Florida State Guard members say director trained for pilot license in state planes

Members of a celebrated Florida State Guard unit have taken to social media to allege the organization’s director used state planes to practice flying and misspent millions of dollars.

In separate videos on Facebook and Instagram, three members said Director Mark Thieme used the organization’s planes to train for his personal pilot’s license when the craft were supposed to be assigned to operations.

“He used state assets for his personal gain, and he lost control of the budget,” said Michael Pintacura, a former Army Special Forces master sergeant and a command sergeant major in the State Guard.

State Guard Capt. Jonathan Howard, a retired Air Force combat controller, said in a video that Thieme told guard members to order $4 million in unnecessary aircraft parts to ensure the organization spent all the money allocated to it by the Legislature. Thieme also ordered the purchase of millions of dollars in planes that weren’t appropriate for State Guard missions, he said.

“It just seems like we’re imploding from the inside,” Howard said. “It’s almost like we’re being sabotaged.”

The three State Guard members all belong to the Special Missions Unit, an elite group of mostly former military members that was celebrated by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the State Guard for rescuing children and families in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.

All three said they went public only after their complaints to supervisors and Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins were ignored. They’re now asking DeSantis to intervene, saying that the situation jeopardizes the organization’s response to future disasters.

“Gov. DeSantis, Chief of Staff Jason Weida, I humbly ask you to investigate this,” Jordon Bowen, who led the Special Missions Unit, said on Instagram. Bowen is a former Air Force Pararescue.

Neither the governor’s office nor the State Guard responded to requests for comment.

DeSantis in 2022 revived the State Guard, a World War II-era unit that had long been dormant. DeSantis pitched its resurrection by saying the state needed a group of volunteers who could assist Florida’s overworked National Guard after storms and other emergencies within the state.

But the administration immediately moved the organization to a more militaristic role, giving members camouflage uniforms, requiring them to shave their beards and calling them “soldiers.” DeSantis sent members to the Texas-Mexico border to combat immigration.

Since its inception, the State Guard has been plagued by high turnover and allegations of unprofessionalism and questionable recruiting. Two women have alleged they experienced sexual harassment and retaliation in the organization.

Thieme, a Marine Corps veteran who was appointed by DeSantis, is the group’s third director in four years. He makes $175,000 per year overseeing several hundred volunteers and a few dozen employees.

Since its launch, the Legislature has assigned the State Guard tens of millions of dollars to purchase planes and other equipment. Last year, lawmakers specified the aircraft must be given to state police for training and operations unless the State Guard needed them to respond to storms.

Instead, the planes were used for Thieme’s flight training, members said.

“These aircraft were designated to support law enforcement in a real Florida operation, and he took those aircraft off for his own personal gain,” Pintacura said of Thieme in the video.

The guard members posted screenshots of State Guard flight records they said showed Thieme logging more than 30 hours of training time across 15 trips around Tallahassee and Lakeland, where the State Guard’s aviation unit is based.

The records, which were shared with the Herald/Times, include labels such as “Thieme flight training” or “Flight training with the Director.” They purportedly show he flew on three different Cessna single-engine planes registered to the State Guard. Each flight would have required at least one State Guard instructor pilot on board.

Obtaining a private pilot’s license through a private company can cost up to $20,000, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

State law prohibits employees from using state property “to secure a special privilege, benefit, or exemption for himself.”

Bowen said he spoke to Collins for about an hour in November about members’ concerns with Thieme.

“I felt as though something would happen,” Bowen told the Herald/Times. “I felt like he took the concerns seriously.”

Nothing happened, Bowen said. In January, Thieme kicked Bowen out of the State Guard, writing that the decision was “based on loss of confidence and trust in your ability to command the unit and be a member of the Guard.”

A spokesperson for Collins, a former Green Beret who is running to succeed the term-limited DeSantis as governor this year, did not address those concerns in a statement.

“The Lieutenant Governor has full faith and confidence in the Florida State Guard, which has served our citizens honorably and heroically during natural disasters and other moments of crisis,” Collins spokesperson Brian Wright said in a statement.

Members’ concerns were also brought to then-State Guard Chief Jay Arnold, who has since been promoted to deputy chief of staff in DeSantis’ office, the guard members said. He did not respond to a request for comment sent to the governor’s office.

Lawmakers have long taken a skeptical view of the State Guard’s funding, choosing to fund it only on a year-by-year basis. Last year, they gave it $36 million and funding for 32 full-time positions for the current fiscal year

DeSantis is asking the Legislature for $62 million and 47 employees for the upcoming fiscal year.

This story was originally published January 21, 2026 at 11:25 AM.