Airman sentenced in first OIF court-martial Published May 19, 2003 By Tech. Sgt. Eric M. Grill 405th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM (AFPN) -- An airman first class from the 405th Expeditionary Munitions Squadron at a forward-deployed location in Southwest Asia pleaded and was found guilty May 18 of larceny and violation of a general lawful order. This was the first Air Force court-martial held at an Operation Iraqi Freedom deployed location.William W. Wheeler, 19, from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., admitted he stole more than $7,500 worth of merchandise ranging from digital videodisk players and movies to chewing gum and breath mints. Wheeler was a volunteer at the tactical base exchange store where he stole the items over a three-and-a-half-week period. He also admitted to receiving and possessing pornographic and sexually explicit material from a fellow airman, which was a violation of a lawful general order.Col. Linda Murnane, chief military judge for the European Circuit; Capt. John Carr, trial counsel; and Capt. Jack Hopkins, area defense counsel, were flown in from Europe solely for the special court-martial.“Holding a court-martial at a remote site in the (area of responsibility) is a tremendous logistical challenge,” said Capt. Kyle Green, staff judge advocate for the 405th Air Expeditionary Wing. “But the judge advocate general’s department is committed to providing the full range of discipline tools to Air Force commanders, no matter where they are located.”Murnane sentenced Wheeler to reduction in grade to E-1, seven months confinement and a bad conduct discharge with automatic forfeiture of two-thirds of his basic pay for the length of his confinement. Murnane also recommended the convening authority waive the automatic forfeitures and allow the pay to go to “Airman Wheeler’s wife, who is also a victim of (Wheeler’s) crimes,” she said at sentencing.Wheeler, who deployed here in January, was a volunteer stock person at the exchange from Feb. 3 until his discovery on March 14. He admitted he took the items over a three-week period by storing the stolen merchandise in an air-conditioning vent on the side of the tent in which the tactical exchange was located. He would then go back and retrieve the items after the exchange was closed. Another exchange employee discovered stolen merchandise in the vent when he went to shut the air-conditioning unit off. He immediately reported what he found. Wheeler cooperated with security forces and waived his right to remain silent and to an attorney. The additional stolen merchandise and compact disc containing the pornographic material was found upon a consensual search of Wheeler’s tent.“I made some bad decisions and will have to live with those consequences,” Wheeler said. “I don’t know why, and can’t explain why (I did this). I wasn’t raised this way. Words can not describe how sorry I am for what I’ve done.”Wheeler will serve his confinement at the U.S. Army Confinement Facilities at Mannheim, Germany.