Female Air Force Captain, assaulted twice...including Lackland Air Force

Faculty questioned whether Air Force Captain was really a victim of sexual assault: Witness

Comments made same month captain was terminated from internship for second time 

KSAT ABC News 12 
By Dillon Collier - Investigative Reporter 
December 21, 2018 

SAN ANTONIO - Faculty members of a clinical psychology internship at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland openly discussed the validity of claims from an intern that she was a victim of sexual and domestic assault, according to records reviewed by the KSAT 12 Defenders.

Former Air Force Capt. Robin Becker said she was removed from the internship after disclosing in 2015 that she was sexually assaulted and repeatedly physically assaulted by her former fiancé. 

In a letter submitted in January in support of Becker's attempts to get the Air Force to confer her psychology degree, Dr. Jeff Haibach recounted a lunch he attended along the Riverwalk in June 2016 with faculty from Becker's program.

Haibach, who at that time was engaged to a psychologist who had a supervisory role in Becker's internship, said faculty members were laughing and joking about Becker's tenuous standing in the rigorous year-long program at Lackland Air Force Base's Wilford Hall.

"As though Robin was making some sort of drama, as though she was entirely making information up or at least greatly exaggerating it," Haibach told the Defenders during an interview.

Becker's former fiancé, Adam Chylinski, was criminally charged in three attacks against Becker in 2014-2015. Two of the attacks happened in San Antonio while Becker was taking part in the internship; the other attack happened in their native Pennsylvania months before Becker moved to San Antonio.
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Lackland Air Force Base Under Lockdown After Suspected Murder-Suicide

UPDATE April 10, 2016

Air Force: Pararescue student shot training squadron commander at Lackland
Air Force Times
Stephen Losey and Oriana Pawlyk
April 10, 2016

The Air Force has identified the two airmen killed in Friday's apparent murder-suicide shooting at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

Lt. Col. William A. Schroeder, the commander of the 342nd Training Squadron at the 37th Training Wing at Lackland, and Technical Sgt. Steven D. Bellino, a pararescue student at the 342nd, were found dead by first responders, the 502nd Air Base Wing at Lackland said in a Saturday release.

An Air Force official said that Bellino is believed to be the alleged gunman.
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Air Force tech sergeant kills commander before disciplinary hearing at Lackland Air Force Base
April 8, 2016

SAN ANTONIO — A tech sergeant at Lackland Air Force Base was being escorted to a disciplinary proceeding by a senior non-commissioned officer Friday morning when the tech sergeant opened fire in the commander's office, killing the commander, a source with knowledge of the attack said.

UPDATE
Senior U.S. official: Airman fatally shot his commander, self at Lackland AFB
Shooting happened at Medina Base Annex

2 Men Dead in Shooting at Texas Air Force Base
ABC News
By Emily Shapiro
Apr 8, 2016

Military and law enforcement personnel are seen inside Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, April 8, 2016.

Two men are dead, including a squadron commander, after an active shooting was reported at the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, a defense official told ABC News.

Joint Base San Antonio, which includes Lackland Air Force Base, described it as a "a real world active shooter situation" and said the base was placed on lockdown this morning. The base later said in a statement the incident was "contained" and that an investigation is underway.
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Air Force Captain "groping her while she was coming out of anesthesia"

Air Force captain says airman assaulted her after surgery 
By Sig Christenson
San Antonio Express-News (Tribune News Service)
Published: January 6, 2015

Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, is seen on July 1, 2009. An Air Force captain testified in a court hearing Monday Jan. 5, 2015, that an airman at the hospital serving as a medical technician sexually assaulted her after she came out of surgery. The airman is accused of improperly touching three patients in June 2013. JOSIE KEMP/U.S. AIR FORCE

An Air Force captain Monday accused an enlistee of groping her while she was coming out of anesthesia at a San Antonio military hospital — a claim that two other women have made as well. 

The woman said a medical technician at Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center grabbed her breasts after an outpatient procedure.

