MAJOR GETS JAIL AND DISMISSAL FROM THE
SERVICE IN AIR FORCE ROTC SCANDAL - ADMITS
HAD AFFAIR WITH FEMALE CADET - GAVE
ALCOHOL TO CADETS AT UNIVERSITY OF
MISSISSIPPI - RUSSELL MELVIN ADMITS AT
COURT-MARTIAL HE HAD SEX WITH YOUNG
WOMAN - MARRIED OFFICER TRIED TO TAMPER
WITH WITNESSES, OFFICIALS REPORT

The Air Force ROTC instructor at the University of Mississippi got "too close" to his cadets in more ways than one.

Maj. Russell Melvin found out plying his (in some cases) underage cadets with alcohol and having an affair with a young woman, even after she was commissioned, carried a heavy price.  The field-grade was court-martialed and kicked out of the service. He also received nine months in jail for his actions.

The former commandant of cadets and professor of aerospace studies admitted on the stand that he had committed those crimes and more.  He acknowledged he'd even got some of his cadets to lie to investigators in an attempt to cover-up the officer's misconduct.

But it was the relationship between Melvin and the unidentified female cadet, now an Air force 2nd lieutenant, that did him in.  The officer is married, and word of the illicit romance got back not only to the major's wife, it was widely known at the U-Miss campus in Oxford.

By pleading guilty to the charges, Melvin may have hoped to avoid being dismissed from the Air Force, but it did him little good.  His bad behavior and witness tampering was too serious for there to be any other result.

The major was assigned to ROTC Detachment 430 in 2003. His illegal actions began the following year, investigators said.