Guard turns on soldier who alleged harassment
Texan says her complaint led to retaliation, probe
AUSTIN, Texas – National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Tinker was days into what was supposed to be a nine-month Kuwait deployment as a high-level officer took an unwelcome and uncomfortable interest in her.
Capt. Josue Muñoz, five ranks her senior, texted “sexy” in response to her work-related message last fall. They had barely met. Her unit had not even left readiness training at Fort Hood, Texas.
In other text messages, Muñoz told the decorated 17-year Guard veteran that he recovered from COVID-19 and that “you can finally get in my mouth.”
Muñoz told her they would be in such tight quarters at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, that they would be joined “at the hip or mouth, whichever comes first,” according to hundreds of pages of investigative records.
Tinker spiraled into self-doubt as she embarked on her first international deployment since 2007, a world away from her husband and 2-yearold daughter.
After arriving on base in the middle of the desert, Tinker submitted a handwritten sexual harassment complaint: She gave investigators copies of Muñoz’s texts.
Tinker learned Muñoz was being reprimanded and might lose his fulltime Guard job.
Her relief that Texas National Guard leaders, who declined interview requests for this story, had done the right thing was short-lived. Less than a month later, they came after her.
After concluding she had been sexually harassed, officials informed Tinker she was the target of an investigation into whether she violated what her attorney said is a rarely enforced policy prohibiting soldiers from a relationship that creates the “perception of undue familiarity” with a person of a different rank.
“Until we start to fight this ugly culture we have created, then it is just going to continue to be the same.” Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Tinker
Tinker said that during her ordeal, she sought comfort and counsel from another captain with whom she had worked at Camp Mabry in Austin and who was deployed in Kuwait.
Having been lectured by a senior officer about “destroying” Muñoz’s career, she said she viewed the investigation – prompted in part by allegations from Muñoz during the harassment investigation – as blatant retaliation.
In the months since, officials sent her home, finding she violated policy, records show. After a career of honors and accolades, she has been referred to the Texas National Guard adjunct general for disciplinary action that she and her lawyer predict will result in termination from her full-time Guard employment.
In April, the Cap Times in Wisconsin, in conjunction with the USA TODAY Network’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, reported that National Guard units in several states have buried sexual assault allegations, withheld crucial documents from victims and retaliated against women who came forward.
Fort Hood leaders were ousted or punished last year after the murder of Spc. Vanessa Guillen, who was the victim of sexual harassment before her death. Separate reviews found that the Army post had a climate “permissive of sexual harassment and sexual assault” and that officials failed to address Guillen’s complaints.
Muñoz, a 21-year Texas National Guard veteran, did not return a text, email, phone call or social media message for comment.
In a statement included in the investigative file obtained by the American-Statesman, part of the USA TODAY Network, and KVUE-TV, he said he never asked Tinker for sexual favors or touched her inappropriately. He reported a perception that Tinker and another male captain “spend too much time together” – the allegation that triggered the potentially career-ending investigation into Tinker.
Texas National Guard officials said in an email that they could not discuss the cases because of privacy policies. The agency, whose access to records is governed by state and federal laws, has not released information to the Statesman about the number of sexual harassment complaints it has received in the past three years and the outcome of those complaints. “We take all allegations of misconduct seriously and approach each investigation with integrity and respect towards all involved,” the Guard said in a statement.
Across all branches of the military, including the National Guard, reports of sexual harassment have been on the rise over the past five years. The U.S. Defense Department reported 1,021 formal sexual harassment complaints in fiscal 2019, the most recent report available, a 10% increase over 2018.
The Defense Department has tracked and issued annual reports for more than a decade on sexual harassment and sexual assaults in the military and military academies. Authors of the 2019 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military wrote, “When unit climates are tolerant of other forms of misconduct, risk of sexual assault increases.”
“Active duty women who experienced sexual harassment were at three times greater risk for sexual assault than those who did not,” according to the report.
Tinker sometimes sits quietly in her Leander home, northwest of Austin, scrolling through photographs from her military career that both transport her back to proud moments and compound her grief.
There’s one of her beaming as she grips a commendation medal in 2018 praising her for meritorious service – her “professional skill, leadership and ceaseless efforts.” In a second, she is at full attention as another honor is pinned on her uniform.
“It has just been a good sense of purpose in my life and has made me feel like I accomplished something,” she said.
Tinker, 38, joined the Texas National Guard in 2004 after moving to Austin from her native El Paso.
Her father frequently talked to his children about the honor of serving their country. Tinker said she also was lured by the Guard’s generous benefits, especially its college reimbursement program.
“That was probably the biggest factor on why I wanted to join, because I did want to go back to school,” she said. “So I thought, ‘What the heck? Might as well see what this is all about.’ ”
Tinker endured six months of grueling basic training – longer than usual because she had to recover from a femur fracture – and was hired almost immediately as a full-time Texas National Guard employee. Over the next 17 years, she finished her accounting degree from an Austin branch of the Missouri-based Park University and primarily worked in human resources roles at Camp Mabry. She also was a National Guard recruiter.
