bodner told The Bee on Friday that the number of cases reflect what she called her "command philosophy of intolerance."
"It's important that we do it right," she said. "The American public is trusting us with their sons and daughters. … My message is loud and clear: Do the hard right (thing) over the easy wrong."
Bodner said recruiting for the Guard is different from recruiting for the regular services because the Guard has closer links to the community and recruits often are able to continue to hold down a civilian job. She said the California National Guard has had no problem finding qualified applicants.
"There's not a need to bring people in with questionable backgrounds," she said.
All of the military cases were handled administratively, and none was sent to courts-martial, where the military's most serious cases are heard.
A tip about the Guard investigations came within days of The Bee's publication of a four-part series, "Suspect Soldiers." That examination of 250 military personnel from across the country identified 120 with questionable backgrounds, including criminal histories, and linked 70 of them to incidents in the military, most occurring in Iraq.
The soldiers and Marines examined by The Bee were recruited or retained as the armed services, entering the sixth year of the Iraq war, lowered educational, age and moral standards and granted an increasing number of waivers to applicants whose backgrounds would otherwise have barred them from serving.
Siepmann said some in the California Guard welcomed disclosures made in The Bee's series.
"Some of us around here don't like the idea that people think that sending people to Iraq turns them into criminals," he said. "We tend not to believe that. We tend to believe that they were probably criminals before they ever showed up in the military."
The Bee series also reported that the percentage of Army recruits receiving criminal waivers has more than doubled, from 4.6 percent in 2003 to 11.2 percent in 2007.
In December, however, the National Guard quit granting felony waivers. The Guard's chief recruiting officer, Col. Mike Jones, was quoted in the Army Times as calling the previous policy "a risk," but he later told The Bee that an increased number of applicants had made the policy no longer necessary.
Bodner said the California National Guard quit granting felony waivers two months earlier, in October. During fiscal 2007, she said, the Guard granted 1,062 waivers of various types. So far this fiscal year – beginning Oct. 1 – it has granted 626.
The California Guard, Bodner said, has recruited about 2,800 soldiers since October, and it rejected 121 applicants who would have required waivers.
Several of the investigations by the California Guard, The Bee learned, involved personnel attached to the Roseville recruiting office.
"I made (up a record for) a physical for somebody to get in. I didn't have time to get him down to get a physical," said Cassandra Holmes, adding that she was demoted from staff sergeant to specialist for her offenses. "They had to put somebody in by the end of the month, and I didn't have time to do that. And so I made a physical for him."
Holmes said she also was accused of recruiting someone with a conviction for domestic violence. Asked why she didn't try to obtain a waiver for the applicant, she said, "It's non-waiverable."
The Guard, Holmes said, also transferred her to Stockton as part of her punishment, forcing her to drive 75 miles one-way to work. Holmes, who has been a recruiter only two years, said two other recruiters were investigated for helping her.
"They are veteran recruiters, and they helped me do what I did," she said.
The two other recruiters she referenced did not return telephone calls from The Bee, and though the Guard acknowledged that other recruiters and staff were under investigation, it would not say where they worked.
Holmes and several other former and current members of the recruiting command reached by The Bee blamed the investigations on the intense pressure put on recruiters.
Guard officials acknowledged that recruiters are required to enlist two applicants a month in order to "make mission," and recruiters are offered bonuses of up to thousands of dollars for successfully recruiting greater numbers of people.
"And if you don't put your numbers in, they put you on what's called the 'Production Improvement Plan,' which means you work 12 hours a day, Monday through Friday," Holmes said. "It's too much stress and too much pressure. I was on it (the plan) for a while."
Bodner acknowledged that the Guard has a Production Improvement Plan, which she said is administered by supervisors and can involve more training and hours to help recruits become better at their jobs.
Holmes said recruiting is not as easy as some Guard officials may claim.
"It's really hard to find somebody who's clean with no background, all the stuff we're not allowed to put in," she said. "All they care about is the numbers."
Ellie