Devin Patrick Kelly: A discharge is not enough- Air Force Fails Everyday for DV Victims

In 2012, at Holloman Air Base in New Mexico, a Service member was stationed since 2010 and assigned to the duty as a Logistics Readiness Group member.  Until 2012, all who knew him assumed he was serving honorably, until he was discovered as having abused his wife and child.  This service member was prosecuted in Court Martial with two counts of assault on his wife and child.  He was later convicted in 2014, two years later, dishonorably discharged and demoted completely to the rank of E-1 from his original rank of an E-7 and stripped of all honors.  Mr. Devin Patrick Kelly was that man.  Most people are looking at this tragic church shooting in Texas as an act of tyranny against a faith.  I see the gross negligence behind the initial story that ever permitted this to happen.  I see the gruesomeness of a mere 12 month sentence that permitted an Intimate Home grown Terrorist to walk loose and free with no remorse for his crimes.

The 1968 Gun Control Act prohibits ownership of firearms to parties who are convicted of crimes serious enough to warrant the removal of their right to bear arms- an action that was intended to prohibit ownership to those who pose a harm to public safety.  The Office of Media Operations will not confirm whether or not Kelly's Court Martial Conviction fit the category to be entered into the prohibition database.  It however has been confirmed that Mr. Kelly is not registered to own a firearm in the state of Texas and it is however confirmed from inside sources that the Air Force is scrambling to figure out "Why wasn't he in the Federal Database, and who dropped the ball?"  The end result is talk is cheap and when someone is allowed to slip through the cracks and is clearly shown to be a threat to another human being, a few months of jail time is not enough to deter these types of scenarios.  Mental health treatment should have been given and mandated in addition to many other things SHOULD have happened.  But I guess once the Air Force is done with someone and they serve their "time" whether administrative or punitive, then their hands are wiped clean of any further "issues".  Do we call this a matter of culpable negligence...an article 119 - on behalf the entire Air Force simply because someone chose to turn a blind eye and failed and refused to do their job?  Where does it stop?

It has been learned that the ex-wife's parents were frequent attendees at the church in question.  The second wife who later split was also known to frequent the church.  There have been made no other ties or correlations as to "why this church".  The in-laws are lucky while many others are not- they weren't there that day.

If you aren't outraged yet, then let me say this:

A BABY WAS SHOT AND KILLED-   GOOOOOO AIR FORCE!


Disgusted yet?!

How about if I tell you all that I currently have personal knowledge from sources that actually show there are current offenders that are currently serving who have anywhere up to an excess of a dozen documented Military Protective Orders assigned them and yet somehow those people are still permitted to hold their weapons in their possession-  compliments of the Air Force and no one doing their proper checks and balances, even if it means that duty required issue weapons be checked in AND out every day for mustering.  People who actually have not high ranks, but higher respected positions where they might even be considered a "red button hitter".  Do you feel safe knowing that?  The person at the sentry gate (the front gate security), do they have any record of anything?  You will never know that because the government doesn't feel that national security is important enough for civilians to know who REALLY is being tasked with securing our bases.  From above statement, it doesn't exactly take the brightest bunch to hold those positions.

So, when you get a little push back from an MP position who doesn't quite know their job, don't be so surprised.  People also know that in the Air Force (and other branches) you have to regularly test out to ensure you know your job.  If you test too low, guess what the Air Force does?  ohhhhhhh you don't know?  I know several bases across California alone that decide "let's retrain them" to do something else.  No let's not focus on ensuring they know how to do the job they were given, but instead let's train them to do something bigger and better and give them more responsibility when we already know they failed their last job and couldn't quite "cut it".


  So let me get this straight, let's retrain people who no longer pass PRPs.  Let's retrain people who are defined as a risk to their subordinates?  Let's retrain people who have received reprimands and discipline for conducting themselves in any way other than honorable because it could "make the service look bad"?  Am I getting warm enough yet?  Well here is the cherry that takes the cake...

Let's find someone responsible of spouse and child abuse and give you a scenario, not with one spouse but TWO different spouses one after another.  Let's call this perfecting the "Modus Operandi" or hey let's just say M-O.  Your plan doesn't work the first time around.  You get tired of your spouse and do everything to mistreat them.  Oh but Letters of Reprimand and Administrative Punishment is the go-to fix for the Air Force.  Where then does it say that at any point a Letter of Reprimand is no longer an option due to prior bad acts and bad conduct?

Don't get me wrong here.  I love our armed forces, but I will be damned if anyone who needs to know what is really going on today continues to turn blind eyes to the ugly side that never should have been permitted to prevail-ever!  So that is me.  That is my mission to expose all that is wrong with Domestic Violence in the military and the processes that allow it to continue and to flourish and grown with home grown intimate terrorists not being forced to face punitive punishments that fit the crimes of their intimate terrorism of their spouses and their children.