Not long after that, she said, Airman 1st Class Michael Lightsey assaulted her sexually with his fingers, prompting her to twist away from him on the gurney. At one point, she wanted to scream. “I was very upset and shocked and angered,” said the captain, a 14-year veteran who was a day patient at Wilford Hall. “I was thinking I didn’t know what to do, but I didn’t want him to do it again.” 

Lightsey is accused of improperly touching three patients in June 2013 while with the 59th Medical Wing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. A medical technician, he faces four specifications of causing bodily harm for what the Air Force called “self-sexual gratification stemming from incidents that occurred in the summer of 2013.”
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Air Force Recruits Have Bats in the Dorm

Bats Found in AF Recruits Dorm Prompt Vaccinations
UPI
Jan 21, 2014

More than 200 U.S. Air Force recruits will be vaccinated for rabies after bats were found in a dormitory at the Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, officials said.

So far, 45 recruits have received the first of five rounds of rabies vaccine shots, the San Antonio (Texas) Express-News reported Sunday.

No one was bitten but everyone living in the dorm will be vaccinated as a precaution, officials said.

"When he heard that there was a bat in the dorm, that's when all the alarm bells went off for us," said Col. Mark Camerer, head of Lackland's 37th Training Wing.

Airman Basic Kayla Hawkins, 20, said she was the first to discover the bats in the dorm.
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Clueless reporters part of problem with military suicides

A retired Air Force Colonel says she went from having a lot of responsibility in the military to wondering when to vacuum but this reporter thought she'd be worth interviewing on military suicides? What the hell is wrong with reporters? Do they get assigned things they know nothing about? Are they so lazy they can't even take the time to research any of it?

Experts say military suicides are preventable
ABC News
Posted: Feb 19, 2013
By Candace Sweat

Military suicides hit a record high in 2012. Some fear the rate will climb in the coming years as troops return from Afghanistan. One local woman says action can be taken to help those who suffer from the mental stress associated with military life.

"If you were to try to talk about your emotions and things that you're feeling as far as war and things of that nature, very few people understand," said Penny Bailey.

Bailey is a retired Airforce colonel and the wife of an active duty Air Force physician. Unless you are in the military, or part of a military family, Bailey says it's often difficult to fully understand the challenges.

"Whereas we are very proud of our troops we really don't know how to help them or support them," she said.

More than two-thousand service members took their own lives over the last decade. Military suicides happened at a record pace in the year 2012, with an average of one suicide every 25 hours.

"A lot of our young men and women have gone over seas and all of these IEDs have exploded and they've seen their friends lose arms and legs and they're right there trying to save their life," said Bailey.

Combat isn't the only trigger for stress and depression. Bailey says sometimes what civilians consider ordinary, can be a major problem for military families.

She says she went from having a tremendous amount of responsibility in the military, to deciding what time of day to vacuum her house.

Lieutenant Colonel Scott Sonnek, Ph.D. is the Chief of Psychology for the 59th Medical Wing at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. The facility is located on the grounds of Lackand Air Force Base.
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I read this report and watched this video but counting to "10" didn't help at all. I ended up leaving this comment.

namguardianangel
How much did you get wrong in this article? Here are the real numbers for 2012. 168 Soldiers, 84 National Guardsmen, 42 Army Reservists, 46 Marines, 53 Sailors, 56 Airmen. Then there are the veterans suicides with "at least" which keeps getting left off. The study came from only 21 states and was limited to certificates of death with the word "veteran" on it. The is only one reason people commit suicide. They lose hope tomorrow will be better. Want to really help? First learn how to and then start reporting what does work and then you'll save some lives.

If they do not know how to help, they haven't been paying attention! As for "Chief of Psychology" he should be an expert on trauma and then he may have a clue that PTSD, diagnosed or not, CAUSES RELATIONSHIP PROBLEMS! Redeployments added to this and the Army knew it all the way back in 2006 but just kept redeploying them.

There is no excuse for being this inept when so many survive combat but cannot survive afterwards!

