Bryant confirms reports of coercion at 186th ARW
By Staff
from staff reports
May 2, 2003
Jody Bryant, a former member of the 186th Air Refueling Wing who has led efforts to expose charges of corruption and wrongdoing at the Meridian-based Mississippi Air National Guard unit, on Thursday confirmed that unit members were forced to give money to honor a congressman in 1991.
The fund-raising was for a room in the National Guard Association's Washington headquarters in honor of former Rep. G.V. Sonny'' Montgomery, who retired in 1996 and was chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, former members said.
If members didn't contribute, they feared dismissal, being passed over for promotion or denied plum assignments, former members said.
Bryant, noting that Montgomery never personally asked for the donations to his tribute, said, "The leadership of the Mississippi Air National Guard has, through the years, illegally coerced members to contribute to this fund and the annual National Guard Association dues.
The same sentiments were expressed earlier this week by Maj. Clyde Romero, the unit's only black pilot who left in 1992 and ultimately was barred from the Key Field base, and other former 186th members.
They made everybody give money to it,'' Romero said.
Investigators found that Romero had been discriminated against and later wrongfully banned from Key Field. There was an implied threat. If you didn't give, you wouldn't be there much longer.''
Montgomery, contacted by The Associated Press at his consulting firm in Virginia, would not comment except to say he had done nothing improper.
Mississippi National Guard spokesman Maj. Danny Blanton said he could not comment on the current investigation into the unit, headed by Florida staff judge advocate Col. Ken Emmanuel.
Emmanuel is leading a probe into 22 possible violations by the leadership of the 186th. His investigation follows a two-year probe into the unit by the U.S. Air Force Inspector General that substantiated 16 allegations of racism, records falsification and corruption that resulted in the dismissal of the unit's commander, Lt. Col. David Weaver.
Montgomery is not part of the investigation.
