Posted on 09/08/2006 3:07:09 PM PDT by show me state
Edited on 09/08/2006 3:58:09 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2006 — Air Force Maj. Jill Metzger, who vanished Monday in Kyrgyzstan, has been found and now is back in Air Force control, ABC News has learned.
"We are elated to have Jill back with us," said Air Force spokesman Col. Scott Reese. Local police notified U.S. officials that she had been found at 1:15 a.m. local time in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Air Force officials say she was found alone and appears to have been beaten. Officials say she is "coherent," in "relatively good condition" and is talking to investigators. She is also undergoing medical evaluation.
Officials would not comment on the circumstances surrounding her disappearance and said the investigation is ongoing
The news brought elation to Metzger's family.
"It's a dream come true. The most significant event of our lives," said Kelly Mayo, Metzger's father-in-law. Mayo said he has not spoken to Metzger yet, but believes she had been kidnapped and "whoever had her dropped her off on the side of the road."
Metzger vanished on Monday afternoon in Kyrgyzstan — a poor, predominantly Muslim country in Central Asia. Since shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Kyrgyzstan has been home to a strategically important U.S. military base that supports operations in Afghanistan. The government is generally pro-American, and in recent years has experienced sporadic clashes with Islamic fundamentalists.
Just 10 days before deploying to Kyrgyzstan in April, Metzger married Air Force Capt. Josh Mayo. They had already bought tickets for a honeymoon in Jamaica later this month, he said.
"We were going to take Jet Skis out, have a couple of romantic dinners. It is very disappointing," said Mayo
Before her disappearance, Metzger was last seen out shopping with five others from the base. The group briefly separated inside a department store in the center of Bishkek, several miles from the base. They had agreed to meet a short time later, but Metzger never showed up.
Of course, their captors were Muslim Arabs, were they not?
They have a saying, "A woman is a duty, but a boy is a joy", or something like that.
"Now if we could just get enough "He Men" to volunteer to take those the positions of the those female mechanics, truck drivers, etc."
A point I make constantly, we have the largest pool of males ever, we have a small military compared to recent generations, but we can't get enough young men to enlist.
I can find more patriotism now than at any time in my life, yet I find little enthusiasm among young males to serve a hitch in the army or marines.
Ditto. * snicker, snort *
I believe you are the only one to respond to what I thought, is a pretty good starting point for a discussion.
Sounds like my family, my grandmother on my mom's side grew her own chewing tobacco and kept a pistol.
They took her pistol away when she shot the ceiling to break up my uncles, she then started sleeping with a hatchet.
My mother picked cotton, and fruit, and vegetables, as they followed the crops.
As a more mature woman she became a construction inspector.
Just ran off for one last fling before she gets married.
I suspect newly promoted Marine Majors just *look* older. :). Plus many of them would have had prior enlisted service, as do many AF majors and captains I have known.
I could be off a year, because they keep changing the promotion point for 1LT and Captain, in all the services, and at least in the past, they weren't all the same anyway.
Afghanistan is a combat zone. Kirghistan, where she was deployed is not, other than in the sense that most any 3rd world country full of Muslims, even nominally friendly ones as in this case, is something of a combat zone.
As it happens, one of my sister's in law is from Bishkek, Kirghistan. She's not a Muslim though, but is ethnically Ukrainian (mostly). It's somewhat backwards, but no more so than say the major cities of India or Mexico. It's not Afghanistan, technically or culturally.... Still it is full of Muslims, many of them who are also at least partly Mongols. Scary combination, eh?
1) Don't think it is one, not yet any way. It's majority Muslim, but other groups live there as well.
2) She was in a group of 5, apparently inside a store, she separated from the group *inside the store*, and was apparently kidnapped then.
The full story, or most of it, will probably come out sooner or later. Parts fairly soon, parts much later, if ever.
In this war, working in a prominent office building has proved about as hazardous as flying a fighter or driving a tank. Truck driver or convoy escort does seem to be more hazardous than either, statistically speaking.
I'd hardly call wandering off, with notification, to the rug department while your companions looked at jewelery, "wandering off". AFAIK, there haven't been much problems from the locals in Bishkek.
Why not? They have scheduled airline passenger service, and even their own national airline. Not that I would want to fly on it, but they have it.
My sister in law (actually my wife's SiL) was a stewardess on it at one time. She also makes a mean birthday cake, gives a good haircut, and can disassemble and reassemble an AK, blindfolded, and shoots well enough, (various handguns, her .270 bolt action and presumably an AR-15, if her hubby still has it) to keep up with her husband, stepson and (at one time) father in law, and that's darn good. I certainly can't do it). She's also pretty nice looking, if a bit thin.
I rarely play the sexist card, but in this case I must.
I agree with you 100%.
If the Major's name was John who showed up in the shape she was in, we would not see so many doubting Thomas's.
She deserves a hell of a lot more respect than she is getting.
I would assume she didn't leave voluntarily. A surveillance camera might not give a clear and complete enough picture to tell about that though.
You don't have to resign your commission, although you may have to convert it to a reserve commission if you have a regular commission, to leave active duty.
I never resigned mine, even when ARPC (Air Reserve Personnel Center) asked me to. Instead I lost weight, and found an active reserve assignment, which I later lost because I couldn't keep that weight off. I was transferred to the retired reserve list in '92.
Had a get together with some of guys from that last "unit" this past weekend in fact. Not all were guys, but only guys showed up this time ... one of the gals is still an active reservist, and wears two stars on each shoulder. :)
Anyway, the "Captains don't re-up" comment was made because "Re-up" means "reenlist, and officers don't enlist, they are commissioned. They don't serve for a fixed period, although they may have an obligation to serve for a fixed period, after initial commissioning or after a training or education assignment. Right now the AF is allowing separated officers in certain career fields to return to active duty and if they do, they encure such a commitment. (Pretty short one though).
There is in the Marines. The latest promotion board order had the most junior in the zone Captain and the most junior eligible below the zone Captain listed. There was 11 months difference in their date of rank.
And they don't like "Russians", or others from the European parts of the old Soviet Union. Understandable from their point of view. The Major, being blue eyed, and fair of skin, may have been mistaken for one of those, at least initially.
Still I'd imagine there are some "more observant" Muslims in the country, particularly out in the hinterlands.
The defense of women is a Christian view, that they are the 'weaker' sex and ought to be protected by men.
When she loses the protection of men, that is all she can do, try to survive.
Just following the traditions of the pioneer women. They knew how to shoot and weren't shy about doing it in defense of their family or propery. In that sense, I'm already glad.
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