The Petraeus sex scandal not only cost the CIA director his job, it has generated a lot of interest about the general’s time spent as commander at U.S. Central Command in Tampa. And it spawned an investigation of a second general, John Allen, over his email exchanges with a Tampa woman.
Many outside the Tampa community are questioning how two four-star generals like Petraeus and Allen, who was also stationed at CENTCOM, could have become friendly with a socialite like Jill Kelley.
For our Off the Base series on military families and veterans, WUSF’s Bobbie O’Brien paints us a picture of Tampa’s military and civilian communities.
Among the many titles that Tampa socialite Jill Kelley has claimed – from honorary counsel for South Korea to honorary ambassador to US Central Command – is the designation – Friend of MacDill.
The Friends of MacDill program was started in 2010 by former MacDill Air Force Base commander Col. Lenny Richoux – who talked with WUSF prior to his change of command this May.
RICHOUX: my number job when I wake up in the morning is base security. Is the base secure? I can absolutely tell you that it is but at the same time I want to open it up.
During his two-year tenure as base commander, Richoux reached out to hundreds of civic leaders, elected officials and other military advocates – inviting them to participate visit the base and volunteer. His philosophy was that the base belonged to the taxpayers. So, he started the MacDill Friends program.
RICHOUX: basically I am vouching for you to come on my base I meet you I shake our hand I get to know you. I tell you about the base. You express interest and then we vet you through a security process then we grant you access to the base for a limited period of time.
Jill Kelley got one of those Friends passes that allowed her access to the base during daylight hours. But she received it several months after Petraeus had left CENTCOM to oversee the war in Afghanistan.
Former Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio received a Friends of MacDill pass but hasn’t used it.
IORIO: it’s a nice good will thing to do to say hey you’re welcome on the base. and the base is part of the community and I think that is what they’ve tried to do is to say hey the community and the military is one and we feel good about that relationship.
And it’s a two-way relationship both on and off the base that Iorio believes is being misconstrued.
IORIO: the one thing that I regret from all this brew-hah-hah that has cropped up over this one couple that has opened up their home to have parties for the military and that’s a very generous thing to do. But it does not typify nor does it represent the relationship of our community to macdill afb.
Iorio attended parties at the Kelley’s house as mayor. She says what’s not getting out is how the community supports MacDill and military families is so many other ways like volunteering at the James A. Haley VA Hospital or the Bayshore Patriots who have waved flags every Friday on Bayshore since 9-11.
Iorio didn’t stop there, she rattled off a list of joint military and civilian efforts.
IORIO: The coalition thanksgiving that was hosted every year at convention by the community. the military affiars council of the greater tampa chamber that would host recognition banquets ... even the south tampa chamber of commerce they had a separate military community honor.
One of those civilian volunteers working with families from CENTCOM’s International Coalition is Tampa resident Dena Leavengood. She says her unofficial help among the families started right after 9-11 when officers from 69 countries and their families were brought into MacDill.
DENA: since then I’ve been passed down from family to family particularly among the Asian coalition representatives and recently in the last year I’ve also gotten more involved with our American military stationed at macdill as well.
Whether international or American an estimated 80 percent of MacDill’s military families live off base – so they’re next door neighbors and their kids go to the same schools.
DENA: and so the fact that anybody in our community might have relationships with any number of people at macdill and particularly since we have so many retirees or people who are former military living in our community then there are likely going to be opportunities where we’re going to be in social situations where we’re going to meet representatitves who are still serving at macdill. we’re all neighbors, we all live together and of course we’re going to have relationships with each other.
So seeing photographs of Jill Kelley with David and Holly Petraeus during a Gasparilla parade is not a novelty to many in Tampa – the military and civilian communities are intertwined.
Former mayor Iorio has talked with several reporters from national news organizations hoping they’ll give a more “well rounded” view of MacDill and Tampa.
IORIO: I think they kind of shorthand it all social functions and macdill, parties and macdill and it just goes way beyond that. And so many people have done a lot of volunteer work for our military and that’s appreciated to me that’s really the nuts and bolts of how we operate at as community.
Iorio says Tampa and MacDill’s reputations will withstand the scandal and she expects the relationship between the city and its Air Force Base to remain strong.