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Should Adultery Be a Crime in the Air Force? First Lieutenant Kelly Flinn is an Air Force Academy graduate and the first female bomber pilot in Air Force history. She's considered a trailblazer who was until recently a public relations blessing for the Air Force. This blessing turned into a curse last month as the country questioned the Air Force's contention that adultery is a crime.
Last month Kelly Flinn was discharged from the Air Force with less than a Honorable discharge - a General discharge to be specific. The Air Force wanted to court-martial her on charges of adultery, conduct unbecoming an officer, making a false statement, disobeying an order, and disobeying a regulation. As a member of the Air Force, I find myself asking if the Air Force is right. Is a court-martial, with the federal conviction and possible prison sentence it results in if found guilty, the right way to handle things? The Air Force says yes. Yes because she admitted to adultery, which is a violation of Article 134 of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice.
Her conduct was unbecoming an officer, because according to an Air Force spokesman quoted in the Air Force Times, "Adultery is not becoming. " She made a false official statement by initially denying adultery. She disobeyed an order by continuing a relationship with a married man after she was ordered to stop seeing him. She was also charged with disobeying a regulation by fraternizing, or being involved with an enlisted person in other than a professional basis. This last charge stems from an earlier relationship with an enlisted man. Through my personal experience as a member of the Air Force, I understand the Air Force's position to be that it depends on it's members as leaders and people who can be counted on to do what's right even when it will feels better to do the opposite. The Air Force required that people live up to certain standards.
If a person cannot exercise self-discipline and high-moral standards, the Air Force has the right to remove this person from duty. The Air Force expects service members to abide by a code of laws. When the law is broken, Air Force leaders have no choice but to respond. Secretary of the Air Force Widnall is quoted in the Air Force Times as saying "Although it is the adultery charge that has received the greatest public focus, it is the allegation of lack of integrity and disobedience to order that has been of principle concern to the Air Force. " The Secretary has a valid point, but I must address these areas of "principle concern. " Kelly Flinn lied when questioned about her relationship with a married man. I agree lying is wrong, but would she have lied if she hadn't been officially asked very personal questions about her private life?
From personal experience I know that refusal to answer official Air Force questions most likely will result in the loss of a person's security clearance. Loss of security clearance disqualifies a person from most jobs in the Air Force. Right or wrong, the Air Force forced this issue. If the Air force hadn't engaged in a criminal investigation concerning the allegation of adultery, and integrity issue may never have arisen. The Secretary's concern about disobedience to order again revolves around Kelly Flinn's personal life. She didn't stop seeing the man she was involved with when told to do so.
I wish matters of the heart were that easy. I don't know why she didn't end the relationship when ordered to do so, but I don't feel comfortable with the Air Force telling anyone who they cannot have a personal relationship with. The Air Force is within their legal right; however, this doesn't make them right. I want to make one last point about Secretary Widnall's statement.
I feel she is downplaying the adultery charge, which it seems to me is what actually started this whole case. The Air Force has pursued allegations of adultery on numerous occasions and with increasing frequency. According to a compilation of information I gathered from the Air Force Times and Time Magazine, the Air Force charged with adultery and brought to trial 36 people in 1994, 42 people in 1995, and 67 people in 1996. Perhaps integrity and obedience to order are of more concern to the Air Force than adultery.
However, if the Air Force stopped pursuing the intimate portions of people's lives, I believe there would be less of a problem. In fairness to the Air Force, I must point out that I'm not aware of any adultery investigation which started without someone, usually the cheated on spouse, making a complaint. Also, of the 145 people brought to trial in the last three years, 92 % were men and 8 % were women. The men to women ratio of those tried for adultery matches almost exactly the ratio of men to women in the Air Force. I don't see any evidence of singling out either gender for court-martial. Law should reflect the conscience of the people it represents and I feel that the Air Force falls significantly short with it's policy on adultery.
The result of a recent poll was discussed on Meet the Press. The poll showed the majority of Americans feel adultery is wrong. It also showed the vast majority of Americans don't feel adultery is a crime. Democratic Representative Nita Lowey of New York is quoted in U.
S. News and World Report as saying that the Air Force policies on adultery "don't conform to what most of us see as norms in life. " Air Force policy is under attack because it doesn't reflect the conscience of society. Kelly Flinn had an affair with Marc Zigo, who was married at the time and is not in the Air Force. Flinn lost her career. Zigo is now divorced, but otherwise unscathed. Flinn was treated as a criminal, Zigo as a witness.
This disparity in the treatment of two people involved in the same affair is due to the fact that civilian courts don't pursue adultery as a crime while military courts do. A rethinking of Air Force Policy on adultery is past due. In this essay, it hasn't been my intent to say Kelly Flinn did nothing wrong. Kelly Flinn did nothing criminal. Bibliography:
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