Anchorage, Alaska – Less than a week after naming Brigadier General Jon K. Mott to lead the special project team that will implement the recommendations in the National Guard’s Office of Complex Investigations’ (OCI) assessment report, Governor Sean Parnell met with the general in Anchorage.

General Mott, the assistant adjutant general for the Connecticut National Guard, presented his plan to establish separate collaborative working groups designed around each major recommendation in the OCI report, including sexual assault/misconduct, equal opportunity and equal employment opportunity, coordination with law enforcement, management of misconduct, command climate, and administration of justice. The review teams will be primarily made up of Guard members of different ranks and occupations, to encourage a wide range of expertise and viewpoints.

“I am impressed with General Mott’s focus and pleased with the work that has already been done to establish a system to address these issues going forward,” Governor Parnell said. “General Mott and his team are personally committed, as am I, to restoring trust in Guard leadership. While some changes may be able to be implemented quickly, we will not rush this process. We will take the time needed to properly apply the recommendations from the National Guard Bureau.”

The governor has directed General Mott to provide him with weekly briefings on the special project team’s progress.

The meeting with General Mott follows a conversation the governor had this weekend with senior leaders of the Alaska Army National Guard and dozens of members of the Air Guard held at the Arctic Warrior Event Center, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. The meeting’s focus centered on three important areas: professional ethics, developing trust throughout the organization, and ensuring the Guard is meeting its obligations as a uniformed force.

  Alaska, general mott, governor, sean parnell, special project team