This is silly that we are even discussing this. The only reason I brought it up is because RealistState brought up something that reminded me of it so I just made a pkmtyolping comment. I can't' believe the thread has turned into a discussion about it. It's silly.
Like Realist State said in the post that sparked this incident for me, it doesn't matter WHAT the person did or didn't do that disobeyed the direct order, it was that a direct order was given (one that was in the rights of the superior to give) and that direct order was disobeyed.
Oh and there was a lot more to this case than what you presented in this thread, as I've been doing a little research here. Basically, the AirForce mishandled the whole thing - no big surprise.
I smell a rotten fish here (as I suspected when you first made the remark), and it's not the Lieutenant that reeks. INCIDENTAL ADULTERY?
MAY 22, 1997
TRANSCRIPT
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The Kelly Flinn case came up today at a Senate hearing. The witnesses were Air Force Sec. Sheila Widnall, who is deciding whether to grant Lt. Flinn an honorable discharge, and Gen. Ronald Fogleman, the Air Force chief of staff.
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JIM LEHRER: On the Kelly Flinn case, it came up today at a Senate hearing. The witnesses were Air Force Sec. Sheila Widnall, who is deciding whether to grant Lt. Flinn an honorable discharge, and Gen. Ronald Fogleman, the Air Force chief of staff. Here’s part of an exchange between Fogleman and Sen. Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa.
SEN. TOM HARKIN, (D) Iowa: How many attorneys do you have in the Air Force running around, trying to find out how many people are committing adultery?
GENERAL RONALD FOGLEMAN, Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force: Senator, I don’t think we have very many people in the Air Force, running around, trying to figure out who’s committing adultery. In most of these cases what you discover is adultery is an incidental thing. To start with adultery is a crime under the uniform code of military justice. That’s a set of laws that was enacted by the Congress for the military to abide by. So when--when--what we are interested in in the United States Air Force is not trying to regulate the sexual mores of America. We’ve got plenty of important things to do.
SEN. TOM HARKIN: I agree with you.
GENERAL RONALD FOGLEMAN: We are very much interested in a thing called the improper relationships that end up undermining the morale and discipline of an organization. And so the Lt. Kelly Flinn case, I would really like to see people not comment so much on it until they have all the facts. And we cannot get the facts out until you either have a court martial, or you have a resolution of the affair so that you can put the facts out, and the facts have not come out. Some of them are starting to come out. And I think that in the end this is not an issue of adultery. This is an issue about an officer who is entrusted to fly nuclear weapons, who disobeyed an order, who lied. That’s what this is about. The adultery thing is the--that’s the thing that has been spun up in the press. That’s not what the Air Force is interested in.
SEN. TOM HARKIN: So the Air Force is not court-martialing her for adultery?
GENERAL RONALD FOGLEMAN: There is a specification of the charge of adultery because that starts the chain of events here where she ends up being charged with lying and--
SEN. TOM HARKIN: Isn’t lying and disobeying orders also punishable under the UCMJ?
GENERAL RONALD FOGLEMAN: Yes.
SEN. TOM HARKIN: Then why wasn’t she charged with that?
GENERAL RONALD FOGLEMAN: She is.
SEN. TOM HARKIN: But what I’m understanding of this case is that hundreds--seventy--court martial for adultery--it seemed to me that there are other reasons. I think the Air Force is looking ridiculous on this, and I think the military is too. Now you say--you told me, and you used the word "incidental." You said it was incidental to what happened there. Why was she even charged with it? Why not charge her with the more egregious crimes, which I consider to be much more detrimental to the service--lying and disobeying orders?
GENERAL RONALD FOGLEMAN: Sir, if we did that, somebody would drop a quarter on us and ask us why we weren’t charging this person for violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The wife of the young man involved in this has already written the Secretary a letter on this asking this question. There’s more than one victim, as you get into these things, and so when you start to talk about--discipline--
SEN. TOM HARKIN: No, but when it comes to things that get to things like adultery or fornication and things like that, it seems to me the best thing is to refer him to the chaplain.
GENERAL RONALD FOGLEMAN: And, sir, that’s what we do.
SEN. TOM HARKIN: You know. That’s the proper people to handle something like that. You can note it in their record, if you can do the Article 15, but to spend time and money--
GENERAL RONALD FOGLEMAN: Sir, that’s what we do.
SEN. TOM HARKIN: --to prosecute people for this, I think it’s making us look ridiculous.
GENERAL RONALD FOGLEMAN: And, unfortunately, I agree that it makes us look ridiculous because people don’t have the facts. You start out--you take this person who does this, and you say, look, this is wrong, cease and desist.
SEN. TOM HARKIN: But you see, a lot of states still have blue laws. That’s what I was referring to, Madame Secretary.
GENERAL RONALD FOGLEMAN: I grew up in a state that had blue laws.
SEN. TOM HARKIN: Yeah, they do, and I’m sure in some states it’s still a crime to commit adultery, but they don’t enforce it because they’ve got better things to do with their time. I’m saying if you’ve got adequate charges against someone of disobeying an order and lying, then that’s what you go after, not the adultery. Forget about the adultery. I don’t know--
GENERAL RONALD FOGLEMAN: Once the chain of events starts and you call someone in and you say cease and desist, and instead of ceasing and desisting they continue--
SEN. TOM HARKIN: That’s a violation of an order.
GENERAL RONALD FOGLEMAN: Exactly.
SEN. TOM HARKIN: So you put ‘em down for violating an order.
GENERAL RONALD FOGLEMAN: You do that.
SEN. TOM HARKIN: You court-martial ‘em on it too, or Article 15 or whatever you want to.
GENERAL RONALD FOGLEMAN: And you also--because somebody has been aggrieved by the original act, that becomes part of the specifications. You have to look at the totality of the thing. That’s the important thing. We’re not interested in that.
SEN. TOM HARKIN: Any time you’re involved in anything like adultery, there’s always going to be some aggrieved party. I understand that. I certainly don’t condone adultery or fornication or anything else, but I’m just saying that with all of the things that you have to do, you’ve got things like rape and sexual hapkmtyolrment and all the other things, disobeying orders, the things that really have to do with the form and structure and discipline of a military organization, to throw in this adultery thing, it just seems to me, just makes us look ridiculous, and I’ll just end on that and to whatever extent we can send directions through the Appropriations Committee, as to the expenditure of taxpayers’ dollars in this regard, I’d like to look at that because I guess I can’t--there are plenty of other things. I’m glad you’ve enlightened me on the other aspects of this case, but it seems to me that--if that had been done and that had been the charges, I don’t think you’d have any of this stuff happening in the press.
GENERAL RONALD FOGLEMAN: Sir, those have been part and parcel to these charges since the very first day.
SEN. TOM HARKIN: But I say, should they have been part and parcel? Should you have a re-examination of how your lawyers and your investigators are spending their time, if, in fact, hundreds, how many hundreds I don’t know, were punished for the same crime. I’m beginning to wonder who’s running around doing what.
JIM LEHRER: Air Force Secretary Widnall is expected to decide by Friday whether to grant Lt. Flinn an honorable discharge, or allow the court martial to go ahead. Flinn is charged with disobeying an order, lying, as well as adultery.
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/may97/flinn_5-21.html