Whistle-blower who exposed National Guard misconduct had 'target on his back'

[Ptah]

On the morning of May 28, 2009, Staff Sgt. Chad Wille, a recruiter for the
Arizona Army National Guard, was confronted at a Phoenix gas station by an angry bicyclist.

The bicyclist pointed to the soldier's military Humvee with distinctive camouflage paint,
noted its license plate and said he'd seen that same vehicle drive down Seventh Street
six weeks earlier while its occupants shot pedestrians with paintballs.

Wille, who had been away at recruiting school during that period, returned to his
office in Sunnyslope and reported the allegation to 1st Sgt. Lucas Atwood,
his supervisor in the Recruiting and Retention Command.

Wille also questioned Master Sgt. Joseph Martin, a colleague in the recruiting unit
who had custody of the Humvee keys at the time of the alleged paintball attacks.
According to military records, Martin said he had given the keys to another recruiter,
Sgt. 1st Class Michael Amerson, then asked Wille, "You're not aware of the bum hunts?"

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20120921arizona-national-guard-misconduct-whistle-blower.html

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[southernyankeebelle]

1. Military Recruiters are a crazy bunch. They say it is suppose to be the queen of the

crop for recruiting duty. It was hell for my husband. They pulled him out of his MOS and put him in this job. They sent him to a state where a graduating class might have 1 or 3 people in the whole school. The one thing my husband wouldn't do was lie to a recruit. He gave them the facts and let them make the decision to come in or out. He didn't want that burden on his shoulders if a recruit would have been sent into a battle field. Some recruiters are nasty and did mess around on their wives. They have a cocky attitude and they are pretty good at recruiting. They work on merit where you get little stars and you go up til you get a ring. Some of these guys are really into it. My husband wasn't into that. He was able to get out of it after a year. I could see some of these guys playing games like that.

[Ptah]

2. Good that your husband was able to limit his time as a recruiter.

This story reads like a small-town group of car salesmen.

[southernyankeebelle]

4. He almost didn't make it out. I tell you the enormous amount of pressure he was in. Honestly

I felt he was going to kill himself. That's how bad it was. He was well liked at his station because he wasn't the type that liked competition. Where all the others like to play the silly games. They higher ups degrade a person. It didn't work with my husband because he was ready to leave. But before he left he had to wait for orders. The station SFC said he didn't care what he did. Well my husband was good at typing and was in charge of the office making sure things were in order for the boss. He told him to do his recruiting stuff and leave him in charge of everything that had to be kept up with in the office. He would also do all the recruiters work that needed to be done. Well needless to say they wanted him to stay. The SFC said he was the first guy he had during his recruiting duty that didn't just sit down and wait for orders. He said he didn't know what he was going to do because he took a lot of the stuff off his shoulders. But we were so happy to get the hell out of there. We arrived there and had a small earthquake and left and had a small earthquake.

[Downwinder]

3. Phoenix trying to keep up with Tucson?

From 2006: Tucson military recruiters trafficking cocaine, marijuana

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/12/17/281807/-Tucson-military-recruiters-trafficking-cocaine-marijuana

[Ptah]

5. I had forgotten that.

Thanks for the link!

[Downwinder]

6. From a former member of the Arizona National Guard.