Gov. Phil Scott joined Vermont’s top general Thursday to defend the Vermont National Guard’s response to sexual misconduct and other bad behavior outlined in a series of articles published over the past two weeks by VTDigger.
“As we have seen throughout time in many areas and in many organizations, there will be instances of poor judgment, mistakes made and an occasional bad apple,” Scott told two dozen reporters gathered inside the Guard’s Green Mountain Armory at Camp Johnson. “But individual situations such as these are the exception, not the rule.”
Scott said that his support of Guard members and leadership was “unwavering.” He added that his office had previously reviewed a complaint — the only one he has received while in office — that contained some of the same allegations in the VTDigger series and determined that the Guard had followed state and federal processes in addressing them.
“If more information comes up that leads me to believe the process and protocols weren’t adhered to, we’ll take another look,” the governor said.
Maj. Gen. Steven Cray, Vermont’s adjutant general, said VTDigger’s reporting was largely accurate but painted the Guard in an unfair light by suggesting that isolated incidents represented a broader culture of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct within the organization.
“Our fellow citizens expect and deserve the very best of our country and that we will protect the sons and daughters with whom they have entrusted us with their care,” Cray said.
“To that point, last week was arguably one of the toughest weeks I have experienced as a service member,” he added. “And to be clear, I vehemently disagree with and dispute the negative characterization of our members and our culture in recent media coverage.”
In video at top, Gov. Phil Scott and Maj. Gen. Steven Cray give opening remarks at Thursday’s press conference. In video above, they answer questions from the press.
“The Flying Fraternity” series was based on hundreds of internal documents and interviews with more than two dozen current and former members. Since VTDigger published the series, nearly a dozen additional members have contacted reporters to further corroborate the stories and offer additional information.
Cray said that the Guard would take concrete actions in response to the reports, including creating a more transparent process for investigating sexual misconduct and involving Guard leadership in related trainings.
“While we as an organization have made significant progress on our response capabilities, we are still battling the societal issues of sexism and harassment,” he said.
The general said that statistics included in one of the VTDigger articles about the number of sexual assault complaints submitted to the Guard from 2013 to 2017 were misleading. That article said that 31 sexual assaults have been reported since 2013, with reporting remaining low despite what the leadership says are changes encouraging victims to come forward.
Cray correctly noted that VTDigger undercounted the number of submitted reports. Since 2013, Cray said 33 reports of sexual assault had been received, with 14 identifying service members as the alleged assaulter. Cray said 19 of those reports were related to incidents before 2013, “which suggests members have greater confidence in the system to come forward.”
The general also took issue with the characterization of a bar on the base called the Afterburner Club, which multiple Guard members told VTDigger was exclusive to pilots and other senior officers and host to heavy drinking parties that could begin as early as 3 p.m. and end with revelers passed out on the floor.
“What I am vehemently opposed to is the description of the culture that seems to describe a culture in which pilots and other personnel were … there consuming alcohol during duty hours and that it was closed to other personnel on the base, which is completely inaccurate,” Cray said Thursday.
According to Guard members, the operations space housing the Afterburner Club, which is now under construction, was open during the day as a common area to eat lunch or hang out, and was open to airmen of all ranks.
But two members said Thursday that it also served as an exclusive space for pilots and other high-ranking officers. VTDigger previously reported that as the space was to be renovated, a group of pilots successfully lobbied officials to roughly double the size of this space.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone in there drinking other than pilots; certainly no one who is enlisted,” a former member told VTDigger Thursday. “If the door is open, you could go in and get snacks. But if the door is closed, you do not open it.”
“After flying was done, or on the weekends, pilots would convene there, and have parties,” another member said.
Among the revelers at the Afterburner Club was Lt. Col. Chris Caputo, who was sanctioned in 2013 for going off base without authorization while on deployment in Djibouti, where the culture of heavy drinking had continued, according to fellow Guard members.
Cray confirmed that Caputo was still set to transition to becoming a F-35 pilot when the new aircraft arrive in Burlington as soon as next year. He was also the face of the Guard’s public push to base the next generation of jets in the Burlington area.
Thursday’s remarks were the first public comment on the series by Cray, who declined to speak with VTDigger for more than a month.
Cray said he did not regret declining to be interviewed before the series published, and also defended his decision to remove VTDigger from the Guard’s press list, a decision Scott said he “didn’t agree with.”
Cray said Thursday that he had decided to remove VTDigger from its press list after one of its reporters contacted a sexual assault survivor.
“I wanted to send a message that I did not agree with the tactic of having someone call a survivor and do harm to that individual,” Cray told reporters.
VTDigger was taken off the press list on Sept. 28, before the contact Cray referenced had occurred. In October, a Guard member provided a VTDigger reporter with contact information for an assault victim, whom the member believed would be willing to discuss the matter. She and the reporter had multiple conversations before she eventually decided not to publicly share her story.
In terms of journalistic best practices around sexual assault, Harvard’s Nieman Foundation on Journalism has noted that journalists must sometimes make these contacts — even at the risk of revictimizing survivors — as part of a greater effort to shed light on inappropriate behavior.
Another VTDigger report described how Col. Thomas Jackman, the former commander of the Vermont Air National Guard, had been forced out in 2015 after flying an F-16 fighter jet to a conference near Washington, D.C., where he also rendezvoused with a woman who was not his wife.
The ceremony naming Jackman’s replacement, Col. Patrick Guinee, was done quietly, in contrast to Jackman’s appointment, which was covered widely in the press. Cray said Thursday that the difference was because of the base being busy at the time, and was not because of any effort to keep the transition quiet.
The VTDigger series also described how Calvin Kemp, a former chaplain at the Guard, had coerced his assistant into a sexual relationship that she says he kept going by often reminding her that he could easily fire her.
The Guard declined a recommendation to put Kemp’s status on hold as the investigation was ongoing and instead allowed him to retire in 2014 with full benefits and the rank of colonel. He is now pastor at the Williamstown Lutheran Church. The regional church body announced this week that it is investigating Kemp’s history.
Cray said that he understands concerns about how the Guard’s handling of the matter might be impacting the community where Kemp is now working, but said that protocols prevented leadership from sharing the results of administrative actions.
“I think there is an opportunity in all of this to improve and make changes to policy, and that is something we should look at on the national level, not just in Vermont,” he said.
The governor, for his part, said he did not believe there was a need for an outside investigation into the reports of Guard misconduct.
“We are not at this time advocating for any independent review,” Scott said. “I’ve spoken with Gen. Cray. I take him at his word. They’re doing everything they can. I’m convinced that all the procedures and protocols were adhered to.”
He did say that other other governmental entities might take a look.
“I know the Legislature might have an interest in this as well,” he said, “and will probably be asking Gen. Cray to come in and describe some of the issues that came forward.”
Scott said he did hope to see greater transparency from the Guard in dealing with such allegations. However, when pressed by a reporter to outline how that would occur without an external probe, he pointed to the role of the media.
“I think you’ve done a pretty good job in providing the transparency and have brought a lot of these things to light,” said Scott, adding there were things “I wouldn’t have heard about if Digger had not written about it.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont’s governor, top general defend response to Guard misconduct.