Task Force Raptor: Failure of Military Justice

Abstract

Criminal Law Practitioner, American University Washington College of Law, Vol. XI, Issue II, January 27th, 2021.

From 2012 to 2017, the U.S. Army carried out what is reputed to have been the largest criminal investigation it ever conducted: Army Criminal Investigation Divisions inquiry into the Guard Recruiting Assistance Program (G-RAP), a recruiting referral program under which Army National Guard Soldiers, working as independent subcontractors under the auspices of prime contractor Docupak, could be paid for identifying recruits from among the people they encountered in their daily lives. Management errors and reports of fraud marred what was otherwise a smashingly successful program. Unfortunately, the Army’s effort to root out fraud within the program, carried out by a provisional entity known as Task Force Raptor, would itself prove to be as inept and destructive as the G-RAP program itself. Due to vague and contradictory program rules; investigatory prejudice and tunnel vision; and most of all, Unlawful Command Influence in the form of extreme political pressure upon the Army to find and punish G-RAP participants allegedly guilty of “fraud,” Task Force Raptor’s investigation unjustly saddled innocent, loyal and well intentioned Soldiers with the stigma of fraud, severely disrupting the lives and careers of many.

Keywords: Military Law, Unlawful Command Influence, Criminal Investigation Division, G-RAP, Titling, Army