Vermont Air Guard Brigadier Gen. Steven Cray is running against former Army National Guard general Jonathan Farnham for the state’s top military post. The two men announced their candidacies on Friday.
In February, the Legislature will select the state’s next adjutant general, a senior military position that oversees the 4,000 members of the Vermont Army and Air National Guard and a combined state and federal budget of more than $210 million.
Former Adjutant Gen. Michael Dubie left his post earlier this summer for a position with the United States Northern Command in Colorado. Since then, Brigadier Gen. Thomas Drew has served as interim adjutant general; Drew is not seeking re-election.
Both Cray and Farnham have served in senior positions with the Vermont National Guard. Cray has been an assistant adjutant general for the Air Guard, He has served in the Guard for more than 30 years. Farnham worked in the equivalent position for the Army National Guard from 2007 to 2010, according to an official National Guard bio online.
Farnham served in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011, directing the Afghan National Security Forces Development Assistance Bureau in Kabul. The bureau oversees the training of Afghan security forces. http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/86628/guard-brigadier-general-headed-to-afghanistan/ There Farnham led about 100 soldiers, but he retired from the Guard’s military branch upon returning to Vermont in February 2011, taking a senior administrative civilian job.
Cray has served as an F-16 fighter jet pilot, a commercial pilot for American Airlines, and has served in combat in Iraq, in 2000.
Farnham said it would be good for the Guard to be led by an Army officer, rather than an Air Guard officer, for a change. “We’ve had 15 years of leadership provided by the Air National Guard,” said Farnham. “I am a retired army officer, and I believe that it’s a logical and good time for the Vermont National Guard to be led by an army officer.”
Farnham spoke highly of both former Adjutant Gen. Dubie and his opponent Cray. He said key issues facing the Guard in the near future include the F-35 jet basing, which he unequivocally supports, maintaining welfare and medical services for veterans, and looming federal budget cuts.
“There’s no gray area with me on the F-35,” said Farnham. “We need the F-35. The defense of our country needs the F-35, and the Vermont National Guard needs the F-35. … But I think that’s in the hands of the higher authorities in Washington at this time.”
Cray said that his clearest priority are “the fiscal challenges that the National Guard will face, both Air and Army, in the next couple of years.”
“The Department of Defense will have to make some tough choices … and that will trickle down through the Army and the Air Force,” Cray said. “We have to make sure that choices we as senior leaders make, create the most benefit with the resources available.”
He said his experience working at a national level with senior Pentagon leaders, where he has established relationships, will help Vermont compete for limited federal resources.
Cray also penned an “open letter” to VTDigger back in July, arguing that property values were not adversely affected by the nearby F-35 jet stationing, as some local opponents had claimed.
Cray told VTDigger that he continued to support the F-35s basing in Burlington, calling them a “necessary replacement” that would secure the future of the Air National Guard for at least 30 years in the future.
Gov. Peter Shumlin will leave with Cray on Wednesday for a listening tour of F-35s at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
Farnham said the best way to deal with budget cuts filtering down to Vermont would be to ensure that Vermont’s military units are fully equipped, fully manned and fully trained, so that the Army can make an argument that it needs the units here in Vermont, at present levels, to respond to its federal duties and to statewide emergencies like floods or other natural disasters.
Both candidates said they’ll reach out to lawmakers in coming weeks, to discuss their qualifications. Farnham said the declaration of his candidacy on Friday was prompted by a press release from Cray that was also sent out on Friday.
In that statement, Cray wrote that as adjutant general, he’d be a “strong and effective advocate for federal funding to keep the Guard relevant and ready for any state or federal mission.”
“The Legislature has two extremely well qualified people to choose from,” said Farnham. “I’m confident that they will not rush to judgment. They’ll hear from us, hear from their constituents.”
