Arizona National Guard recruiters 'slept with female cadets, took high school students to hunt homeless people with paintball guns and embezzled thousands'

  • Recruiter took cadets and prospective recruits 'bum hunting,' where they shot homeless people with paintballs from a government-issue vehicle
  • Female recruits were ordered to flash homeless men and homeless women were given food to show their breasts
  • One recruiter slept with a female recruit, but was not discharged
  • Another recruiter was made a military police officer after she admitted claiming $12,000 in fraudulent recruiting bonuses

Recruiters for the Arizona National Guard took prospective soldiers 'bum hunting,' where they shot homeless people with paintball guns, paid homeless men to perform humiliating dances and offered homeless women food of they flashed their breasts.

Other male recruiters had sex with female recruits. Another was accused of retaliating against a female soldier when she refused to kiss him. Both men were allowed to keep their jobs in the National Guard.

A female recruiter was but not criminally charged after admitted to forging documents so she would receive $12,000 in fraudulent recruitment bonuses she did not earn. Instead, she was transferred and became a military police officer.

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'Corrupt': Whistle blowers say senior officers in the Arizona National Guard turned a blind eye to misconduct by recruiters

'Corrupt': Whistle blowers say senior officers in the Arizona National Guard turned a blind eye to misconduct by recruiters

The gross misconduct was revealed by the Arizona Republic after frustrated officers in the National Guard went public -- furious that years of campaigning behind closed doors had done nothing to change the 'frat house culture' of the guard.

'It's hubris. They know nothing's going to happen. Nobody can touch them... This is the inbred stepsister of the active-duty military,' Lt Col Paul Forshey, who recently retired as the National Guard's top JAG lawyer, told the Republic.

Lt Col Forshey and other top officers say Major General Hugo Salazar, the head of the Arizona National Guard, and Lt Col Keith Blodgett, the former commander of recruiting, helped promote a culture of corruption that still exists today by reducing punishments or handing out slaps on the wrist for recruiters caught violating military standards.

Major General Hugo Salazar

Defender: Major General Hugo Salazar says there is no systemic problem in the National Guard, only a few 'bad apples'

Outside observers blame the problems on the difficulty of recruiting soldiers in the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recruiters who continued to meet their quotas were given almost free reign, they say.

At least 30 times between 2007 and 2008, Sgt First Class Michael Amerson loaded new cadets and prospective recruits into his US military-issue vehicle and drove through poor neighborhoods of Phoenix, for 'bum hunts,' military records show. 

Amerson, who was a 'Recruiter of the Year,' wore his National Guard uniform and instructed the cadets and recruits -- some of whom were minors -- to used paintball guns to shoot homeless people they found in the streets.

They paid other homeless men to perform humiliating dances and gave homeless women food or money to flash their breasts, according to the Republic.

Female recruits told military investigators that they were ordered to expose their breasts to homeless men.

Amerson, who denied the allegations, was demoted to private and given an other-than-honorable discharge.

Other punishment for misconduct was far less severe. A 'letter of concern' was given to one recruiter who was arrested for drunk driving in a government car. Other recruiters caught with DUI arrests were not punished at all.

One recruiter, who admitted to claiming $12,000 in fake recruitment bonuses after she forged documents avoided discharge after 29 of her superiors vouched for her.

Instead, Sgt Cirra Turpin was transferred and assigned a job as a military police officer.

Another recruiter was allowed to deploy overseas, despite having had sex with a female recruit. While serving abroad, he was reprimanded for having improper relations with two subordinates. He is still a recruiter, but was moved to California.

Lt Col Rob White told the Republic that the misconduct continues because Salazar, the adjutant general in charge of the Arizona National Guard has turned a blind eye. Lt Col Blodgett -- who was in charge of the recruiting unit -- was at first given a letter of reprimand. That letter was later removed from his file and he is now attending the prestigious Army Senior Service College, where he is likely to be promoted.

'It's good ol' boys,' Lt Col White said. 'It's like a college fraternity. It's not an Army organization. It's a frat house.'

VIDEO: See Arizona National Guard Recruits escape Gas Chamber

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