Rape in the ranks
The United States Air Force has been rocked by allegations of rape within its academy. Anayat Durrani reports from Los Angeles
Air Force officials are investigating at least 54 cases of sexual assault or rape that occurred at the Air Force Academy outside Colorado Springs over the past 10 years. Officials are saying they believe there are many more victims that have not yet come forward. "What frightens me most is the climate that has affected so many others who have not come forward," Air Force Secretary James Roche said Thursday on Capitol Hill. "While we have seen, whatever the number is, 25, 50, there are probably a hundred more that we do not see."
Many of the alleged victims have not come forward out of fear. Several cadets who filed reports of sexual assault or rape were ostracised or faced retaliation. Others were reprimanded for infractions such as drinking alcohol or having sex in dormitories. One cadet was reported as saying the assaults were so common that former cadets often warned others to keep silent or risk losing their career. Air Force officials say the rape scandal is as serious as the Navy's 1991 Tailhook incident. During this incident several dozen women were sexually harassed, groped and assaulted by drunken navy pilots at a convention in Las Vegas of the US Navy aviators' Tailhook Association.
The Air Force is currently investigating the alleged incidents of rape, and at least four US senators have called for an outside enquiry. In 1993 the Air Force Academy invoked policies to address sexual assault issues. Three years later a 24-hour rape hotline was set up and run by cadets. Roche said academy officials thought these changes were working, until now. "This is a problem that our cadets are having," Roche said. "We have cadets who have misused power, who have done things that we cannot tolerate. We will not tolerate any cadet who sexually assaults another," he added. "We will not tolerate a cadet who harbours [a cadet] who has [assaulted another one], or a cadet who was present and allowed something like that to go on and didn't do something about it, and, especially, we will not tolerate cadets who harass or who shun that cadet who has the courage to come forward."
Roche asked other female cadets who have been victims of sexual assault to find the courage to come forward. "We need, first and foremost, for the male cadets to take the initiative," Roche said. "We will do whatever we have to do with regard to the administration of the academy. We also need to ask -- and this is tough -- for the courage of a number of the female cadets to come forward."
Air Force Chief of Staff General John Jumper met last Thursday and Friday with the cadets to discuss the growing scandal. At the academy on Friday, Jumper said he wanted to rid the academy and Air Force of any sexual predators. "We have to create a situation in the dormitories where we make sure the conditions are not conducive for would-be predators to be around females at the wrong time and in the wrong setting."
More than 200 female cadets are set to arrive within 90 days. Jumper said he and Roche contacted the parents of all incoming female cadets to assure them their daughters will be safe at the academy, "and that we in our day-to-day life have an environment where the basic human dignity of males and females is preserved in this very intense situation where they live together and undertake military duty and athletics together virtually 24 hours a day. There has to be this separation that provides for human dignity," said Jumper.
The academy began admitting women in 1976. Jumper declined to blame the current leadership, Lieutenant-General John Dallagher, the superintendent, and Major- General Sylvanus Taco Gilbert, the commandant, for the current situation. He said he had no plans to fire any commanders, but added, "nobody has been absolved of anything, including me." In the past 10 years, according to Roche, two Air Force cadets have been charged with rape. One was acquitted while another pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven months in jail.
In other cases where there was not enough evidence to prosecute, administrative action was taken, he said. In the past 7 years, only 20 cases of sexual assault have been formally investigated at the school. This led to the dismissal of 8 male cadets. No cadet has ever been court- martialled for sexual assault.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 13 - 19 March 2003 (Issue No. 629)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/629/in6.htm