Well, this is a mess.
According to a report from The Army Times, more than 1,900 soldiers were falsely accused of fraud and saw their records handed off to the FBI; many of these soldiers missed out on pay bumps and promotions for the error.
From The Army Times:
The problems started for troops when they participated in the Guard-Recruiting Assistance Program, which ran from 2005 to 2012, but was shut down following allegations of fraud. Failures by the CID investigation that came next received national attention.
As one soldier put it in an opinion article for Army Times: Participating in G-RAP wasn’t a crime. But simply being investigated as though it was a crime has ruined lives and careers. Now, the Army appears to be correcting those mistakes.
“We expect to have the majority of these investigations reviewed and corrected by the end of 2022, though a few may extend into early 2023,” Gregory Ford, director of CID said last week.
“Simply put, proper procedures were not always followed,” he continued. “We acknowledge those mistakes and are taking action to correct these records.”
The Congressional Justice for Warriors Caucus responded to the error, saying “numerous lives were destroyed.”
Statement below:
“This week, the U.S. Army announced it would issue corrections to a national criminal database which saw almost 2,000 service members investigated for fraud as a part of the National Guard Recruiting Assistance Program (G-RAP) and the Army Reserve Recruiting Assistance Program (AR-RAP). Many of those who were investigated were wrongly “indexed” in the database and titled by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID). This injustice resulted in great harm to hundreds of innocent service members to include: loss of earned promotions, loss of security clearances, loss of duty assignments, and forced out of military service. Furthermore, those who left the military faced continued negative repercussions to include loss of employment, inability to exercise their otherwise Constitutionally protected right to obtain a concealed carry permit, and loss of security clearances. In essence, this miscarriage of justice created serious hardships for innocent servicemembers and destroyed careers.
“We, the Members of the Congressional Justice for Warriors Caucus, are encouraged by the Army’s announcement that it intends to right this immense wrong which has plagued our servicemembers for years. While this appears to be a step in the right direction, we will reserve final judgment for when its investigation and correction is completed.
“Yesterday, we received the good news that Captain Gilberto De Leon, whom we had advocated for to Secretary of Defense Austin and other Pentagon officials, has been un-titled and un-indexed. This is a major victory and something every American who cares about our military can celebrate.
“It is our sincere hope that there are many more outcomes like De Leon’s to come for other innocent servicemembers. Accordingly, we strongly suggest the Army financially compensate the victims of its unjust scheme, rightfully promote any innocent individual who was denied a promotion due to titling and issue a formal apology to all those harmed by this devious process. It is not enough to simply remove innocent soldiers from the databases. Numerous lives were destroyed all the while those at the top who approved and implemented the G-RAP program were given administrative slaps on the wrist.”
More over at The Military Times:
About 1,900 Army National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers were inappropriately added to an FBI criminal database. https://t.co/ayGdYKSFLH
— Military Times (@MilitaryTimes) November 3, 2022