http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/23/nraf23.xml By Chris Boffey Filed: 23/04/2004 When Kelsey McMillan arrived for duty at RAF Valley the soldiers guarding the airbase snapped a salute after taking note of her captain's uniform and checking her identity card. She told them she was a medical officer arriving for a retraining course and they pointed her in the direction of the duty adjutant and the officers' mess. For more than five months she was welcomed at the RAF base in Anglesey, north Wales, motto In Adversis Perfugium ("refuge in adversity") and showed her mettle on training missions in Sea King helicopters and in the hospital block, where she sat in on medical examinations. The 35-year-old was also popular in the officers' mess; always generous in the bar, even running up a £300 bill. But "Captain" McMillan sparked off a major security appraisal after it was discovered that she was an impostor with an obsession for uniforms; her only connection with the Armed Forces being as a private in the Territorial Army. Yesterday, the RAF admitted being duped. A spokesman said: "She presented herself very well and turned up in an impeccable captain's uniform and with Army identification. She was very plausible. "However, we have already taken steps to make sure that this does not happen again, not just at Valley but at all military bases across the UK. McMillan is, at the moment, still a member of the TA and is being investigated by military police." McMillan's five months of subterfuge began in October last year when she turned up at the main gate of RAF Valley claiming to be on detachment from the Army. She also said her fiancé lived on the airfield. She moved into the officers' mess, putting all her bills on credit and explaining that her Army pay had been delayed because of the transfer. As a medic she was assigned to 22 Squadron's search and rescue unit and flew on training missions. She also sat in on examinations in the hospital block but did not administer treatment. McMillan was finally found out when, knowing that she might have stretched the limits of her credibility at RAF Valley, she applied for a transfer to the Royal Navy Air Station Culdrose, near Helston, Cornwall. Within four days of joining the base she was arrested by military police. The civilian police were called in and she was given a caution but no charges were brought. TA members can be subjected to court martial but it is understood that she will be spared that ordeal and at the end of the investigation will be thrown out of the military. She has already been stripped of her ID card. Her parents have settled the outstanding mess bill. _________________________________________ ISN mailing list Sponsored by: OSVDB.org
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