Clearing the Fog of War

Air Force hotline aiding misconduct probes

The Air Force has launched 28 investigations into instructor misconduct at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland since starting a 24-hour hotline last fall.

Lackland graduates over the past decade have been asked to report misconduct as the Air Force looks to find trainers who had forbidden personal or romantic relationships. So far, a hotline used last summer during an Air Force investigation and the one now in place have produced a total of 45 investigations.

Retired Col. Morris Davis, who led a probe into a 2003 Air Force Academy sexual assault scandal, said the number of probes launched over three months wasn't alarming given what is known about Lackland.

But retired Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jennifer Norris, a sexual assault victim who heads the Military Rape Crisis Center in Maine, said the hotline is barely scratching the surface of a much deeper problem.

“They've opened up Pandora's box,” she said Sunday. “It is just the beginning because we're getting new referrals and new clients every single day, both active duty and people who are veterans, but mostly active duty.”

The Air Force's training command, which put the hotline in place Oct. 15, couldn't say how many calls had been made to the hotline or provide other details. The number of cases continues to rise on an almost weekly basis, with 32 instructors under investigation for illicit conduct with 59 trainees — three of them men.

Six courts-martial have been held, with 10 more in the works. The latest trials begin today, with Staff Sgts. Eddy Soto and Donald Davis facing proceedings in different courtrooms. Soto faces life for rape and aggravated sexual assault, while Davis is accused of abusive sexual contact and assault on one trainee, and having sex with another airman, who was in a technical school.

The newest abuse hotline, 210-652-0008, fielded calls after Gen. Edward Rice Jr., head of the training command, told airmen he wanted to uncover unprofessional relationships, sexual misconduct and sexual assault in basic and technical training.

A hotline established during a command-directed investigation last summer that led to sweeping changes in basic training fielded 110 calls. Of those, 17 Air Force investigations resulted, though so far there have been no details of what, if any, actions were taken.

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Tighter rules at Lackland eyed

In a major policy shift stemming from the sex scandal at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, the Air Force may end the practice of assigning staff sergeants as basic training instructors.

A memo outlining the proposal says that no one under the rank of technical sergeant — which is one stripe above staff sergeant — generally would be eligible for the job.

It says “exceptional (staff sergeant) applicants will be considered on a case-by-case basis and must have a minimum of one-year time in grade.”

While the Air Force didn't explain the purpose of restricting the career field to more senior noncommissioned officers, a retired colonel who once oversaw the service's justice system said Tuesday it's likely designed to create a more mature instructor corps.

“I'd say it's a significant change, and I think certainly the intent is in general to get more experience and more maturity,” said Morris Davis, who investigated an Air Force Academy sex scandal before supervising the service's judiciary in 2007-08. “Obviously, a tech sergeant is going to be a little older, have several more years of experience.”

The scandal, first uncovered by commanders here more than 15 months ago, will trigger a wave of changes at Lackland, the home of Air Force basic training.

Gen. Edward Rice Jr., head of the Air Education and Training Command, is expected to unveil dozens of initiatives later this month along with the results of an investigation.

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Pick of woman to lead Lackland training draws praise

As the Air Force seeks to manage the largest sex scandal in its history, the selection of a woman to take charge of basic training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland drew praise as well as caution from observers Monday.

The appointment Saturday of Col. Deborah Liddick as commander of the 737th Training Group was a good start, experts agreed, but many more women need to come on board a basic training program reeling from accusations of misconduct against 18 instructors. At least 42 women have been identified as victims.

Liddick's appointment comes amid a shake-up of the top ranks at Lackland. Liddick, who currently is chief of Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph's maintenance division, will take over the training group Friday, a little more than a month after the previous commander, Col. Glenn Palmer, was abruptly ousted over lack of confidence in his leadership.

A higher-level commander, Col. Eric Axelbank, who led the 37th Training Wing, abruptly stepped down this month after a little more than a year on the job.

“Seeing a female in charge, someone female trainees can identify with at least on the surface, may help change the ‘keep quiet or suffer the consequences' perception that exists in the basic training environment,” said retired Air Force Col. Morris Davis, who led a 2003 investigation into a sex scandal at the Air Force Academy.

“On the other hand, there was a female colonel in a senior command position at the Air Force Academy when the sexual assault scandal occurred in 2003, and cadets viewed her as being a significant part of the problem,” he added. “At the end of the day, it's performance, not perception, that really matters, so we'll have to wait and see how Col. Liddick does.”

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Pilots saluted with Silver Stars

The mission Philip Bryant and Joshua Hallada flew in their Air Force helicopters out of Bagram Air Field was a familiar routine for best friends.

They had done that for two months in Afghanistan as they flew search-and-rescue missions.

But they've long done everything together — first playing as children, later studying at the Air Force Academy, serving in Asia and finally going to war.

Yet they probably never imagined receiving the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest award for gallantry in combat, in an Air Force hangar Thursday, before family and friends.

Sitting together afterward, they talked of the battle they fought on April 23, 2011, as if it were just another day.

“We knew it was happening, and we trained so much for this that I'd say I was a little nervous, but it was just reacting. We were just doing what we were trained to do,” Bryant said after receiving the medals at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph. “We weren't real nervous, but we were very spun up, excited with what was going on.”

An Army helicopter had gone down 20 miles outside of Bagram, its two pilots pinned down by enemy fire. Hallada, pilot of Pedro 83, led the two-ship formation, with Bryant his wingman. Each had four crewmembers and two rescue team members on their ships, and they were ordered to save the downed soldiers.

That was their job. As HH-60G Pavehawk search-and-rescue pilots leading the Air Force's fabled “PJs,” or pararescue teams, they lived the code the organization shares: “These things I do, that others may live.”

They couldn't say how many insurgents were burrowed into the mountainside, but after arriving in the Alasay Valley, Bryant's aircraft, Pedro 84, took fire.

There was more bad news. One of the Army pilots, Iowa Army National Guard Staff Sgt. James Justice, 32, was unconscious.

He later died.

An Air Force account of the battle, coupled with Hallada's Silver Star citation, tells the story.

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