Summers on Discharge of Kelly Flinn

Thank you, Col. Harry Summers, Jr. (Commentary, May 23) for some of the only reasoned discussion I have seen regarding the Kelly Flinn debacle. It wasn’t the adultery, it was the defiance and the lying that got this young woman in trouble. I am impressed that Flinn fell due to hubris--the seductive idea that her gifts placed her above the law. Once she began to see herself as someone so extraordinary that she could bend and break the rules, the Air Force rightfully terminated her.

Insofar as the issue of Flinn’s adultery is concerned, I am very disturbed by the “So what? Everyone’s doing it” comments that pervade the media. That our leaders and journalists shrug at immoral behavior and call it enlightenment is horrifying.

PAULI CARNES

Woodland Hills

* First, Summers accepts Gayla Zigo’s self-serving statement that Flinn seduced her husband, Marc. It could have been the other way around, especially in light of his recent public admission that he deceived Flinn by telling her that he was separated from his wife. Their marriage was clearly dissolving. Under those conditions, while it is still adultery, it is an understandable exception. Certainly not the kind of conduct that should result in discharge and the loss of an arguably excellent, much-needed pilot.

Then, Summers begs the issue that following orders is mandatory if we are to protect our country. Nowhere has it been described how Flinn conducted herself while on duty. Was she an obedient pilot? Did she carry out her military orders?

If she was failing in many areas, how did she attain the rank of lieutenant? This is a sad situation.

GENE COFSKY

Tarzana

* Shame on you, Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall! As the highest ranking government official in the Air Force, you lack the courage to take a stand against what is truly a witch hunt, and as a woman, you make all women ashamed.

BARBARA BLACK

Sherman Oaks

* It is a bitter irony that Congress has finally achieved bipartisan agreement, but only long enough to support an unjust cause in calling for the preferential treatment of an unethical person who has successfully cast herself as a model for political correctness. Oh well, birds of a feather. . . .

CURT MATSUNE

Walnut