Female B-52 Pilot Quits, Ends Battle With the Air Force

MINOT, N.D. —  The nation’s first female B-52 pilot resigned from the Air Force with a second-best discharge Thursday, a compromise that averted a sensational court-martial that could have sent her to jail and was certain to have embarrassed both her and the Pentagon brass.

The general discharge ordered by Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall was a bitter pill for 1st Lt. Kelly Flinn, who four days ago had vowed to “proceed to court-martial” unless the Air Force agreed to give her an honorable discharge. That would have allowed her to continue flying in the Air Force Reserve or Air National Guard.

But Flinn agreed to accept Widnall’s terms after deciding that the Air Force was determined to make an example of her, Flinn’s family said at an emotional press conference. Her family said the 26-year-old pilot was not present because she was exhausted.

The compromise spared both Flinn and the Air Force a court-martial that threatened to strip bare her private life and subject the service to politically charged complaints that it was trying to enforce an outdated code of sexual morality. But both the top levels of the Air Force and Flinn’s family and supporters reacted angrily to the outcome of a case that had become an international sensation.

“This was indeed a travesty of justice,” said Flinn’s mother, Mary. She said the family realized Wednesday night--after Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman said on Capitol Hill that Flinn was guilty of lying and disobedience--that the Air Force was out “to make an example of her.”

A senior military officer in Washington said Thursday that the compromise will “send a shock wave through the system” because Flinn escaped court-martial. Phones at the Pentagon “are going to ring off the hook,” he said.

Flinn had been charged with adultery, for an affair she had with a married civilian; fraternization, for a fling with an Air Force enlisted man; lying, for her formal written statement about the affair; and disobeying an order, for failing to break off the affair. She had admitted all of the actions.

“Although it is the adultery charge that has received the greatest public focus, it is the allegations of lack of integrity and disobedience to order that have been the principal concern of the Air Force,” Widnall said in a statement read at a Pentagon press conference. “It is primarily those allegations that made an honorable discharge unacceptable.”

Flinn’s separation from the service is officially known as “general discharge under honorable conditions.” Air Force regulations say such a separation is warranted “when significant negative aspects of the member’s conduct or performance of duty outweigh positive aspects of the member’s performance.”

By contrast, an honorable discharge is merited, the regulations say, where the quality of the person’s service “has met or exceeded expectations.”

With a general discharge, Flinn will not be eligible for any sort of veterans’ benefits and will not automatically be allowed to join the Reserve or Air National Guard. However, her civilian attorney, Frank Spinner, said Flinn has a right to request a waiver allowing her to serve in the Reserve.

Flinn also will be required to pay the Air Force about $18,000, one-fifth of the cost of her Air Force Academy education, because she served only four years of her five-year commitment. But Spinner said she would have been required to make the same restitution if she had been given an honorable discharge. Flinn was not forced to repay the estimated $1-million cost of training her to fly the lumbering eight-engine B-52.

Although adultery, lying and disobedience charges are far from unique in the service, there may never have been a case quite like this one. Flinn was once advanced by the Air Force as a symbol of its commitment to gender equality. And her case created such a political firestorm that it cannot be compared to any recent court-martial.

“I don’t think you can say it is an unusual outcome when it was such an unusual case,” Spinner said. He said he and Widnall in effect negotiated the compromise through stories in newspapers, even though military regulations prohibit the sort of give-and-take bargaining that often settles civilian cases.

Officials said Widnall has received about 100 requests in the past two years from court-martial defendants for permission to resign in lieu of trial. About one-third of them were approved, and of that number, about one-third--or roughly 10 cases--received general discharges. The others received “other than honorable discharges,” the bottom rung on the military’s three-discharge hierarchy.

Mary McCormick, a former Navy lawyer who now represents military clients in Kansas City, said that by winning national attention Flinn secured a kind of discharge that most others accused of similar crimes would not have gotten.

Military personnel who have committed adultery or fraternization and then lied about it often have gotten a dishonorable discharge, served several months’ prison time and been forced to forfeit benefits, she said.

She predicted that commanders in all the services “are going to be getting calls from defense attorneys saying, ‘We want this kind of deal.’ ”

Widnall denied that political pressures dictated her decision. However, a growing list of members of Congress, including the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate, had weighed in on Flinn’s side.

Brig. Gen. Ron Sconyers, the Air Force’s chief spokesman, said Widnall had not discussed the case with Defense Secretary William S. Cohen. But he conceded that the decision was a difficult one.

“The angst” in Air Force offices over the case was “9” on a scale of 10, he said.

Flinn had submitted two requests to resign in lieu of court-martial. On Monday she said she would resign only with an honorable discharge--meaning that if she didn’t get it, an embarrassing court-martial was inevitable.

But on Thursday, following an all-night strategy session with her lawyer and family--and after Gen. Fogelman’s comments to the Senate and the public airing of comments by the Marc Zigo, the civilian with whom she had the affair, and his former wife, Gayla--she submitted another request, agreeing to accept any discharge the Air Force would order.

Spinner said Flinn has about 10 days to wrap up her military career.

Family members said Flinn has received hundreds of letters from supporters urging her to battle the Air Force to the end.

“One of our concerns in making this decision was that Kelly would disappoint all the people who said, ‘Stay in there and fight,’ ” said her brother, Don Flinn Jr.

“We are happy that this ordeal has come to a conclusion,” Flinn’s mother said.

Flinn’s legal troubles began as a result of her affair with Zigo, a 24-year-old civilian married to an enlisted woman at Minot.

“If Marc Zigo had never come to Minot Air Force Base, we would not be here,” Spinner said.

Later, Zigo, who referred to himself in the third person during a brief session with reporters, said, “If Marc Zigo had not come to Minot, maybe this would have happened with another man as it happened with an enlisted man even before I came to Minot.”

He said he had been ready to testify against Flinn in court.

Kempster reported from North Dakota and Richter from Washington.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE DECISION (Southland Edition, A1)

In granting a general discharge, the Air Force cited a ‘lack of integrity and disobedience to order.’

THE REACTION

“This was indeed a travesty of justice.”

--Kelly Flinn’s mother, Mary

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Three Ways to Be Discharged

The Air Force says these are the three types of discharges under administrative action for officers:

HONORABLE

This type of discharge is separation from the Air Force with honor. An honorable discharge means the person has served the Air Force well by meeting or exceeding the required standards of duty, performance and personal conduct. The honorable discharge reflects to the world that the member has satisfactorily completed a commitment to military service.

****

GENERAL

This is separation from the Air Force with honor, but to a lesser degree than the honorable discharge. This discharge is given when normally faithful service is marred by negative aspects of a person’s duty performance or personal conduct.

****

OTHER THAN HONORABLE CONDITIONS

Separation from the Air Force with the worst possible administrative discharge. A person receives an “other than honorable conditions” discharge when his or her personal conduct falls significantly below acceptable military standards. This discharge may result from one or more acts or failures to act that are considered to be an obvious departure from the high standards of conduct expected of military members. This type of discharge may be given only after a person has had the opportunity to request a hearing by an administrative discharge board. Usually only acts or failures to act that occur during the current enlistment may be used to separate a person with this type of discharge. Significant veterans benefits are denied under an “other than honorable conditions” discharge.

Associated Press