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September 5, 2003
Ex-Cadet Alleges Revenge Rape At Academy
By ROBERT GEHRKE
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) —
In a letter to a congressional panel investigating sexual assaults at the Air Force Academy, a former cadet paints a vivid portrait of the retaliation that can occur for reporting a crime there.
The academy graduate, whose name was not released, said she was ostracized by cadets and raped at the Air Force Preparatory School by two male cadets because she reported that she had been raped.
Col. David Cannon, Air Force Academy spokesman, said files were searched Friday, but no cases that fit the description of the incident were found.
"That's a very severe allegation," Cannon said. "We take it very seriously. We have no reason to doubt what is in that lady's letter. We just haven't found it yet."
Members of the panel on Friday said the incident is typical of those that have created a climate of fear at the institution.
"The retaliation can be as high as physical threats, violence, actual violence taken against the cadets," said Laura Miller, a member of the congressional panel investigating the academy. The panel would not release the letter.
For years, surveys of female cadets showed they were reluctant to report sexual harassment or assaults.
Figures compiled by the Defense Department inspector general show only one in five sexual assaults was reported due to fear of retaliation or ostracism, concerns the cadets would be punished, or the belief nothing would be done.
"These figures only reflect part of the problem and we really have no idea what the true figures are because they're not reporting it," said former Florida Rep. Tillie Fowler, the panel's chairwoman.
The Justice Department says about one-fourth of assaults are reported nationally.
Fowler's seven-member panel was created by Congress to investigate allegations academy leaders were indifferent to cadets' claims of sexual assault and sometimes punished the purported victims for violating academy rules.
Friday's meeting was the last in public before the panel issues its report on Sept. 22. Fowler said leaders at Air Force headquarters and the academy should have done more.
"The leadership of the Air Force and at the academy have had knowledge of these problems for a long time and in our view not much was done about it," Fowler said.
The panel painted a picture Friday of an academy hostile to women. They make up fewer than 18 percent of the cadet corps and hold fewer than one-fifth of the leadership positions.
Cadet surveys have consistently shown that 20 percent of male cadets believe women do not belong there. That figure reached 27 percent in 2002.
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Michael Nardotti said the statistic was "particularly troubling" since women have been at the academy since 1976 and the academy has a mission to produce Air Force officers.
Members said the academy needs:
· More support for female cadets and female officers;
· More oversight by Air Force headquarters and the Board of Visitors - the
academy's equivalent to a college board of trustees;
· A way to confidentially report sexual assaults.
Confidentiality is the issue the panel has spent the most time grappling with, Fowler said.
Beginning in 1993, cadets reporting attacks were guaranteed anonymity. But the down side, said Nardotti, was that commanders did not get the information they needed to deal with perpetrators.
Air Force Secretary James G. Roche did away with the confidentiality policy in March and now every report goes to the academy commanders.
The panel agreed that is a mistake.
Nardotti said a balance needs to be struck where cadets can report their attacks anonymously to qualified counselors who can encourage them to file formal complaints.
The oversight of the academy by the Air Force headquarters "has been spasmodic," said retired Army Lt. Gen. Josiah Bunting III. The Air Force chief of staff, who has direct oversight, juggles too many responsibilities and the academy Board of Visitors was not as involved as it should have been, Bunting said.
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