Yes, Kelly did sign a false official statement, and in the end, would have almost certainly have been convicted for that offense. The rest of the charges would have been sucessfully defended. But now that her book is out let's put all the cards on the table and see what we can divine:
Who in the Minot chain of command approved the ODI investigation of Brian Mudrey's charges against Kelly? Lt. Tamara Kieffer, please drop us a line and let us know. And one quick question: Now that you know the laundry list of charges Mudrey made about Kelly were false, what do you think the real agenda of your commander was?
Why was Kelly's commanding officer not informed that the investigation into Kelly's sex life had begun? Col. LaPlante, wherever you are out there, do tell what you know about the motivations of your superior officers. Why were you kept in the dark? Why were you unable to understand why Kelly was coming to call on you for help? How does it feel to be taking the rap for an evilly motivated member of the Wing Command?
This one is for Col. Miller. You're responsible for the disciplinary system at the Minot base, and as near as I can tell from the web site, for the PR as well. Just why was Kelly's case pushed so quickly to a court-martial? And why was her case publicized by the Minot public affairs office? Let me tell you what I think the answer is: I think you resented Kelly, resented the idea that a female could achieve a position that you were never able to gain. I think you're probably opposed in principle to the idea of women flying in combat roles. I think you saw an opportunity to get rid of her and took it. You pushed the investigators to bother with Mudrey's preposterous charges. You managed to sneak the paperwork past LaPlante so that you could initiate the court-martial. You made sure the press office released the information about the case so that the Pentagon, where Kelly had plenty of defenders, would be cut out of the decision making process. Why? I don't think you're so stupid as to not have anticipated the public interest in the case; I suspect you knew that if the Pentagon got wind of the case word would come down to handle the matter quietly. And you didn't want it handled quietly: you had your own private agenda -- an agenda that in my opinion comes close to being treasonous -- subverting the good order of the military in the form of disgracing a combat-qualified female pilot. As a military leader, you should be instilling in your troops the discipline to overcome the racist and sexist impulses much in evidence in our culture. Instead, you cut the heart out of the career of a promising young officer and turned off a generation of smart, accomplished young women who could have made outstanding contributions to the USAF. Shame on you.
And where were you Col. Elder? You're the Bomb Wing Commander, you have a young officer of some interest on the part of the Pentagon, and you never take the time to make yourself fully aware of her situation? You don't have the wit to learn that she desperately does not want to be in the show crew, does not want the attention? Are you kidding me? What kind of leadership is that? And how in the world could you not envision the publicity that was bound to erupt once your base issued the press release? How could you not understand that the matter could do nothing but make the Air Force look bad? You and Miller must be glad to be under orders to say nothing.
I know these pages have a select audience, and I know some of you do know the answers to these questions.
I'd like to hear them. Drop me a line.