Investigations into a growing sex scandal at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas culminated in Congressional hearings before the House Armed Services Committee today.
"As of this week, 32 basic training instructors at Lackland are under investigation stemming from sexual misconduct allegations and 59 alleged victims have been identified by the base," wrote the Los Angeles Times.
"A report in mid-November found that a fractured command culture and 'leadership gap' at Lackland helped fuel the scandal. Six basic training instructors at the base have been convicted of sexual misconduct dating to 2008 and nine trials are scheduled. Staff Sgt. Eddy C. Soto faces a possible life sentence at trial next week for the alleged rape of a female trainee."
The military as a whole has undergone soul-searching over a male-dominated culture that results in high rates of sexual assault.
"Why, on what was undoubtedly the worst day of a victim's life, did they not turn to us for help?" asked Air Force Gen. Mark Welsh III at the hearings. "We are missing something fundamental in human-to-human interaction that will allow them to feel safe enough to come to us and report and let us put our arms around them and help them through this horrible event in your life. That's at the heart of the problem."
Even with official support, many victims are still fearful of coming forward. "Combing through the last year of sexual assault statistics, US military officials found a statistic that particularly troubled them: Nearly one-third of victims who agreed to participate in the prosecutions of their alleged offenders changed their minds before the trials, and decided not to cooperate with the prosecution," wrote the Christian Science Monitor.
Still efforts to change the culture of the military seem genuine, though it remains to be seen whether they will be successful.
"It's not just 'Don't sexually assault people.' This is a piece of respect -- how do you weave that in? It's about how you lead people, how you treat people," said Brig. Gen. Eden Murrie, director of Air Force Services. "That's what we're doing today. We're looking at everything. Does it need to be radically changed? Do we just tweak it around the edges?"
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