Bay Pines tends to male and female military sexual assault victims

Bay Pines VA program tackles military sex cases
By HOWARD ALTMAN
The Tampa Tribune
Published: January 12, 2013

SEMINOLE
"Get in the jeep."

Joseph Sebastiano knew it would be bad.

A few days earlier, his sergeant had forced him to have sex in the barracks shower. Now, with the other men in the platoon done for the day, the sergeant told Sebastiano he had "extra duty." His voice drops to a near whisper as he describes what happened next.

More than three decades later, Sebastiano, 54, is finally coming to grips with the attacks in February 1976 at Fort Polk, La. Sitting in the safety of the Center for Sexual Trauma Studies at Bay Pines VA Hospital, Sebastiano talks about his experience as a victim of military sexual trauma and the residential treatment program helping exorcise his ghosts.

There are many like him. An estimated 19,000 troops were victims of rape and sexual assault in the military last year alone, according to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. The Air Force recently released the findings of a series of rapes by drill instructors at its training facility at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

And on Friday, military leaders spoke about the problem at a conference in Washington, D.C.

As the military struggles to cope with the problem among active-duty members, the Veterans Health Administration is facing challenges treating the estimated half-million veterans, like Sebastiano, who have experienced military sexual trauma.

A Veterans Affairs inspector general's report released last month found that the VA is not doing a good enough job connecting victims to programs like the one at Bay Pines, which was lauded in the report for providing training to other centers.
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Males at Lackland reporting assaults lacking

Another view by Lily Casura: Where are the male victims at Lackland?
Lily Casura
For the Express-News
Monday, January 7, 2013

Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland's sexual assault scandal is troubling. But what's even more troubling is how doubtful it is that all the victims involved have come forward.

The victims — 56 to date — have all been women. And that's just not likely or reasonable to expect.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, roughly equal numbers of men and women experience sexual assault in the military, despite different proportions in the Air Force. From 2002-2008, the VA detected 61,126 male and 59,680 female cases of military sexual trauma (MST).

The Air Force, with 332,320 personnel and 63,131 women, is approximately 19 percent female. Yet at Lackland, with 35,000 recruits in basic training every year, and an 80:20 ratio of men to women, 100 percent of the victims so far are women.

Lackland's command, to its credit, seems diligent and thorough about rooting out unwanted sexual conduct and prosecuting perpetrators. But something doesn't add up. Is it the Air Force?

According to an exhaustive survey conducted in 2010 of active-duty personnel, with almost 24,000 service members from every branch responding, Air Force airmen were the least likely to experience unwanted sexual contact, whether women (2.3 percent) or men (0.5 percent).

If those percentages hold true, we would still expect to find 161 women at Lackland and 1,400 men as victims. Yet we've heard from no men at all.
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Military suicides and non-deployed

When you read about "non-deployed" servicemen and women committing suicide, you should never dismiss the military connection. These stories will help you understand that these men and women, while just as human as the rest of us, are different from the rest of us. They wanted to be of service to their country and to others. While they were willing to die for this reason, we did not give them a reason to live.

A Mother Talks About Her Son’s Military Suicide
BY THE WORLD
DECEMBER 20, 2012

According to the Defense Department, most military suicides are among people with no history of deployment.

Peggy Scallorn’s 18-year-old son Cody was part of that statistic. Cody was in the Air Force and was only a few months out of basic training last January when he took his own life.

Anchor Marco Werman talks to Scallorn about her son.
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Military Suicide Among Soldiers Who Haven’t Deployed
BY SARAH CHILDRESS
DECEMBER 20, 2012

The epidemic of suicide in the US military corresponds with the US involvement in parallel wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the latest figures confirm a confusing fact: Most soldiers who kill themselves have never deployed to a combat zone, and the vast majority have never been in battle at all. Frontline reporter Sarah Childress examines what’s behind the statistic.

