By Kiley Terrazzo | AuxBeacon News Contributor

[Editors’ Note: We received this comment on our story Trash-Talk Indoctrination in Civil Air Patrol. The author, writing under a pseudonym, made some eye-opening connections and AuxBeacon editors have voted unanimously to bump it to a full-fledged post. Thank you for your contribution. We are sorry that you and Ms. Teresa Beasley have suffered through this experience.]

Your AuxBeacon weblog proves that Civil Air Patrol (CAP) and the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) have a shared culture of abusive attitudes, cover-up of abuse and harsh reprisals for those dutifully reporting. More importantly, your efforts potentially source these attitudes and abuses in the Air Force to certain youth organizations of individuals who circulate ignorant and callous propaganda.

I personally know a U.S. Air Force Academy cadet who wisely filed a complaint with the Pentagon IG because she didn’t trust the weasels at USAFA. This story has been made public, so I can now share it with your readers. Academy employees Teresa Beasley and her colleague gave statements on the cadet’s behalf to the Academy’s Inspector General (IG). Both were very worried that their comments would not be kept confidential as required by “protected communications.”

Sure enough, just like what we read here with Civil Air Patrol, their statements were turned over to their chain of command. Teresa Beasley was then threatened with an investigation and they pressured her with the harassment of “increased scrutiny.” We see that identical problem with Civil Air Patrol pressuring, isolating and discrediting their whistle-blowing members and any commanders who support them.

“I have been reprised against for doing the right thing,” wrote Teresa Beasley in a July 2015 “memorandum for record” regarding the leak of her statement, which she says was a “protected communication.” She’s since sent the memo to the Pentagon IG.

Both CAP and USAFA officials have slithered around regulation changes while investigations are delayed or to confuse tracking for Congress. In the summer of 2015, Teresa Beasley discovered that Air Force officials had removed some sexual assault reports from the Defense Sexual Assault Incident Database (DSAID) for the 2014-15 school year. DSAID data is used by Congress in preparing reports about assaults at the service academies. In mid-May, two weeks before the end of that academic year, rules were changed to require cadets sign a Form 2910 that outlines the allegations and states whether a cadet is willing or not to have the case investigated.

This new rule was used so that USAFA didn’t have to include dozens of cases for that year. Teresa Beasley flagged the problem in a written statement to the Defense Department’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Resource Office (SAPRO) in mid-2015, which she says spawned more efforts to punish her. In late 2016, Beasley filed a formal complaint with the Pentagon IG Office, saying the Academy retaliated against her after she noted the under-reporting problem.

Articles on your site and in the newspapers expose that Civil Air Patrol officers did the very same thing, deleting records from the Electronic Case Information Management (ECIM) and from the Safety Management System (SMS).

Teresa Beasley began serving at the Air Force Academy in 2007 and was escorted out this June 30th. She was told her personal belongings would be mailed to her. The CAP people and Air Force people doing this to us without apology or restitution are reprehensible and we are advising Senators John McCain, Mazie Hirono, Joni Ernst, Kirsten Gillibrand, Claire McCaskill and Elizabeth Warren on Civil Air Patrol as a potential source of these problem attitudes and tactics.

This story, originally contributed as a comment, was validated from the July 19th 2017 issue of the Colorado Springs Independent.

Related Stories:
• Accountable to No One
• Air Force Academy Boss Hinders Investigation
• Air Force Academy Cadet Convicted of Rape
• Air Force Academy Cadet Tied to 2015 Rape in Boulder
• Air Force Academy Distorted View of Sexual Assault
• Air Force Academy Ignores Rapes
• Air Force Academy Leaders Outraged Over Sex-Related Crimes
• Air Force Academy’s Sexual Assault Prevention Office under Investigation
• Mother of CAP Cadet Concerned about Sexual Assault
• Sexual Assault Rises at U.S. Service Academies
• USAF Academy Honor & Deception