ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 22, 1997 TAG: 9702240041
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
The Air Force has charged its only female B-52 bomber pilot with adultery and other serious offenses that include disobeying orders and lying to an investigator, the service said Friday.
The charges, which could result in a court martial, were preferred last month against First Lt. Kelly J. Flinn of St. Louis who qualified amid fanfare in 1995 to become the first woman B-52 pilot.
While Flinn's unique status as a pioneering woman pilot makes the charges against her stand out, experts in military law said such complaints are not extraordinary. Air Force officers are occasionally charged with adultery - most frequently in combination with other alleged crimes, they said.
Flinn, a 1993 Air Force Academy graduate and a pilot with the 23rd Bomb Squadron at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., was accused of having sex with an airman and committing adultery with the civilian husband of a junior enlisted woman, Air Force officials said.
The airman has not been charged because he was the lower-ranking of the two.
Flinn is also charged with disobeying a superior officer's order to stay away from one of the men, and with lying to an investigator about one of the cases, the Air Force said.
The unmarried Flinn is one of only four female bomber pilots in the Air Force, and the only one qualified to fly the legendary, 80-ton Stratofortress.
One other woman is qualified to fly the more modern B-1 bomber, and two others are in B-1 training, the Air Force said. Of the service's roughly 14,000 pilots, about 300 are women.
Flinn became interested in flying after watching a space shuttle launch, and as a teen-ager attended a space camp in Huntsville, Ala., she told the Air Force News Service after she decided to train for bombers.
``Besides exploring my interest in space, I also learned about the Air Force Academy, flying and a career in the Air Force,'' she told the news service. ``From that moment on, I was gung-ho Air Force, the Academy and pilot training.''
She said her only worry was the enormous size of the bomber: ``I've been told it's very fatiguing to fly, and I will need to increase my stamina. So I've been working out and lifting weights,'' she said. ``Overall I'm very confident. My instructors have a lot of faith in me.''
After graduating from the Air Force Academy, Flinn worked temporarily as the assistant coach of the men's soccer team at the school, the Air Force said. She then went into basic pilot training, and later to bomber training.
Adultery has long been illegal under military law because it can disrupt unit order and cohesion.
But while it can be harshly punished, most often it is not, said a senior Air Force legal official. In this case, he said, it is the other charges that are more serious.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 linesby CNB