[House Hearing, 109 Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] SEXUAL ASSAULT AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN THE MILITARY AND AT THE ACADEMIES ======================================================================= HEARING before the SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL SECURITY, EMERGING THREATS, AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS of the COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION __________ JUNE 27, 2006 __________ Serial No. 109-220 __________ Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Reform Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/ index.html http://www.house.gov/reform U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 33-682 PDF WASHINGTON : 2007 ------------------------------------------------------------------ For sale by Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2250. Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001 COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM TOM DAVIS, Virginia, Chairman CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut HENRY A. WAXMAN, California DAN BURTON, Indiana TOM LANTOS, California ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida MAJOR R. OWENS, New York JOHN M. McHUGH, New York EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York JOHN L. MICA, Florida PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania GIL GUTKNECHT, Minnesota CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland STEVEN C. LaTOURETTE, Ohio DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois CHRIS CANNON, Utah WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri JOHN J. DUNCAN, Jr., Tennessee DIANE E. WATSON, California CANDICE S. MILLER, Michigan STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland DARRELL E. ISSA, California LINDA T. SANCHEZ, California JON C. PORTER, Nevada C.A. DUTCH RUPPERSBERGER, Maryland KENNY MARCHANT, Texas BRIAN HIGGINS, New York LYNN A. WESTMORELAND, Georgia ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of PATRICK T. McHENRY, North Carolina Columbia CHARLES W. DENT, Pennsylvania ------ VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont JEAN SCHMIDT, Ohio (Independent) ------ ------ David Marin, Staff Director Lawrence Halloran, Deputy Staff Director Teresa Austin, Chief Clerk Phil Barnett, Minority Chief of Staff/Chief Counsel Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut, Chairman KENNY MARCHANT, Texas DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio DAN BURTON, Indiana TOM LANTOS, California ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont JOHN M. McHUGH, New York CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York STEVEN C. LaTOURETTE, Ohio CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania LINDA T. SANCHEZ, California JOHN J. DUNCAN, Jr., Tennessee C.A. DUTCH RUPPERSBERGER, Maryland MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts JON C. PORTER, Nevada BRIAN HIGGINS, New York CHARLES W. DENT, Pennsylvania Ex Officio TOM DAVIS, Virginia HENRY A. WAXMAN, California Dr. R. Nicholas Palarino, Staff Director and Counsel Kristine Fiorentino, Professional Staff Member Robert A. Briggs, Clerk Andrew Su, Minority Professional Staff Member C O N T E N T S ---------- Page Hearing held on June 27, 2006.................................... 1 Statement of: Rumburg, Delilah, executive director, Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, National Sexual Violence Resource Center; Christine Hansen, executive director, the Miles Foundation, Inc.; and Beth Davis, former U.S. Air Force Academy Cadet.. 21 Davis, Beth.............................................. 57 Hansen, Christine........................................ 36 Rumburg, Delilah......................................... 21 Whitley, Kaye, Acting Director, Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, Department of Defense; Vice Admiral Rodney P. Rempt, Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy; Brigadier General Robert L. Caslen, Jr., Commandant of the U.S. Military Academy; Brigadier General Susan Y. Desjardins, Commandant of the U.S. Air Force Academy; and Rear Admiral Paul J. Higgins, Director of Health and Safety, U.S. Coast Guard................................... 89 Caslen, Brigadier General Robert L., Jr.................. 141 Desjardins, Brigadier General Susan Y.................... 154 Higgins, Rear Admiral Paul J............................. 163 Rempt, Vice Admiral Rodney P............................. 115 Whitley, Kaye............................................ 89 Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by: Caslen, Brigadier General Robert L., Jr., Commandant of the U.S. Military Academy, prepared statement of............... 144 Davis, Beth, former U.S. Air Force Academy Cadet, prepared statement of............................................... 62 Desjardins, Brigadier General Susan Y., Commandant of the U.S. Air Force Academy, prepared statement of.............. 157 Hansen, Christine, executive director, the Miles Foundation, Inc., prepared statement of................................ 39 Higgins, Rear Admiral Paul J., Director of Health and Safety, U.S. Coast Guard, prepared statement of.................... 165 Kucinich, Hon. Dennis J., a Representative in Congress from the State of Ohio, prepared statement of................... 8 Maloney, Hon. Carolyn B., a Representative in Congress from the State of New York, various letters..................... 