This military wife has been writing about the role of complicit commanders in cases involving sexual assault and sexual harassment of our military members. A story recently broke in Arizona about the horrific actions of an Army National Guard recruiter and the story focuses on his so-called "bum hunts." Yes, this man took out new recruits and young enlisted in the Army National Guard Humvee and "hunted" the homeless with paint guns. But the story isn't a simple one of a single recruiter and his power over young and easily-influenced recruits. It is a story of sexual harassment, of lack of respect for military members, both active duty and veteran, and of the men given the responsibility to command this unit and their failure to do so. It goes far beyond one bad apple and it makes me question the entire chain of command in the Arizona Army National Guard.
I was introduced to this fiasco through the story of a whistleblower, Staff Sgt. Chad Wille. According to the Tucson Citizen, Sgt. Wille was driving the unit's Humvee when approached by a civilian who told him he had seen that exact same humvee weeks earlier on the street shooting pedestrians with paintballs. Like any good NCO, Sgt. Chad took this info back to the unit and filed a report with his supervisor. Not content, he decided to start asking questions, starting with the person who had the keys to the humvee that weekend. His quest was met with this response, “You’re not aware of the bum hunts?”
Rather than back down, even at the request of several officers in the chain of command asking him if he was a team player, Sgt. Wille investigated further, peppering the youngest enlisted troops with questions and learning about more than just the "bum hunts."
Sgt. Wille then became the target of two years of harassment:
But as the investigations progressed, Wille became a target, military and police records show. Instead of being rewarded for integrity, he was subjected to a two-year campaign of harassment. Records show he was falsely accused of groping a teenage girl and threatened with a bullet to the head. His confidential military records were provided to an ex-convict. His National Guard photograph was stolen and posted on derogatory fliers outside National Guard headquarters, known as the Papago Military Reservation, in Phoenix. He was subjected to other allegations, investigated and pressured to resign, but refused.
In my book, the man deserves a medal for perseverance. I wish I could limit this blog to just his actions to show the rest of you than many in our military are honorable, ethical, and follow a code of conduct that does honor to the service of all of our servicemembers. But, unfortunately, I can't.
I need to tell you about Sgt. 1st Class Michael Amerson, the man who held those keys to that humvee on the weekend in question.
I can tell you that his "bum hunts" included elements of sexual abuse, both of young female military members who were "pressured" to flash their breasts at the homeless and of at least one homeless woman who was paid to pull up her top.
I can tell you that his "bum hunts" abused our own veterans. This shouldn't be a surprise since a large portion of the homeless are vets. What should be shocking is that any serving active duty military would treat our own Vietnam era vets which such shocking disregard, pushing their already fragile mental states to the point of dangerous action:
“Supposedly he was like a Vietnam veteran or something, and that’s why they named him ‘Checkpoint Charlie,’ ” Martin told investigators. “So they buy coffee and Checkpoint skips out on the tab, so now they’re pissed at him. So the story goes, ‘Hey, we’re going to take you out in the desert, dump you out in the desert.’ Maybe to scare him. I don’t know.
“Checkpoint had his cell phone and was going to call the police. So Amerson swung around the back seat, grabbed his cell phone, was going to smash it. Then they get back to wherever it is that they picked up this Charlie guy at, and they’re all standing around and Checkpoint has like a railroad tie (spike) or something and grabs (another soldier) puts him in a headlock and says, ‘I’m going to kill you.’ I guess somehow Amerson diffused the situation or something to that affect (sic).”
I can tell you that the warning signs of Sgt. Amerson's illegal behavior have been there for years:
Amerson held pool parties where potential enlistees and new soldiers — male and female — were served alcohol and engaged in topless “chicken fights.” One recruit, only weeks in the National Guard, wrote a letter to the commander giving notice that she was quitting because Amerson pressured her to take part in bikini parties.
He also allowed a female recruit to come and live with him and, when the brass found out, Amerson wasn't punished but young woman eventually agreed to be discharged. Sound familiar? This could be one of the stories from the movie,
The Invisible War.
He married another recruit and had yet a third affair with a teen but the person reporting the inappropriate before was forced out and Amerson was praised for the illegal and immoral behavior.
It's fair to ask, "Where was the command?" This wasn't a single night of fun - it was over 30 nighttime raids and countless numbers of inappropriate fraternization with troops under his control as well as rampant sexual abuse. How could the officers in charge not see what was going on? They had to be blind. Or, more likely, they feared dealing with the repercussions of punishing one of their best "bull-shitting" recruiters.
All military report to a civilian Commander-in-Chief at the end of the day and, in Arizona, the CinC of the Army National Guard is be Governor Jan Brewer. According to the Associated Press, she was unaware of many of these allegations until she read her local newspaper. The question is how high up the chain-of-command did the knowledge go? Who was keeping secrets from the Governor and why? What in the hell is happening to the Army National Guard in Arizona and why?
And I'm not the only person asking questions:
Retired Col. Karen Bence, who served as mission-support commander for the Guard's 162nd Fighter Wing, said the state military organization suffers from "a severe lack of checks and balances all the way from state headquarters to the Governor's Office."
"If I was governor, I would clean house," Bence added. "Then, I would go after my liaison and say, 'Why didn't I know about this?'
It's likely that Brewer could have known if she wanted to. Last month, a fight was brewing between two top Generals and one of them, with the help of Representative
Trent Franks, asked Governor Brewer to intervene.
She declined.
As you read more about this story in the weeks to come, remember that this is much more than harassment of the homeless, as if that wasn't bad enough on it's own. Even now, places like Fox News are leading this story with headlines that imply it's about the paint guns. Paint guns sell more news... sexual abuse and sexual harassment is just so blase. It's our job to push back and to make sure this story is reported as it as been by The Arizona Republic, who originally broke the story.