Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Abby is walking!!!
My baby could not walk a week ago. She would free stand for a minute or two at a time, which is great, but no actual steps at all until Sunday at church. She took 4 or 5 steps at a time, twice, and repeated that at home later in the evening. Then all of a sudden last night, she started walking!!! Even though I've done all this before, I'm still super excited!!! Can't believe my baby is growing up. And!! This upcoming Monday she is turning ONE!! What!!!!!?
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Article 15 hearing
Wednesday morning at 11:30 was the scheduled time for Andrew's hearing. It was to be held in San Antonio at Randolf AFB. We left our house at 7:15 to give us enough time to pick up my dad at his hotel and then get over to where the hearing was to take place.
We walked into the conference room at 10:45 and already there were ten of our friends there ready to support us. Friends gradually trickled in and Andrew's military ADC (Area Defense Council, aka military lawyer), Captain C, arrive a few minutes later. Captain C was pleasantly surprised with the now twenty-ish people that had shown up to support us but the support kept coming. We had to go out and find chairs to seat how many people were coming to support Andrew. We counted them after the hearing and there were 65 chairs filled plus a few more that had decided to stand.
Right at 11:30, the room was called to attention and everyone stood up as Major General K walked in. He address everyone, thanked them for coming and reminded them why they were there - to support Andrew. If they were truly there to support Andrew, then they would support the process with respect and dignity. There were to be no jokes made, no booing, no audible gasping. Maj Gen K then opened the floor for Andrew to give his full side of the story, explaining why we were all there.
Andrew started with a story that took place 12 years ago, of the first and only time he has ever taken percocet. He had gotten his wisdom teeth pulled and was prescribed percocet for pain. Andrew only ever took one pill because he realized that he became a totally different person when on percocet. He became irrational, emotional, rude, extreme, and a bit out of control. He chopped down a tree in his back yard in the attempts to build a catapult. Like he had said - crazy, irrational, and extreme. So he threw away the rest of the pills, deciding to deal with the pain rather than give up control of his body and spirit.
Fast forward to the story I recounted in my last blog post. Andrew was terribly sick when his flight commander, BK, made a decision about their flight's punishment ending. He called him up and left an angry voicemail. When Andrew sent the apology text message, he joked that he was on percocet because percocet makes him irrational, emotional, and rude. He sent the text knowing that BK would know it was a joke, laugh about the voicemail and the text, and then forgive Andrew.
Andrew then talked about how he is a Mormon and that the LDS church has a health code for all of its members to live by. Andrew follows this health code. He has seen how people's lives are negatively effected when they abuse drugs and alcohol. He would never, and will never, break this health code he has sworn to live by, for it would not only put his life in jeopardy but put his ability to provide for his family in jeopardy, too.
I spoke after Andrew, attesting to his character, his higher standard of living, how he is as a father and as a husband. I testified that I am one hundred percent certain that Andrew did not take percocet. I testified that Andrew is a good man, a good USAF officer, and that he would never do something so selfish and detrimental to his physical and spiritual health as to take a drug illegally.
My dad spoke after me giving his testimony of Andrew's character and then our close family friend, BS, gave his testimony. Maj Gen K then opened the floor to anyone else who would like to add their testimony of Andrew.
Two people stood. The first was Brother W from church. He shared a story about a mother who, back during the Civil War, had five sons. Four of them were killed in combat. The fifth son was to be killed by firing squad for falling asleep at his post. The mother wrote President Lincoln, begging him to show mercy and pardon her only living son. Brother W then asked Maj Gen K to show mercy on Andrew. Yes, he sent a text that he should not have sent; but show mercy on him now and give him the opportunity to learn from this experience, become a better person and a better USAF officer.
Maj Gen K was impressed with what Brother W had said and opened the floor for anyone who thought they might top his testimony. A few seconds went by but then one of the reservists who works with Andrew stood up. He said he would not be able to top Brother W's testimony but he wanted to speak for everyone who had shown up to support Andrew. He said that they had not driven three hours for the view (the drive between Del Rio and San Antonio is nothing but barren, brown land). They came because they know Andrew's character. They know that he is a good man and would never do what his accusers have accused him of doing - taking prescription drugs illegally.
Maj Gen K then started to ask Andrew questions about his story. He still could not understand why Andrew would send these texts if there were no drugs. He closed the hearing stating that he would read over his notes and call Andrew in later that afternoon to make his final decision.
I was crushed. Maj Gen K had shown no positive emotion through the entire hearing. He was very skeptical of Andrew's answers and disapproving of what he had done.
We thanked everyone for coming and decided to wait in the conference room till Andrew was called to meet with Mag Gen K for his decision. The girls, my dad, BS, Andrew, and myself waited for 35 minutes. The call was made and Andrew went upstairs at 1:30. As the time passed, some of those who had been at the hearing returned from lunch to await the final decision.
