Do I have a case?

I was an Army contractor until last week. Below describes what happened that led to my termination. I became someone's scapegoat to cover up a lie that they knew was a lie.

So four years ago when the HMS program was won by ESP I was one of the first people hired on, based on my extensive background in communications. We were presented the training material once we arrived at APG. The training material that was presented to us was not an eight hour course as advertised. There was no change to the material and the material has never changed since July of 2012. The statement was made that “We train to standard, not to time”. So for the last four years the training team has trained to standard, not to time. The class could last anywhere from 2 ½ hours to 4 hours. The class length is based on how well the student grasps the concepts. The slide deck itself only has 47 slides total. Not enough material for an eight hour class at all. If we sat there and fed the student false information to extend the class out, we would be in the wrong.


So the current situation as I understand it and the facts that were given to me are as follows. So we hit the ground here at Ft Drum and conduct business as usual “Training to Standard, not to time” An email is sent stating that there would be visitors in the area and they would like to come see the training environment. The reply to this email is as follows;


Jim - no objection from PM TR.
Be advised...the daily NET for the 154A will probably be wrapping up at 1400.  If you wish to visit, the AM would be better.
My Name (cc'd) should be linking up with you today. If you'd like...you can coordinate a visit directly with him.


So day one I try to get in touch to co-ordinate for this visit. The person I was to co-ordinate with never answered their phone. I in turn leave a voice mail that was never responded too. Mon, Tues, and Wed (7-25-16 thru 7-27-16) the classes go off without a hitch students are trained to standard. Wednesday (7-27-16)  I receive a call stating the visitors will be there between 9am and 10am on 7-28-16. The phone call came from a person who was not directed to make the co-ordination. Thursday we go in and begin training as usual with knowledge we would have visitors in the morning. Training class doesn’t change any. The visitors did not show up and there was no additional contact stating that they were still coming. With the assumption that the visitors weren’t going to be there due to prior commitments the class ends around lunch time as it has for the past four years. Does the customer know that the training class isn’t a full eight hours, the answer is yes. Does the customer know that the class normally ends at around lunch time, the answer is yes. Has the customer in the past four years visited the training site and classrooms, the answer is yes. So it’s not like no one knew that the class wasn’t eight hours in length.


Thursday (7-28-16) early evening I receive a phone call. The phone call was an address to the students showing up or not showing up for class. This phone call was in regards to 2/87 10th Mountain Division. So the target audience wasn’t being met because 2nd brigade was just filling seats and those seats were allocated to only 2/87 due to upcoming net-warrior training. I received a second phone call in regards to us giving a four hour class. The conversation changed quickly to “why was today’s class 2 ½ hours long”. My response to this was pointing out that it has been said in the past on numerous occasions that we “train to standard, not to time” The person on the other end of the line was well aware of how the training is being conducted. I find out on Friday (7-29-16) that the visitors made a phone call to try and see what was going on with the training class. The response as I understand it was either a phone call or an email that went out stating that the schedule had changed and we conducted a key-leader preset loading class instead of an OPNET. I personally never received a phone call asking what was going on with training for the day or if the schedule had changed. The person who made the phone call / sent an email was called out about the false information due to the rosters already being published by this time. So in turn this started a storm based on his false information. We corrected the shortness of the class and did what we could to extend the class out. The corrective action that was taken was to give the students a two hour lunch and then conduct the PE and troubleshooting after lunch. Actual classroom time with the product was 3 to 3 ½ hours, which still doesn’t meet the eight hours as advertised. An observer was sent on Monday (08-01-16) to sit in the class after we made the change and then reported back that everything was good in the training classes at Ft Drum.


Tuesday evening (08-02-16) I receive a phone call with two people on the line and was notified that I had been terminated because I “wasn’t at my duty location during duty hours”. If a class is conducted to standard and every student grasps the concepts and is able to properly use the product then the training class is successful regardless of time. So if that’s the case then everyone who is on the training team should suffer the same result as I have. Everyone class that is conducted for the product in question for the last four years has always finished before the halfway mark of the advertised eight hours. Once class has concluded, we reset for the next class and then go back to the hotel, or go to lunch and then back to the hotel. This practice hasn’t changed at all. I was made aware this morning (08-04-16) that there was a telecom on yesterday (08-03-16) in regards to figuring out a way to extend training to it’ll meet the eight hours as advertised.

So with all of this being said I am firm in my belief that I was wrongly discharged for conducting the standard in the training environment. Based on someone’s false statement, I became the scapegoat because I was at the time the Training Lead on the ground. They are sweeping this under the rug by requesting that I be removed from the contract and using that as a solution to cover up for someone else. I’m not sure how this is going to impact anything, but I’m not going to lay down when I know and my peers know that this isn’t right. Texas is by all means an “at will state” when it comes to employment. My understanding is that there are exemptions to that rule.