Air Force Chief, Sergeant Who Alleges Sex Harassment to Meet

Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall will meet privately with a female Air Force sergeant who said her superiors threatened her career over a taxi cab voucher days after she testified before Congress about being sexually harassed.

“I have asked to meet with her to learn directly from her the details of her concerns and how the Air Force leadership can address them,” Widnall said Friday. A meeting was set for Monday.

Sgt. Zenaida Martinez, a military police officer based at Mildenhall Air Force Base in Britain, filed a formal complaint Thursday with the Defense Department inspector general’s office, claiming that the most recent action by her superiors violates a federal whistle-blower protection law.

“The only possible reason for these actions by the Air Force is in reprisal for giving my testimony to the House Armed Services Committee,” Martinez said in an affidavit accompanying her complaint.

Martinez, 27, appeared at a March 9 hearing of the committee along with three other military women. All told of on-the-job sexual harassment and of retaliation by superiors.

“I think the Air Force has really blown it on this one,” said Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.), a member of the Armed Services Committee.

In her affidavit, Martinez says that on her return to Britain from Washington, she took a $200 cab ride back to Mildenhall after being told that the last military bus had left. The Air Force reimbursed her for the fare. But her superiors, one of whom is charged in her lawsuit with retaliating for her sexual-harassment complaints, questioned Martinez.

Among other things, they demanded details of her discussions with her attorneys in Washington. Last week, base officials reportedly told Martinez that she was the subject of a “criminal” investigation over the taxi voucher.