Please allow me to respond without saying I am bashing you or you comments. I understand full well how you arrived at your questions.
That's what I don't get in these cases. Why can't they just date civilians? Why hit on other military?
Many of them do. Their used to be an expression among 2nd Lts who were married right out of the Academy: Colorodo Springs Brides. The women in Colorado are beautiful, smart, and charming. Many cadets date them. But----human beings cloistered together at the AF Academy in tight bunches tend to associate closely with one another. There is another expression there: Falcon Luv. It is based on the school mascot and a tongue in cheek reference to the romances that occur at the Academy. Do a search on Google about where many spouses and lovers meet their mates:
Many, many say they meet them at their places of employment and/or school. The AF Academy is no different.
Have there been rapes there? I just don't know, but I suspect there have been some, of course. You would be a fool not to believe otherwise. Have they been as numerous as the accusations, and as the NOW gang says? I doubt it.
But I do know this: many of the female cadets who have accused others had a HUGE ax to grind--because they were lousy cadets and were kicked out.
What is being done to the institution is harmful--and everyone knows it---and most are afraid to say anything.
Bingo, the perception that trying harder can somehow overcome the riggers of training, is a myth. Physical endurance is an acquired attribute but cannot overcome sheer body size, and natural strength.
More than a majority of men cannot measure up to the physical requirements of the Academy, how would we expect the normal woman to do so. It's a given, and I've witnessed it that there are the occasional woman that could master these tasks, and even far excelled, but if my memory served me well, ..those are not, in most part, the women that are the object of the affection of the average red blooded male cadet...if you get my drift....drifting on