‘We are all in disbelief’: How the New Hampshire National Guard failed to protect female soldiers

National Guard units are also led by general officers, known as TAGs or adjutant generals, such as Mikolaities, who report directly to their state’s governor but also to the Pentagon. This effectively gives them “two bosses,” and leads to confusion on whether issues should be handled by the state or federal government, said Kate Kuzminski, the director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security.

“If there’s an open question mark, and it’s a topic no one wants to spend their time on,” Kuzminski said, “then that’s the thing that’s likely to fall between the cracks.”

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Both Kuzminski and the IRC member pointed to the lack of a robust investigative unit within the National Guard as part of the reason why the toxic culture is often allowed to linger. While active-duty military branches have their own criminal investigation agencies — like the Navy’s Criminal Investigative Services — the National Guard does not.

The part-time status of many National Guard members presents jurisdiction issues on criminal investigations; oftentimes, unless members are on federal orders, they are under the jurisdiction of their local civilian law enforcement agencies.

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