SYMA Petitioned the AFBCMR
SYMA, in October 1999 petitioned the Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records for a new hearing on the basis of the new evidence that was not available to the hearing in 1991 and had not been previously considered.
Oct. 1, 1999 letter to AFBCMR
At first, the AFBCMR seemed receptive to considering this new evidence. However, a 1 February 2000 letter from Harlan G. Wilder, Chief, General Law Division, JAG, dissuaded them. Largely on the basis of Mr. Wilder’s deceptive analysis of Rex Barber’s petition, the members of the Board, through their chairman, Rose M. Kirkpatrick, Chief Examiner, AFBCMR, have again rejected Rex Barber’s petition.
Letter to Senator Pat Roberts
Mr. Wilder deliberately ignored the real issue and he misled the Board. Lanphier had acknowledged that he shot at a fully intact airplane. Wilder intentionally misled the Board members by arguing that it has always been contended that a wing was not shot off the Yamamoto aircraft; (and so there was no new evidence sufficient to warrant a new hearing for Rex Barber). The SYMA rebuttal of Wilder’s views seems to have not been considered.
Advisory opinion by Harlan Wilder
Response to request for a 30 day extension
On 21 February 2001, George Chandler wrote Mr. Mack Burton, Executive Director, Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records, asking him to review the decision made by the Board and Chairman Rose M. Kirkpatrick because they did not address the issue of the new evidence that SYMA wants to present that Lanphier says that he attacked an airplane that “. . . was intact from nose to the tip of its tail when I first fired at it” and thus he cannot have attacked the Yamamoto airplane that Rex Barber had set afire. Chandler further pointed out to Mr. Burton that both Harlan G. Wilder and Rose M. Kirkpatrick had glossed over and not considered the new evidence that SYMA wanted to bring to the Board.
Letter to Mr. Mack Burton
In Mack Burton’s response of 2 March 2001 he refused to consider the points in George T. Chandler’s letter of 21 February 2001.
Letter from Mr. Mack Burton
On 14 March 2001, George Chandler advised Mr. Burton that SYMA would seek an investigation of his office and the misfeasance with which he had administered this petition for a new hearing to examine new evidence.
Certified Letter to Mr. Mack Burton
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