[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 99 (Thursday, June 28, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H4160]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           STOP MILITARY RAPE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Speier) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to implore this body to finally take 
meaningful action to end the epidemic of rape and sexual assault in the 
military. For 25 years, Congress has held dramatic hearings on this 
issue. It has rocked the military branches. Committee members have beat 
their chests and demanded answers from decorated generals and military 
leaders who testified. Congress demanded reports. These reports were 
provided and are now gathering dust on shelves around Washington, D.C.
  The time for reports is over. Now it's time for action to solve this 
problem.
  The solution is to take the reporting and investigation of cases of 
rape and sexual assault out of the military chain of command and place 
them in a separate office independent of the chain of command with the 
authority to investigate and prosecute within the military.
  Last week I called for the House Armed Services Committee to hold a 
hearing on the widespread sex scandal at Lackland Air Force Base in San 
Antonio, Texas. No hearing date has been set.
  The charges of rape, assault, and sodomy leveled against six 
instructors at Lackland are astonishing. One instructor is accused of 
raping or assaulting 10 victims, and another confessed to having sexual 
relationships with another 10 victims of his own. Yesterday we learned 
that 12 instructors are under investigation for sexual misconduct with 
trainees and that a criminal investigation is ongoing on four different 
Air Force bases now.
  Like many cases of rape and sexual assault, the perpetrators are not 
denying that they engaged in sexual misconduct; they simply contend 
that the sex was consensual. It comes down to the word of the accuser 
and the accused, the instructor against the trainee. In the military, 
this usually means the perpetrator gets off or receives a 
disproportionately small punishment, and the victim endures an arduous 
and humiliating legal process with little sense of justice at the end.
  Every day more disgusting news is unearthed about Lackland. Everyone 
wants to know: What is being done about it?
  This scandal is remarkably similar to the Aberdeen scandal that 
rocked the Army in the 1990s. Fifteen years ago, a Republican-led 
Senate held a hearing on a sex scandal at the Aberdeen Proving Ground 
in Maryland.

                              {time}  1010

  The Army brought charges against 12 instructors for sexual assault on 
female trainees under their command. Nearly 50 women made sexual abuse 
charges, including 26 rape accusations. One instructor was cleared. The 
remaining 11 were either convicted at court martial or punished 
administratively.
  In an interview about the scandal, then-Assistant Secretary of 
Defense Kenneth Bacon said:

       The issue here is the relationship between a trainer and a 
     trainee. The Army regulations bar intimate relationships 
     between trainers and trainees, between drill sergeants and 
     trainees, because they are fraught with misuse of power, with 
     misuse of influence, or the possibilities of misuse of power 
     and influence.

  This may be hard for some in the civilian world to relate to, but it 
is the constant reality within our Armed Forces. It is ingrained in our 
military servicemen and -women to follow the orders of their chain of 
command and never disobey.
  Here is an except from a 1996 interview with an Army recruit who was 
raped by her instructor at Aberdeen. The victim, a South Carolina 
native who joined the Army in December of 1995 as a way to pay for 
college, said her instructor once ordered her to the bathroom. ``A few 
minutes later he came in behind me, and that's when he started to tell 
me to do certain things,'' she said. ``To disrobe?'' Asked the 
reporter. ``Mm-hmm,'' she said. She said she never screamed, never said 
``no,'' only that she was traumatized. ``When you had sex in the 
bathroom, was it something you wanted,'' the reporter asked. ``No,'' 
Bleckley said. Nothing has changed.
  Last month in Texas, two victims were asked if they resisted when 
their Air Force training instructor lured them into a dark supply room 
to have sex. ``No,'' they said. They froze.
  What is happening at Lackland Air Force Base is no different than 
what happened at Aberdeen Proving Ground 15 years ago. After that 
scandal, we heard assurances about how seriously the crimes were taken 
and how ``we're going to get to the bottom of this problem.'' Yet 
clearly the military is unable to police itself on matters of rape and 
sexual assault.
  I called for a hearing into the Lackland scandal because we need to 
know once and for all why instructors have been permitted to abuse 
power so freely. And we need to know from top brass that the phrase 
``zero tolerance for sexual assault in the military'' is a fact, not a 
talking point.

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