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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/02/21/usat-guard.htm
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Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
E-mails detail Indiana Guard 'ghosts'
By Dave Moniz and Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY
By Rob Goebel, The Indianapolis Star via AP
Master Sgt. Robert Wyse is surrounded by his family after his court-martial
Jan. 29 in Edinburgh, Ind.
'Ghost soldiers' inflate Guard numbers
Misconduct marks Guard command
WASHINGTON â Evidence continues to grow that National Guard units across the
country are undermanned and have faked their troop level reports to
Washington for years in order to protect their flow of federal money and to
hide their inability to retain troops.
The latest evidence was revealed in court documents introduced during a
January military trial in Indiana. A series of e-mail messages from a senior
Indiana National Guard officer details a longstanding practice of false troop
reporting to the Pentagon and National Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The e-mails, from the top Army Guard personnel officer in the state
headquarters, describe how senior National Guard officials in Indiana devised
schemes to hide troop shortfalls. Indiana Guard officials state in the
messages that they believe similar methods are practiced in other states.
The e-mails were introduced by defense attorneys during the court-martial of
Master Sgt. Robert Wyse, a Guard recruiter found guilty of forging physical
exams for recruits. They outline a program in which Guard officials knowingly
inflated data on the total number of Army Guard troops in the state. As many
as 700 soldiers who had left the 12,000-member Indiana Guard were still being
carried on the rolls, some for more than two years after they had left, the
e-mails said.
The Indiana case is the latest in a growing list of states alleged to have
faked their Guard troop numbers. In December, USA TODAY reported allegations
from more than 40 officers that at least seven states had inflated rolls with
phony troops known as ghosts. Since then, a dozen Guard members from across
the nation have contacted the newspaper alleging that commanders in their
states have padded unit rosters with non-existent soldiers.
Maj. Sara Hall, a spokeswoman for the Indiana National Guard, said officials
in her state could not comment on the e-mails because they are part of an
ongoing legal case. The author of the e-mails, Col. Kevin Samples, did not
return telephone calls.
A former National Guard officer who specializes in personnel issues described
the e-mail messages as incriminating.
If they were misreporting these numbers to a federal official, that's
lying, says Dave McGinnis, who once tracked personnel issues for the
National Guard's headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Allegations of widespread troop inflation in Indiana were first reported last
month in The Indianapolis Star newspaper.
The total reported troop strength of the National Guard is 460,000. Each
state's Guard reports to the governor, but the Guard receives more than 95%
of its funding â about $13 billion last year â from the federal government.
States that can't adequately staff Guard units risk losing the units and the
federal money that comes with them.
The December articles in USA TODAY reported allegations of ghost soldiers in
Army National Guard units in Illinois, South Carolina, California, Arizona,
Texas, Virginia and Wyoming. In some units, as many as 20% of the soldiers
are troops who exist on paper only, according to Guard members and government
investigators.
In response to the articles, the chairman and ranking Democrat of the House
Armed Services personnel subcommittee, Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., and Rep. Vic
Snyder, D-Ark., have asked the Pentagon to investigate. The lawmakers said in
a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that the allegations raise
important questions about the readiness of the National Guard as the nation
enters a challenging phase in the war on terrorism. The Pentagon has not
responded to the request.
The new allegations bring to nine the number of states, as well as the
District of Columbia, where Army Guard soldiers have told the newspaper that
individual units or senior officers have grossly misrepresented troop levels.
Among the new allegations:
A Hawaii National Guard officer says that as recently as September, a third
of his 120-member infantry unit was made up of phantom soldiers. He says the
state's senior officers condoned practices that misrepresented the Army
Guard's troop levels. He did not want to be identified because he feared
retaliation. Hawaii Guard officials say they don't believe the allegation.
A Wyoming Army Guard officer says state commanders have devised a system to
fool auditors and Pentagon officials about the state's troop levels. The
officer, who did not want to be identified for fear of losing his job, says
Wyoming Guard officials have periodically instructed soldiers on how to
