Two lawmakers are urging the Senate to reject the Air Force's decision to award a brigadier general's star to the commander who reprimanded and grounded three pilots over text messages containing Miley Cyrus' lyrics referencing drug use.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., on Monday sent a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and ranking member Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, containing 'our strongest recommendation' that Col. Brian Hastings' 'nomination be thoroughly scrutinized and rejected.'
The case started last year when investigators searched the personal cellphones of three instructor pilots at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, during an investigation into a possible relationship between two other instructor pilots. Those investigators found the three instructor pilots had exchanged text messages with each other in which they referenced 'Molly,' another name for the drug ecstasy. The pilots said they were not actually discussing using drugs, but were only referencing pop and rap lyrics about Molly, such as Miley Cyrus' song 'We Can't Stop.'
Although the pilots passed drug tests and the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations found no evidence they had used drugs, the Air Force decided their personal text messages were unprofessional. Hastings punished them by issuing letters of reprimand and stripping them of their wings.
Their unusual story, which was first reported by former airman Tony Carr on his John Q. Public blog, was dubbed 'Mileygate' by some observers.
Hunter and Kinzinger took up the pilots' cause and in September 2015, called on former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh to look into the case. They said the pilots' pop culture references had been 'painfully misunderstood by investigators.'
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