WASHINGTON – The Air Force needs sweeping changes to its basic military training program to prevent the kind of sexual misconduct that happened at Lackland Air Force Base, a new report asserts.
Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward investigated the sexual misconduct allegations, which range from abuse to harassment to sexual assault and rape, that occurred at the Air Force’s only basic-training base in San Antonio.
Weak leadership and a lack of oversight led to a breakdown of good order and discipline, the report found. Fourteen of the 46 recommendations focus on how to strengthen leadership.
The scandal started to unfold in June of 2011, when allegations arose of an instructor sexually assaulting a trainee. After investigating, the Air Force found more instances of unprofessional relationships between instructors and trainees.
“In Basic Military Training, witnesses reported a lack of oversight by unit leadership. No only did this prevent detection and deterrence, it also created the impression that leadership did not care,” read the report, which was released last week.
Currently, there is one commanding officer who oversees more than 1,000 staff and trainees.
Adding more officers to the trainees squadrons will diffuse power and increase oversight within the squads, helping instructors police themselves, Gen. Edward A. Rice Jr., Commander of Air Education and Training Command at Lackland, said at a Pentagon briefing to announce the findings.
Rice pointed to inexperienced training instructors as part of the problem. Following the report’s recommendation, each squadron is now required to be staffed by a first sergeant with at least a year of supervising experience under his belt.
The Air Force also plans to increase the ratio of female instructors so one out of every four instructors is a woman, regardless of the gender of the trainees, so both genders can work with members of the opposite sex.
This will be the last recommendation to be implemented because there aren’t enough females instructors right now, Rice said.
Twenty-five instructors have been investigated and 49 victims have been identified. The five instructors who were court-martialed were all convicted, with six charged instructors awaiting trial.
The investigation showed 35 of the 49 alleged victims were involved in unprofessional relationships with instructors.
Rice pointed to weaknesses in the institutional safeguards designed to prevent sexual and professional misconduct. “Coupled with poor detection methods, it contributed to a culture where misconduct appeared to be tolerated by leadership,” he wrote in his review of the investigation.
Critics of the report say the recommendations are “good steps,” but don’t go far enough to protect potential victims of sexual assault within the military. Thirteen women were allegedly sexually assaulted at Lackland— six by Staff Sgt. Luis Walker who was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
“They do not correct the flaws within the military justice system,” said Anu Bhagwati, executive director of Service Women’s Action Network
“The DoD needs to five case disposition authority to military prosecutors, and also give service members access to the civil courts if military justice fails them,” Bhagwati said.
Of the 46 recommendations in Woodward’s report, Rice said he plans to implement 45. The left-out recommendation looked at reducing the length of the basic training course to eliminate “white space” from the schedule.
Right now, more than 35,000 recruits go through the eight-and-a half-week course every year. Rice said the Air Force is committed to following through with the recommendations and “make it living.”
“This isn’t the end. This is an ongoing process,” Rice said.
The report was released last week amidst a larger scandal – former CIA Director David Petraeus, a decorated general, admitting to an extramarital affair with his biographer – that’s consuming the Pentagon and forcing the military to ask difficult questions about leadership.