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Editor’s note: “The flying fraternity: Ghost soldiers of the Vermont National Guard” is the fourth in a series of stories about allegations that male officials have mistreated women, have abused alcohol and have been given preferential treatment by superiors. Read Part 1: “Top Gun Culture Pervades National Guard” here, Part 2: “Guard commander’s wings clipped after secret rendezvous” here, Part 3: “Africa, alcohol and the Afterburner Club” here, Part 5: “Female Guard members claim barrage of harassment” here, Part 6 “Chaplain’s female assistant claims coercion” here, and Part 7 : “Whistleblower says Guard retaliated against him” here.

As the Vermont National Guard has struggled to recruit new members, leadership has purposely delayed the discharges of hundreds of enlisted personnel over several years in an effort to project a false sense of operational readiness, according to documents obtained by VTDigger.

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Officials believe this practice, in which Vermont Guard leaders keep former personnel on the books for months after they leave the base, is ongoing. They say that once the Guard submits annual inflated numbers to state and national authorities, employees are slowly discharged, not in one fell swoop but instead one by one, so as to avoid raising suspicions. Internal documents suggest the practice takes time away from other tasks inside the organization and could trigger a federal inquiry.

“They would keep people on the books for as much as a year,” a former Guard member said. “It’s a longstanding policy.”

While the length of delayed discharges vary, statistics obtained by VTDigger show that one soldier was held for 640 days beyond his official discharge date.

An internal Guard presentation expressed concern over “continued congressional and [Inspector General] inquiries,” and suggest there have been more than a dozen inquiries related to delayed discharges since December 2015. The documents describes this practice as “poor treatment of soldiers.”

In response to questions about a federal investigation, First Lt. Mikel Arcovitch, the Guard spokesperson, said the organization responds “to each inquiry and resolve issues within our span of control as quickly as possible. The nature of Congressional inquiries vary. We do not track inquiries by individual categories.”

Guard members say the practice of inflating employment numbers has impacted morale, hurt recruitment of new members, delayed access to benefits and pension payments to retirees, and resulted in the improper accrual of additional federal funds.

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It’s unclear exactly how many Guard members actually serve in the Guard today, but data show that the number of delayed discharges spiked in recent years. In September 2012, for example, the Guard had just 29 pending discharges. By May 2016, the number of delayed discharges had jumped to roughly 250. Between 2012 and 2017, the average number of delayed discharges each year hovered around 180.

Arcovitch said in a statement that there were 26 pending discharges as of Sept. 30, giving the Vermont Army National Guard “the fifth best rate in the country for the metric used to measure delayed discharges.” Arcovitch did not provide the number of pending discharges for the previous five years.

The Vermont National Guard is made up of the Vermont Army National Guard and the Vermont Air National Guard. In April, The Stowe Reporter found that the Army National Guard can maintain a base of up to 2,598 soldiers and the Air National Guard maximum capacity is about 1,000 members. Col. Greg Knight, the deputy chief of staff and personnel for the Army National Guard, told the newspaper that the Army unit was 121 members shy of total capacity and the Air unit was about 50 airmen short.

A former senior Army National Guard official confirmed the practice of keeping soldiers on the books was commonplace.

“People were held in limbo and did not get their retirement pay in a timely manner,” the former senior official said. “It was a very deliberate cooking of the books.”

In an email, Arcovitch wrote that “inefficiencies, if any, have been corrected and our process has improved dramatically. Our new business rules are now more streamlined. Delayed discharges, pending discharges, and negative end strength are often interchangeably used amongst our staff, even though they are distinctly different. Validating a definitive delayed discharge number for any point-in-time is nearly impossible because it is not systematically tracked, and may result from any number of legitimate reasons.”

The National Guard’s financial support of state outposts is based, in part, on how many soldiers are on the books. By reporting inflated numbers, the Vermont Guard has received outsized financial allocations for training and other purposes. A member said this money was not recouped by the National Guard Bureau, and it’s unclear how the additional funds, estimated to be more than $1 million, were spent. (The Guard’s overall budget is about $200 million, most of which comes from the federal government.)

