Nellis Air Force Base officers will proceed Tuesday with prosecuting and defending one of their own for alleged sex abuse. The case of Maj. Charles Cox comes as military leaders are cracking down sexual offenses in the wake of a surge of such cases reported by the Pentagon earlier this year.
Cox, a nurse assigned to the 99th Medical Operations Squadron at Nellis is charged with abusive sexual contact on an unconscious person, assault by battery and conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman. The Air Force has made little public about the case, which was reported through the base’s Sexual Assault Response Coordinator.
Britton-Mihalo, a Green Beret, was slain April 25 by an elite counterpart with the Afghan special forces on a base the two sides shared in Kandahar Province. But those circumstances haven’t played much of a part in Mihalo’s grief. “We just accepted it,” she said.
Britton-Mihalo’s father was a Marine, his stepfather served in the Army and his two half-brothers are also in the Army.
The soldiers who came to the door in Florida told Beth Croft that her son was killed in a green-on-blue attack, but the only word that held any significance to her was “dead.”
It didn’t matter that an Afghan soldier had shot him while they monitored a local protest. Her only child, Sgt. Joshua Born, was gone forever.
It turned out that on Sept. 16, the newly married 19-year-old had been gunned down by an Afghan ally. The International Security Assistance Force had sent out a press release announcing that the incident was an insider attack, but when Nelson asked the Army about it, the service refused to confirm the reports or offer any details, saying that no information would be released until the investigation was complete.
The U.S. military didn’t call the shooting a “green-on-blue” or “insider” attack. On April 27, 2011, when Linda Ambard’s husband and eight other Americans were gunned down by an Afghan ally, the only label the military put on it was “anomaly.”
The Afghan who opened fire at the Kabul airport snapped, the military said, in what was an event too rare to be considered anything more than an isolated tragedy.
Congress didn’t waste any time weighing in on the case either. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., served notice that she will cite the Naval Academy sexual assault case in her efforts to legislate a major overhaul of the Uniform Code of Military Justice to take away commanders’ authority to refer charges and overrule decisions in courts-martial.
“It is time to move the sole decision-making power over whether serious crimes go to trial from the chain of command into the hands of non-biased, professionally trained military prosecutors — where it belongs,” Gillibrand said.
Gillibrand hasn’t yielded, recruiting flag officers and members of the judge advocate general corps to her side. She now has 46 senators, including Sen. Charles E. Schumer, the chamber’s No. 3 Democrat, publicly endorsing the amendment to the Defense Authorization Act containing the reforms. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a 1958 Annapolis graduate, is not among seven Republicans supporting Gillibrand.
Don’t call it a women’s bill. It reaches to the very heart and soul of our armed forces, to their sense of decency, obedience and honor – to our war fighters’ ability to win conflicts.
Fred and Amber Dalton’s marriage becomes a battle when Fred lies about his affair with a feisty young woman. Later, when Specialist Megan Touma breaks the military’s rules with fellow serviceman Edgar Patino…with deadly consequences. -Love is a Battlefield, Deadly Affairs (S2,E11)
American soldier Megan Touma has left her husband for her lover Edgar. Turns out Edgar has a spouse of his own. When Megan gets pregnant Edgar must make a decision between two women. Someone will be left brokenhearted and someone will be left dead. -Love is a Battlefield, Scorned: Love Kills (S5,E2)
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FORT SILL Okla_ Top leaders at Ft. Sill met Wednesday to have an open and candid discussion regarding sexual assaults and harassments and the policies in place to make sure no crime goes unreported.
Over the past two years, Major General Mark McDonald said there have been about 50 cases of sexual assault and harassment. Wednesday’s seminar with top leaders came months before new initiatives set forth by the Department of Defense will take effect. In August, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel outlined several new initiatives to reduce the amount of sexual harassment in the military.
Nellis major faces trial Tuesday on sex abuse charges
MILITARY JUSTICE FOR ALL 