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An advocacy group for Montana's military is questioning the relocation of the F-15 fighter jet mission from Montana to California.

Ed Buttrey, who represents the group Citizens For Montana's Military, notes that the Sacramento Bee newspaper has revealed that the 144th Fighter Wing of the CA Air National Guard has come under fire after several members were found to have been "double dipping" - essentially taking home additional pay for duties that were either redundant or simply not required. In some cases, the "double dipping" amounted to tens of thousands of dollars per year for some members.

Click here to read the complete Sacramento Bee article.

Below is the full text of Buttrey's letter.

On Sunday, the 19th of December, a California newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, released a comprehensive article describing a sad state of affairs within the California National Guard and the 144th Fighter Wing at Fresno.

An internal audit has revealed that at least six pilots and both former Wing Commanders were “double dipping” while performing Air Sovereignty Alert duty. In violation of federal regulations, these pilots were drawing a second paycheck, while they were already being paid to be on duty.

The Bee article described multiple occasions of pilots drawing alert duty pay while at home and even on vacation. Included in the article are allegations that pilots also violated flight safety rules concerning minimum crew rest requirements. What makes this worse is that even senior leadership appears to have participated in the “self-enrichment” fest and violation of safety rules and federal regulations.

Given initial findings, the California Adjutant General has relieved the 144th wing commander, Col Gary Taylor, of his command. Auditors report that at least 40% of Col Taylor’s yearly 2009 and 2010 income of $300,000 was improper.

BGen Jonathan Flaugher, Taylor’s immediate predecessor, was also removed from the Air Guard chain of command and reassigned to administrative duties. While the current leadership of the California Guard should be lauded for taking the right steps and starting this initial investigation, the entire situation is now out of their hands as the Air Force Office of Special Investigation has launched a federal investigation into this entire mess.

There is a lot more information in the Sacramento Bee article than can be adequately described here, but it does bring up the question of whether we “should be looking under some more rocks” as concerns the pending change of mission with the 144th taking F-15’s from Montana. Given that two past wing commanders are under investigation for alleged wrong doing, it makes us wonder what else could have been could have gone askew in the work up for the F-15 re-basing decision.

Given these current allegations, we believe that any decision or information that came from the commanders involved and the staff’s under their command at the time to be considered suspect. We recommend that a complete and impartial review of the basing decision be re-evaluated with significant efforts being made to confirm the relevant facts and details of any information provided by the 144th Fighter Wing.

Sincerely,

Ed Buttrey

Citizen’s For Montana’s Military