Conscientious Objector USAFA '23 Grad has to pay back $150K

Update on that 2023 USAFA cadet who became a conscientious objector after Israel’s bombing of Gaza.

We covered her here and here along with a response from a USAFA grad (articles also below).

This article on Military.com, Is This ‘What They Signed Up For?’ New Military Missions Ignite Interest in Conscientious Objectors shows she protested and was a arrested at UN Hqs with a 40-day hunger strike calling on authorities to “deliver full humanitarian aid to Gaza and end U.S. weapons transfers to Israel.”

The article states that she is required to pay back $150,000 for her free USAFA tuition courtesy of the American taxpayer. From her fellow USAFA grad husband invoking the word “privilege” about himself twice, we can surmise he’s been indoctrinated too:

” . . . She’s on the hook for a prorated amount of her Air Force Academy tuition, Metzler said, “based on unfulfilled commitment” that amounts to more than $150,000. She said she’s treating it like college debt.

Isaac Hummel, Metzler’s husband (a current Space Force officer; they met at USAFA), said taking on the financial burden was a focus of their many conversations around her decision. They figured they were coming from a “place of privilege” and could afford to pay it off with his Space Force salary. He pushed her to see every side, to be certain she was as sure as she sounded, Hummel said.

“I don’t think she ever doubted if it was worth it,” he said.

While they’d both felt similarly about Gaza, Hummel said, he’d never considered taking such a radical step. “I don’t think I could ever be brave enough to do that,” he said.

He acknowledged that seeing the Marines deployed in California “really kind of shook me.” “I don’t want to be associated with the military to any degree if the public is going to see us in a certain light,” he said.

Working at the Space Force, Hummel said, has given him “the privilege to feel a little disconnected from everything that’s going on.” But he knows he’s still part of the military. His coworkers fall into two camps on his wife’s decision: voice support or avoid the subject entirely. Only once, he said, has a colleague openly confronted him. The conversation ended in respectful disagreement. . . .”

” . . .she plans to enter a graduate school program in mechanical engineering at the University of Central Florida. She’s still working to make sense of her brief time in the military. Though she never deployed and never served in combat, she feels guilt even over having supported military research in developing weapons of war.

Now, when Metzler considers her decision to leave behind the military, she expresses relief. Being able to look at suffering in places like Gaza and feel horror instead of rationalizing military objectives means she’s held on to a valued piece of her humanity, she said. . . .