Indiana adjutant general faulted
for the military probe of enlistment practices.

 

By Bill Theobald January 31, 2004   The U.S. Army has directed the leader of the Indiana National Guard to reinstate a Guard recruiter who was fired two years ago today in the aftermath of a major recruiting scandal. The Army also found fault with the Indiana Guard's formal 2001 investigation of recruiting fraud, which was the basis for Maj. Gen. George Buskirk Jr.'s dismissal of Kevin Copley and three other recruiters from their full-time Indiana Guard jobs. In a related development, two of the four recruiters who were fired, Phil Krumm and Shawn Kell, filed suit Friday in Marion Superior Court against Buskirk and Gov. Joe Kernan, commander-in-chief of the Guard, alleging the dismissals were improper. Capt. Lisa Kopczynski, a Guard spokeswoman, said Friday that no one would be available to comment until next week.

Indiana Guard recruiting scandal € April 16-27, 2001: Investigation finds that more than 100 soldiers were enlisted using forged physical exam forms.  Investigator recommended punishment for several recruiters, including Kevin Copley, and his supervisor.  € Dec. 8-9, 2001: Ten recruiters appeared before an administrative board. Eight, including Copley, were found not guilty.  € Jan. 11, 2002: Orders issued that removed Copley and three others from active service.  € Jan. 29, 2002: Master Sgt. Robert E. Wyse Jr., Copley's supervisor, was convicted during a court-martial of forgery and violating an order.  € Jan. 31, 2002: Copley, Wyse and recruiters Shawn Kell and Phil Krumm were dismissed from active duty.  € Jan. 9, 2004: Secretary of the Army ordered that Copley's U.S. Army records be corrected and directed that the Indiana National Guard reinstate him.  € Friday: Kell and Krumm filed a lawsuit against the Indiana Guard alleging they were improperly dismissed.

   Tina Noel, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Kernan had not had a chance to review the Army's decision.

   The recruiting fraud became public in the spring of 2001 when it was discovered that more 100 soldiers had been enlisted into the Guard based on forged physical exam forms.

   A Guard investigation recommended punishment for more than a dozen recruiters. Ten, including Copley, were brought before an administrative board of the Guard in December 2001. Copley was among eight who were found not guilty by the board. He and the others denied any part in the forging of the exam forms and said any technical violations of recruiting regulations were common practice and approved by Guard leaders.

   Still, in January 2002, Buskirk ordered that Copley be dismissed at the end of the month.

   The Army Board for Correction of Military Records concluded after a hearing last month that Buskirk's decision to dismiss Copley from active duty "appears to be incongruent" because Buskirk also had signed off on the Indiana Guard board's decision finding him not guilty of dereliction of duty and misconduct.

   "It appears that there is sufficient evidence of error and injustice in the applicant's separation from his Active Guard Reserve status to recommend that his separation from his (active status) be revoked," the board concluded.

   The office of the secretary of the Army ordered that Copley's U.S. Army records be corrected and recommended that Buskirk do the same in Indiana, along with reinstating him and providing back pay and any missed opportunities for promotion. Copley estimates he is due up to $90,000 in back pay.

   In its decision, the Army relied on a review of Copley's case by the National Guard Bureau, the arm of the military that oversees state Guard units. The bureau, in an advisory opinion issued last June, concluded that documents provided by Copley "raise ethical concerns on how the investigation was conducted . . . and who may have actually been behind the practice (of improper recruiting)."

   The Army board noted, for example, that the investigator was ordered to look only at lower-ranking members of the Guard and not any officers.

   Buskirk, a political appointee of Democratic Gov. Frank O'Bannon, has faced scrutiny since he was named the state's adjutant general in the fall of 2001.

   Besides the recruiting scandal, an Indianapolis Star investigation published last year revealed that Buskirk, a large contributor to Democrats, had approved rides on an Indiana Air Guard F-16 fighter jet for several major Democratic contributors and officials.

   Also, a Republican state legislator criticized Buskirk last year when he transferred a Guard major, a Republican, for testifying at a legislative hearing against a piece of legislation the adjutant general favored.

   A 2002 Star investigation of the Indiana Guard's recruiting practices found the Guard routinely violated the letter of military regulations, which require recruits to be formally enlisted into the Guard only after all the proper paperwork, including a valid physical exam, is completed. The investigation revealed that this violation was approved by Guard leaders and was part of an effort to keep the Army Guard's membership numbers high.

   Copley said he received notification of the Army's decision by letter late last week and hasn't talked to anyone from the Indiana Guard.

   "I am totally relieved," said Copley, 26, Indianapolis. "This two years has been rough emotionally and physically. Finally someone realized that we were just doing what we were told."

   Kell and Krumm said they plan to follow the same route that Copley did -- ask for reinstatement and back pay through the Army's Board for Correction of Military Records. The board, according to its Web site, is "the highest level of administrative review within" the Army. Its decisions are "final and binding."

   For Copley, the Army's decision provides a measure of vindication for a young man who was carrying on a family tradition of military service.

   "It was really horrible for me to take -- not just me feeling like I had failed, it was like I had failed my family, too," Copley said.
 
 

Call Star reporter Bill Theobald at (317) 444-6602.
bill.theobald@indystar.com