AF Officer Faces Charges in Liaison That Led to Wedding

In a twist to military misconduct between the sexes, an Air Force officer faces a court-martial over a relationship with an enlisted woman he later married.

The Air Force has charged 2nd Lt. William Kite with fraternization and lying about his relationship with Rhonda Kurtz. The couple kept it secret and did not marry until she left the service in January.

Kite, supervisor of security police at the base, acknowledges that he lied when first asked by a commander about his relationship with Kurtz, a security police officer. But he says a punishment such as a reprimand, fine and counseling or at worst an honorable discharge would be in line with other cases.

Whether the military treats sexual-conduct cases uniformly has been an issue since Kelly Flinn, the nation’s first female B-52 bomber pilot, resigned in May rather than face a court-martial for adultery, disobeying an order and lying to her commander.

Kite’s lawyer, Capt. Joseph E. Cazenavette, said he will submit a request Monday asking Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall to dismiss the charges, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

While he might be able to avoid trial by accepting a general discharge, as Flinn did, that would mean losing his commission and some of his veterans benefits.

“Rhonda and I decided we’ve gone through too much time and too much stress to just say, ‘OK, we’ll accept what we can get,’ ” he told the New York Times. “We know we have to get on with our lives. But we also have to make a point--that this stuff goes on and people’s lives are affected by little rules that most people would consider absurd.”

After the Times publicized the case Thursday, Kite told Associated Press that Cazenavette was no longer allowing him to speak to the media.

In a letter to Widnall last month, Cazenavette noted that, as of May, there were 461 married couples in the Air Force in which an officer was married to an enlisted person.

“I don’t know to what extent those people were investigated,” Cazenavette said Thursday.

“Some might have been two enlisted people when they married, with one getting promoted later. But that can’t be the case with all of them.”

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Kite, who joined the Air Force out of high school when he was 17, was decorated for service as a military police officer during the Persian Gulf War and was given excellent evaluations, the Times reported. He left the service to earn a bachelor’s degree in criminology from Florida State University and came back as a second lieutenant.

After Kite was charged with fraternization, Col. Donald Anawalt asked him if the relationship with his fiancee started while she was still in the service. Kite denied it. But Anawalt had records of their phone calls. Kite then confessed.

“The pressure of keeping this secret was unbearable,” he told the Times. “My mother didn’t raise me to lie. When he caught me, I was relieved. He gave me a few words of encouragement about how I did the right thing by telling the truth. It was great.”

The Air Force promptly added two charges of making false official statements. Three days later, the couple married.

Since the investigation began, Kite has been doing odd jobs rather than supervising security.