Fewer ghosts haunt Nevada Guard

Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2001 | 9 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- "Ghost Soldiers" are few and far between in the Nevada Army National Guard, officials say.

Guard units in some states inflate the actual number of troops even though many are no longer in the Guard. This enables them to retain federal money, rather than losing it.

"We're not hiding people. We have more soldiers than we have space for," Col. John Morrow, chief of staff for the Nevada National Guard, said Tuesday. An investigation by USA Today said the percentage of "ghost soldiers" runs as high as 20 percent in some National Guard units around the nation, raising questions about whether the units, if called to active duty, would be able to fulfill their missions.

Tony Clark, recently retired Nevada adjutant general, said the national newspaper story was "blown out of proportion." The Nevada Guard, he said, has been able to keep its units up to strength.

"We don't have the problems like Arizona or Illinois," Clark said.

In some states significant numbers of troops stop attending Guard drills and therefore stop receiving their pay. But they are kept on personnel rosters for months until replacements are found. By keeping rosters full, units do not lose federal funds.

The national average for such "ghost soldiers" is 3.5 percent of a unit's full strength.

"We've been under that for three, four, five years," Morrow said, adding that the current percentage of such soldiers in Nevada is 2.7 percent.

Morrow said Nevada has 1,750 soldiers. Of that about 48 can be classified as ghost soldiers, he said. About two-thirds of them, he said, are AWOL and must be carried on the roster for three months before discharge papers can be processed.

Others are excused from drills in order to take some type of training such as in the police academy. They are still on the roster and most return to duty, Morrow said.

Clark said Nevada has an active recruiting program that fills the vacancies quickly and also there is little delay when a discharge is due.

"The recruiters do an excellent job," he said.