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Gay officer may be ousted after 18 years

Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach is a weapons systems officer. He has 18 years in and wants to retire in a few more, but he doubts he’ll get to.

Fehrenbach, 39, is gay, and the Air Force wants to dismiss him with an honorable discharge.

The Air Force declined to discuss Fehrenbach other than to confirm the action pending against him and to detail the discharge process.

If unable to finish out his career, Fehrenbach will lose $46,000 a year in retirement pay as well as medical benefits, according to pay charts. He would get a lump sum of about $80,000, half of standard involuntary separation pay for an officer of his years, the charts show.

“I was devastated, absolutely devastated,” Fehrenbach said, describing his reaction to being charged with violating the ban on homosexual behavior. “The Air Force has been my life.”

Born into an Air Force family — his father was a navigator and retired as a lieutenant colonel and his mother worked as a nurse — Fehrenbach maintains he has been discreet about his sexual orientation; his parents didn’t know was gay until mid-May, just before he went public in hopes of spurring a change to the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law.

A year ago, though, his career came to a standstill when officials notified him that a civilian acquaintance had identified him as gay.

Fehrenbach’s experience as an instructor-level weapons systems officer included time in both the F-15E Strike Eagle and the EF-111 Raven. Missions took him over Baghdad during the 2003 invasion, above Afghanistan in 2002 and into the Balkans for Operation Allied Force in 1999. He has 2,180 flying hours, nine Air Medals — one for heroism — and five Air Force Commendation Medals.

At the time he was outed, Fehrenbach served as the deputy director of operations for the 366th Operations Support Squadron at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. He was getting ready to deploy again overseas.

The investigation, though, grounded Fehrenbach and continued until September, when the Air Force formally charged him with damaging its good order and discipline.

Fehrenbach’s initial reaction was to resign.

“I wanted a quick, quiet, fair and honorable discharge,” he said.

Challenging the discharge

With a potential Obama presidency offering a change of policy, though, Fehrenbach decided to contest the charge that his presence hurt the service.

“I’ve been going to work every day and doing my duty with absolutely no impact on morale, discipline and good order,” said Fehrenbach, who continues to serve as deputy director of operations. Until he went public with his case, no one at Mountain Home knew he was in trouble except the 10 or so commanders, attorneys and investigators involved in the query.

In April, a review board at Mountain Home ruled against Fehrenbach, recommending his administrative dismissal.

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley can reject the recommendation, though Fehrenbach points out service secretaries have approved every dismissal request given to them in the last decade.

Fehrenbach could ask a federal court to step in, but he doesn’t know if he’ll take that option. Air Force Reserve nurse Maj. Margaret Witt is suing the service over her dismissal for being a lesbian, but her 2006 lawsuit has yet to reach trial.

On May 19, Fehrenbach appeared on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” to discuss his case. Maddow, a progressive commentator and lesbian, has highlighted other service members who also have been dismissed or are facing dismissal for being gay, including 1st Lt. Dan Choi of the New York Army National Guard.

The week before Fehrenbach’s appearance, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that Obama recognizes the don’t ask, don’t tell law “isn’t working for our national interests,” but also recognizes he has only meager support from Congress to repeal the ban.

Changing rules, Gibbs observed, requires “more than the snapping of one’s fingers.”

DISCUSS: The case