Operation Gridiron’s Thomas Honored, Arizona House Calls On Mattis For Justice

Former Cadet Eric Thomas, who was instrumental in exposing sexual assaults at the United States Air Force Academy, was honored on the floor of the House of Representatives by Arizona Rep. Bob Thorpe. Thomas, whose undercover work was key to the convictions of sexual predators in the Academy lead the Pledge of Allegiance before floor session on Wednesday.

Thomas was joined on the floor by his mother Rosita Perez Walker, who Rep. Thorpe described as a “proud woman who works tirelessly as a nurse and who will not allow us to give up the fight for her son’s future.”

Rep. Thorpe introduces Thomas to members on the floor of the Arizona House of Representatives

“U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, and her Republican colleague, Senator John Thune, learned of Eric’s work and the price he has paid for it. They have discovered just how unwieldy the bureaucracy can be in their bipartisan fight for Mr. Thomas,” Thorpe told his colleagues. “Senators Gillibrand and Thune came to Eric’s defense when they learned that for his troubles, Eric’s dream of one day serving his country as a United States Air Force pilot was crushed by dishonest bureaucrats interested in preserving a broken system.”

Thorpe referred his colleagues to an article by attorney Daisy Jenkins in the Huffington Post about Thomas entitled: “A Life Sentence for a Former Air Force Academy Cadet Who Helped Expose Sexual Assaults at the Academy? We Can’t Let that Happen!” Thorpe then stated, “We can’t let that happen to this young man whose work with the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) protected women from sexual assault and brought to justice predators.”

“When Eric was a cadet in the United States Air Force Academy, he demonstrated great moral courage and wisdom beyond his years, to have the courage to protect his fellow students from sexual assaults,” said Thorpe in a press release. “I ask U.S. Secretary of Defense General James Mattis and U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson to restore Eric to his rightful place, so that he can graduate from the United States Air Force Academy and continue to serve his country as an airman.”

Thorpe received surprising bipartisan support for his letter. Cosigners include senators Peterson, Allen, Fann, Kerr, Kavanagh, and representatives Allen, Andrade, Barton, Bowers, Boyer, Campbell, Chavez, Clodfelter, Coleman, Cook, Dunn, Finchem, Hernandez, John, Kern, Lawrence, Livingston, Martinez, Mosley, Nutt, Payne, Peten, Rivero, Syms, Toma, Townsend and Udall.

The devil is in the details

According one OSI agent, there are generally two kinds of kids who end up as Confidential Informants (CI). The first and most common sort of CI is one that is trying to mitigate the consequences for their own bad acts. In return for more lenient treatment, they will inform on their classmates. The other sort, which is “very, very rare,” according to an OSI insider, sees criminal behavior and must act.

Special Agent Brandon Enos, who worked closely during the Operation, told the ADI that Thomas was one of the rare CIs. Thomas saw “heinous behavior, and did what he could to stop it,” Enos told the ADI.

For his trouble, Thomas was betrayed and has since spent years being besmirched by a massive USAF Academy public relations crew.

In his floor speech, Thorpe said the “betrayal” of Thomas by USAF officials “has been covered by ABC’s Nightline, The New York Times, ESPN, Slate and the Colorado Gazette. Yet, the sunlight that should disinfect has only blurred the vision of our leaders. We can’t be blinded to this injustice.”

The injustice to which Thorpe refers is the decision by USAF Academy officials to disenroll Thomas from the Academy only weeks prior to graduation. At the time of is disenrollment, Thomas had already received his post-graduation job assignment; a coveted slot at Pilot School.

Later, an investigation by the Defense Department Inspector General found that former USAF Academy superintendent Lt. Gen. Mike Gould hindered the “Operation Gridiron” investigation. Military.com reported in 2016:

While clearing Air Force Academy leaders apart from Gould, the report ripped OSI agents at the school on several fronts.

The Office of Special Investigations is an agency that exists outside the influence of local commanders and is empowered to work independently. The report found that OSI was overly deferential to Gould, complying with his bar on interviewing coaches when they could have ignored the general.

