General Sues Ga. National Guard

A former high-ranking Georgia National Guard officer is suing the Guard and his former bosses over his firing.

Brig. Gen. Larry Dudney, who was the director of the Georgia Guard’s joint staff, says he was forced into retirement because he blew the whistle on misconduct by his superiors, the Courthouse News Service reported last week.

Gov. Nathan Deal —the Georgia National Guard’s commander, Adjutant General William Nesbitt, and the head of the Georgia Army Guard, Maj. Gen. Maria Britt—.

Dudney’s lawsuit says Deal moved quickly to prevent a formal investigation into Dudney’s allegations, the Courthouse News Service reported.

According to Dudney’s timeline, as reported by the Courthouse News Service, after he submitted allegations of illegal activities to the Army inspector general Aug. 15, Nesbitt met with Deal’s chief of staff. A day later, Dudney received a misconduct reprimand. Four days after that, Deal announced that Nesbitt and Britt were retiring. Three days later, Dudney was fired.

The lawsuit, filed in , names the Georgia Guard, the state Department of Defense, Nesbitt, Britt, and Nesbitt’s successor, Jim Butterworth, according to an Associated Press report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A spokesman for the Georgia Guard, based at the at , had no comment for the AP.