Parnell waited years to take direct action on National Guard misconduct

[unhappycamper]

http://www.adn.com/article/20141001/parnell-waited-years-take-direct-action-national-guard-misconduct



Gov. Sean Parnell on Sept. 4 as he released findings from the National Guard Bureau on allegations of misconduct within the Alaska National Guard.

Parnell waited years to take direct action on National Guard misconduct
Richard Mauer,Jill Burke
October 1, 2014

As the Alaska National Guard sexual misconduct and leadership scandal evolves into a major issue in his re-election bid, Gov. Sean Parnell is confronting two key questions: When did he learn about problems in the guard, and did he respond effectively?

The record shows that Parnell took nearly his entire four-year term to remove officials at the top of the guard and its related civilian department.

Parnell, officially the guard’s civilian commander, has acknowledged receiving complaints about deeply entrenched problems within guard leadership starting in 2010, but he said they lacked specifics.

~snip~

Parnell’s plea to the federal government was answered by Gen. Frank Grass, chief of the National Guard Bureau, who sent a team of investigators to Alaska. They delivered a scathing report into leadership failures in the guard that created a toxic climate in which sexual assaults, sexual harassment, misuse of guard money and equipment, and outright fraud persisted for years.