54 Cases of Rape, Assault Cited

In the most explicit acknowledgment by the military of the scale of reported sexual attacks at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Air Force Secretary James Roche said Thursday that 54 cases of rape or sexual assault have been identified at the service’s premier school and many more cases are likely to be reported in the days to come.

“The part that is the saddest thing ... whatever we see, whatever the number is, 25, 50, there are probably a hundred more that we do not see,” Roche told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

With the reports threatening to balloon into one of the largest military sex scandals since Tailhook rocked the Navy 12 years ago, senior Air Force officials said they are weighing wholesale changes at the Colorado Springs, Colo., institution.

“We’re learning enough to realize that change must occur -- change in the climate, change in how we manage” the academy, Roche said.

Roche did not detail when the assaults occurred or what reports make up the 54 cases he cited. But he said cases are being identified that will be the priority for follow-up by the Department of Defense’s inspector general, focusing on cases “where the person who placed the accusation felt the system let them down.”

At the Air Force Academy, a spokesman questioned the accuracy of the number Roche cited.

“Where does that number come from? We just don’t know,” said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Perry Nouis. “We sure hope that isn’t the case. One is too many, and the bigger the number the worse it is.”

Allegations of sexual assaults and rapes at the Air Force Academy aren’t new. A 1994 report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found that 78% of the 90 female cadets at the academy reported either sexual assaults or unwanted sexual advances.

In some of the recent cases at the academy, where 4,000 cadets -- about 18% of whom are women -- study to become Air Force officers, women said that when they came forward they were asked if they were drinking or fraternizing with upperclassmen, leading many to feel the academy was justifying the assaults. The women who have come forward include current cadets and academy graduates.

As Roche spoke on Capitol Hill, the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. John P. Jumper, was en route to the academy, where he was scheduled to meet today with cadets, administrators, commanders and faculty. An Air Force official said Jumper planned to remind cadets that they have a duty to report anything they might know about any alleged assaults.

Air Force investigators based at the Pentagon spent 10 days last month at the academy looking into the allegations and urging others to come forward, Nouis said. He said the fact-finding team plans to issue a report by the end of March.

Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) told Roche at the hearing that the situation at the academy is worse than the 1991 Tailhook scandal, when dozens of women complained they were groped or assaulted by drunken pilots at a Navy booster group’s convention.

“The entire support and legal system at the academy appears to have failed,” Allard said. “We really do need to instill confidence in the system so victims know when they report rape, they know the rape itself will not jeopardize their career.”

Rep. Thomas G. Tancredo (R-Colo.) has accused the academy’s top commanders of mishandling rape allegations and said they should be removed. But a spokesman for Roche issued a statement Thursday refusing to blame the academy’s top brass.

“We believe this regrettable situation has resulted from a climate at the academy that has evolved over time,” Lt. Col. Chester Curtis said. “We will not make a scapegoat of anyone nor offer preemptive judgments on any issue, but will ensure justice is served on all levels.”

Sen. John W. Warner, the Virginia Republican who chairs the Armed Services Committee, said the heads of each of the military services have a responsibility to investigate their service academies -- the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. -- to ensure that the same misconduct is not occurring elsewhere.

Terri Spahr Nelson, who served in the Army and wrote a book on rape and sexual harassment in the military, praised Roche for confronting the problem.

“The fact that they’re acknowledging the problem with the climate and the culture is a start in the right direction,” Spahr Nelson said.

“It’s opening the doors for women to start to come forward.”