Internal documents suggest that Guard members felt this accrual of money made the organization “vulnerable to Army Audit Agency audit.”

Sources said phantom soldiers were more prevalent on the Army side than the Air side, in part because a discharge from the Air Guard more often includes giving up one’s security clearance.

An internal presentation shows that officials believe the practice breaks multiple military rules, including National Guard regulation 600-200, which demands that soldiers be efficiently discharged once their obligation to the military has ended. Officials inside the barracks worried that if the Guard’s delay practices were exposed and made public, it could trigger a federal inquiry, according to the internal presentation.

The Vermont practice has meant that some longtime enlisted officials in the Guard have faced delays in getting access to retirement benefits — including pension payments and health benefits. Some contend that, in leadership’s attempt to keep personnel numbers high, problematic soldiers or those who are not medically fit to deploy have been retained.

A number of Guard members, frustrated by the delayed discharge process, have sought help from the office of U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who serves as the co-chair of the Senate National Guard Caucus. Leahy would not comment on specific cases, but appeared to acknowledge the problem. The senator declined an interview request.

“It is essential that the military services honor the nation’s commitment to the men and women who serve by ensuring that their discharges occur properly and timely and that they receive the support they need to make seamless transitions to civilian life, with all of the benefits they have earned and deserve,” Leahy said in a statement to VTDigger. “I will continue to work with others on Capitol Hill to ensure that the resources and programs are in place to support those transitions.”

The practice has hurt morale inside the organization, according to an internal survey of Guard employees.

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“Quit lying about strength,” one respondent wrote in the undated survey. “It is corrosive to the organization.” Another complaint was more direct: “Stop hiding ghosts.”

Overstating employment has also hampered the Vermont Guard’s recruitment efforts. According to the internal presentation from May 2017 obtained by VTDigger, the practice has damaged the Vermont Guard’s reputation with five or six other state Guards, whose leaders now refuse to transfer officials to the Green Mountains out of concern their members’ discharge could be delayed.

Vermont’s adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Steven Cray, has said he believes the Vermont Guard’s recruitment efforts have been hindered by the limited pool of young people in the state, as well as the time commitment required to serve as Guard reservists.

To boost recruitment, the Air Guard has incorporated information about the impending basing of the F-35 fighter jet into recruiting materials. The first two jets are expected in arrive at the Burlington Airport in the fall of 2019.

The Guard also successfully lobbied the Scott administration and lawmakers to offer free tuition for Guard members at public colleges and universities. (Similar programs are offered in other New England states.)

Current and former Guard members say turnover in the Vermont National Guard has increased in recent years because of unfair hiring and promotion practices.

VTDigger spoke to more than two dozen current and former Guard members, many of whom say the organization has been deeply wounded by a group of leaders who look the other way for friends and punish enemies.

“The place isn’t functioning well,” a former member said. “People are dejected, they are sick and tired of the cronyism.”

Sources also said the Air Guard’s expenditures are sometimes extravagant. Four former Air Guard members said the organization tries to spend all budgeted dollars by the end of the fiscal year, in order to preserve the same level of funding the following fiscal year.

Officials with knowledge of Guard spending said several hundred thousand dollars could be spent in two or three days, sometimes on frivolous purchases, from commemorative “challenge” coins to fancy jackets. A renovation for the office of now retired Brig. Gen. David “Baz” Baczewski, cost an estimated $30,000, according to an official with knowledge. The renovation included installation of a flat-screen television and leather chairs so aromatic “it smelled like a shoe store.” (Another Guard member, however, said Baczewski’s office hadn’t been refurbished in years was overdue for renovation.)

According to former members, pilots also sometimes benefited. In addition to seeing frequent operational upgrades, some pilots had successfully lobbied for generous per diems while on deployments — as much as $100 per day per pilot — and frequently secured off-base hotel stays even though there was adequate lodging on base.

“We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to make life more cushy for the prima donna pilots,” a former member said. “When we would tell pilots to get their wish lists ready, leadership would essentially say ‘the sky’s the limit.’”

Help us investigate: Do you know what’s going on at the Vermont Army or Air National Guard? Contact Jasper Craven at 802-274-0365 or [email protected]

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