Voices

Parnell statement about lacking trust in Katkus conflicts with February letter

In February, Gov. Sean Parnell asked for an investigation of the Alaska National Guard in a letter that included positive comments about how Maj. Gen. Tom Katkus had dealt with allegations of sexual assault.

But this week, in a video message to Alaskans, Parnell said he had concluded by the time he wrote the letter that he could not trust Katkus.

He didn't suspend or fire Katkus in February, however, and he continued to make positive statements about the guard commander in the months that followed.

He asked for Katkus's resignation in September after the release of the investigation that confirmed widespread abuse. In September, Parnell said he had been "misled on a number of occasions on how well the system was working."

In February, Parnell had written that he was "deeply concerned" about reports of sexual assault and wanted a thorough review. In naming Katkus, he offered praise, not criticism.

"In recent years, Adjutant General Thomas Katkus has emphasized strong systems for reporting, investigating and tracking such cases; and he has raised awareness among guard members to these issues through 'sensing' sessions,'" Parnell wrote in his Feb. 28 letter to Gen. Frank Grass, chief of the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C.

But Parnell also asked that the guard look at how Katkus and other leaders had responded to complaints.

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In the video message he posted this week, Parnell said the information he had received before writing that letter "led me to believe there was a breakdown in our command structure."

He said he had made immediate inquiries and "shortly thereafter realized I could not trust the head of the National Guard to tell me all the facts."

If he had really concluded that he could not trust Katkus, as he now says, he should have fired or suspended him instead of keeping him on the job and waiting for a report.

In the spring, Parnell wrote a column published in the Anchorage Daily News and in the quarterly magazine of the Alaska Department of Military & Veterans Affairs in which he also did not suggest that he could not trust Katkus.

Responding to a column by Shannyn Moore, he mentioned Katkus twice, saying that after hearing of complaints about the guard from chaplains, he brought it up with Katkus.

He said he made sure through Katkus that "Guard members have a safe route to report sexual misconduct and that their allegations are taken seriously and investigated to conclusion, including appropriate penalties."

Parnell also said that in February he met with Katkus regarding allegations in a letter from Bob Doehl, a former vice commander of the Alaska Air National Guard who had become an aide to Sen. Mark Begich.

"I dug into those concerns with Maj. Gen. Katkus and learned about inspector general investigations and reviews conducted years before Mr. Doehl's letter," Parnell said. "The only other communication I have from Mr. Doehl is a request that I hire him for the adjutant general's job."

In the state military and veterans magazine, there was a two-page response to abuse allegations headlined, "Uninformed, Inaccurate Reporting is Painting the Wrong Picture of the Alaska National Guard."

It said there had been multiple false and defamatory statements about the guard and that Alaskans were being "misinformed by cynical political agendas."

In April, Parnell again praised Katkus and his handling of the situation.

"Gen. Katkus has been very forthright," Parnell told the Alaska Public Radio Network.

Asked in an April 29 interview if Katkus could have done more to prevent inappropriate behavior, Parnell said, "From what I know now, the answer is no."

None of this corresponds with the statement by Parnell this week that he had decided in February that there had been a breakdown in the command structure and that he couldn't trust Katkus.

Dermot Cole is a columnist for Alaska Dispatch News.

The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.

Dermot Cole

Former ADN columnist Dermot Cole is a longtime reporter, editor and author.

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