This article first appeared in the War Horse
The invitation to the Padre Island Burger Club in Texas came in while Marine Corps 1st Lt. Allison Bennett was out sailing on a friend’s boat. A flight instructor in her naval aviation training squadron texted that he was meeting with a future flight student. He wanted to know if Bennett could swing by to give her some tips.
Bennett had messaged a bit with the Marine instructor, mostly about flying, but she didn’t know him well. Personal relationships between flight instructors and flight students are strictly forbidden. But Bennett wanted to pay forward the camaraderie she’d found since she’d started flight training six months earlier, in April of 2020. The sailboat outing was wrapping up, so she asked a fellow flight student to tag along, and the two women headed to the restaurant.
When they arrived, they found the instructor with several friends. He didn’t introduce Bennett to any prospective flight students, she later told investigators, and no one seemed interested in talking about flight school. After a few drinks, when Bennett and her friend tried to head out, the instructor offered them a ride home, she said.
Instead, he and his friends took the two women to his house, Bennett says. There, she says, he tried to kiss her, and she…