An entire hour passed. I was nervous. I was preparing myself for the worst. In my mind, Andrew had been given the Article 15 and was so emotional that he had to go to a room to compose himself before coming down to give us all the news.
More and more people kept coming back from lunch but still no Andrew. There were a good 25-30 people in the room. Every time someone walked around the corner my heart would restart.
Finally, after an hour and a half, Andrew rounded the corner. I saw his face and immediately knew the General's decision. Andrew had not received the Article 15! We quickly walked to each other and hugged each other as tight as we could. Best feeling ever. I could not believe it was all finally over! Andrew's name was cleared.
Everyone cheered, gave hugs, hand shakes, back slaps. It was great! We all wanted to hear what had been going on the past hour and a half so we sat down to hear the story.
First off, Andrew said that the time up in Maj Gen K's office was far from a picnic. They weren't playing patty cake. The hour and a half was broken up into three segments. The first portion of their meeting, Maj Gen K grilled Andrew with all the same questions about the nature of his texts and how could they really be jokes. After twenty minutes Maj Gen K asked Andrew, and Capt C to leave his office. A few minutes later he asked them to come back in. He continued the questions for another thirty minutes then again asked Andrew and Capt C to leave his office. Fifteen minutes later he asked them to come back in. He looked at Capt C and told him, "I am terminating the Article 15." He then looked over at Andrew and said, "You are innocent on all charges." He then asked Capt C, his Chief and his adviser to leave the room.
Maj Gen K told Andrew that he expects more from him. During all the questioning, Andrew had told Maj Gen K that as embarrassing as it sounds, that he made the joke referencing drugs to fit in with his friends and peers. That is what a lot of the guys at work are doing to be funny and Andrew wanted to fit in. Maj Gen K told Andrew to not try and assimilate to the crowd, but to rise above them. To be an example. To hold a higher standard at all times, even with those that Andrew is closest with. He told Andrew that his family should be proud of him. He faced adversity head on and stood tall with his back straight, even when he was close to the cliff and could have fallen. He did not falter. He did not give in. And he should be proud. He told Andrew that he expects to hear good things about him.
I am so grateful for the outcome of the hearing. It is an answer to thousands of prayers said on our behalf. It sure took a long enough time, but maybe it had to go that far to right so many of the wrongs that were made at the start. Andrew still has a good fight ahead of him to get him back to flying, to get his referral OPR off his record, and his promotion back on track. It might be a while to get through the bureaucracy here at Laughlin, but it should be a bit easier now that Andrew has a paper with a two star general's signature stating that Andrew did NOT do prescription drugs illegally.
We walked into the conference room at 10:45 and already there were ten of our friends there ready to support us. Friends gradually trickled in and Andrew's military ADC (Area Defense Council, aka military lawyer), Captain C, arrive a few minutes later. Captain C was pleasantly surprised with the now twenty-ish people that had shown up to support us but the support kept coming. We had to go out and find chairs to seat how many people were coming to support Andrew. We counted them after the hearing and there were 65 chairs filled plus a few more that had decided to stand.
Right at 11:30, the room was called to attention and everyone stood up as Major General K walked in. He address everyone, thanked them for coming and reminded them why they were there - to support Andrew. If they were truly there to support Andrew, then they would support the process with respect and dignity. There were to be no jokes made, no booing, no audible gasping. Maj Gen K then opened the floor for Andrew to give his full side of the story, explaining why we were all there.
Andrew started with a story that took place 12 years ago, of the first and only time he has ever taken percocet. He had gotten his wisdom teeth pulled and was prescribed percocet for pain. Andrew only ever took one pill because he realized that he became a totally different person when on percocet. He became irrational, emotional, rude, extreme, and a bit out of control. He chopped down a tree in his back yard in the attempts to build a catapult. Like he had said - crazy, irrational, and extreme. So he threw away the rest of the pills, deciding to deal with the pain rather than give up control of his body and spirit.
Fast forward to the story I recounted in my last blog post. Andrew was terribly sick when his flight commander, BK, made a decision about their flight's punishment ending. He called him up and left an angry voicemail. When Andrew sent the apology text message, he joked that he was on percocet because percocet makes him irrational, emotional, and rude. He sent the text knowing that BK would know it was a joke, laugh about the voicemail and the text, and then forgive Andrew.
Andrew then talked about how he is a Mormon and that the LDS church has a health code for all of its members to live by. Andrew follows this health code. He has seen how people's lives are negatively effected when they abuse drugs and alcohol. He would never, and will never, break this health code he has sworn to live by, for it would not only put his life in jeopardy but put his ability to provide for his family in jeopardy, too.
