One: What Happened, and Continues to Happen

In 2006, the Army National Guard, seeking new recruits, began the Guard Recruiting Assistant Program (G-RAP). Approximately 104,000 soldiers were requested by their command to serve as personal ambassadors for Guard, in an effort to bolster the dwindling numbers of enlistees. These soldiers became recruiting assistants (“RA”s), technically hired by a private government contractor, Docupak. Docupak was awarded $500 million to promote, manage, administer and monitor G-RAP.

The soldiers were offered a monetary incentive: For every soldier enlisted, they were paid up to $2,000. On the surface, this appears to be a great deal: The Guard bolsters its ranks; the soldiers are given an opportunity to supplement their minimal pay; and Docupak completes another profitable contract (they have many with the military). Everybody wins.

So let’s meet “Ben.” Ben is typical of National Guard soldiers who took part in the G-RAP program. His circumstances may be a composite, in order to honor his privacy, but his story is very real. Motivated by his belief in the service of country, as well as a chance to earn a bit of extra income, Ben was successful in bringing in 10 new recruits over the course of six years. Per directives, Ben accomplished this by serving as a mentor to his potential recruits, answering questions, sharing his experience, and in some cases accompanying them to drill, in order to prepare the individual for the physical demands of the enlistment.

Becoming a RA was easy: you took a 10 to 30-minute online test, hit the “I agree” button and presto, you were a Recruiting Assistant, working as an independent contractor for Docupak. More than 100,000 National Guard soldiers participated in the program. G-RAP brought 150,000 new soldiers into the National Guard during the six years of its existence.

Recently Ben learned, that along with 20,000 of his fellow soldiers, roughly one fifth of the soldiers who participated in G-RAP, the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) was investigating him for fraud. The very success in recruiting that had prompted medals, accolades from command, and awarded rides in F-16s as incentives was now being reframed as fraud against the government. Ben, along with thousands of others, was suddenly facing disciplinary boards, a less than honorable discharge, and in some cases, criminal prosecution.

Next installment: Being investigated using rules that were never distributed to RAs