I could go on and on and on in regards to many scenarios with the Air Force.  I also have respectable service members who are dear friends.  I know the boundary between the two- do you?  The veil of military privilege implied by wearing the uniform needs to go where the sun don't shine.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was a landmark piece of legislation that was meant to bridge a unique characteristic of crime that worked based upon "clear and convincing evidence" and changed some aspects and elements of crime to preponderance because Domestic Violence within the home settings became very hard to prove because a person victim is often made to feel like a prisoner, gas-lighted in their mindset and even made to think by the abuser that they as victims must have done something to deserve the abuse.  VAWA allowed for this unique angle to become a possibility to convict offenders where unique actions were taking place, where even sometimes only the victim would know what was happening.  Victims, true victims, both male AND female, are made to think they could have left.  Victims are often faced with victim blaming and shaming to the point where people don't believe them because the scenario just sounds so impossible.  I have firsthand witnessed the impossible chaos be treated like nothing at all- not a big deal, right?  Wrong.

Under VAWA, people have very specific rights afforded them.  Witness intimidation of protected victims is not allowed.  You are not allowed to stalk an ongoing witness, especially the witness who could put you away.  You are not allowed access to their medical records or therapy records, especially when said records allocute the abuse they sustained at your own hands.  There is a reason for that.  The true abusers are NOT allowed to do anything to their victim that would otherwise strike fear.  Small towns or not, abusers are NOT allowed to have free reign over their victims.

Where does the military fall in line?  Someone somewhere clearly said with Devin Kelly that he was a severe risk to his wife and her child.  But tell me why did it take a fractured skull of an infant/toddler to do anything to push for a court martial?  So please tell me where in the minds of base commands does Domestic Violence have a boundary between a "Letter of Reprimand", a "Captain's Mast" such as Article 15 Administrative Punishment, and an act of court Martial that is compliant with all acts of law pertaining to Domestic Violence in whole.  When does a Letter of Reprimand become NOT ENOUGH?!

There are several arguments going around social media about how smart someone in the Air Force has to be to even get in.  It is true that to be in the Air Force you must attain a slightly higher ASVAB testing score.   Common knowledge around air bases is the sad reality is that a Security Forces "MP" is the lowest scoring achievement position and people are suppose to rely on those people for safety, security, morale, overall order.  How does that work?  People like Devin Kelly were tasked to Logistics, a higher testing score required position.  Maybe not one of the highest, but it certainly required a certain level of intelligence.  So let's get this straight.  Devin Kelly did not lack intelligence.  In fact, that was something that is documented through all media sources show he was in fact a very smart man.  My concern lays where he would apply his intelligence.

So let's get this right.  People who commit severe acts of violence are not always dumb people.  People that do it to their own families have a unique quality of intelligence because it takes a certain level of intimate mastery to continue concealing acts of harm to one's own family for so long.  I know people who have such disturbed families that actually do everything they can in their power to hide their sordid lives for fear of what the exposure to the alternative might make others think about them and why they lived that way in concealment for so long.  It's a unique different angle because while not everyone is the victim, people who witness and do nothing to stop the harm are just as culpable for what happened.  Consider this type of concealment as Witness shaming for not coming forward, for not having the courage to face an abuser, for not speaking up for their own loved ones when it was within their power to do so.  These unique witness forms live with a certain level of shame that the revealing of said acts creates a perpetuation of violence and witness shaming.  People have their own lives to consider putting at risk when they do finally come forward because by then it is often too late and the harm persisted.  I know mandated reporters that should lose their jobs for failure to protect and failure to report and I've turned them in when it came to my knowledge.

Stalkers, harassers, people who swerve in and out of traffic, people who repeatedly paint their cars after being exposed repeatedly, among many other acts, have a unique quality of their personality that defines them.  These types are a unique type of violent offender.  These people are methodical, intelligent, strategic, and more often than not, they are very talented at deflecting responsibility.  These types are the types that are capable of being very charming to the average outward perspective.  Behind closed doors is another story.  These are the offenders you should worry about the most.  I'm not talking about the stories that come out where someone "says they're doing it", but rather the ones where pictures and videos and other things exist that prove they are doing it and are being ignored.


Why me?  Why am I talking about these things so adamantly?  I am a witness in a very unique situation with an Air Base.  They have my information.  They know I have pictures and videos.  I actually filed a report on base.  As a result, inside sources inform that the victim has directly received retaliation and I myself have been present for conversation where the victim was informed the base command refused to protect her children when with them, all because a witness came forward to document the violation and filed the report.  Victim retaliation from a base command?  Now NOTHING surprises me.  So a victim is actually directed to have people file reports, even to file reports themselves, but when that actually happens, retaliation occurs.  Case in point- the military doesn't want you to come forward and has proven willing to shut anyone up and let anyone get away with their crimes if it brings shame and stain to the service.  I have experienced this first hand as a witness.