“Our evaluation found a lack of documentation at all levels within AFOSI regarding the decision not to interview the football coach and the communications pertaining to the decision,” the report said. The inspector general also reviewed OSI handling of 56 drug and sexual assault cases — including 12 involving Falcons football players — initiated between 2011 and 2012.

“We determined that 32 had no deficiencies and 20 had minor deficiencies,” the report said. “Four drug investigations had significant deficiencies.”

Those investigations were tied to “Operation Gridiron” — a string of probes that started with tips from a cadet informant, Eric Thomas. Thomas was kicked out of the academy shortly before his planned graduation for demerits — minor disciplinary infractions.

Thomas has maintained that he picked up the demerits while complying with orders from OSI, but the agency refused to defend him at a disenrollment hearing.

This week, the Air Force turned back Thomas’ final appeal to be reinstated.

“Insufficient relevant evidence has been presented to demonstrate the existence of an error or injustice,” the Air Force Board for the Correction of Military Records found.

Thomas’ attorney Skip Morgan, a 1972 Air Force Academy graduate, said he wasn’t surprised.

“This whole thing has been a cover-up,” he said.

In other words, the Academy and Air Force leadership publicly and officially denounced any errors or wrong doing of injustice based mainly on the date of OSI engagement with Thomas. But after several years of claiming Thomas’s involvement with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) began on December 7, 2011 by Academy and Air Force officials, the Board of Corrections for Military Records’ report refutes the Academy’s long standing claim and correctly identifies the start of his engagement with OSI as on or about October 15, 2010.

The correct date and other relevant information was not known by Academy or Air Force officials prior Thomas’s disenrollment. Yet, the Board of Corrections for Military Records still found no “injustice” in Thomas’s disenrollment and concurred with the Academy.

The U.S. Court of Appeals also determined the start date was on or about October 15, 2010 and that Thomas was engaged with and directed by the OSI throughout the time and in matters directly resulting in demerits and his ultimate disenrollment.

It is unclear as to the source of the bureaucrats’ intransigence; whether it is simple stubbornness, a cover up, or a result of the confusion caused by the multiple different claims made about Thomas’ disenrollment by United States Air Force Academy officials.

One thing is certain, those officials have gone to great lengths to muddy the water and discredit Thomas. In a response to a 2014 article in The Gazette, which broke the Operation Gridiron story, officials wrote:

Eric Thomas was disenrolled from the Air Force Academy on 2 April 2013 for failing aptitude and conduct probation, excessive demerits, and a pattern of military misconduct. In fact, Mr. Thomas’ pattern of misconduct began in his freshman year and he accumulated a significant number of demerits, confinements, and restriction to base to December 2011. In fact, the demerits Mr (sic) Thomas accumulated for misconduct prior to his agreement to be a Confidential Informant exceeded the 200 demerit “threshold” noted by the Gazette article. In short, Mr. Thomas did not display the aptitude for service in the United States Air Force.

Yet, a review by the ADI of all available materials clearly shows that Thomas had only earned a total of 90 demerits prior to the OSI engagement.

Calling on Mattis

In his letter to Mattis and U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson, Thorpe calls for officials to “investigate, and hopefully, rectify an injustice dealt” to Thomas. The letter reads in its entirety:

Dear U.S. Secretary of Defense General James Mattis and U.S. Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson:

The below signed Arizona State Legislators call upon you to investigate, and hopefully, rectify an injustice dealt to an Arizona citizen, former Air Force Cadet Mr. Eric Thomas. Due to a lack of comprehensive knowledge surrounding the facts of his recruitment by the USAF Office of Special Investigations, and “Operation Gridiron,” Mr. Thomas was prejudicially disenrolled from the U.S. Air Force Academy.

For approximately 5-years, Mr. Thomas has patiently waited for the opportunity to discuss his case with Air Force officials. During this period, his story has been reported numerous times in print and television media, including ABC’s Nightline, The New York Times, ESPN, Slate and the Colorado Gazette, but so far it appears that Air Force authorities have not fully investigated his case. Democrat U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and her Republican colleague, Senator John Thune also took a keen interest in his story and have personally advocated for Mr. Thomas.

