Already reeling from an embarrassing sex scandal involving former Army General David Petraeus, the U.S. military on Wednesday will release a report on widespread sexual abuse of women recruits at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.
The Air Force report is expected to provide details of systematic sexual abuse in the U.S. Air Force, a scandal that until last week was considered the worst in the military in more than a decade.
But the disclosures of harassment and abuse at the Air Force base have been overshadowed by the abrupt resignation of Petraeus. The former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan stepped down from his post as CIA director last week after admitting to an extramarital affair with a female biographer.
The report on Wednesday will detail problems at Lackland, where all U.S. Air Force basic training is conducted. Eleven basic training instructors have been charged with offenses ranging from inappropriate touching of female recruits to sexual assault.
Five instructors have been convicted or pleaded guilty at courts-martial and have been sentenced to terms ranging from 30 days to 20 years in prison. The others are in various stages of the military legal process.
The Air Force has said 48 women have come forward with what investigators consider credible stories of sexual misconduct.
Advocates for women in the military said the harassment and abuse of women is systematic in the U.S. armed forces.
"This culture of hostility and violence toward women is constantly being promoted even to new people in the service," said Nancy Parrish, president of Protect Our Defenders, a group that fights sexual harassment in the military.
The group provided Reuters a copy of an administrative complaint that it received from a lawyer for Air Force Technical Sergeant Jennifer Smith, which spelled out some details of alleged abuse.
Smith alleges that an air base vice commander once instructed her to take off her uniform top and offered her alcohol during what was supposed to be a routine personnel review.
Smith, who has 17 commendations and has been deployed to Iraq and Kuwait, also said she was subjected to pornography in the workplace and referred to as a "bitch" by supervisors. The complaint is a required precursor to a possible lawsuit.
"The Air Force has been on notice for years regarding this hostile environment, yet has taken no effective steps to stop the constant and blatant illegalities," the complaint states. "Sexual assault and harassment are part of the mentality of the Air Force."
Susan Burke, Smith's attorney, said the sergeant knew that reporting rape and sexual assault in the military could destroy victims' careers and often subjected them to isolation and retaliatory violence and harassment.
Exhibits filed with the complaint included lyrics to bawdy songs sung by Air Force personnel that refer to women using sexually vulgar terms, training manuals that refer to women as 'bitch' or 'whore,' and pornographic photographs Burke said were taken directly from computers at Air Force installations.
Shekhar Gupta
CEO
Capt. Shekhar Gupta [ Pilot, DIAM, M.Ae.S.I., MAOPA [USA] ]
shekhar@aerosoft.in
Blog : http://shekharaerosoft.blogspot.in/
Shekhar is a Professional Pilot with more then 8 years experience of Flying on 14 different types of Air crafts in 10 different countries with accident free flying record. Shekhar is good in Flying Training as well as in Ground class for Pilots. Shekhar started his flying career from Skycabs [Colombo ] and worked for many Airlines Training Companies from different part of the world. He trained more then 350 Pilots who are flying world wide. He is a member of Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association [ USA], Royal Society of Aeronautics [ UK], Delhi Flying Club, Aeronautical Society of India, MP Flying Club Indore, Aeronautical Research Society. He is a frequent flyer on AA, Air India, British Airways, Cathey Pacific, Delta Airlines, Emerites, Ethihad, Jet Airways, Kingfisher and many more. Shekhar is an active member of www.MissionToCanada.com set up by Govt. of Canada and Air Transport Association of Canada.
His recent passion is Aviation SEO for which he takes classes for IIT & IIM students in India and others in abroad. And www.AirAviator.com a new proposed virtual Air Charter Services.
Lackland Air Force Base Commander,
Basic Training Video Air Force,
Air Force Training Instructor Scandal,
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