For the first time in more than a decade, a congressional committee will hold hearings to examine how all military branches deal with sexual-assault cases, according to a spokeswoman for a committee member.
“They are confident there will be hearings,” said Angie Lundberg, spokeswoman for Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who is leading the investigation. “Nothing has been finalized just yet.”
Also on Wednesday, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison called on the Department of Defense to investigate a string of rapes at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas.
In a letter to the secretary of the Air Force, the Texas Republican wrote that she fears the sexual-assault problem at Sheppard, revealed in Wednesday’s Denver Post, could “rival that of the U.S. Air Force Academy.”
Beginning with the scandal over cadet behavior at the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs last year, the U.S. military has been reeling from months of revelations about the number and ferocity of sexual assaults against women serving in the armed forces.
The planned congressional hearings would elevate concerns about military conduct to levels not seen since the Tailhook scandal a decade ago. In conjunction with Hutchison’s request for an investigation of the Air Force, and another review ordered last week by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the hearings could subject Department of Defense leaders to unprecedented scrutiny of both military culture and their pledges to make changes.
Rumsfeld ordered an internal investigation last week after The Denver Post reported that dozens of women serving in the Iraq war have sought counseling for sexual assaults by fellow soldiers. Nearly 60 women have contacted civilian rape crisis organizations since returning to the States, with many of them citing a lack of medical care and victim services.
Two of those women, both officers, talked publicly for the first time Wednesday about their cases.
One woman, Army Capt. Jenny Machmer, told The Post she was threatened with charges of fraternization after reporting her sexual assault by a master sergeant. She said she was not given counseling and was told to continue to work in the same area as her attacker.
She is now awaiting a medical discharge from the Army.
“He was supposed to write a letter of apology, and he was supposed to be kicked out of the Army. Neither happened,” she said.
Machmer said she is not certain what discipline the sergeant received. An Army spokeswoman referred questions about the case to a post in Germany, where no one could be reached.
The other officer, Army Lt. Carrie Fain, said she was fired from her job after picking up her weapon to fend off unwanted advances from a fellow soldier who had been sexually harassing her.
“I felt like it was the only thing I could do to defend myself against this guy,” she later said.
Fain was transferred to a desk job in Germany. She said she wants to stay in the Army but fears she will never be granted promotion.
Whether these women and others like them will be afforded the opportunity to testify before Congress remains unclear.
But other military sexual-assault victims and advocates heralded the move toward congressional hearings and said they hoped it would include testimony that covers a broad spectrum of time.
“They need to open it up to an historical perspective to understand how severe the problem is,” said Dorothy Mackey, executive director of the Ohio-based victim-advocate organization, Survivors Take Action Against Abuse by Military Personnel, or STAMP.
“We have military rape victims in their ’70s who still suffer. When you look at this issue in hindsight, it has not changed and in fact has gotten worse.”
Sharon Mixon, a combat medic who said she was gang-raped in Kuwait by fellow American soldiers during 1991’s Operation Desert Storm, agreed.
“This problem did not begin when we bombed Iraq,” Mixon said, referring to the Iraq war. “There is a history and a pattern of abuse that must be addressed, or it will continue.”
Senators had pledged to hold hearings on issues linked to the service academies, and in recent weeks, the call to deepen that investigation intensified. Dozens of female caucus members urged House and Senate leaders to consider full-scale hearings to examine both sexual-assault and domestic- violence issues within the armed forces. Reps. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., pledged hearings by the women’s caucus if the House and Senate did not move forward with them.
Sen. John Warner launched a congressional investigation in November, citing an examination by The Post into the military’s handling of sexual and domestic violence, revealing widespread flaws in criminal investigations and victim services.
Reach Amy Herdy at 303-820- 1752 or aherdy@denverpost.com . Miles Moffeit is at 303- 820-1415 or mmoffeit@denverpost.com
