The Military Scandal the Media Won't Touch

Last summer Accuracy in Media published two blockbuster stories about the case of Major Jill Metzger, who claimed she was abducted and brutalized but somehow escaped from her captors while on a deployment to a U.S. military base in Kyrgyzstan in September of 2006. But no hard evidence of her claims ever turned up and other local sources suggested the abduction story was designed to conceal the procurement of an abortion.

Meanwhile, she returned to the U.S. and spent a year "on ice" at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, where Metzger did little work and was insulated from contact with other service members by the top brass. "We were ordered not to talk to her," one sergeant told the website www.militarycorruption.com. She was then "retired" and now draws the equivalent of a military pension worth nearly $3,000 tax-free per month. 

It is widely believed that Metzger, a feminist icon who had won two Air Force marathons, received preferential treatment. Her father is a retired Air Force colonel and her young husband, a captain, is a member of the dreaded OSI (Office of Special Investigations).

Retired U.S. Army Major Glenn MacDonald, editor-in-chief of www.militarycorruption.com, comments, "She had only 12 years of active duty service and was no way near eligible for a retirement pension. Now she gets the equivalent of one because the top brass seem to be protecting her. Why? What does she know that could compromise some top generals?"

Now that the Air Force's top two officials have resigned in a case involving the handling of nuclear weapons and material, there may be an opportunity for Defense Secretary Robert Gates to get to the bottom of the Metzger scandal. The two Air Force officials forced to resign were Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley. But other top officials may go as well, and one or more may be involved in possible wrongdoing in the Metzger case.

Setting the record straight and providing the complete truth are not for the purpose of making Metzger's life any more miserable than it already is. Whatever happened, she went through personal trauma. The issue is why she was protected and then retired on a "disability" pension, supposedly because of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), when veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have suffered terrible life-threatening injuries have to fight the system for even a small percentage of the benefits to which they are entitled.

By many accounts, the handling of the case has hurt morale in the Armed Forces.

"It is outrageous that we have wounded and genuinely disabled veterans coming home from the wars in  Iraq and Afghanistan who don't begin to get a 100 percent 'disability' pension for PTSD that Jill Metzger received after just 12 years of service," MacDonald says. "We can't prove she lied and that her so-called condition is just a way for her to be paid off and taken care of, but we do know that if the top brass participated in a cover-up which included pension fraud, then courts-martial should be convened and the truth finally told."

MacDonald told us at the time that the favorable treatment accorded Metzger was an outrage that reflects political correctness and fear of feminism in the highest reaches of the Pentagon. But Defense Secretary Gates can now begin to correct this problem.

 "We have heard from hundreds of Air Force personnel who are disgusted by the failure of their military leaders to tell them what really happened in the Metzger case," MacDonald added. "They feel a double-standard is in effect and that Metzger is the last person to deserve a lucrative 'disability' pension. Morale has been adversely affected by this suspicious silence, and only now, with the firing of the much-disliked Gen. Moseley, is there any hope that things will get better soon."

As Accuracy in Media has documented, however, the major media have shied away from the case, apparently because it involved a feminist military officer and top Air Force officials had discouraged the media from probing deeper.

"Despite the failure of the mainstream media to follow up on this story, and the 'hear-no-evil, see-no-evil' stance of establishment publications like Air Force Times, we promise you MilitaryCorruption.com will stay with this case until we obtain information that proves the 'abduction' story is either true or a despicable deception and lie. That is why we have offered $100,000 to obtain the proof in the form of documents needed to settle this case once and for all. It is very unfortunate that we have to go to that length to get to the bottom of this case," MacDonald said.

"One would hope that some senator or congressman would dare to initiate an investigation and demand the truth. But even the appearance of offending the feminists and females in the military scares most politicians into silence. We will not be intimidated," MacDonald vowed.

If the story about escaping her abductors is true, MacDonald notes, the Air Force should award her a high decoration. After all, she claims to have escaped and run barefoot for 30 miles to freedom. But there has been no medal and no official statement. Silence and stonewall have greeted requests for the results of official investigations.

And if she was abducted, MacDonald and others asked, why did she eventually surface with her hair cut short and dyed black? What's more, she "escaped" wearing her wedding ring on her finger after three days of abduction when thugs would have been expected to have taken it off.

MacDonald, whose popular site www.militarycorruption.com gets over two million hits a month worldwide, says the recent firings of top Air Force leaders may inadvertently serve as a means to undo the "cover-up" the major feels has been in place to protect a pampered female officer who many suspect was less than truthful about her so-called "abduction."

MilitaryCorruption.com has offered Metzger all the space she wants on its website to tell her side of the story, "but all we get from her is silence," MacDonald says.

He said it is time the Air Force came clean: "We hope this isn't a case of pension fraud and favoritism facilitated by top generals. However, if military regulations were violated and crimes committed here, those responsible should be court-martialed no matter what their rank or who they are."