“She was the light and energy of her family, and she will be greatly missed, especially her beautiful smile.”  –Obituary of 19-year-old Kelsey Sue Anderson

Many readers may never experience the heartbreak of losing a child. I can’t imagine the grief that families go through when dealing with the tragedy of a child dying so young. To add to the heartache, the family of Airman 1st Class Kelsey Sue Anderson of Idaho is getting the runaround from the United States Air Force (USAF) and very little assistance from their United States Senator, Jim Risch.

Airman Anderson was a member of the USAF and was assigned duties with Security Forces on the beautiful island of Guam. She had been there about five months before her death on June 9, 2011.

The USAF says that Airman Anderson was “the apparent victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound from her own service weapon” according to a story from the Associated Press.

I was once a member of the USAF and I performed duties as a Security Forces member at Andersen AFB Guam for a couple years. I probably patrolled the same flight line as Kelsey and on my days off probably visited the same beach (Tarague Beach) as she did. Guam is a beautiful place, but it’s several thousand miles from home.

The family of Airman Anderson expected to receive a final report about their daughter’s death, and when they received nothing, they contacted U.S. Senator Jim Risch of Idaho to help obtain the information.

Now it’s been well over two years since Kelsey’s death and the family still has no answers.

Risch is a first-term senator and he failed miserably in helping Kelsey Anderson’s family get the answers they so rightly deserve. His office sent a letter to the USAF. He should have followed through on this case and not stopped advocating for his constituent until they received answers. The Associated Press reported that “Risch aides were unaware the matter remains unresolved.”

Some “aides” need to find new employment.

The Air Force dropped the ball miserably, too. Now it looks like there’s some sort of cover-up. When contacted by the Associated Press, the USAF dodged questions and “said requests about the case must come from Kelsey Sue Anderson’s family.”

Nice. If the USAF would have provided the answers to the family, there would not be an Associated Press reporter contacting them.

The USAF should have assigned an officer from the Andersen AFB Guam legal office to be the point of contact for Kelsey Anderson’s family until the case was closed and all of the family’s questions were answered.

It’s the least the USAF could do for the family as their daughter died under their watch.

Now the family “filed a lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court to force the Air Force to respond to their Freedom of Information Act request seeking more information about how their daughter died.”

It did not have to come to this. The USAF and Senator Risch dropped the ball.  They should be ashamed.

I am on Twitter @TheWesternWord

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