National Guard Leader Resigns

The commander of the California National Guard has resigned amid accusations that he failed to meet a Pentagon combat requirement and tried to arrange a flight on a military aircraft for members of a Republican group.

Major Gen. Thomas Eres resigned late Monday after questions were raised by the San Jose Mercury News and Contra Costa Times newspapers about whether he passed a required shooting-skills test before visiting troops in Iraq.

The papers also reported that Eres attempted to provide a military flight for a Lincoln Club group -- a Republican organization -- that wanted to travel last month to the North American Aerospace Defense Command center in Colorado.

Eres, 61, was appointed in March 2004 as leader of the nation’s largest National Guard force, which includes 22,000 troops, 13 bases and more than 100 armories.

In a resignation letter quoted by the newspapers, the two-star general said it was an “ideal time” to step down “so that my family and I can start to enjoy a much anticipated retirement.”

Brig. Gen. John Alexander, the guard’s second in command, has taken over.

Questions about Eres’ shooting skills relate to a Pentagon requirement that staffers pass a complex test before going to a war zone. Eres was scheduled to meet with California National Guard troops in Iraq in August, but the trip was postponed. He made the trip around Thanksgiving.

The newspapers’ Sacramento bureaus obtained interviews and documents indicating that Eres did not meet the requirements and that an aide improperly informed Department of Defense officials that the general had proven his shooting skills. Also raising questions was a trip a Republican friend had wanted to take to NORAD.

Eres had offered to put the Coachella Valley Lincoln Club on a military flight for the trip, which appeared to violate military rules because of the group’s partisan affiliation.

Two weeks before the planned trip, the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C., rejected the request to transport the group to Colorado, the newspapers reported.

Terry Tamminen, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Cabinet secretary, also directed Eres to cancel the trip.