TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Allegations of misuse of taxpayer dollars, sexual harassment and poor planning and budgeting by the Florida State Guard’s top executive has sparked a wave of departures of senior officers, pilots and rank-and-file soldiers who also say they have been retaliated against for speaking out.

In public statements, mostly on social media, they say Executive Director Mark Thieme committed fraud by racking up $100,000 in flight time and other costs to obtain a personal private pilot’s license. They also criticize his spending millions of dollars on aircraft parts and planes incompatible with existing surveillance equipment.

The turmoil surrounding the mostly volunteer state guard comes after Gov. Ron DeSantis revived it in 2022 to work on disaster response, public safety, and more recently immigration enforcement, with an annual budget that now tops $35 million. Critics have called it the governor’s private army.

The latest to leave the organization in a public fracas is Master Sergeant Major Michael Pintacura, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran who helped oversee the Guard’s Special Missions Unit. In a resignation letter dated Jan. 14, Pintacura said he lost confidence in Thieme’s ability to “exercise sound, informed and accountable judgment.”

As a result, the unit was being pressured to “accept a status quo” that put guard troops in harm’s way, he said.

In his letter, Pintacura said he could not “in good conscience” remain in his position.

“Remaining in the role would signal acceptance of a culture where implied pressure and informal direction supplant disciplined planning, clear task organization, and accountable leadership.”

Pintacura said he was most concerned about a “sustained pattern of compromised integrity, lack of accountability in maintaining budget controls and equipment tracking,” retaliating against perceived criticism and detrimental decision-making regarding mission authorization and the use of guard resources.

Pintacura’s resignation comes on the heels of the forced ouster of Lt. Col. Jordan Bowen for refusing to give what he thought was an unlawful command to another guard member, and the resignation of a half-dozen other officers and guard members over disagreements with Thieme and the alleged misspending of state resources.

“It just seems like we are imploding from the inside,” said Guard member Jonathan Howard, a retired Air Force service member in a Jan 17 video podcast. “It’s almost like we are being sabotaged. So that is my concern that we can’t go serve you, the people of Florida.”

Howard and several other current and former guard members took to social media to outline their worries about Thieme after being frustrated by their attempts to get Gov. Ron DeSantis to hear their concerns. Howard told an Orlando Sentinel reporter during a phone interview that they met with DeSantis Chief of Staff Jason Weida to no avail.

Neither Thieme or the governor’s office responded to requests for comment by the Sentinel’s Tuesday afternoon print deadline.

The state guard originated as the Florida Defense Force in 1941 to assist the Florida National Guard during WWII and was disbanded in 1947. Gov. Ron DeSantis revived the state guard in 2022 as a volunteer force to aid in disaster response and public safety 75 years after it had been deactivated.

The legislature reauthorized the state guard and its funding in 2023, giving it $109 million to grow from 400 to 1,500 members and purchase aircraft, boats and other equipment for its various missions. It has separate divisions for emergency response, marine and air missions, and a specialized unit to help with law enforcement and immigration interdiction efforts.

The guard has about 875 volunteers according to official reports, but senior officers say that number is closer to 400, largely due to volunteer soldiers quitting.

The Legislature drastically slashed its second year budget to $19.6 million in 2024-25 only to boost it to $36.8 million in the current fiscal year, despite DeSantis requesting $65 million. The latest budget only lists 32 paid positions for the state guard.

DeSantis has requested $62 million for the agency for the new fiscal year.

According to Howard and others, Thieme mismanaged state-approved funds, including spending $4 million in unnecessary aircraft parts at the end of last year’s budget cycle to make sure all the allocated funds were spent. They also said an additional $3 million was misspent, forcing funds from other divisions to be diverted to cover untracked expenditures.

They said the guard’s aviation director was pressured by Thieme into buying aircraft without first vetting their need or compatibility with the guard’s mission. The guard bought two planes for $7 million without evaluating the need for them or whether they were compatible with observation and surveillance equipment that had already been purchased, Howard said.

Thieme also suppressed documenting immigration operations like Operation Vigilant Sentry, a multiagency task force led by Homeland Security to stop migrants from coming to Florida by boat, they said.

Thieme — who is paid $175,000 a year — accumulated $64,000 of flight time in pursuit of his private pilot’s license, not including maintenance, fuel and two pilots, Howard said. Adding those other factors brings the total to $100,000 just to get his private pilot’s license, he said.

Thieme also canceled real-time missions with multiple agencies that interfered with that training, Howard said.

“When he stopped my flight training and aviation duties was when he started doing his private pilot’s license,” Howard said.

The sexual harassment case stems from a 2024 mission at the Texas-Mexico border where a female guard member claimed she was targeted repeatedly by a male supervisor, and then reassigned when she reported the incident. She filed a federal lawsuit, which is set for trial in November.

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