of the A-10 aircraft for its relative effectiveness and inexpensiveness compared to what POGO considers more wasteful weapons. In 2012, the Straus Military Reform Project of the Center for Defense Information moved to POGO with director and military analyst Winslow Wheeler. Wheeler retired in 2015. Whistleblower protection POGO, along with several other public interest groups, was involved in the investigation and trial of Scott Bloch, ex-head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC). Bloch was accused by former OSC employees of ignoring and dismissing hundreds of whistleblower complaints, removing language guaranteeing protection against sexual orientation discrimination from OSC's website and official documents, and "relocating" several of his own employees who came forward with these allegations. When these accusations led to a congressional investigation of Bloch, Bloch allegedly hired a technology company to wipe the memory of his computer and several other OSC laptops in order to hide key evidence from the investigators. Bloch initially claimed that he ordered this as protection against a virus that had infected his computer, but he later admitted he was trying to withhold information. Bloch ultimately resigned his position as head of the OSC and pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress. POGO has worked to protect the rights of several specific whistleblowers—including Franz Gayl, who criticized military leaders' decision to not deliver protective armored vehicles called MRAPs to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis, who challenged military leaders' depictions of the "rosy" situation on the ground in Afghanistan—by sending letters to Congress and the agencies involved. Whistleblower award incident In 1998, POGO, the Department of Justice, and other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit under the False Claims Act, suing the largest oil and gas companies operating in the United States. The lawsuit alleged that the companies had defrauded the government by underpaying royalties owed for drilling on federal lands. By 2002, 15 companies had settled, paying a total of almost $440 million. POGO was awarded about $1.2 million from the settlements in 1998. That year, POGO shared its settlement with two federal employee whistleblowers, saying the payment was a "Public Service Award" to the whistleblowers. Following the news of the award in 1999, U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski asked the General Accounting Office to investigate whether the payment represented "improper influence" on the Department of the Interior's new oil royalty valuation policy. The agency released a report in 2000 that said