The stereotype of the soldier who kills himself—a combat veteran plagued by post-traumatic stress -— is a familiar one to Craig Bryan, the associate director of the National Center of Veterans’ Studies at the University of Utah. “That is the storyline that we have created in our society because it’s a simple storyline and it intuitively makes sense,” he says. “The problem is that the data doesn’t support the notion that it is as simple as combat leads directly to suicide risk.”

Last year, 53 percent of service members who killed themselves had no history of deployment, according to the Defense Department’s most recent data. And about 85 percent of military members who took their lives had no direct combat history, meaning they may have been deployed but not seen action.

Suicide is complex, so there’s no simple explanation for why these service members are killing themselves in greater numbers. But experts who have studied the problem say that one factor may be the pressure from the back-to-back wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Military Sexual Assault Victims Meet With McKeon, Ask For Investigation

Military Sexual Assault Victims Meet With McKeon, Ask For Investigation
Written by Mark Archuleta
KHTS
Friday, 10 August 2012

Military sexual assault survivors from last week's Protect Our Defenders (POD) press conference in DC met (or teleconferenced) with the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) staff today to continue pressing for an open Lackland Air Force Base hearing and investigation.

Former Naval Aviator Lt. Paula Coughlin, a victim of sexual assault during the infamous Tailhook scandal in 1991 has started Paula’s Petition asking the House Armed Services Committee, chaired by 25th District Congressman Howard “Buck” McKeon to conduct and open investigation into the Lackland Air Force Base sexual assault scandal and the institutionalized legacy of sexual assault in the military.
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My video Hardest Times You Could Imagine from 2009

Fake "casket" airmen "conduct brought discredit both to the military and themselves"

No criminal wrongdoing in casket photo case
By Jeff Schogol - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jan 30, 2012

FACEBOOK Airmen attending Air Transportation technical school at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, posed for this photo dated Aug. 23. Air Force investigators have concluded there was no criminal wrongdoing by the airmen who posed for the photo.

Investigators have concluded there was no criminal wrongdoing by the airmen who posed for a picture around an open casket case with another airman inside wearing a noose around his neck and chains across his body.

However, the instructors in charge of the airmen in the picture have received administrative punishment because “their conduct brought discredit both to the military and themselves,” according to a news release from the 37th Training Wing at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.Dated Aug. 23, the photo was taken by airmen with the 345th Training Squadron at Fort Lee, Va., where airmen learn to load and unload aircraft.
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Military suicides rise in San Antonio

Military suicides rise in San Antonio

Reported by: Melissa Garcia

Nationally, the number of potential suicides among active duty soldiers jumped from 16 in April to 21 in May.

SAN ANTONIO -- The military is fighting a war to combat suicides. Nationally, the numbers are staggering. News 4 WOAI has uncovered suicide information from San Antonio military installations. There were 5 suicides out of Lackland Air Force Base last year alone. Suicides at Fort Sam Houston have also risen within the last several years, compared with the first part of the decade.

We spoke with a combat soldier about his own suicidal thoughts when he returned from war in Iraq.

"As a soldier, we have a creed: 'I will never accept defeat,'" explaned Joshua McCoy. But defeated is exactly how he felt, when he came back from war physically injured, and emotionally traumatized. Almost overnight, he went from being self sufficient, to having to move back in with his parents at the age of 32.

"That's extremely humiliating," explained McCoy.

Chronic pain and anxiety required heavy prescription narcotics. The stress tore apart his marriage and almost cost him custody of his young daughter. In fact, things got so bad, McCoy even contemplated suicide.

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Military suicides rise in San Antonio

Military dogs get top treatment at Lackland hospital

From MRIs to surgery, military dogs get top treatment at Lackland hospital

by Angela Hill / WWL
Posted on May 15, 2011 at 10:05 PM


LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas – It is an intense training program for both dogs and handlers. Not all dogs will make it, but those who do will be as important on the battlefield as any piece of machinery.

