Thomas J. Boyle, Jr. died in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan on June 19, 2012.
“Obviously, suspicions are not proof of wrong doing, but Pauline Boyle has discovered enough evidence to warrant an all-out independent investigation. The problem is that asking the Army to investigate itself is asking the Fox to guard the hen house. The result will always be questionable. The Boyle family does have hard facts that clearly indicates there was an overt attempt to cover-up the circumstances of Thomas J. Boyle’s death.
Was there a military drug cartel that no one wanted to talk about, or was it a conspiracy of some of the soldiers on base to stop the change of command and keep the lieutenant colonel in command for as long as possible.”
The U.S. military is grappling with a disturbing trend—soldiers are killing themselves at an alarming rate. So far this year, an average of one soldier a day is committing suicide. The suicide rate is outpacing the number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year by some 50-percent. -Fox 31 Denver
DENVER – The U.S. military is grappling with a disturbing trend—soldiers are killing themselves at an alarming rate. So far this year, an average of one soldier a day is committing suicide.
The suicide rate is outpacing the number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year by some 50-percent. And there have been high-profile cases here in Colorado.
It’s gotten so bad, that the defense department has even set up a suicide prevention office. Soldiers we talk to say the reasons for their life-threatening depression are many.
Air Force SrA Clinton Reeves went missing on April 19, 2012 and was later found dead on the side of the road on May 8, 2012 by Anchorage police. Air Force A1C James Thomas plead guilty to the murder of Clinton Reeves and was sentenced to 32 years in prison. Thomas used a hammer and bludgeoned Clinton Reeves to death. They were both stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) in Alaska.
Myah Bilton-Smith is a USAF veteran who was sexually assaulted twice in 2012 at Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas. She reported the attacks to her Command but according to reports the case is still under investigation by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) and no meaningful legal action has been taken as of yet. After the second attack, she requested an expedited transfer (a military sexual assault policy passed in December 2011) but it was denied. Instead she was forced to work alongside her attackers in a training environment where you do not have freedom of movement. She experienced retaliation from her peers and leaders, punishment for minor infractions, and was eventually forced out of the military. She was finally granted an expedited transfer to Joint Base Lewis McChord, one of the most problematic bases in the country.
On January 13, 2012, Shannon O’Roark of Texas drove 250 miles to Missouri to kill her estranged husband’s mistress fourty-six year old Dr. Irina Puscariu. Shannon O’Roark Griffin was an aeronautical engineer who worked for NASA training astronauts until she experienced a seizure that put her on definite sick leave. Shannon’s husband was a Colonel in the Air Force who decided he wasn’t ready to retire. Shannon and Col. Roscoe Griffin had been living separately for quite some time and discussed divorce but it appeared Shannon did not want a divorce after twenty years of marriage. Meanwhile, Col. Griffin lost a fellow service member to suicide and it devastated him.
Col. Griffin began seeing Dr. Irina Puscariu, a Veterans Affairs psychiatrist, for help. The professional relationship evolved into a romantic relationship, which is strictly forbidden in the world of psychiatry. Dr. Puscariu put her own career at risk when she chose to date Col. Griffin. Shannon found out thru social media that her husband was seeing Dr. Puscariu when he posted a picture with Irina on Facebook. Col. Griffin also changed his relationship status to “it’s complicated” which to Shannon was rejection, and rejection was the trigger. Col. Roscoe Griffin had no idea what was in store for him when someone is dumped and dangerous.
Shannon may have felt like the post meant the last twenty years were horrible and now I am going to replace you. Shannon asked Col. Griffin to go to a counseling appointment with her one last time in an effort to save the relationship. It would be here she would learn her husband of twenty years loved Dr. Puscariu and wanted to continue to see her. After this counseling session is when Shannon decided to go to Missouri and kill Dr. Puscariu. She wanted to obliterate Dr. Puscariu from her life so the problem would go away. She drove 250 miles to Irina’ home in Missouri and shot and killed her four times in front of her own mother, the last shot was to her face.
Shannon then fled the scene back to Texas and was held in custody until she could be extradited back to Missouri for a murder charge. Shannon plead guilty to second degree murder to avoid a trial. She was sentenced to twenty years for second degree murder and twenty years for armed criminal action. Investigators noted that before this incident Shannon had zero criminal history or violent behavior, she didn’t even have a speeding ticket. But when she got rejected by her husband Col. Roscoe Griffin, it would be jealousy and revenge that would drive her to murder the woman who stole her life.
A woman charged in the slaying of a Gladstone psychiatrist will be coming back to Missouri to face first-degree murder charges. -KMBC 9 (January 17, 2012)
Shannon O’Roark-Griffin, charged in the slaying of a Gladstone doctor, returns to Missouri for the first time since her arrest last week. -KMBC 9 (January 19, 2012)
A former NASA training specialist from Texas allegedly drove to Missouri and gunned down her husbandâs mistress after he admitted in therapy that he was not willing to give up the affair. -HLN (December 3, 2012)
Investigation Discovery:
When their love life goes sour these Deadly Women take lethal revenge. They are “Dumped and Dangerous.” -Dumped and Dangerous, Deadly Women (S11,E13)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
Air Force officials say 21-year-old Airman 1st Class Nico Cruz Santos was taken into custody at Schriever Air Force Base at about 8 p.m. Monday. They’re still investigating how he managed to get his personal handgun into the base before barricading himself in a building for ten hours.
