This commentary is written by Erynn Hazlett, a stay-at-home mom and a 6th generation resident of Arlington. She served in the Vermont Army National Guard from 2009-2021, when she was medically retired. Hazlett served in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom in 2010 and served as a Recruiter around the state for many years. Her service earned two Army Commendation Medals, four Army Achievement Medals and many supporting medals. She ran for governor in 2020 as an independent and now contributes to the Republican Party. She is also a member of Northshire Baptist Church in Manchester.
The recent VTDigger article titled, “‘Please help us’: As the Vermont Guard seeks to reform its ‘toxic’ culture, a star Soldier faces allegations of sexual misconduct,” by Jasper Craven, proved one thing — elected officials do not have our soldiers’ best interest in mind. Their self-interest is obvious and dangerous; their ongoing denial of the current climate of the Vermont National Guard puts Vermont and the nation’s security at risk — the Vermont Guard is incapable of state or national defense under the current adjutant general and governor.
Elected officials can no longer deny their awareness of the dangerous and tumultuous climate of the Guard. Yet, instead of acting with integrity, concern or anger and coming to the defense of the soldiers who have bravely asked for help and sacrificed for these officials, elected officials ignore cries for help, deny they have any responsibility to soldiers, and then continue supporting the predators within the system.
Sen. Becca Balint had time to send a statewide mailer indicating she believes her sexual orientation (a freedom earned from the sacrifice of service members) is a good reason to be elected to national office, yet she chose not to forward an e-mail to Gov. Phil Scott of service members in desperate need of help. Gov. Scott already knew. I made him aware when I ran against him in 2020, but he and Balint are people who rely on their parents’ military service as reason to be elected. The truth is they both ignored years of reports by female soldiers of widespread abuse and corruption within the Guard.
I resigned from my active duty position in 2020 to run for governor to advocate for the enormous group of soldiers, like myself, who were abused and ignored and pushed out by Guard leadership, focused on bill H.401 as a solution. I ran with the campaign “command and inspire” and heavily publicized I wanted to be the “commander in chief” of the Vermont National Guard.
My campaign spoke the truth about what is happening in the Vermont Guard. Instead of listening to me, senior Guard and government leaders rapidly worked behind the public and military’s back, altering Vermont policy and law, removing the term, “commander in chief” from any Vermont law and replacing it with “governor.” More significantly, the governor signed bill H.149 into law as Act 10 during a special session and removed the ability for the governor to “adopt all necessary rules for the government of the National Guard,” and reassigned that role to the adjutant general. This bill was proposed by Army veteran and Rutland Rep. Peter J. Fagan. Bill H.401 was killed before it could hit the floor.
While the VTDigger article highlights one of these protected and predatory soldiers, I want to share a story of a group of male soldiers who pushed back on Maj. Zachariah Fike’s sexist command while in Kosovo. A female medic was being threatened with reassignment because of her gender and her professional skills, which were intimidating to a superior male officer. Instead of acting like Sen. Balint and Gov. Scott and ignoring the needs of their fellow service member, Vermont male soldiers came together and pushed back against the leadership’s obviously chauvinistic and dangerous decision. The line soldiers knew the command wasn’t making the best decision for the mission and instead of ignoring the problem, the male line soldiers aligned and pushed back, knowing they could face consequences by going against command. Instead, this female soldier was not removed from her position.
I trained these soldiers, but I’m out, so, I have recommendations for military members in the Vermont National Guard today:
1) Unite. In BCT at Fort Leonardwood, after a grueling pit session, my platoon finally understood the sentiment, “We start together, we finish together.” It took over an hour, several soldiers vomiting, a lot of screaming and yelling by the drill sergeants, but finally, the strongest soldiers slowed down and encouraged the weaker soldiers. In no way is this analogy meant to indicate female soldiers are weaker — in fact, I had to slow down in this exercise — but, the challenge didn’t stop until everyone worked together for everyone to complete the mission. This is what happened in Kosovo. Soldiers stood the line. They finished together. You as an individual soldier have the responsibility to help the soldier to your left and right finish their mission.
2) Run for office. We keep electing officials who have no military service but ride the coattails of their parents who did serve. They don’t understand what we endure and why we need to be heard. My campaign for governor in 2020 clearly scared people into changing laws. Unfortunately, they didn’t change the right laws. They changed laws that protected predators instead of advocating for victims. Because elected Officials and Retired military members like Fagan would rather hide predators and betray their brothers and sisters in arms for the Good Old Boys Club, we must continue putting ourselves into the battle.
3) Don’t vote for anyone who has and continues to hide and support predators and a system that doesn’t advocate for service members. Voting for these officials continues to put weak people in office, weak people who place their self-interests ahead of the state’s armed forces. Don’t be fooled, the Guard is weaker now than it ever has been, and it is because senior Guard leaders and the state’s top elected officials continue to ignore the strongest soldiers — the ones who ask for help.
Let’s start to vote these blue falcons out of office in 2022 and finish replacing them in 2024. Lord willing, that’s when you’ll see my name on the ballot again. Until then, I join the line soldiers and RET CW5 Doris Sumner and say “I RESPECTFULLY PUSH BACK!”