• Air Force relieves training commander at Lackland over sex scandal

    A top commander has been relieved of his position in the wake of a sex scandal at Lackland Air Force base.


    Col. Glenn Palmer had been in charge of basic training for new Air Force recruits at the 737th training group at the base in San Antonio, Texas. A senior U.S. military official confirmed to NBC on Friday that Palmer had been relieved. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the wing commander lost confidence in Palmer's ability to lead the training group.

    Allegations that basic training instructors behaved inappropriately with female recruits have rocked the base. Some of the alleged victims have claimed sexual abuse and assault. 

    Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, a former instructor, received a 20-year prison sentence last month in a military court-martial after being convicted of rape and sexual assault. Walker was convicted on all 28 charges he faced. 

    Tech. Sgt. Christopher Smith, 33, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and a reduction in rank to airman first class last week. He was convicted of developing an intimate relationship with one female trainee and fraternizing with another.

    Other training instructors are scheduled for courts-martial in the coming months. 

    The military hasn't seen a sex scandal of this magnitude since the 1990s, when accusations of sexual misconduct surfaced at the Army's Ordnance Center and School in Aberdeen, Md., where officers were accused of using their positions to sexually assault female trainees under their command. The scandal resulted in one company commander and two drill sergeants being sent to prison. 

    Lackland is where all new recruits go through eight weeks of basic training. The installation graduates 35,000 new airmen every year. About one in five recruits are female but most instructors are male.

     

    Courtney Kube contributed to this report.

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  • Air Force instructor jailed for 30 days in military sex scandal

    By NBC News wire services

    SAN ANTONIO --  A U.S. Air Force basic training instructor was sentenced to 30 days in jail on Thursday and had his rank reduced after being convicted of improper sexual misconduct at a court martial, one of seven cases in the worst military sex scandal since 1996.

    Tech. Sgt. Christopher Smith, 33, received his punishment after the seven-member jury deliberated for five hours. The sentencing, which capped a three-day court-martial at the base, includes a reduction in rank to airman first class.

    Smith was convicted Wednesday of seeking to develop an intimate relationship with one female trainee and fraternizing with another at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. He was acquitted of making sexual advances on the female trainee he pursued and of obstructing justice.

    Lackland is where all Air Force recruits go through basic training. It has about 500 instructors for about 35,000 airmen who graduate every year. While one in five recruits are women, most instructors are men.

    Seven trainers at Lackland have been charged with sexual misconduct.  The latest, Staff Sergeant Jason Manko, was charged on Thursday, Air Force officials said.

    Last month, a military jury gave Staff Sgt. Luis Walker a 20-year sentence after the former instructor was convicted of rape and sexual assault. The counts against Walker were the most severe in the investigation.

    A third trainer earlier pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct.


    Smith can remain in the military after he finishes his sentence, though not as a military training instructor.

    A total of 38 women have come forward to claim they were victims of inappropriate conduct at the hands of their basic training instructors.

    Courts-martial have been set for three more trainers, with Master Sgt. Jamey Crawford scheduled for trial Sept. 5. He stands accused of having a wrongful sexual relationship with a trainee, wrongfully providing and consuming alcohol with a trainee and committing adultery with the trainee.

    In a mixed verdict, a jury found Smith guilty of seeking to develop an intimate relationship with a teenage trainee, but cleared him of charges of making sexual advances. Smith was found guilty of having a personal social relationship with a second female trainee.

    Smith was convicted by a "special" court martial, a streamlined process allowed in cases where the maximum penalty is no more than a year in prison.

    U.S. Senator John Cornyn, who had blocked the nomination of the proposed Air Force chief of staff over concerns about the sex scandal, said on Thursday he has lifted his hold on the appointment of General Mark Welsh.

    The Texas Republican said he asked Welsh to conduct a formal review of current Air Force policy and training on sexual assault prevention and inappropriate relationships.

    Petition

    U.S. Representative Jackie Speier has called for hearings in the House, saying the problem of women in the military being sexually harassed and raped by men in command positions is far more widespread than officials have been willing to believe.

