The Paris Hilton of the Air Force

 UPDATE: MCC has the latest article up on the Metzger case.  Things are getting more interesting in this case and it is becoming clearer why the Air Force is in full cover up mode.

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The Stars & Stripes today provides an update on the strange story of Jill Metzger:

Maj. Jill Metzger, the Air Force officer who went missing for three days in September in Kyrgyzstan, then said she’d been kidnapped, is to be temporarily retired from the Air Force after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome, her father said Tuesday.

Metzger is to be on the “temporary disability retired list” starting this month, her father, retired Air Force Lt. Col John Metzger, said in a telephone interview Tuesday from his home in North Carolina.

For those who haven’t been following this case, MAJ Metzger disappeared from a shopping center in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan last fall. She was found three days later when she knocked on the door of a home in a nearby village asking for the family to call for help because she had escaped from a group of people who had kidnapped her.

Here is the story Major Metzger told investigators when they found her:

Metzger told Kyrgyz police she had been abducted by three young men and a woman in a minibus and held in a rural area about 30 miles from the capital, Suvanaliyev told The Associated Press.

Kemilbek Kiyazov, chief of the Chuysk regional police department, said, “Her first testimony was that when she split up with her group in the department store, someone put a hard object and a note saying it was an explosive in a back pocket of her jeans.

“In the note there were also detailed instructions about where to go and what to do. Metzger says it was as if she were in a trance and fulfilling someone else’s wishes.”

Kiyazov said the major reported that she was met by three men and a woman who put her into a vehicle, took her to a house and placed her in a dark room. He quoted her as saying she managed to escape after an abductor brought her food and she struck him.

Kiyazov, who said he personally talked with Metzger, told AP that her blondish hair had been dyed dark brown and her hands were stained with dye. He said it would be necessary to question her again to get more details, “but Metzger said she really wanted to get a good sleep.”

Sounds like a pretty heroic story until you start comparing it to known facts. The Kyrgyz shopping center’s security cameras showed Major Metzger leaving the group she was with and then exiting the shopping mall on her own and alone. There was no kidnappers in any of the videos. Additionally, vendors near the shopping center reported that Metzger bought hair dye from them shortly before she disappeared. Then to top it off two mobile phone calls were placed to Metzger’s mobile phone by people trying to locate her that were not answered. One of the calls were traced to a local Kyrgyz bus station. All of this evidence directly conflicts with the story Metzger told investigators.

So why would Major Metzger make up the kidnapping story? ABC News speculated that she may be trying to escape her recent marriage. Metzger who is 33 years old, married 26 year old Captain Joshua Mayo shortly before she deployed on a 4 month mission to Kyrgyzstan. Many have speculated that instead of her being a runaway bride case she was in fact trying to have an abortion at a Kyrgyz abortion clinic:

But reports from local media in Kyrgyzstan saying Metzger was really seeking an abortion have been broadcast. For what it’s worth, this is what a television station there claims happened:

A taxi-driver said he took Metzger to the Issyk Ata District Medical Clinic in Kant (near where the major turned up after allegedly “escaping” to a Kyrgyzs citizen’s home), claiming she had fled from captors after “overpowering” a guard. The facility is located at the junction of Togolok-Moldo and Kievskaya Streets.

The theory is that she had complications from the abortion which caused her to miss the base curfew. Realizing she was in huge trouble she made up the kidnapping story to cover her tracks. The fact that she was found with blood on her feet by the residents of the home she turned up at tend to lead credence to this theory. Also the claim she overpowered a guard seem absurd as well when she weighed in the neighborhood of only 100 pounds when she disappeared.

With all this conflicting information why is the Air Force giving her a disability retirement? The average servicemember would be brought up on charges not rewarded with retirement. There has to be more to the story to cause the Air Force to go into full cover up mode. Retired, MAJ Glenn McDonald is reporting that the cover up is because a general officer is involved:

In the last 48 hours, INTEL has poured in to us (staff@militarycorruption.com) that leads us to believe a high-ranking officer is involved in this cover-up because he is personally implicated. We knew that Jill Metzger, the “spoiled brat” as one former colleague called her – was “well connected” – with an OSI officer “hubby,” a retired colonel father, and plenty of friends in high places, but this puts a new element into the story.

If a flag officer could be embarrassed or even entangled in wrong-doing by being ID’d in the Metzger mess, that would be plenty of incentive for the Pentagon to pull out all stops to cover up his involvement and save his career. Unfortunately for the Air Force brass, our sources have seen a certain key document that names the high-ranker. If that ever leaked out, the mainstream media would have to cover it, and heads would roll in the highest places. That’s right, Mosley, we mean you!

Could it be that a general officer is the one that got her pregnant? Or is Metzger threatening to claim she was raped which would bring another black eye to the Air Force that is still reeling from the Air Force Academy rape and sexual assault scandal? Whatever is going on, it is a slap in the face to all the combat veterans in Iraq and Afghanistan who actually are injured in combat to have Jill Metzger medically retired with so many obvious inconsistencies in her story. Just ask yourself what would happen to Private Snuffy or Sergeant Tentpeg if they did something like this? I can guarantee you they would not be given a medical retirement. Additionally, the way this case has been handled is a major slap in the face to the people of a major American ally in central Asia, Kyrgyzstan to be falsely accused of kidnapping an American servicemember. Lots of questions about this case and few answers.

Things may get interesting on this case soon because MAJ McDonald is threatening to release some sensitive information he received if Defense Secretary Robert Gates does not investigate the Metzger case.