I spoke after Andrew, attesting to his character, his higher standard of living, how he is as a father and as a husband. I testified that I am one hundred percent certain that Andrew did not take percocet. I testified that Andrew is a good man, a good USAF officer, and that he would never do something so selfish and detrimental to his physical and spiritual health as to take a drug illegally.
My dad spoke after me giving his testimony of Andrew's character and then our close family friend, BS, gave his testimony. Maj Gen K then opened the floor to anyone else who would like to add their testimony of Andrew.
Two people stood. The first was Brother W from church. He shared a story about a mother who, back during the Civil War, had five sons. Four of them were killed in combat. The fifth son was to be killed by firing squad for falling asleep at his post. The mother wrote President Lincoln, begging him to show mercy and pardon her only living son. Brother W then asked Maj Gen K to show mercy on Andrew. Yes, he sent a text that he should not have sent; but show mercy on him now and give him the opportunity to learn from this experience, become a better person and a better USAF officer.
Maj Gen K was impressed with what Brother W had said and opened the floor for anyone who thought they might top his testimony. A few seconds went by but then one of the reservists who works with Andrew stood up. He said he would not be able to top Brother W's testimony but he wanted to speak for everyone who had shown up to support Andrew. He said that they had not driven three hours for the view (the drive between Del Rio and San Antonio is nothing but barren, brown land). They came because they know Andrew's character. They know that he is a good man and would never do what his accusers have accused him of doing - taking prescription drugs illegally.
Maj Gen K then started to ask Andrew questions about his story. He still could not understand why Andrew would send these texts if there were no drugs. He closed the hearing stating that he would read over his notes and call Andrew in later that afternoon to make his final decision.
I was crushed. Maj Gen K had shown no positive emotion through the entire hearing. He was very skeptical of Andrew's answers and disapproving of what he had done.
We thanked everyone for coming and decided to wait in the conference room till Andrew was called to meet with Mag Gen K for his decision. The girls, my dad, BS, Andrew, and myself waited for 35 minutes. The call was made and Andrew went upstairs at 1:30. As the time passed, some of those who had been at the hearing returned from lunch to await the final decision.
An entire hour passed. I was nervous. I was preparing myself for the worst. In my mind, Andrew had been given the Article 15 and was so emotional that he had to go to a room to compose himself before coming down to give us all the news.
More and more people kept coming back from lunch but still no Andrew. There were a good 25-30 people in the room. Every time someone walked around the corner my heart would restart.
Finally, after an hour and a half, Andrew rounded the corner. I saw his face and immediately knew the General's decision. Andrew had not received the Article 15! We quickly walked to each other and hugged each other as tight as we could. Best feeling ever. I could not believe it was all finally over! Andrew's name was cleared.
Everyone cheered, gave hugs, hand shakes, back slaps. It was great! We all wanted to hear what had been going on the past hour and a half so we sat down to hear the story.
First off, Andrew said that the time up in Maj Gen K's office was far from a picnic. They weren't playing patty cake. The hour and a half was broken up into three segments. The first portion of their meeting, Maj Gen K grilled Andrew with all the same questions about the nature of his texts and how could they really be jokes. After twenty minutes Maj Gen K asked Andrew, and Capt C to leave his office. A few minutes later he asked them to come back in. He continued the questions for another thirty minutes then again asked Andrew and Capt C to leave his office. Fifteen minutes later he asked them to come back in. He looked at Capt C and told him, "I am terminating the Article 15." He then looked over at Andrew and said, "You are innocent on all charges." He then asked Capt C, his Chief and his adviser to leave the room.
Maj Gen K told Andrew that he expects more from him. During all the questioning, Andrew had told Maj Gen K that as embarrassing as it sounds, that he made the joke referencing drugs to fit in with his friends and peers. That is what a lot of the guys at work are doing to be funny and Andrew wanted to fit in. Maj Gen K told Andrew to not try and assimilate to the crowd, but to rise above them. To be an example. To hold a higher standard at all times, even with those that Andrew is closest with. He told Andrew that his family should be proud of him. He faced adversity head on and stood tall with his back straight, even when he was close to the cliff and could have fallen. He did not falter. He did not give in. And he should be proud. He told Andrew that he expects to hear good things about him.
I am so grateful for the outcome of the hearing. It is an answer to thousands of prayers said on our behalf. It sure took a long enough time, but maybe it had to go that far to right so many of the wrongs that were made at the start. Andrew still has a good fight ahead of him to get him back to flying, to get his referral OPR off his record, and his promotion back on track. It might be a while to get through the bureaucracy here at Laughlin, but it should be a bit easier now that Andrew has a paper with a two star general's signature stating that Andrew did NOT do prescription drugs illegally.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Nightmare over.
