Scandal unlikely to end mixed-gender training - San Antonio Express

The Air Force's top civilian on Tuesday all but ruled out a return to segregating the sexes in basic training as a response to the sex scandal at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

"I think there is a general sentiment in our Air Force leadership, although we have not completed and finalized all the reports, but there is a sense that we need to train as we fight," Secretary Michael Donley told the San Antonio Express-News.

In town to discuss the issue with commanders, Donley didn't share details of a recently completed investigation.

That probe, to be released next month, is expected to launch initiatives to prevent a repeat of a scandal that so far has ensnared 22 instructors and 47 victims, all women.

The number is up slightly from last week.

Donley called the scandal "damaging to the good reputation of the basic military trainers and to our Air Force."

The scandal has grown since the Air Force revealed last December that a basic training instructor, Staff Sgt. Luis A. Walker, was accused of illicit sexual contact with 10 women in basic training. He got 20 years in prison last summer.

Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, said a congressional commission in 1997 called for men and women to be trained separately in boot camp because mixed-gender training resulted in poorer discipline and unit cohesion. Only the Marine Corps trains men and women separately.

"Problems of sexual assault are getting worse, they're not getting better," said Donnelly, who served on a 1992 presidential commission that looked at women in combat. "Everything that has been tried has not worked because there seems to be a lack of clear thinking, too many slogans running around."

Donley said women in the Air Force work in a wide range of specialties and that it "has been very gender-friendly for a number of years, so we live and work in an integrated environment, and we probably ought to train that way as well."

The Pentagon said 3,192 cases of sexual assault involving service members were reported in 2011 — far below an estimated 19,000 thought to have occurred. Critics say the system is broken.

One House measure would take control of sexual assault investigations away from the chain of command. Backers of the bill say commanders fear reporting cases could hurt their careers, but Donley said it's been his experience that commanders support those who hold wrongdoers accountable.

"I think it would be a mistake to try to take this responsibility outside the military chain of command," he said. "But if it were to occur it would not reflect well on the confidence of the Congress that the military as an institution can police itself internally, so I think it's very important that as part of our military culture that we take responsibility for holding standards of behavior and demonstrate that we do hold people accountable for misconduct."

sigc@express-news.net