Trying an End Run Around the Guard: Maj. Gen. Michael Haugen, the commander of North Dakota’s National Guard, like other Guardsmen, is having trouble rationalizing Pentagon budget woes with the proposed plan to cut the Army Guard and Air Guard. Haugen tells the Associated Press that the Pentagon is trying “to do BRAC by another name.” He wants the Guard to “guide [DOD] into the smart budget.” North Dakota lawmakers are among those who have sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld protesting Guard reductions.
The Air National Guardsman who was arrested last year for sharing hundreds of top secret and classified documents to online chatrooms was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison on Nov. 12 after pleading guilty to several charges this March.