Thursday, March 30, 2017

the investigation report

It has been just over nine months since Ryan's death and this morning the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI FOIA specialist) released their investigation report to me.  There is a full investigation done after the death of any service member and that investigation report then goes up to the Pentagon for review.  A copy of that is what was provided to me (electronically) this morning.  I knew it was coming at some point, I had been told it would take somewhere between 6 to 12 months to finish the investigation and provide me a copy.  It took 9 months and randomly arrived in my email inbox this morning.
It is a 124 page document with the details of June 24th, along with interviews from coworkers, supervisors, and friends & family (mine included), the police reports, medical reports, and the background of Ryan's 16-year AF career.  I began reading the first 20 pages of the report this morning and my heart just hurt, kind of re-living last June again and feeling frustrated for Ryan's tender, hurting heart.  There does not really appear to be anything shocking or new to me in the report, but I know I need to read it in order to have some sense of "closure" or at least know that I have all the details that I will get on this side of heaven.
I did not have time to read all 124 pages this morning because I needed to get Katherine to school and get myself going for a zillion different pressing responsibilities calling my name today.  So I closed the document, planning to come back to it again this weekend when I have sufficient time to sit and grieve and read it.  But then I realized that the instructions in the email said it was a "one time read" file and that after opening it that one time, I locked myself out of the document.  I tried reopening the file and I am indeed locked out.  Sigh.  I submitted a request to the AF office asking for it to be unlocked for me one more time, explaining that I did not fully read the directions before opening the file this morning.  I think it is probably God's way of saying, "wait, you have enough on your plate for today, this report can be put aside until you can sit in My presence this weekend and we will read and grieve together."  So please pray for me this week, that the AF grant me access to that file again so that I can indeed read it.  And pray for my hurting heart as I go through the details of Ryan's career and hurts leading up to his death.  And then please pray that I can use all that information to reach out to provide help to others in some way.
**Edited to add:  I did receive another one-time access to the report and I plan to sit down this weekend (not alone) to read through the whole thing.

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