Dear Congressman,

An Open Letter to Our Leaders

NOTE: David Edwards plight seems to be nearing a conclusion. At this point, contacting the government in his favor may be counterproductive. However, we thought you might like to see what a letter sent on his behalf looks like...

I am sure I need not remind you of how our political system operates. However, I should note that this letter is the stuff our great founders expected and built our system for. That instance is when the government, as an institution, has overlooked the needs and welfare of its citizenry.

I am speaking of a mistake, however unintentional, which has essentially ruined a dedicated and loyal citizen's life. David Edwards, a 35 year old from California has always dreampt of being an Air Force officer. Opportunity to join the service and serve his country was denied once by family illness at a time when he could have joined right out of college. David accepted the family burden at that time and pursued the necessary life requirements laid on him, those life requirements which also prevented him from joining the Air Force until just recently.

Within the last year, his opportunity was again stolen from him, not by the fortunes of life, but rather the inconceivable and seemingly unfeeling specter of red tape. David had completed all but the final steps of his recruitment, which included a waiver from the U.S. Air Force for his recruitment age (34). In fact David had taken the final steps to wrap up his life as a civilian, taking an enlistment leave of absence from his employer, essentially quitting his job and depriving himself of any recourse for compensation.

Then someone further up the chain in the Air Force, for some unknown reason, decided to check further and renig on the Air Force's committment to accept David's recruitment. It seems that at 48 hours before boarding the flight which would transport him to the location of his OTS training, the Air Force beauracracy decided he would not satisfy the requirements of the very law his waiver had been designed to override. In essence he is being told that his age of 35 means he cannot complete 20 years of service before the mandatory retirement age of 55. I urge you to consider this fact in the light of the following logic:

1. The law in question is a public law intended to protect career officers from being forced from service when they have reached mandatory retirement age of 55 if "long in grade" and have yet to complete 20 years of service. This ensures a long serving officer gets the retirements benefits he has earned. Thus this law is designed to protect the career officer from the intrangency of the Air Force Beauracracy, and prevents undue and unfair hardship to a U.S. citizen. Ironic isn't.
2. The waiver received by David prior to his rejection states that the Air Force waives the age requirement, an obvious special circumstance allowing a dedicated and loyal citizen to apply his knowlege and skill sets to aid the military service of his choice and serve a committment to his country felt by few others today.
3. The waiver constitutes not only a realization that our laws and regulations provide guidelines and roadmaps to conduct as citizens, but also the flexibility our government was designed to provide to its citizenry. No law or regulation is of itself inflexible. This is why we have judges and a system of checks and balances.
4. You are part of that system. In the rare cases where only high government offiicals can override the insensitivity and intrangency of the letter of the law, our government leaders are empowered to make exceptions on a case by case basis.

I believe this particular case is a prime example of the power our founding fathers invested in the instution that you are so proudly a member of. That institution of government FOR the people, and BY the people, cries out for the simple expidient step to re-enforce the Air Force waiver, for a one-time, special case exception to the public law that disallows David Edwards from continuing the path he has chosen, and which was approved by the U.S. Air Force. The fact that the Air Force now feels compelled to deny David entry into the service of his country based upon their inability to override public law means that only yourself, one of your colleagues or the President can wave the provisions of this law.

If the fact that David cannot serve the full 20 years before he reaches 55 is a stumbling block, then because of the hardship the government (via the Air Force last minute decision) has placed upon David then the law is creating a similar condition for which it was originally intended to prevent. That condition I speak of is a major hardship, an unfair and unfeeling judgement as to David's acceptibility as an Air Force Officer. It is only prudent and fair that in his particular case, and in his case only, his mandatory age of retirement be adjusted to match 20 years from his date of entry to the service.

This would be one time exception, granted to David because of the mistake in government which has now left him jobless and at risk as a family provider due only to the actions of his country.

You should note that David is not dissappointed in his country, only this particular series of events, just as any human would be. His ability to serve as an Air Force officer has not been diminished in any way. In fact, it is David's express wish to avoid any attacks or recriminations against his country or the military.

From the outside of this situation, as as a lay person, it would seem to me that David could easily make an excellent case for governmental fraud, and begin legal action against the U.S. Air Force, seeking compensation for lost wages as well as suffering and punitive damages. But as I stated earlier, it is not David's intention or desire to take this kind of action, despite the "opportunity".

David wants to avoid such activity, his only desire being to appeal to reasonable persons in government to assess the situation and make a human, compassionate decision, a decision that our founders built our system of government to make. Ensure that an unfeeling and unrealistic law not be the cause for a dedicated citizen from serving his country, and ensure a loyal citizen receives the opportunity for career promised by his prospective new employer.

Please take the action necessary in the U.S. Congress to pass a resolution to override the terms of the mandatory age law, and allow David Edwards to be inducted into the Air Force, and extend his mandatory retirement age to match 20 years from his date of induction, as the public law was written to intend.

Thank you for time.

Michael G. Crawford