Chapter 11 - The Verdict
Major Eric Bolton was convicted on all counts.
He was convicted of forgery, obstruction of justice, and conduct unbecoming an officer. He was convicted of dereliction of duty for releasing an aircraft with a non-conforming part. He was convicted of reckless endangerment for the same.
He was sentenced to six years in federal prison. He was dismissed from the United States Air Force. He was required to forfeit all pay and allowances. He was ordered to pay restitution to the United States government in the amount of four hundred and twenty thousand dollars.
He appealed. The appeal was denied by the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals. The appeal was denied by the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. The appeal was denied by the Supreme Court.
He is currently serving his sentence at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. His projected release date is in the year 2031. He will be released under the supervision of the federal probation system. He will not be eligible for parole — the federal system does not have parole — but he may be eligible for a reduction of sentence for good behavior, at the discretion of the Bureau of Prisons.
Colonel Daniel Whitfield — the group commander — was charged separately. He was convicted of dereliction of duty and of obstruction of justice in a separate court-martial. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison. He was dismissed from the Air Force. He is currently serving his sentence at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth. He is 51 years old. He will be released in 2027.
Staff Sergeant Jasmine Cole was exonerated.
The Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records issued a decision that removed the investigation from her record. The decision said that the investigation had been based on a forged signature, that the forgery had been committed by a senior officer, that the senior officer had been convicted in a court-martial, and that Staff Sergeant Cole had been the victim of a deliberate attempt to shift blame from the officer who had actually violated maintenance regulations.
The decision awarded her the Air Force Commendation Medal for her actions between the twelfth of May and the sixteenth of May. The citation said that "Staff Sergeant Cole displayed extraordinary professionalism and courage by refusing to release an aircraft with a non-conforming part, by documenting the discrepancy in the maintenance log, and by reporting the discrepancy to her chain of command despite direct opposition from a superior officer."
She was promoted to technical sergeant nine months after the verdict. She was assigned to the 33rd Maintenance Squadron as the noncommissioned officer in charge of the hydraulic systems shop. She was later assigned to the Air Force Safety Center at Kirtland Air Force Base. She retired from the Air Force in 2041 at the age of forty-nine.
She lives now in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. She works as a maintenance instructor for a defense contractor. She is married. She has two children. She volunteers at the local air museum on Saturdays.
She has kept the Letter of Reprimand.
It is in a shoebox in her closet. It is dated 24 May. It is signed by the wing commander. It says that she violated the terms of her administrative leave by contacting a witness in the investigation. It says that the reprimand will remain in her file for two years. It says that the reprimand reflects no finding of misconduct and should not be construed as a reflection on her character or her service.
She has not read the reprimand in years.
She has not needed to.
She knows what it says.
She knows that she made a mistake.
She knows that she was punished for it.
She knows that the punishment was fair.
And she knows that the mistake did not define her.
What defined her was the red X.
What defined her was the fact that she had signed a red X and had refused to release an aircraft with a bad part and had said so in front of her crew and her commander and her pilot.
The red X was the truth.
May you like
The red X was the whole truth.
The red X was everything.