Tinker said she knew her assignment as part of Task Force Spartan, which supports troops in the Middle East and Asia, would keep her away from some of her daughter’s most precious moments.
“It was my job,” she said. “We know what comes with that, that it was something that could happen.”
When not deployed, Tinker was assigned to manage a company of 200 soldiers who travel to Austin once a month for Guard training, a position she had for two years. Because of the need for regular contact, she built what she described as a seamless, collaborative relationship with the captain of that company, Jason Stover.
“I knew he respected me, and I knew he had my back,” she said.
Tinker consistently received high marks – either “exceeded standard” or “far exceeded standard” – in an array of performance areas. Her immediate supervisor, Master Sgt. David Parnell, concluded, “Her candor, professionalism and expertise make her a valueadded leader in whatever assignment she is placed in.” He recommended Tinker for a promotion.
Aside from administrative duties, she has been on the front lines of the Texas responses to an array of natural disasters, including hurricanes, floods and tornadoes.
In 2010, she met her husband, David, also a soldier in the Guard, making military service even more entrenched in her family.
“I have met some of my best friends in the military,” she said. “It’s a nice group of people that you can be around, and that’s probably the biggest thing and why I love it.”
She said she often felt as though she had to work harder to prove herself to male counterparts.
“It’s a very fine line you have to walk being a woman in the military,” she said. “You get used to it. Like if I say this thing, it is going to be interpreted this way.”
When Muñoz began harassing her, she said, she was distressed because of his rank and his standing among the troops and Texas National Guard commanders.
“It took me a while to realize that this is not OK and that if we are going to change this culture we have in the military, you can’t change it by being quiet,” she said. “That isn’t going to change anything.”
She noted that he often dismissed his statements by saying he was “just kidding,” including after a comment in which he told Tinker her “resting (expletive) face was sexy.”
“I continued hoping this wasn’t going to be a thing, but I would still receive random messages,” she said.
She provided a text in which she admonished Muñoz: “I’ve let things go and have been lax, and as a senior female (noncommissioned officer), I need to be better. Our conversations need to be professional.”
He wrote back: “You and me are cool. I can be whatever person you want me to be.”
As the investigation unfolded in the next three weeks, Tinker said, she felt some soldiers were more concerned for Muñoz than her.
On Nov. 21, investigator Maj. Arlene Boler issued a rebuke of Muñoz and the culture of Tinker’s military unit: “Muñoz exhibited poor judgement and bad character when he interacted with subordinate Tinker . ... His actions should render him unfit to continue his career.”
Boler said the Guard did not appropriately end the “superior and subordinate working relationship” sooner and recommended that the entire company receive training on sexual harassment.
On Dec. 3, Texas National Guard Maj. Gen. Patrick Hamilton issued Muñoz a formal reprimand. Guard officials said he is on “active guard reserve” status.
“It was like, ‘I am glad someone is seeing what is going on,’ ” Tinker said. “But I knew there would be some kind of backlash.”
Five days later, the military appointed a major to investigate Tinker’s relationship with Stover.
During the inquiry, the investigating officer, Maj. Eric Cosper, interviewed 53 people – 13 times the number of soldiers interviewed for Tinker’s complaint – who described behavior between the two such as “walking closely, sitting near each other, eating together, and talking playfully between each other.”
Examples of prohibited behavior include repeated visits to bars, nightclubs, eating establishments or homes between an officer and enlisted soldier or a noncommissioned officer and a junior enlisted soldier, according to the Guard. Cosper wrote in his final report that Stover and Tinker had been counseled about their relationship and told to “mitigate.” He said that for a relationship to be deemed “unduly familiar,” they had to meet at least one of several thresholds. They had reached them all, he said.
Cosper concluded the two “seem to value their friendship more than the climate of their unit or the welfare of their subordinates. They flagrantly dismissed all who sought to mentor them and appeared to flaunt their relationship at every opportunity.”
According to Guard records, another woman informed Cosper that Tinker confided in her that she spent time with Stover because they “are friends and I feel safe with him.” The female soldier said Tinker did so because of Muñoz.
Stover received a reprimand, said Tinker’s attorney, Doug O’Connell. Because he is a reservist, the discipline did not carry a threat to his full-time Guard employment.
The Guard has not released information requested by the Statesman showing how often members are investigated or disciplined for violating the same policy and how many of those investigated or found to be in violation are women.
In its statement, the Texas National Guard said it has several programs to combat sexual harassment, including yearly training.
During this year’s Texas legislative session, state Sen. César Blanco, D-El Paso, filed a bill that would require the Texas Military Department to appoint an independent coordinator to assist sexual assault victims. It calls for the Texas Rangers to investigate allegations, removing inquiries from the Guard’s purview.
Since returning to Texas in January, Tinker said she has spent time at home, fighting for her full-time position. “It’s hard being at home, doing nothing and knowing why,” she said.
She said she hopes that by sharing her story publicly, it will foster change in the Guard, making it kinder to women who want to serve.
“Until we start to fight this ugly culture we have created, then it is just going to continue to be the same,” she said. “And it is hurting people in the military.”