Airman First Class Kelsey Anderson was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam on June 9, 2011. According to media reports, she was found in a locked stall in a second-floor women’s bathroom inside an aircraft maintenance hangar at the base. The military investigation indicated that a few months after Kelsey arrived at Guam, she was stripped of her service revolver over mental health concerns. Although Kelsey’s weapons privileges had been restored about a month prior to her death. The reports stated that Kelsey may have been unhappy after trying and failing to be transferred from Guam or released from military service. Kelsey’s parents had to file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to get the Air Force to turn over its investigation records. They simply wanted answers for their daughter’s tragic and unexpected, untimely death yet the Air Force concealed the details. Chris and Adelia Sue Anderson received the mostly redacted investigation reports almost two years after their daughter’s death. The final court settlement with the Air Force in September 2013 was for the cost of the attorney they had to hire in their quest to get the information they were entitled to have. It’s unfortunate that this family had to wait two years for answers and even more unfortunate that they were forced to go to court during one of the most difficult times of their life.
What could have been done to prevent this? What kind of mental health services were offered to Kelsey? Why did Kelsey want to leave Guam and/or get out of the military? Why was she upset after finding out that she was not able to transfer or get out of the military? What were the extenuating circumstances that made Kelsey feel like she had no options other then suicide? Is this a suicide? After so many families have come forward with concerns that their loved one was murdered despite a ruling of suicide, do we know for sure that this was a suicide? It happened in Guam. There is absolutely no one to hold the Air Force accountable in that setting. There is no way to ensure that the Air Force investigated the scene as both a potential homicide or suicide. It’s as simple as what the Air Force says happens is what happened. Every government entity should have a mechanism by which they are held accountable. Where does a grieving parent turn to when they do not agree with the military investigator’s or medical examiner’s findings? Who holds the individual branches or Department of Defense accountable? The only body of people that can hold the military industrial complex accountable is the US Congress and even they struggle. Time and time again we hear accounts from service members and families that contacting their congressional Representative or Senator did not help. Some help, some don’t, and some never call you back. Every level of government should have accountability of some kind because this country was founded on the principles of checks and balances in our system.
“Enlisting U.S. Sen. Jim Risch‘s office for help still didn’t yield results.” -Chris & Adelia Sue Anderson
In an interview the Andersons’ lawyer emphasized that the prolonged wait and anxiety of suing the federal government in a last-ditch effort for information intensified the couple’s pain after the loss of their daughter. He empathized as a father of three and shared that he could not imagine losing a child thousands of miles away and not knowing what happened to her. No parent should have to wait nearly two years before the government decides to produce the information they deserve to have.
The grieving parents of a 19-year-old Idaho woman who died serving her country thousands of miles from home say the U.S. Air Force won’t give them information about the circumstances of her death. -NewsMedia24
The Lackland Air Force Base Basic Military Training instructor sex scandal in San Antonio, Texas was one of the biggest sex scandals in military history. In the end, 62 recruits were identified in the scandal and 35 basic military training personnel were courts martialed for alleged abuse of trainees or sex related offenses. The majority of the alleged abuse occurred between 2009 and 2011. SSgt Luis Walker and MSgt Michael Silva were the only instructors found guilty of rape and each was sentenced to twenty years in prison. Prior to their convictions, on January 23, 2013, the House Armed Services Committee conducted an investigation into the sexual assault misconduct at Lackland Air Force Base and heard from General Mark Welsh (Chief of Staff), General Edward Rice (AETC Commander), two retired USAF women, and Dr. David Lisak (a consultant hired by General Welsh). This was also the same day that then Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced the military was lifting the ban on women in combat. As a result of this announcement, the media’s focus was distracted from the hearing on sexual assault in the military to the celebration of equality for women in the military.
No substantial legislation was enacted to address the successful prosecution of and prevention of these alleged abuses of power. The military officer’s authority to choose whether to investigate and prosecute felony crimes and how continues to go unchecked. Legislation introduced in May 2013 would have helped provide due process to both the accused and accuser by giving a military prosecutor the authority to move forward with a case. Unfortunately this legislation has been blocked by the Senate, primarily led by Senator Claire McCaskill, since 2013 until present. Whistleblowers have since disclosed that the Air Force investigations at Lackland trampled on due process rights. And individuals were railroaded with collateral charges which forced them to take plea deals to avoid excessive punishments. The Air Force is being accused of going on a “witch hunt” after being politically motivated to clean up the basic training facility while under the watchful eye of the media, advocates, and Congress.
The solution to help both the accused and accuser get a fair investigation and trial is to have a justice system that more closely resembles that of the civilian court systems or to simply use the civilian court systems. In the civilian legal system, victims of crimes report to the police where the name of the individual they are reporting is entered into a national crime database. Impartial detectives conduct independent investigations and provide the results of their investigations to a prosecutor. A prosecutor determines whether or not there is enough evidence to move forward with the successful prosecution of a case. The accused has the right to remain silent, right to be represented by an attorney, right to the opportunity to plead “not guilty” or “guilty”, and the right to request a jury trial. In other words, soldiers should have the same constitutional rights as their civilian counterparts. Soldiers have no choice over how things get handled in the military justice system because the Commander has all the control.
Passing military justice reform that guarantees due process rights for the accused and accuser and overturning the Feres Doctrine should be our highest priority.
Air Force MSgt Tara Brown died April 27, 2011 in a hail of gunfire near the Kabul Airport in Afghanistan. She was among nine Americans killed when a veteran Afghani pilot opened fire in a training room after an argument with a foreign colleague. The incident is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Defense.
MILITARY JUSTICE FOR ALL 