Updated 4:51 p.m.
MONTPELIER — Henry “Hank” Harder was elected to serve as the next leader of the Vermont National Guard on Thursday by the state House and Senate.
He’ll take on the job as the guard’s fleet of F-35 fighter jets has been in the public eye for its role, under controversial federal orders, in some of President Donald Trump’s most significant military operations in recent months.
Harder is a retired Air National Guard general. In his new position, which is called the state’s adjutant general, he’ll oversee both the Air Guard and the Army National Guard. The Shelburne resident has also served since 2024 as deputy adjutant general under the man he’s replacing, Maj. Gen. Gregory Knight.
Knight’s decision to retire after seven years on the job created an open race for his successor. Harder overwhelmingly beat out one other candidate in Thursday’s election — Army National Guard Col. Roger “Brent” Zeigler — by 147 votes to 23.
Harder will serve a two-year term starting in March. He’ll be responsible for managing the Vermont force’s 2,700 members and keeping state military records.
The adjutant general reports to Gov. Phil Scott, who is the guard’s commander-in-chief for operations that fall under the state’s jurisdiction. In addition to military deployments, that includes assisting with Vermont’s response to major emergencies such as the floods of 2023 and 2024 and the Covid-19 pandemic.
“My intent is to continue the great trajectory that the Vermont National Guard is on, and has been on for many years,” Harder told reporters after the election, with Zeigler standing next to him, nodding along. “It’s always going to be a little different in a new chair and with this responsibility. And I’m honored to have it. But, I also feel like I’ve been prepared for it with my career posts so far.”
Zeigler told reporters he would continue in his current role at the guard despite losing the election, saying of Harder, “I owe that to him.”
Vermont is the only state in the country where the head of its National Guard is elected by lawmakers rather than appointed by the governor. Both Harder and Zeigler were in the Vermont Statehouse regularly in recent weeks to pitch their qualifications, meeting with legislators, handing out pamphlets with their resumes and appearing before legislative committees.
Harder was formally nominated for the job ahead of Thursday’s vote by Rep. Mary-Katherine Stone, D-Burlington, and Senate Majority Leader Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden Southeast. Zeigler, meanwhile, got the formal nod from Rep. Dan Noyes, D-Wolcott, as well as from Sen. Terry Williams, R-Rutland.
Harder, in his appeals to legislators, had emphasized his work as Knight’s chief deputy. He said his priorities would be improving care for veterans in the state and bolstering the guard’s recruitment. The army guard is between 600 and 700 soldiers short of its full staffing needs right now, he told reporters Thursday, while the air guard has about 100 such vacancies.
Harder will start preparing to take on the job as at least a dozen of the Air Guard’s F-35s have been deployed to the Middle East, according to defense industry publications, where the U.S. is amassing military power as Trump threatens to attack Iran. Other F-35s — from a U.S. Air Force unit in Utah — played a major role in last June’s operation that, under Trump’s orders and together with the Israeli military, bombed three nuclear facilities in Iran.
At least some of the Vermont jets were previously deployed under federal orders to the Caribbean, where they were involved in the operation resulting in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., has said.
The legality of the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Jan. 3 has been a subject of intense debate between the Trump administration and Democrats in Congress. Vermont’s three-member D.C. delegation has condemned the military’s actions.
A panel of United Nations experts said in a statement last month that the operation represented “a grave, manifest and deliberate violation of the most fundamental principles of international law, set a dangerous precedent, and risk destabilizing the entire region and the world.” The group of 16 “special rapporteurs” are independent experts on human rights appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Both Harder and Zeigler told legislators during a committee hearing last month that they would resign rather than carry out an unlawful order from their superiors in the state or federal government.
“I always, always follow the letter of the law,” Harder told reporters Thursday when asked how he would ensure Vermont’s guard was not violating the U.S. or Vermont constitutions. “And I have confidence in our established procedures, now, that we’ll be doing appropriate missions in the future.”
