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This is a long article to ours sleepless weekend PDPs showing that there may be situations in ones life that are worst than PD...and helping folks to forget it for some moments.Judge yourself, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (An article in today's Washington Post: on the front page no less.) U.S. Military Takes Aim at Adultery - In the Wake of Sex Scandals, Services Mete Out Harsh Penalties for Illicit Romance On the morning of her court-martial, Lt. Col. Karen Tew pinned the ribbons to her dress uniform and packed a suitcase for jail. She knew she could be facing up to 10 years behind bars. In the courtroom that day, she wept as she entered her guilty plea, wondering aloud what would happen to her two teenage daughters and elderly parents. She apologized for bringing disgrace to the Air Force. "No words can describe the shame and humiliation I feel as a result of my actions," declared the 41-year-old career officer. The jury sentenced Tew to dismissal. Barely a year short of retirement, she would lose everything -- her job, her pension, her benefits and the only way of life she had known as an adult. Tew's crime was uniquely military: She had had an affair with an enlisted man. Estranged from her husband, she had committed adultery. Five days after the March 11 trial at Scott Air Force Base in Belleville, Ill., Karen Tew waited for her parents to leave for church, then put a shotgun between her eyes and pulled the trigger. Her suicide raises questions about the private lives of America's servicemen and women, and their accountability in a military culture that considers order, discipline and integrity key to its survival. Like Tew, a growing number of soldiers are facing felony criminal charges for love affairs that, in civilian life, would break no law. But with renewed emphasis on a more family-oriented service and the embarrassing legacy of scandals such as Tailhook, the Pentagon appears to be cracking down on adultery and related offenses. But it is not just allegations of pandemic sexual misconduct, such as those at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, attracting prosecutors' attention. Private affairs between consenting heterosexual adults are also ending up before the jury. In the Air Force alone, the number of people put on trial for adultery more than quadrupled in the last decade, from 16 in 1987 to 67 last year, and the overwhelming majority have been found guilty. An even larger number of people were punished administratively. Such cases also frequently include charges of sodomy if the lovers are suspected of engaging in oral sex, and fraternization if the romance involves an officer and enlisted person -- a crime considered more serious than simple adultery for its implied abuse of power and authority. The Air Force was the only branch of service willing or able to provide figures for such crimes. And while imprisonment for these so-called crimes of the heart is rare, the price of forbidden love in the military can nonetheless be high -- careers are ruined, reputations destroyed, families traumatized. At Minot AFB in North Dakota, the country's first female bomber pilot will be court-martialed for adultery May 20 over her affair with a civilian who has stated under oath that he lied to her when he claimed to be legally separated from his wife. "Oh, I'll admit I made mistakes in judgment," said Lt. Kelly Flinn, 26 and single, "but I don't think they were federal crimes, nor should there be the potential that I spend the rest of my life as a convicted felon." Flinn also is charged with fraternization for having sex with an unmarried enlisted man. The man, who was not in her chain of command, was given immunity to testify against her. "The Air Force is going back to the Dark Ages," said Flinn's attorney, Frank J. Spinner, a retired lieutenant colonel and former law professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy who has defended several other officers recently on similar charges. "To a great degree, this is vindictiveness taking place." Adultery, sodomy and fraternization have been forbidden under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for more than 200 years, but experts, official documents and attorneys suggest violators are being pursued now with particular zeal. In the Air Force, detectives from the Office of Special Investigations are known to file official reports detailing a defendant's sexual performance, type of foreplay, preferred positions and method of birth control. Friends, acquaintances and unsuspecting family members are questioned about the sexual habits of the suspect. OSI agents knocked on the door of Karen Tew's 78-year-old mother to ask about her daughter's sex life. "I told them I didn't know, and why didn't they just ask her," said the mother. Tod Ensign, director of the nonprofit advocacy group Citizen Soldier, said a 23-year-old lieutenant recently tried in Biloxi, Miss., was interrogated for five hours about a one-night stand with an enlisted man. Both were single, and he was not in her chain of command. "They were teasing out every single detail," Ensign said, "asking things like what kind of music was playing, how were you lying on the bed, did you talk about your sexual fantasies. . . . I believe it's a form of sexual harassment." At Tew's court-martial, the Air Force prosecutor, Capt. Kirk Obear, attacked the defendant's integrity in his closing argument. "Lieutenant Colonel Tew traded the integrity of the military professional for sexual desire," Obear argued. "She traded the honor of wearing the military uniform for lust, and she traded her ability to act as an effective leader in a position of authority for sexual intercourse." Military officials say sexual misconduct is prosecuted vigorously because illicit romances can damage troop morale and destroy cohesion of a unit. They also say it is imperative to protect soldiers from being victimized by superiors who wield considerable influence over their daily lives. Critics suggest there are other reasons as well. Jon Tomes, a Kansas City defense attorney who is a retired Air Force prosecutor and author of "The Servicemember's Guidebook," believes the crackdown is as much a matter of economics as principle. "First of all, there's less crime in the military overall than in the past," he said, suggesting that prosecutors now have more time to pursue crimes like adultery and fraternization. Increasing numbers of women in the military also have recast fraternization into a carnal crime, where before it was more likely to be "the general playing poker or drinking with some enlisted man," Tomes said. Finally, according to Tomes, "in this age of downsizing, the military is kind of looking for any way it can to get rid of someone where years ago, they would've just winked." Although she declined repeated requests for an interview, Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall did discuss "core values" in a statement prepared for the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this year. "We expect our people, throughout the ranks, to live up to the highest standards of integrity," Widnall said. "These values provide a unifying element, bringing us together in the service of our nation." Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman told the Air Force Times he is not "off on some moral kick," but "I truly believe we have to have a higher set of standards than the society we serve." One military lawyer, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of official reprisal, acknowledges that officers in particular "know they are held to a higher standard. But do we have to crush them with a sledgehammer? . . . Does an Air Force officer committing adultery affect my opinion of him or her or their ability to do their job any more than it would if it were my doctor in civilian life?" The chief military justice in the Air Force, Col. Robert Reed, maintains that "the military doesn't go out undercover and seek out adulterous relationships," but cannot ignore those that come to light. "The ultimate goal is maintaining good order and discipline," Reed said in an interview. "I don't find it an anachronism." Paternalism also plays a role. Commanding officers are expected to try to help hold families together under such stresses of military life as frequent moves and long separations. A "very high percentage" of adultery charges are the result of a complaint from an estranged spouse, Reed said. "Once information is brought to a commander's attention, he is obligated to address the situation." But commanders have discretion in how the matter is handled, which means that some offenders are merely counseled or given a warning, while others receive official reprimands and still others are criminally charged. Around the time that Kelly Flinn was under investigation at Minot, for example, a married lieutenant colonel who had an affair with his secretary was reprimanded and allowed to retire early. What military attorneys privately refer to as "different spanks for different ranks" contradicts the definition of justice in a new book of core values published by the Air Force: "A person of integrity practices justice. Those who do similar things must get similar rewards or similar punishments." Commanders usually try to put an end to improper relationships "without permanent harm to that person's career," said Air Force spokesman Capt. Byron James. But "disobeying a lawful order has wide-ranging ramifications on a military unit. An individual can't pick and choose which orders to follow." To obey the Uniform Code of Military Justice and abide by the customs of military culture, soldiers surrender many liberties taken for granted in civilian life beyond the free choice of a romantic partner. Kerry Buckey, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and former military judge who now practices law in Woodbridge, says civilians often don't fully appreciate the higher standards of behavior demanded by the military. If a civilian doesn't show up for work, he may be fired, but he won't be arrested, said Buckey. "A service member can be jailed for not showing up. Disrespecting the boss -- same thing. I just had a soldier call me today who is going to be charged with wrongful cohabitation." But the climate has changed considerably since he served in Korea in the early '70s, Buckey said. "To be brutally frank, I think there were two people I could point to in my squadron of 500 to 600 men who did not engage in sexual relations with local women. And I was one of them. Most of those men were married." No one, he recalled, was prosecuted for adultery. Even if an aggrieved spouse forgives the adulterer and makes no formal complaint, the matter may still come to court-martial. That was the case for a 27-year-old Air Force intelligence officer based at Fort Meade. The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged having "a fling" with a married junior officer not in her chain of command while they were both on temporary duty overseas. The officer offered to resign rather than face a court-martial, but Widnall refused to accept the resignation. Despite pleading guilty to sodomy and adultery, the officer was required to provide the details in open court before being sentenced. "It was humiliating," she said. "They asked me questions like how many times did you perform fellatio. I've never done anything wrong before. I've been a model officer." She was given a letter of reprimand and a $2,000 fine. Dissatisfied with the jury's sentence, the Air Force discharged her anyway. The custom of punishing only the senior officer in fraternization cases also raises among attorneys and defendants questions of fairness because it presumes that the subordinate was not a willing partner. The subordinate in fraternization investigations is routinely referred to as the "victim" regardless of the circumstances. "I lost my job. I lost my benefits," says a captain court-martialed over an adulterous affair with the No. 2 man in her office. "He was retired quietly, as a senior noncommissioned officer -- just a slap on the wrist, go your merry way, we'll see you at the base commissary. It's not fair. "You can't tell me a guy who's been in the military 22 years doesn't know any better. He failed as much as I did." The captain asked that her name not be used to protect the privacy of her daughter. In 1995, the Navy fined a two-star admiral and forced him to retire early at a lower rank over his adulterous affair with a junior enlisted woman. Rear Adm. Ralph Tindal was a top NATO commander at the time, and ended up forfeiting about $650 a month in pension. But officers not in a potential combat-leadership role can be punished for fraternization and adultery, too. The Air Force court-martialed a respected heart surgeon over his adulterous affair with a nurse. In Karen Tew's case, the fraternization charge involved an affair that had been over for eight months before the Air Force launched an investigation. Tew was a comptroller on the elite inspector general's team and had moved to Illinois alone so her daughters wouldn't have to change schools again. Her husband, Randy, said he was unaware of Karen's relationship with a co-worker until the prosecutor's office called him and told him about it. "They tried to persuade me to come testify, but I wouldn't," he said. Tew's mother still has unanswered questions about the suicide. "I think the court-martial had a lot to do with it," she said. In her statement at the trial, Karen Tew said she feared losing her benefits because of a lump she had just discovered in her breast, and because one of her daughters was being treated for a brain tumor. She admitted that her affair was wrong. "I was lonely," she testified, "vulnerable." Aware of her depression, the Air Force provided extensive counseling to Tew before, during and after her court-martial, officials said. "There was a great deal of concern she might commit suicide by all parties concerned," said Capt. Bill Barksdale, spokesman at Scott AFB. Tew's mother said she learned later that a counselor had spent nearly two hours talking to her daughter two days before she killed herself. "He told her that she had more to live for than the Air Force, and she agreed." In a suicide note, Karen Tew expressed hope that "now the healing process can begin." By dying before her dismissal had been processed, she preserved her Air Force benefits for the family she left behind. At her funeral, the Air Force provided an honor guard and gave her a 21-gun salute. ----------------- Nice weekend to all, +----| Joao Paulo de Carvalho |------ + | [log in to unmask] | +--------| Salvador-Bahia-Brazil |------+