National Guard Bureau pledges sex assault reforms
Scrutiny intensifies over incidents in ranks
WASHINGTON – Facing increased scrutiny over the rise of sexual assault in its ranks, top National Guard officials say they will implement broad reforms to better protect thousands across the force.
Better training, increased transparency, improved data collection, routine program reviews and more emphasis on prevention are among the planned changes.
“Our goal is to eliminate sexual assaults by refocusing our efforts to prevention,” Maj. Gen. Eric Little, personnel director at the National Guard Bureau, said in an interview.
The changes follow a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Cap Times investigation in March that found Guard units have buried sexual assault allegations, withheld crucial documents from victims and retaliated against women who have come forward. Reporting in 2019 found Wisconsin Guard officials were illegally investigating assaults internally. In 2020, the National Guard Bureau formed a task force to study the sexual assault issue nationwide.
Andrea Pfeifer, a Wisconsin Army Guard soldier who has called for reforms after being sexually assaulted by a supervisor, said she welcomed the changes.
“The tides are shifting in a good direction, and I hope it continues,” said Pfeifer, 44, of Sullivan, Wisconsin. “We’ll have to wait and see if this is an effective route to positive change or simply another layer of bureaucracy to navigate through.”
The 440,000-member National Guard is the oldest military force, dating back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636. It is made up of 54 independent militias that are controlled by the governors in each state and U.S. territories. Unlike full-time members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, Guard members are primarily part time, assigned to their home states.
The Guard Bureau is a federal administrative agency that oversees local units but does not directly regulate them.
Reports of sexual assault in the Guard have increased every year over the past nine years, more than tripling from 173 in 2009 to 634 in 2020.
For years, Guard officials say, the Defense Department and Congress have largely relied on a one-size-fits-all approach to combating sexual assault in the military, tailoring reforms to fulltime active forces.
It’s become clear that approach has not worked for the Guard, with its distinct and complex structure.
“The National Guard gets added into what the active duty is doing, when we really need to be playing a different game,” said Brig. Gen. Charles Walker, chief of the Guard’s Office of Complex Investigations, who also works as a federal bankruptcy judge for the Middle District of Tennessee.
In interviews last month at Andrews Air Force Base and the Army National Guard Readiness Center in Arlington, Virginia, Guard leaders spelled out several reforms.
The Guard Bureau says it will work with local units to hire staff to assess their sexual assault response programs, which are responsible for handling assault allegations. These assessments will take place at least once every three years.
The bureau said it would also create an office with experts in sexual assault, harassment, domestic violence and suicide to address those issues. The bureau said it hopes to create similar offices in all 54 states and territories.
Sexual assault response coordinators, who manage cases as they move through the system, will get Guard-specific training. The bureau says it also plans to do a better job collecting state data and analyzing trends.
Data on the outcome of cases is especially lacking, said Eugene Fidell, an expert on military law at New York University’s law school. “It’s a really thorny set of problems in 54 jurisdictions,” he said.
Guard leaders say some of their plans are contingent on getting sufficient funding and that their authority to carry out such plans only goes so far.
The agency can guide local units, not unilaterally regulate them. Although the units are primarily federally funded, the militias are wholly controlled by their governors. But bureau leaders say local units are generally supportive of federal guidance.
In interviews, Guard Bureau leaders emphasized they aim to stay in their lane and not overstep into a state Guard’s affairs. The bureau will provide additional guidance and resources to help states combat sexual assault but will not be responsible for implementing changes, Maj. Gen. Little said.
The bureau, he said, is working on ways to better support local units so “we can address this sexual assault issue and find ways to better train and hold leaders and people accountable.”
Last year, the bureau reorganized its Office of Complex Investigations, which does administrative inquiries when requested by a state, into an independent entity reporting to senior Guard leadership rather than the bureau’s general counsel.
“We have our own voice for the first time,” said Brig. Gen. Walker, who leads the office.
General Daniel Hokanson, the head of the National Guard Bureau, said in a statement that he put Walker, a fellow general, at the helm of the investigations office to give it more influence within the military when asking for funding and resources.
“It clearly highlights how important and seriously we take investigating sexual assault allegations and our goal of reducing sexual assaults within the National Guard,” Hokanson said.
Don Christensen, a retired Air Force colonel and former chief Air Force prosecutor and president of Protect Our Defenders, a national advocacy group providing legal help to victims of military sexual assault, agrees.
“Putting a general officer in there is a signal that (sexual assault) is being taken more seriously. It gives it more authority,” he said.
Over the past year, Walker said he and his team eliminated a backlog of cases though he has struggled to recruit and retain investigators. He said that’s because the Guard’s pool of candidates is limited, and the work requires a special skill-set.
Walker said the Office of Complex Investigations should only investigate a small percentage of cases because allegations should first go through local police. The office only investigates if law enforcement declines. Last fiscal year, the office investigated about 30% of sexual assaults reported across 54 militias.
“We want local law enforcement to do their job,” Walker said. “We don’t control that process, nor should we, nor do we want to. It is local law enforcement’s responsibility.”