Word: flinn
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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From a distance, Flinn's story, of a luminous Air Force star who committed adultery, lied about it and disobeyed orders to stop, offers everyone something to believe in and rail against. Those who believe that a sexist Pentagon is holding women to a different standard than it has held generations of men before them were glad to see someone take the system on. Those who believe that the public and especially the press don't understand the unique nature of military culture were grateful that the Air Force wouldn't bend the rules for someone entrusted with a plane...
...turning point came in a meeting last Wednesday night. Flinn's lawyer, Frank Spinner, was in his room at the Best Western Safari Inn in Minot, N.D., when the call came from Washington: no way was Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall about to let Flinn resign with an honorable discharge. So several hours after dinner, Spinner sat down with Kelly and her family to look at her choices. He knew what Kelly would say: she would want to fight. She thought she had been abused, not just by the con man she claims lied to her but also...
...Flinn, 26, maintained that she was being made an example; that was nothing new, though until now it had always worked in her favor. After graduating as most distinguished in her training class, she became the Air Force "showgirl," as she put it, the first woman ever to pilot a B-52, the one picked to fly the Air Force Secretary around on her visit to the base. Known as BUFF, for Big Ugly Flying Fellow (or a more colorful variant), the B-52 is the largest bomber in the Air Force, 488,000 lbs. of titanium, aluminum and steel...
...Flinn had learned to be a good pilot and a good fighter, and once she came under fire from her chain of command, she wasn't about to crash. That Wednesday, her mother Mary and brother Don had done the Today show, and her Uncle John had gone on Good Morning America "to convey our story." The family had built a Website to solicit contributions for her legal-defense fund and invite readers to E-mail Congress or Kelly with their support. The letters, phone calls and editorials were running heavily in her favor; politicians from both sides...
...Secretary Widnall said no, and that night, as the family gathered once more in the Holiday Inn, it was Spinner's job to unravel their optimism. "You have to think about jail," he said to Flinn. If found guilty on all charges, she could face as much as 9 1/2 years in prison. "The closer you get to the courthouse steps, the more the reality sets in," Spinner told TIME later. "And in a criminal trial, the closer you are to the courthouse steps, the closer you are to the jailhouse...