MSgt Michael Silva

befMSgt Michael Silva

The Tragic Tale of U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant Michael Silva

MSgt Michael Silva was raised in a military family. His father was a Vietnam Vet, served more than 30 years in the Army and retired a Command Sergeant Major. Michael was taught early on in life to work hard and be a good Christian. He followed in his father’s footsteps by not only serving his country, but mentoring and leading along the way. Michael enlisted at the age of 20, honorably serving his country for over 24 years. He held various positions in the following professions, including Crew Chief, Military Training Instructor (MTI), Base Safety, Wing Executive Assistant, Physical Therapy, Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge of the Base Honor Guard, and Commandant of the Air Force’s largest Airman Leadership School. Most notably was his commitment to molding and shaping the Air Force military recruits as a MTI from 1994-2003. Michael was selected by his leadership to train new MTI’s, receiving many awards and accolades. Once he had completed 6 years as a MTI at ‘Basic Military Training’ Lackland AFB for enlisted personnel, he was handpicked to move on to ‘Officer Training School’ as an MTI for our new officer accessions for another 3 years. Only the best MTI’s are selected to fulfil this role. Michael has an exceptional military record, perfect performance reports and was frequently acknowledged for his outstanding and selfless duties.

Early on in his career ‘93, Michael became a single father, with sole custody of his 2 year old son. He dated many women over the years, looking for that ‘perfect person’ to settle down with. In April 2007, after numerous attempts at rekindling another failing marriage he decided to follow through with finalizing a divorce he had been contemplating since Feb when he and his wife originally separated. While discussing asset division he mentioned to his wife Jennifer that he would let her keep the car he was purchasing for her, if she would change her last name. Jennifer contacted USAA and the local police department inquiring how to force Michael to sign over the title without changing her name. When both agencies relayed to her that they couldn’t assist, she tried one last ditch effort to save the marriage that she didn’t want to end. Jennifer contacted Michael’s mother Linda asking for assistance to help change his mind. When his mother refused to get in the middle of their relationship issues, Jennifer ended the conversation by telling his mother “I’m going to ruin your son’s career” and hung up the phone.

The next morning Jennifer discussed her marital and property division issues with her leadership which in turn resulted in a false rape allegation. In a sworn statement made to investigators, she wrote that they had “removed each other’s clothing and sex was consensual to both parties”. Following procedure, a rape kit was conducted at the local hospital; she stated to the SANE nurse that “the sex was consensual”. A few days later she recanted her initial allegation she had made to investigators, “I do not feel after reading Article 120 that the situation reported to OSI meets the criteria of this allegation. I consented to intimacy with Michael Silva. I only thought it necessary to report since my leadership advised it was the right steps to take. I had no intention of reporting this; I had wanted to put this behind me. Master Sgt. Batten asked if Mike was forceful or had aggressive behavior in intimacy. I wasn’t aware this was headed toward rape charges. I didn’t know where this fit. I know Mike has an aggressive and controlling personality, but don’t feel that rape depicts our situation”.

Ultimately, the investigation seized, the case was closed by not only his now ex-wife, but the AF Legal Office and Office of Special Investigations. He soon left to Japan in fall of 2007. Early in 2009, his father had an accident and suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury; he was reassigned back to San Antonio to provide care to his crippled father. Unbeknownst to Michael, in Oct 2012, in the midst of the Lackland Sex Scandal, a basic trainee from 1995, made false allegations against him. This trainee did not graduate from basic training 17 years earlier, was only in Mike’s flight for 2.5 days, she was later sent home for migraines. There were 59 investigators, investigating against him. His defense attorney requested $1500.00 for an unbiased civilian investigator to work for the defense. The convening authority denied the request, appointed 1 investigator working for the same OSI agency to investigate on Michael’s behalf. The investigator produced absolutely nothing! Michael was simply a scape goat.

In January, 2015 – MSgt Michael Silva was found guilty of raping his ex-wife in 2007 and this Basic Trainee in 1995. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and a dishonorable discharge from the military. They allowed a previous recanted allegation to stack the case against him, like they do in so many cases.

Both of Michael’s convictions were based purely on he said/she said testimony, no evidence, merely corroboration of witnesses after investigator interviews. The prosecution withheld critical military documents outlining her timeline because they knew that the story was simply impossible. Since the wrongful conviction of Michael Silva, we have found hundreds of pieces of evidence and lies about this trainee’s life, including court documents from the county she lives in and public social media posts she made. Her posts are on dozens of pages and were made prior to her officially making formal allegations against him. In these posts she claims that the person that assaulted her is now a CMSgt, stationed 2 hrs up the road from her and that she recently saw her assailants name on the CMSgt Promotion list. She lives in Washington State, he was stationed in San Antonio since 2009 and has never been stationed at McChord AFB as she infers. He is 2 ranks lower than a CMSgt and he had not been on a promotion list since 2008, additionally there is no one by the last name Silva on the AF CMSgt promotion list in 2011.

She originally reported that he raped her once, but a month later she changed her story and reported he raped her a second time a few nights later, she changed her story on multiple other occasions adding specific details after OSI Investigators questioned other people, they fed her an MO and she made it part of her narrative.

This disturbed woman has posted on social media that she suffers from Bi-Polar disorder, Post-Partum Depression, she has 7 children, one died in Dec 2011. 5 of her children have not lived with her since 2003, she only started making accusations after she remarried an Army Veteran that is living off VA Disability. Also discovered were the court documents that contain information that she was sexually assaulted by her step father prior to joining the Air Force and he was sentenced to 4 years in prison just released after she left for Basic Training. She had a psychic website where she charged $60-70 an hour for readings. She claims to have studied law, criminal justice and psychology – also claiming that she is working on her doctrine in psychology, but she didn’t even have an associate’s degree. These are just a few of the facts about this tragedy, a story about a woman suffering from mental health issues and has dealt with a lot in her life, but Michael Silva should not have to pay for her misfortunes that he is not responsible for. The motive in this case is very simple, to collect VA money.

Read More about MSgt Silva’s case at http://saveourheroesproject.org/how-the-air-force-failed-msgt-michael-silva/

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