Posted on 04/01/2003 10:44:58 PM PST by JohnHuang2
ASHINGTON, April 1 — Prompted by scathing rebukes at a Senate hearing on Monday, Air Force Secretary James G. Roche today vowed to "look deeper" into the actions of top officials at the Air Force Academy and issued criteria by which they could be punished for failing to address the difficulties women cadets faced in reporting sexual assaults.
Appearing today before a subcommittee of the House Armed Service Committee, Mr. Roche and Gen. John P. Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff, acknowledged the displeasure they had endured in hearings on Monday. At that time, they hesitated to openly criticize the outgoing leaders of the academy, saying they inherited a culture that denigrated women cadets, and were no more responsible for the climate than any of the academy's earlier leaders.
With the war raging in Iraq, it was not the Air Force's performance on the battlefield, but here at home that appeared to consume the secretary and his chief of staff, with the announcement of yet another investigation into the troubled academy in Colorado Springs.
There are already three investigations under way, and today a fourth entity — still undefined — joined the fray. The new group, whose members have not been announced, is to work under the aegis of the academy's Board of Visitors. It will be the only group looking into the events at the academy that is not formally affiliated with the Department of Defense.
In addition, an assistant district attorney in El Paso County, where the academy is located, announced an investigation into one accusation of sexual assault in which a cadet at the academy said she was unsatisfied with the academy's inquiry.
In discussing the criteria they had developed, apparently since Monday's hearing, Mr. Roche raised the possibility that earlier administrations at the academy could also be held responsible for failing to address hostility toward women cadets.
He vowed that if Defense Department investigations show that "credible information came to their attention that they should have acted upon, or that they failed to follow due process, they will be held accountable."
Mr. Roche also asked: "Was there information available to recent leadership that should have raised their awareness of climate problems? Did any administration put in place additional barriers that prevented victims from coming forward?"
The reversal came less than a week after Mr. Roche and General Jumper made statements that appeared to exonerate the academy's leadership even before the first investigation was completed, prompting Congressional ire. The very public decision to hold them accountable had not been discussed with the leadership, an official at the academy said.
Women cadets had quoted Brig. Gen. S. Taco Gilbert III, the commandant of cadets, as forcefully insisting they face responsibility for bringing on sexual assaults, in some cases by drinking too much and socializing with male cadets. This week, lawmakers are demanding that the general, who had apologized for those remarks, face responsibility for his actions, along with the superintendent of the academy, Lt. Gen. John R. Dallager. Both men are being replaced.
In the hearings, Air Force officials also publicly acknowledged for the first time that a longstanding policy guaranteeing amnesty to victims of rape who come forward had in many cases been ignored.
Mr. Roche acknowledged that the amnesty had in fact been selectively applied. In the vast majority of cases that did not lead to formal prosecution, he said, investigators subsequently charged the cadets making the accusations with the very infractions they had promised to overlook. The practice contributed to the sense that it was more dangerous, for the victim and friends who might have been present when assaults occurred, to report rape than to remain silent.
So far, legislators appeared unconvinced by the steps the Air Force leadership has announced. Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado, called them "window dressing." Noting that one proposal requires cadets to knock before entering another cadet's dorm room, she said, "If someone's hellbent on raping a female cadet, they're not going to knock first."
Representative Heather A. Wilson, Republican of New Mexico, questioned plans to cluster female cadets in dormitories around the women's bathrooms.
"This is not about segregating women from men," said Representative Wilson, who graduated in the very first class of women cadets at the academy in 1980. "It's about segregating rapists from the academy."
In recent months, dozens of women cadets said they were sexually assaulted at the academy, but were driven into silence by a pattern of retribution from above and ostracism by fellow cadets. In the last 10 years, Air Force officials have said, 56 women have officially reported being sexually assaulted, but they acknowledge that the figures represent only a small corner of a much larger tableau.
I read an article on the web about one of the young women who claimed to have been gang raped by cadets a party. She was apparently given the X-drug and five guys took turns with her on a matress. She was so humiliated she could not stay in school. The whole academy knew and they were laughing at her ... She just quit a few days after the gang rape.
It was a couple more years, after going through a lot of psychiatric care, that she finally managed to scrape together enough will power to bring the matter up. She did not do it alone. She has witness statements from men who were there and about admission by the guilty parties. This one brave girl raised the matter into the public eye and took it before Congress. She is pretty gutsy in my view.
I saw a photo of her and she doesn't look like a feminazi. She looks like any other pretty 19 year old college girl.
I stand by what I said before about me and my baseball bat. I meant it.
Been there and done that. 'Nuff said.
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