“We have indentified 59 victims,” General Edward Rice, USAF Air Education and Training Command told members of the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday morning who were conducting a hearing into the Lackland Air Force Base sexual assault scandal.
Following a nine month investigation involving 550 investigators and 7,700 surveys, USAF Chief of Staff, General Mark A. Welsh III, testified that out of 46 recommended changes 45 would be instituted to prevent sexual assaults from happening in the future. Only 23 have been put into place so far and the other 22 are expected in November, according to Welsh.
The 46 recommendations could either be viewed as encouraging (so much is being done) or horrifying (so much has to be done).
However, for Congresswoman Jackie Speier, (CA-14) the number that should really stand out is “one”.
As in, not one of the 59 victims was allowed to testify at the hearing.
As in, not one of the 59 victims was consulted when crafting the 46 recommendations.
“How could any of those recommendations be complete without first having talked to at least some of the victims?” asked Speier. She went on to admonish Gen. Rice for not even responding to a November 16, 2012 letter she written to him asking for the victims to be interviewed.
Currently, 32 Military Training Instructors have been or continue to be under investigation for sexual misconduct.
“We have completed disciplinary action for sexual misconduct against eight, we have preferred court martial charges against another nine and 15 other instructors are under investigation,” said Rice.
Rice touted a lack of reported sexual misconduct related to training in the last seven months as a result of focus on the issue and sustaining that focus will derive from the establishment of the Recruiting, Education and Training Oversight Council.
TSgt Jennifer Norris, USAF (ret), a Protect Our Defenders, Advocacy Board Member and a survivor of sexual assault in the military testified that civilian, not continued military oversight is needed.
“The cycle of repeated scandals, self investigations, and ineffective reforms must be broken,” said Norris. “Retired Brigadier General Lori Sutton recently said ‘The only credible solution is an independent special victims unit completely outside the unit chain of command under professional civilian oversight’ and I agree.”
Congresswoman Susan Davis (CA-53) stated her reluctance to take control from the chain of command.
“For us to pull this out in someway says that we don’t believe our officers are capable of handling this issue,” said Davis.
While Davis has her doubts about which way to proceed, there can be little doubt about how seriously Buck McKeon, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is taking the issue of sexual assaults in the military.
He didn’t even return after recess to hear the testimony of Norris.
Claude Rains would be “shocked, shocked” to discover McKeon is tone deaf to the plight of sexual assault victims. Last year, Protect Our Defenders called McKeon’s DC office repeatedly to ask for hearing on the Lackland assaults. POD was reportedly treated rudely and told their office would get back to them – despite hanging up before asking for their return number.
POD contacted me, a reporter for local (Santa Clarita, California and in McKeon’s 25th District) radio station KHTS at the time and explained the situation. I contacted McKeon’s office to find out why there was no sincere address by the staff to POD’s concerns.
I subsequently wrote an article about the situation which has disappeared from the KHTS website. (My News Director Carol Rock and I were only months away from disappearing from KHTS ourselves after station owner Carl Goldman succumbed to pressure by McKeon supporters.) That story can be found on Roll Call below:
http://hoh.rollcall.com/...
McKeon’s staffers did meet with POD representatives, but were threatened to never speak to me again or they would be kicked out of the process. One staffer reportedly waived a print out of my July 25, 2012 article. The details of that story can also be found in Roll Call, below:
http://hoh.rollcall.com/...
One must wonder if the chairman of HASC is serving the American people or the military industrial complex which contributes to his campaign. Perhaps if sexual assault victims gave a little more from their pocketbooks McKeon would have run a legitimate hearing where the victims could speak, the USAF brass would appear after the victims and address their questions, and Chairman McKeon would actually staff for the entire hearing.
McKeon’s attitude mirrors that of the Armed Forces which has turned a blind eye to the abuse for too long. His rude treatment of victims sends a clear message to the freshmen Congressman on the committee and the rest of the country – he’s too busy to care.