The evidence strongly suggests that in 2013, Mr. Thomas was wrongly disenrolled due to his efforts with authorities to fight sexual assaults at the Academy. His efforts helped in securing the first conviction for sexual assault in over a decade at the Academy. In total, Mr. Thomas’ efforts helped to result in 3-sexual assault convictions (direct justice for roughly 8-known victims), the highest reporting rate to-date with over 50-victim cases, conducted over 25-victim cases of sexual assault, obtained multiple UCMJ and administrative actions for narcotic distribution / usage and effectively provided information regarding several other counter-intel cases. In short, Mr. Thomas demonstrated some of the highest moral convictions in helping to ensure that the Academy remains a safe and honorable institution.

With over 400 other cadets receiving denial requests, Mr. Thomas was offered a coveted pilot slot and was slated to begin his Air Force pilot training at Vance, AFB in March 2014. He was also given the opportunity to work at the Academy with Med Group Commander shortly after graduation. Mr. Thomas lost all of these honors and opportunities only 6-weeks before his graduation.

Since then, Mr. Thomas has been struggling not only be heard, but to also be readmitted to the Academy in order to finish his education and to pursue his Air Force career. He has yet to be afforded an opportunity to discuss his case with Air Force officials, in order to hopefully reverse this injustice. In fact, he was not contacted by any of his commanding officers prior to his disenrollment, rather, a non-commissioned officer told him of his disenrollment and gave him no opportunity to discuss or contest the action with his commanding officers.

It is very clear that the case against Mr. Thomas hinges upon one simple fact: the Office of Inspector General and the Board of Military Corrections did not reconcile the dates of his involvement as a “Confidential Informant.” Had those dates been reconciled, it would have been obvious that the overwhelming majority of his demerits – which formed the basis of disenrollment – occurred while working for the Office of Special Investigations.

Without the accurate dates, the number of demerits would suggest disenrollment. However, with the accurate dates, it is clear that Mr. Thomas did not earn enough demerits to warrant the “200” cadet career limit threshold of disenrollment:

• With accurate knowledge and connection of misconduct with OSI, Claxton and sexual assault incident: Career Demerits: 149

• Without accurate knowledge and connection of misconduct with OSI, Claxton and sexual assault incident: Total Demerits: 458

The below signed Arizona State Legislators humbly request that you and your staff fully investigate this matter, and hopefully, reinstate Mr. Thomas into the U.S. Air Force Academy with the opportunity to graduate and pursue his Air Force career.

Respectfully yours,
Bob Thorpe,
STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 6

Cosigners: Senators Peterson, Allen, Fann, Kerr, and Kavanagh; Representatives Allen, Andrade, Barton, Bowers, Boyer, Campbell, Chavez, Clodfelter, Coleman, Cook, Dunn, Finchem, Hernandez, John, Kern, Lawrence, Livingston, Martinez, Mosley, Nutt, Payne, Peten, Rivero, Syms, Toma, Townsend and Udall.

Time is of the essence

Time is running out for Thomas. Soon he will be too old to train as a pilot. As Rep. Thorpe noted, Thomas has waited patiently – some would say naively – for the system he values to work.

He moved to Arizona at the behest of his mother, who had been told by Rep. Martha McSally that the only way she could be of assistance was if he were her constituent. Despite her office’s promises to assist the young man, staff has responded to his letters sporadically. When they do contact Thomas, it becomes clear that staff turnover has caused Thomas to once again fall through the cracks.

The game of musical office chairs seems to have played a role in the hurried and disjointed disenrollment and his latest attempts to secure congressional assistance.

Enos says that more than anything else, Thomas was a victim of bad timing. Those, who could have come to Thomas’ defense, were not where they should due to big egos and reassignments.

With the budget finally resolved and the denizens of the Hill settling back into their bureaucratic crawl, McSally’s staff should have time to focus on joining the fight for justice. However, with her laser-like focus on winning a Senate seat, few have confidence in her ability and willingness to take on the USAF in any meaningful way.

Women in blue

Thomas was received on the floor last week as the hero he is with one exception. A cynical legislator, who happens to be a National Guard pilot, approached Thomas and his mother and asked how others could trust him after he betrayed his brothers in “blue.” Thomas did not have time to respond before his mom answered; “the women he saved were in blue too.”