Around 20 June 1994, on Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington-state....a mass shooting took place, involving Dean Mellberg (age 20).
Dean had shown at the base clinic, armed with a MK-90 (basically a AK-47).....around 3 pm in the afternoon. When the smoke had cleared, he'd killed five individuals, and wounded 22 others.
Dean's basic story? This is rather interesting. Around age 18, he'd enlisted in the Air Force and gone to basic training. Dean had trouble with virtually everyone that he came in contact with, and at some point.....they sent Dean for a mental eval, and the doctor wrote in strong language that Dean needed to be removed from the service. In simple words, a personality disorder existed.
Maybe if they'd held the guy for a week or two.....they might even have reached the point where he'd be noted as paranoid schizophrenic or bi-polar. But no....the paperwork got shuffled around, and they kept Dean in basic training. He would actually graduate and be sent off to aircraft mechanic's school.
When he graduated from mechanic's school....he was sent to Fairchild AFB, Washington. There....he moved into the barracks. Now the second episode comes up....the room-mate sends a note to the commander and strongly suggests that Dean is not sane. The commander actually does send Dean over to the clinic for a mandatory eval. Remember, this isn't the first eval.....it's really the second.
So here in clinic....two doctors exam Dean and come to this remarkable conclusion.....Dean is not just a little bit crazy.....he is dangerous-crazy. They write the recommendation to get Dean out. But here's the funny thing.....somehow, the hospital is convinced to send Dean for another eval (down to Texas, to the main Air Force hospital). They host Dean there for roughly sixteen weeks (yes, an incredible four months of time), and they reach this conclusion....Dean is unfit for service and mentally unstable. In simple terms....he's a threat to just about anyone who knows him.
Whathen it's apparent that Dean will be thrown out....his parents get involved. So they use their Congressman to push the Air Force along with this diagnosis that they'd had for a number of years....that Dean was suffering from some minor form of autism. So a Air Force board met, and the three folks decided that autism was good enough for them, and dumped the recommendations from Fairchild, and the Texas hospital.
But rather than part with Dean there at the Texas Air Force hospital....they make the decision to send Dean back onto duty (just not at Fairchild)....so he's ordered to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. But here is this twist to the story.....they've heard about Dean, and conversed with folks who know the background on the guy. They refuse to accept him. Yes, this is the part of the story.....they weren't going to allow him on Mountain Home.
So Dean gets shifted....to Canon AFB, NM. Dean arrives there and lasts around five weeks. Then....shockingly enough, the new commander asks for another mental eval (number four).
This time, the eval sticks, and Dean is removed from duty....with just a plain discharge. What happens over the next month? Dean travels around the west, and even gets up into Alaska. Then he decides to come back to Fairchild....for revenge.
Dean would die that afternoon....shot by a Senior Airman on duty.
A nutcase from day one? Just based on the comments at basic training....he wasn't sane enough to be in the general public. As far as I can tell....no one has gone back to his years in high school or talked with people who knew him in that period. That might reveal more of the story.
What the Air Force did after this? They changed forms for psychological review, and you had to check certain boxes.....which would indicate treatment only, or dismissal only. That was it.
Dean being unbalanced? I would go and suggest after reading two differing accounts of the story....that Dean was prone to violent encounters, and probably lived in some type of imaginary world.
Here's the thing though.....four different groups of doctors came to the same position....Dean wasn't safe or balanced.
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