These military working dogs and their incredible sense of smell can find an explosive device in the ground, in a building, or in a car, saving whole platoons of soldiers.
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From MRIs to surgery

Unexploded round removed from Afghan soldier's head

Live round taken from ANA soldier’s head

By Pauline Jelinek - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Apr 10, 2010 10:46:08 EDT

WASHINGTON — A U.S. military doctor removed a live round of ammunition from the head of an Afghan soldier in an unusual and harrowing surgery.

Doctors say a 14.5 millimeter unexploded round — more than 2 inches long — was removed from the scalp of an Afghan National Army soldier at the Bagram Air Field hospital last month.

When the Afghan soldier, in his 20s, arrived at the base, doctors thought it was shrapnel or the spent end of some sort of round, said Lt. Col. Anthony Terreri, a radiologist deployed from Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

Maj. Jeffrey Rengel, put on body armor for the surgery.

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Live round taken from ANA soldiers head

New PTSD Approach Offers Reduced Stigma at Lackland Air Force Base

New PTSD Approach Offers Reduced Stigma
July 14, 2009
Air Force Print Newsby Lt. Col. Lesa Spivey

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas - Servicemembers seeking help for deployment-related post-traumatic stress disorder now have the option of being treated through primary care channels at a new pilot program offered at Wilford Hall Medical Center here.

The primary goal of this new research program is to offer effective therapy for PTSD within the primary care environment, where servicemembers are likely to feel more comfortable seeking mental health assistance.

Servicemembers who wish to participate in this type of treatment program simply schedule an appointment with their primary care manager and go to their primary care facility, just as they would for any other treatment. The primary care manager then refers the servicemember to the behavioral health consultant who works in the primary care clinic. This process helps to mainstream the treatment alongside other, more routine care. It is hoped that, as a result, a servicemember will feel less isolated or ostracized and be more willing to ask for help.

PTSD is caused by exposure to a traumatic event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury. An individual who is experiencing PTSD symptoms may have been personally threatened or injured, or he or she might have witnessed the death or serious injury of another. In either case, the severity of PTSD is directly related to the level of threat to the person's life or the lives of others while in the combat environment.

PTSD is one of the top health concerns for servicemembers returning from combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recent studies of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom veterans suggest that 5 to 17 percent of U.S. military personnel returning from deployments have PTSD symptoms and as many as 25 percent report some psychological problems.

Almost 2 million U.S. military personnel have deployed in support of OIF/OEF, and estimates in this population indicate that 100,000 to 300,000 OIF/OEF veterans are at significant risk for chronic PTSD.
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New PTSD Approach Offers Reduced Stigma

Air Force nurse charged in three patients' deaths

Air Force nurse charged in three patients' deaths
Story Highlights
Man is accused of giving terminally ill patients fatal overdoses

He worked at a hospital at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas

He is also charged with conduct unbecoming an officer

CNN -- An Air Force nurse has been charged with murdering three terminally ill patients by giving them fatal overdoses, the Air Force said Tuesday.

Capt. Michael Fontana, a nurse at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, also was charged Monday with conduct unbecoming an officer for changing a medical document.

"The charges are the result of an Air Force investigation that occurred after irregularities were discovered in Capt. Fontana's administration of medications which may have resulted in the death of an end-of-life patient," hospital spokesman David Smith told reporters.

The nurse was charged with three counts of violating Article 118 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. "It is considered murder," Smith said.
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When a veteran lies about their record, it hurts others

by
Chaplain Kathie
With so many real wounded veterans not able to get the benefits they need to have their wounds treated and have their lost incomes compensated for, this really goes much deeper than just one more story of a fake hero.

Brian Culp managed to collect a lot for his fake wounds including appointments with a psychologist because he was a good actor. Veterans veterans like my husband see their appointments cut back because there isn't enough hours or providers to take care of the older veterans with the new veterans coming into the system.

My husband never thought he deserved anything from the VA and never called himself a hero, even though he has a Bronze Star for Meritorious Service, he does not put himself into the class of those he thinks of as "real heroes" like some of his friends. He also didn't see the wound of PTSD as a wound equal to a physical one. Most of them are humble and appreciate the care they receive from the VA instead of acting as if they earned it, when clearly they did. It took us six years to clear up a paperwork error to have his claim approved and for others, even longer.