Just do your job already.  Whether at one base or not, the Devin Patrick Kelly case proves unique in perfect timing.  Some bases are looking at possibly letting offenders "retire" instead of facing court martial which would strip them of all honors.  Or another Letter of Reprimand after years of receiving them? When is enough enough?  At what point does the conduct become a blatant disregard to uniform order?

I've now heard it all.  Some even ignorantly say, "They served their country for all those years, yeah they should be able to retire".  I would then argue the following:


* The many years of service are demonstration with SOME good service points
* The many years of service are also stained with an ongoing disregard for conduct and order, repetitive moments of reprimand, instruction, delegation, memorandums...how many times does a person need to be told to "Stop it" like a little child before the military will stop them permanently with punitive punishments?

* When the military knows about this for years and does nothing, are they not also culpable of what is to come next?  Do they choose to burn statutes to cover their own ass because they COULDA, WOULDA, SHOULDA, BUT DIDN'T?  So does the old phrase, I would if I could, but I can't so I won't now come into play?  Because you could have done something, should have done more, something at all, but because you chose a blind eye mentality, we will see what happens, then you are not responsible for their actions, or even your own?  How does that work?  Should all higher base commands now be encouraged to acquire professional insurance?

* When is Domestic Violence to become a zero tolerance in the service?
* Why doesn't the military affirm that something happened as committed by the military member that was confirmed in HRVRT meetings or their respective equivalents to civil courts when a victim has had enough and begs for civilian protection?
* Any service member, regardless of time served on paper is ingrained to know their conduct is paramount to maintain their stripes (so to speak).  When that conduct is anything less than honorable, and continues to be that way, on OR off base, then they should be held accountable.
* Domestic Violence in the military is what we call as civilians a "wobbler" territory.  The military and base legal offices are not very confident in any one set way to charge a service member for an active of Domestic Violence.  The UCMJ has not changed or been modified to accomodate laws such as VAWA or other Domestic Violence Acts of law where it no longer requires a confession, or even a person's hearsay.  I would contend that this is where FAP should be involved where a person becomes involved in Healing for Trauma Abuse Classes and maybe a report sent to acknowledge whether it is believed that the person was in fact abused in the military household.  Again, I cannot stress enough, abuse behind closed doors has its own unique qualities.  Base Legal should be considering that.  Most times, they do not.
* Where an abuser later argues mental stability to get a non-compos mentus defense, the military should have known there was something wrong and is obligated to initiate a mental psych process to affirm whether that person should have even held their jobs to begin with.   I know of abusers who lost certifications and clearances more than 5 years ago and yet somehow elude and evade any psych evals but have re-upped their contracts with disciplinary actions pending?  


Enlisted and Commissioned Officers are classified as "government property" and so by not doing anything, have you indemnified their acts as acts on behalf of the service?  Wait...think about that- what?!  Did you allow it to happen and CHOOSE to not do anything to stop it from happening again?  Did you indemnify those crimes?  Did you ALLOW those crimes to take place and CHOOSE to turn a blind eye?  Did you WILLFULLY CHOOSE to retaliate against a victim?  Did you WILLFULLY expect a victim to end up dead before you CHOOSE to do something more?  Are you CHOOSING to elect the government to be an open ended professional insurance policy of indemnified acts where a crime is not indemnifiable?  Last I knew, willful tort actions of ANY kind are not indemnifiable.  So if the Government is your employer, and damage is caused by US Government Property, as a willful tort, ie ME or a victim, are you claiming you are not obligated to do anything, unless you CHOOSE to?  It's okay because the government has special accounts for things, right?  Wrong.  People are waking up.  People have woken up.  Victims, true victims, have had enough.  They demand action NOW.

Wait so you mean to tell me that the military and the Air Force specifically allowed a full contract renewal to reach a qualified retirement age WHILE being considered for disciplinary action for Domestic Violence?  YES INDEED-E-DO they sure did- and ARE doing.

If you are among the many that believe Devin Patrick Kelly is a unique rare circumstance of people that fell through the cracks, I beg to differ and you are sadly misinformed.  This might as well become a practicing Standard Operating Procedure because it happens all too often and victims fall through the cracks more than you could possibly imagine- both male AND female.

Devin Patrick Kelly, former E-7 in the United States Air Force, is not a rare case.  The Air Force even today is failing victims in acquiring appropriate justice and where a victim demands that the time fit the crime and is insisted upon, that victim better have a strong fortitude within them to stick with the process because retaliation, reprisal and being ostracized are not only common practices, although illegal, but are so common that you the victim might as well anticipate that the Military Justice System is not there to protect you, the victim.  Just the mere fact I've become aware of these very situations happening all over the globe and the leading offending branch being the Air Force, I really hate being able to say that.

Wake Up America- Coffee won't be enough!



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