The extent of sexual assault in the US military is “staggering” and indicates a “major cultural problem," an American serviceman says.
Pentagon officials have confirmed reports that sexual assault at the three US military academies increased by more than 50 percent last year.
The Pentagon’s review of sexual harassment and assault at the US Military Academy, West Point, New York; the Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland; and the Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado, showed that during the academic year 2014-2015, a total of 91 cases were filed, the Military Times reported on Friday.
Pentagon officials welcomed the increase, arguing that it underscores a “growing trust in the system” to handle complaints appropriately.
“The numbers of sexual assaults that take place are pretty staggering on their own,” Seth Manzel, a US Army Infantryman, told Press TV on Saturday. “But what is happening is the army has started to reform itself.”
Manzel, an Iraq War veteran, said sexually assaulted servicemen would refuse to report their attackers for fear of being discharged.
“With women as well, women were often kicked out for reporting sexual assault,” he added.
“It does point to a major cultural problem within the military, where you have an environment that at least was at one point very permissive of sexual assault and now that is kind of being clamped down on, ” Manzel explained.
Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported that children of US service members are also sexually assaulted hundreds of times each year.
Official data by the Department of Defense shows that at least 1,584 substantiated cases of sexual abuse against US military personnel were reported between fiscal years 2010 and 2014.
Most of the enlisted offenders were males whose ranks ranged between E-4 and E-6. In the Marine Corps and Army, for example, those troops are corporals, sergeants and staff sergeants. Officers were involved in 49 of the cases. The victims were overwhelmingly female.
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