Should They Have Noticed Reports Of Rapes From Female
Cadets?
They've already been reassigned - leaders at the
US Air Force Academy. But that may not be the end of it. They may
still face judicial or non-judicial punishment in the wake of a sex
scandal that rocked one of America's most prestigious service
academies earlier this year.
"We are judging commanders. We do that all the time," said Air
Force Secretary James Roche on Wednesday. Roche and his chief of
staff, Gen. John Jumper, are now reviewing an investigation of the
scandal to determined if USAFA commanders properly handled
complaints from cadets and those outside the Academy.
Already, Air Force Superintendent Lt. Gen. John D. Dallager,
Commandant Brig. Gen. S. Taco Gilbert III and three other leaders
from the Academy have been assigned elsewhere. At the time he
announced the reassignments, Roche said, however, that the
atmosphere which allowed to sexual misconduct to take place had
been years in the making.
An Air Force investigation uncovered 57 reported cases of sexual
misconduct between 1990 and 2003. Forty male cadets were punished
in one way or another as a result of those reports. But several
female cadets say their rape complaints were ignored. In some
cases, the female cadets themselves say they were harrassed or even
disciplined for reporting the incidents.
Amy McCarthy graduated from the Air Force Academy
in 1982. McCarthy, now an airline pilot, is a member of an
independent panel now investigating the various rape allegations,
one of four ongoing investigations. She is skeptical about a large
number of of the allegations from female cadets. "Due to the fact
that many of the women making the allegations were involved with
drinking, partying, strip poker, what I call high-risk behaviors,
my personal opinion is that a number of these allegations or the
veracity of these allegations may be suspect," she said in an
interview with AP Radio.
A Less Joyous Occasion
The four separate investigations cast a pallor over Wednesday's
USAFA graduation ceremonies. While both Roche and Jumper addressed
the graduating cadets, they had been warned by parents not to bring
up the scandal. Many parents wrote e-mails to the Air Force
leaders, threatening to boo or turn away from the podium had such
remarks been made. In the end, neither Roche nor Jumper said a word
about the investigations. "We've said everything we have to say to
the corps of cadets," Roche said later. "There is no reason to
continue to berate them."