Exclusive: Air Force moves to dismiss NJ sergeant facing psychological struggles | Kelly

Mike Kelly
NorthJersey.com
June 21, 2024
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A U.S. Air Force sergeant who reportedly attempted suicide several times after returning from a deployment last year in the Middle East was told this week that he has to leave his base in New Jersey.

The tale of Kyle Matthews’ psychological troubles, first reported by this columnist on NorthJersey.com two months ago, raises questions about whether the Pentagon is adequately addressing a rising chorus of concern about widening mental health problems within the ranks.

But this week, that story took a sudden and ominous turn.

When Matthews’ psychological problems and his efforts to find proper treatment were outlined by NorthJersey.com in a lengthy, exclusive report in June, the Air Force indicated to Matthews that it would review his case. But in a surprise move and without even a hint of warning, the Air Force appears to have ended its review.

Matthews, 28, a nine-year Air Force veteran and father of six young children, who is stationed at the sprawling Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, in South Jersey, received formal orders this week that he would be dismissed from the military next Tuesday.

Unless the Pentagon intervenes, Matthews will have to move out of a three-bedroom home on the base with his wife and the couple's children, who range from 3 to 9 years old and include two sets of twins.

What's next for Kyle Matthews? 'We're totally overwhelmed'

Reached by phone on Wednesday, Matthews and his wife, Kylie, 31, said they are scrambling to try to find a moving service to transport their furniture and other belongings, possibly to central Pennsylvania, where they grew up and where they may try to live with relatives.  

“We’re totally overwhelmed,” Matthews said in a brief telephone interview as he shuttled between offices at the base.

“I can’t believe they’re doing this,” Kylie Matthews added in a separate interview. “They’re breaking so many federal laws, and nobody cares. We have nowhere to go.”

So far, the Matthewses have few allies or advocates. 

They’ve appealed to a variety of political figures — notably U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, a Democrat, whose district includes Joint Base McGuire, and U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, where both Kyle and Kylie Matthews grew up.

But representatives of Kim and Fetterman say they have been unable to convince the Air Force to change course.

Meanwhile, a veterans group has appealed to the Pentagon — and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin — to step in and halt Matthews’ administrative discharge until doctors can come to some sort of agreement on his medical condition and how to treat it.

In an email to Austin, shared with NorthJersey.com, Jeremy Sorenson, a former Air Force fighter pilot and now the director of guard and reserve affairs for the nonprofit Uniformed Services Justice & Advocacy Group, called the Air Force’s dismissal of Matthews “unlawful.”

Reached by phone, Sorenson further accused the Air Force of deliberately engaging in “systemic, unlawful misconduct” in its handling of the Matthews case.

Brenda Gohr, a Texas-based attorney and former Air Force officer and military lawyer, who has taken up Matthews’ case in her role as a legal representative for a group called The Veteran's Advocate, said she is not hopeful that Matthews’ dismissal from the military can be appealed.

In general, Gohr said, service members have few rights in trying to fight formal orders from the military. For example, asking for a court injunction to stop the dismissal — as might happen in the civilian world — is generally considered out of bounds and legally groundless in military issues. Nonetheless, Gohr — as Sorenson has done — said she is trying to appeal to Pentagon officials to step in and reassess Matthews’ case.

A spokesman at Joint Base McGuire declined to comment, citing military policy not to comment on a “personal matter.” Reached at the Pentagon, an Air Force spokeswoman also declined to comment for now but promised to examine the matter.

Mike Kelly exclusive:How does the military handle trauma? NJ sergeant's struggles raise questions

How does the military react to psychological problems?

What is striking in the story of Kyle Matthews is how civilian and military doctors have reached distinctly different conclusions on the nature of his psychological problems.

For the Pentagon, the wider attempt to cope with psychological trauma within the ranks spans nearly a quarter-century and two wars. More than 7,000 U.S. service members died in those conflicts, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan. But another 30,000 took their own lives, often after returning home and finding they were unable to cope with the trauma of war and a lonely deployment in a hostile land where death often came at the hands of a booby-trap roadside bomb. Thousands more were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other psychological problems.

Civilian doctors who examined Matthews at the request of the Air Force after his suicide attempts concluded that his mental health problems ranged from post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder to depression and anxiety. 

Doctors at Joint Base McGuire, however, said Matthews was suffering merely from less serious adjustment and personality disorders. The Air Force also suggested in medical records reviewed by this columnist that Matthews may be faking his psychological trauma in an effort to gain additional veterans benefits.

Matthews denies that he is faking anything — including three suicide attempts. What's more, the Air Force, despite denying that Matthews suffers from serious problems such as bipolar disorder, has nonetheless prescribed medication for him to treat bipolar disorder.

What both sides agree on is that these problems worsened when Matthews’ unit, the 305th Aerial Port Squadron, was deployed from Joint Base McGuire to a remote base in the Kuwaiti desert, where it helped to coordinate U.S. military air traffic throughout the Middle East.

'My husband ... never came home'

In a 3,700-word written statement to NorthJersey.com, Kylie Matthews described her husband as a dramatically changed man, with a personality she did not recognize, after he returned from Kuwait in April 2023. 

“Though he ‘physically’ returned,” Kylie wrote, “my husband, the man that I fell in love with, never came home.”

Soon after returning home, Matthews sought psychological help. He also asked to leave the Air Force. 

The Air Force complied. But now, claiming he did not realize the full extent of what leaving the Air Force would mean, Matthews wants to stay in the military — at least until he can arrange for additional veterans benefits to pay for his psychological treatments.

Matthews says the Air Force’s administrative discharge would leave him without the ability to be treated for a variety of mental health problems.

“I’m trying to be positive,” Kyle Matthews said. “I’ve completely lost hope.”

Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com, part of the USA TODAY Network, as well as the author of three critically acclaimed nonfiction books and a podcast and documentary film producer. A paperback edition with an updated epilogue of his 1995 book, "Color Lines," which chronicles race relations in a small New Jersey town after a police shooting and was called "American journalism at its best" by the Washington Post, was released last year. To get unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live life in the Northeast, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: kellym@northjersey.com