Yet Culp managed to pull it all off with computer skills and good acting. He also managed to validate the perception that there are fake claims flooding into the system. Over and over again, when claims are denied, people tend to regard those claims as fraudulent because they were turned down. After all, the VA has to be right and they would honor the claim if it had been a legitimate one, right? Wrong.

Until a claim is approved, it's non-service connected. This can happen with paperwork errors, lost files, inability to find someone they served with that can back up the claim and offer a letter of support, along with a long list of others problems including the shredding of claims at many VA processing centers. Culp just put the thought of false claims back into the minds of the American people.

While it's great this fraud was found out, there are some willing to look at the good he did while pretending to be a wounded hero. Did he help some? Sure. But the truth is, his actions may have harmed a lot more than he managed to help. What would it have cost him to just help the veterans he pretended to be and not pull off a crime like this? Imagine the good he could have done for others without doing this. With a talent good enough to sell himself as a hero, he could have used it to really help the real ones falling through the cracks instead of himself.

INVALID VALOR - VETERAN LIED ABOUT HIS SERVICE -- 12-15-2008 VA Watchdog
He admitted he had used his computer to create not only a fake ID card, but also an authentic-looking DD-214 larded with fictional honors and service.

By John MacCormack
Express-News



Boasting a military record that included two Purple Hearts, decorations for valor and combat service in Somalia with the Army Rangers, Brian Culp seemed the perfect war hero to be honored last year as grand marshal in LaVernia's patriotic parade.

“He was very deserving because of his military experience, battles and honors. And he had gotten hurt,” said Merrie Monaco, president of the Lions Club that sponsors the Bluebonnet Fest Parade.

“We actually made a quilt with his patches and medals, like a memory quilt, and we gave it to him,” she recalled.

A large and rugged outdoorsman, Culp, 38, also merited special recognition because of his nonprofit organization Veteran Adventures, that takes injured service members on hunting trips around South Texas.

But even as Culp was bathed in adulation as he rolled along Main Street at the head of the LaVernia parade, time was running out.

Smelling something fishy in his improbable war stories and claims to being a brother in arms, members of the small fraternity of Army Rangers already were comparing notes and digging into his military past.

Then on Aug. 23, 2007, Culp overplayed his hand when he tried to enter Lackland AFB using an ID card that identified him as a retired master sergeant.

The gate guard turned Culp away and confiscated the card, which investigators soon determined to be well-done forgery.

When Culp came in for questioning, Air Force detectives Stephen Vaughan and Sean Garrettson at first found denial and defiance. But eventually, they say, he admitted to even more elaborate fictions.

“This guy came in and thinks he's gonna run the interview,” recalled Vaughan, who had just returned from his second tour in Iraq.

“I was personally offended by his behavior. I found it reprehensible,” he said.

Culp first claimed he knew nothing about the fake ID card that bore his name and photo, but when the stakes were raised, he crumbled, Vaughan said.

“I said, ‘So check it out, Culp. What if I run a search warrant on your house right now? Do you want to bet there's something on your home computer to make this ID card?'” he recalled.

He said Culp eventually admitted he had used his computer to create not only the fake ID card, but also an authentic-looking military discharge paper called a DD-214 larded with fictional honors and service.

Culp admitted to using the fake documents to obtain benefits and services from on-base haircuts to Purple Heart license plates to disability payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Vaughan said.

“He said he lied to the VA counselor about having post-traumatic stress disorder from serving in Bosnia and witnessing mass graves there,” Vaughan said.

And while Culp had served honorably in both wars against Iraq, he never was wounded, never served in Somalia or Bosnia and never had been a Ranger, Vaughan said.

“All of us want to be John Wayne, but most of us outgrow it when we're 12,” he said.

Almost a year later, Culp was charged with four federal offenses related to making false claims to military honors and to using a fake ID card to try to enter Lackland.
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