Racist texts denying an airman a special duty were fake, Air Force investigation finds

Air Force investigators found that a series of purported text messages where an airman allegedly told another airman that he was not being considered for a position because “the Air Force is looking for somebody of white complexion” were fake.

“Following an exhaustive investigation, authorities determined that the statements published did not occur and the text messages were fake,” Sean Clements, chief of media relations for the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona told Task & Purpose on Monday.

In May, base officials began investigating the texts, which first appeared on the popular Facebook page Air Force amn/snco/nco and allegedly occurred between a technical sergeant and a Black senior airman at the base’s 56th Equipment Maintenance Squadron.

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If this was in fact the case, the senior airman would not be the first member of the Air Force or prospective member of the Air Force to compose fake racist messages.

In 2017, racial slurs were written on the dormitory message boards of five black cadet candidates at the Air Force Academy Preparatory School, Air Force Times reported at the time. Two months later, the academy said that one of the cadet candidates thought to have been a victim of the slurs had admitted to being responsible for them. The cadet candidate said he wrote the slurs because of an untreated concussion, according to Air Force Times.