Yesterday marked six months of the beginning of a nightmare I never dreamed we would have to go through. I can remember it like it was yesterday. It was a typical Monday. The girls were behaving fine for the most part, which was great because I was able to clean up much of the house. I started making something in the kitchen which negated all the cleaning I had done in it earlier. Story of my life.
Anyhow, I hadn't heard from Andrew the entire day. The girls were starting to get fussy and I was starting to get annoyed. I sent Andrew a text to call me at 3:03 but didn't hear from him for an hour. At 4:05, thoroughly annoyed that I still hadn't heard from him, I texted "Never mind." Like most women, I was hoping my man would read it and consequently be able to read my mind from his work desk and know that I was annoyed and then call me back! Never happened.
About two hours later, I saw two cars pull up and park in front of our house. A big, tall guy stepped out of the one car and, low and behold, Andrew was with him. I looked around my front room, disappointed that it was no longer clean and tidy. Oh well.
The tall guy that was with Andrew was...I am going to call him Colonel M. He is the group commander here at Laughlin AFB. Once inside, Andrew informed me that he is being investigated for doing drugs. He had been with OSI (Office of Special Investigations) for almost six hours that day while they interrogated him. He then told me that I needed to get the girls and go to the playground while the two OSI agents (who had arrived in the other car) searched our house.
I don't know if I was in shock or not, but I did know 100% that Andrew had never ever ever done drugs. It couldn't have been a joke because the group commander was right there in front of me. Maybe just a random house search?? I didn't ask questions. I picked up Abby and took her and Kate to the playground.
After our house was searched and the three men left, Andrew came over to the playground and explained to me what was going on. First off, after he had landed from his flight that morning, he was taken over to the OSI building where his phone was confiscated, his finger prints were taken, a mug shot was taken, as was a sample of his urine. He was then questioned for five hours about taking prescription drugs, specifically percocet, illegally.
Now back track 6 months previous from that date to February 2014. I can remember it well because my doctor had told me to take it easy because I was dilated to 3.5 cm and the baby could come at any time. We were praying baby Abby would stay inside me at least until Andrew was feeling better. He was so sick one week that he didn't get off the couch unless he had to go to the bathroom. It was super stressful for Andrew because he had a soon-to-arrive baby to worry about, and his student pilots were not doing well with their EPQs (Emergency Procedure Quizes). The students were being punished by being made to wear their service dress uniform to work everyday.
On one of the days that Andrew was home sick, his flight commander and close friend, BK, decided to let their students off the hook. He ended their punishment. Andrew was very upset because the students weren't doing any better on their quizzes. He called up BK and left a not so nice voicemail. I heard his message from the kitchen and was shocked at how mad Andrew was and at what he had said to his friend/flight commander. I told him that he should probably apologize and left it at that.
Now fast forward to August 2014. An unprofessional relationship was happening between an instructor pilot and a student. The instructor pilot, KR, is a work friend of Andrew's and was assigned to the same flight Andrew was in at the time. However, because of the lack in standard similarities/life style, Andrew rarely hung out with KR outside of work and didn't know anything of his unprofessional relationship.
Regardless, KR's phone was confiscated and on it, due to iphone group chat capabilities, was Andrew's apology text to BK about his not so nice voicemail. Andrew said to BK, "sorry about that voicemail. I was under the influence of percocet." The mention of percocet was a joke meant to relieve any tension that might have been between Andrew and BK. Everyone, and I mean every. single. person., that Andrew works with knows that he is Mormon. They know that he does not drink, he does not smoke, he does not do drugs, he does not condone pornography, he does not condone inappropriate relationships, or anything inappropriate for that matter. His standards are high and everyone knows it. The joke, now known to KR, was mentioned three more times over the following three days. The idea of Andrew taking a drug illegally was so ridiculous that both KR and BK knew that what Andrew had said was a joke.
So after Andrew's texts were found on KR's phone, he was then called in to be interrogated. His urine test came back negative, of course, and they did not find a single thing in our house, of course. I thought that everything was back to normal but the next day Andrew's air nautical orders (his pilot wings) were suspended for 180 days. I could not believe it. SIX MONTHS!? He wasn't going to fly for SIX MONTHS!?!?
Well, six months has now passed. During these past six months, Andrew's Captain pin on date was pushed back to October 2015, he was given a LOA (letter of admonishment), a referral OPR (a large black mark on your record), a no-contact order between him and one of his closest friends, and read an Article 15 just last month which, if it was seen through, would have ended his flying career with the Air Force. The list could go on.
Yesterday was the date scheduled for Andrew's article 15 hearing. There were a number of different outcomes that could have happened. Worse case scenario, Andrew is found guilty of doing prescription drugs illegally, made to sign the article 15, and then generally discharged from the air force. Best case scenario, Andrew is found innocent and all charges are dropped.
This post is getting long enough so I will continue tomorrow with the outcome of the article 15.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)