    Pressure is mounting from the public as well.

    Paula Coughlin-Puopolo, the former Navy helicopter pilot who exposed the 1991 Tailhook scandal involving allegations of sexual abuse by military pilots, on Thursday presented petitions signed by more than 10,000 people to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, demanding public hearings into the Lackland case.

    The U.S. military hasn't been confronted with a sex scandal of similar scope since 1996. That scandal involved an Army base in Maryland.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Casket photo sparks Air Force investigation, outrage

    Air Force Times

    In bad taste? This photo of 15 airmen posing with an open casket has resulted in an Air Force investigaton.

    By James Eng, NBC News

    Air Force commanders are investigating the origins of a photo of airmen posing around an open casket with another airman inside pretending to be dead.

    In the photo, which has elicited disbelief and outrage from military commanders, military wives and widows, and others, 15 airmen are seen kneeling or standing around a metallic casket, similar to those used to carry war dead home. In the open casket is another airman, looking lifeless, with what appears to be a noose around his neck and chains across his body.

     

    “Da Dumpt, Da Dumpt … Sucks 2 Be U” is scribbled at the bottom of the photo, which apparently was taken in August but didn’t come to light publicly until it was emailed to Air Force Times on Monday.

    On Tuesday, Air Force Times published an article on the photo and the controversy it is generating.

    The airmen in the photo are apparently from the 345th Training Squadron in Fort Lee, Va., military officials said Wednesday. Their unit is a detachment from a command at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

    Air Force Times said an investigation was launched after it forwarded the photo to Air Education and Training Command, the overall training command for the Air Force, for comment. Lackland is one of the bases assigned to the command.

    David E. Smith, spokesman for the training command, told Air Force Times that the commander of the 37th Training Group at Lackland, Col. Gregory Reese, was “obviously displeased.”

    Smith told msnbc.com on Wednesday: “I don’t know whether any rules have been violated. What I do know is the photo apparently was taken in August, and the folks involved in it are under investigation by an Air Force officer.” He said he expects the investigation to be completed “in a week or two.”

    Gerry Proctor, public affairs officer for 37th Training Wing, said he couldn’t speculate on what potential violations might be unearthed.

    “I can only tell you the wing commander was disappointed to see something like that because it does not meet our values or ethos. That’s why he determined to immediately launch an investigation,” Proctor told msnbc.com.

    He said one officer from Lackland has been assigned to the investigation.

    Smith said it’s unclear what the intent of the photo was. “I don’t know what kind of message they’re trying to convey, but we were saddened to see that display,” he said.

    Air Force Times noted the photo surfaced one month after the public disclosure that the Air Force’s Port Mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, Del., had lost and mishandled the remains of hundreds of fallen troops. Dover is the first stop on American soil for troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. An investigation found "gross mismanagement" at the mortuary, and the Air Force later acknowledged it had dumped cremated partial remains of at least 274 troops into a Virginia dump.

    Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, in a statement Tuesday night to Air Force Times, expressed concern that the photo might cause more turmoil for families of fallen troops.

    "Such behavior is not consistent with our core values, and it is not representative of the Airmen I know. It saddens me that this may cause additional grief to the families of our fallen warriors,” he said, according to Air Force Times.

    At least one soldier with the 82nd Airborne Division found the casket photo offensive.

    “I cannot help but picture the faces of my dead [soldiers] that we drug out of burning vehicles, dug out from collapsed buildings,” Staff Sgt. Elias Bonilla wrote in an email to Air Force Times.

    The photo also drew outrage from several Air Force Times readers. One, who identified himself as Mike Hayes, an Air Force police officer, wrote: “All these NCOs and Airman should be prosecuted and dismissed from the military. This is disgraceful and disrespectful to all the men."

    "HOW DARE YOU!" commented another reader, Deedy Salie, who said she was a military widow. "My husband came home in one of those boxes, not on his own two feet like these disgraceful people will.. You not only offend my husband SFC David J. Salie, but his children, his wife, his family..........Hell, the entire nation. SHAME ON YOU."

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