Hearing on the Air Force Investigation and Response to Allegations of Sexual Assault at The Air Force Academy

Opening Statement of Senator Carl Levin Hearing on the Air Force Investigation and Response to Allegations of Sexual Assault at The Air Force Academy Monday, March 31, 2003

Mr. Chairman, first let me thank and commend you and Senator Allard for your continued leadership and interest in this issue.

Sexual misconduct at the Air Force Academy is not a new issue. Following a series of reported rapes in 1993, Lieutenant General Brad Hosmer, who was then the Superintendent at the Air Force Academy, announced: "We have a problem at the Air Force Academy." "This problem has existed for some time." His comments are very similar to Secretary Roche's public comments about the allegations now under investigation. General Hosmer attempted to deal with the problem by making changes to educate cadets on the conduct expected of military officers and by making changes to reporting requirements to encourage cadets to report sexual assaults. Despite these measures, the Academy received 13 more reports of sexual assault during the next eight months.

The General Accounting Office issued reports in January 1994 and March 1995 on sexual harassment at the three Service Academies. While I understand that "sexual harassment" includes a lot more than sexual assault and rape, the GAO findings are still relevant in our consideration of how the Air Force Academy deals with allegations of sexual misconduct. In the 1994 report, the GAO found "between half and three quarters of academy women experienced various forms of harassment at least twice a month." In the 1995 report, the GAO reported that "the majority of academy women reported experiencing at lease one form of sexual harassment on a recurring basis in academic year 1993-94." Data contained in the 1994 Report shows that between 1988 and 1993, cadets at the Air Force Academy reported 41 incidents of sexual misconduct. During the same timeframe, midshipmen at the Naval Academy reported 26 incidents and cadets at the Military Academy reported 40 incidents. Now, a decade after General Hosmer acknowledged a sexual misconduct problem at the Air Force Academy, we learn that there were at least 54 reports of sexual assault or rape at the Air Force Academy during the last 10 years. We have also learned that during the last five years, the United States Military Academy has received five reports of rape and 13 reports of "other sexual assault;" and during the last three years, the Naval Academy has received 12 reports of sexual assault and/or rape.

It is incredible that the pattern persists of victims of assaults being discouraged from reporting the incidents, that their complaints were not fully investigated, that they were ostracized by other cadets, and that they, the victims, were punished by the Academy for infractions brought to light only because they reported that they had been assaulted.

Mr. Chairman, I look forward to the testimony of our witnesses.