A friend in the service who has a higher rank told me that not only is sexual assault skyrocketing in the military, same sex assaults are at the core.
Not your father’s military.
I will reserve judgement on the sexual assault increasing in the Military. Clearly there is more sensitivity thus more reporting and accusations. I heard that in the Airforce they can not get Airmen to be TI’s (Drill Sergeants) because of the liability. AF has forced duty on Airman by restricting non-commission officer promotions until they have a TI rotation. TIs are never alone with trainees, i.e., witness is always present.
In my Father's military, anyone who tried that (same sex assault) would be wounded in the next engagement. Not fatal, but enough to be shipped out permanently.
For most of my twenty years in the AF, I only noted same sex assault occurring on one occasion....the AF was quick to put the guy up for assault, find adequate reasons for jail-time, and bad conduct discharge.
After I retired, in one single year....we had two high profile same sex assault cases on Ramstein. Both end up in very public court martial settings. Both were using alcohol with younger members and enticing them. Almost within a month of each other, the courts found both guilty and were sentenced off to a couple of years in prison, and BC discharge. The gut feeling around the base was that it was a warning about how harsh they’d react when it occurs. Later, I brought this up with an Army guy in Europe, who said that they probably handle twenty-odd cases a year like this and just shove the guys out of the service.
That’s actually what I expected - that it would be males raping males that was “tolerated”.
“Not your father’s military.”
If that had happened to one of my daughter’s, there WOULD BE a father involved.