192 Rempt, Vice Admiral Rodney P., Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, prepared statement of....................... 119 Rumburg, Delilah, executive director, Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, National Sexual Violence Resource Center..... 24 Ruppersberger, Hon. C.A. Dutch, a Representative in Congress from the State of Maryland, prepared statement of.......... 283 Shays, Hon. Christopher, a Representative in Congress from the State of Connecticut, prepared statement of............ 3 Slaughter, Hon. Louise, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York, prepared statement of................... 15 Whitley, Kaye, Acting Director, Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, Department of Defense, prepared statement of......................................................... 92 SEXUAL ASSAULT AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN THE MILITARY AND AT THE ACADEMIES ---------- TUESDAY, JUNE 27, 2006 House of Representatives, Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations, Committee on Government Reform, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2 p.m. in room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher Shays (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Shays, Marchant, Platts, Turner, Dent, Price, Kucinich, Maloney, Van Hollen, and Ruppersberger. Staff present: Kristine K. Fiorentino, professional staff member; Robert Briggs, analyst; Dr. R. Nicholas Palerino, staff director; Andrew Su, minority professional staff member; and Jean Gosa, minority clerk. Mr. Shays. A quorum being present, I call the subcommittee to order. At the 1991 Tailhook Symposium, an annual convention supported by the military and attended by active duty, reserve, and retired aviators, 83 women were assaulted. One of those women, Lieutenant Paula Coughlin, a helicopter pilot, reported the assault to her boss. He said, ``that is what you get when you go to a hotel party with a bunch of drunken aviators.'' Our military men and women are committed to serving our country. They deserve to be educated, trained, and to operate in an environment that is free of sexual harassment and assault. After Tailhook, the Department of Defense made changes to their policy addressing charges of sexual assault. Commanders know charges of sexual assault must be taken seriously. The question remains whether they take these charges seriously. This subcommittee has concern about the Department of Defense's commitment to aggressively prevent and respond to sexual assault incidents. The 2005 Defense Task Force on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military Service Academies finds that sexual assault has been inadequately addressed at the academies. The task force states ``Sexual harassment typically creates an environment in which sexual assault is more likely to occur.'' The reports makes several recommendations to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and violence against women. Today we ask what task force recommendations have been put into effect, including changing service academy culture toward women, protecting communications made by victims of sexual assault, establishing a plan to implement the Department of Defense's sexual assault response policy, amending the Uniform Code of Military Justice to permit closed proceedings to protect the privacy of both sexual assault victims and offenders, incorporating sexual harassment and assault education classes into the academy curriculum, developing an institutional sexual harassment and assault prevention plan, and establishing collaborative relationships with civilian authorities for sexual assault victim support. Congress recognized sexual assault is more than a service academy problem and directed the Department of Defense establish the Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services. Although this directive was part of the fiscal year 2005 Defense Authorization Act, the task force is not yet operational. In fact, its members have not been appointed. This inaction speaks volumes. The second major question we ask today is when will the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services become operational and when will its recommendations be presented to the public. A viable military comprised of men and women requires continuous dedicated efforts to prevent sexual assault and violence and to respond forcefully once it occurs. But these efforts must begin when the service member enters the military, not just at our service academies where we serve some of our future military leaders. But we should not stop there. We must provide an environment in the military at large that does not condone hostile attitudes and inappropriate actions toward women. Our military leaders must ensure our men and women who honorably serve our country are fully aware sexual assault and harassment will not be tolerated and know that victims who come forward will receive support, medical care, and legal protection. This subcommittee thanks all the witnesses for taking the time to appear before us today and we look forward to this hearing. [The prepared statement of Hon. Christopher Shays follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.001 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.002 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.003 Mr. Shays. At this time the Chair would recognize the ranking member of this subcommittee, Mr. Kucinich. Mr. Kucinich. Thank you, Mr. Shays, for convening this hearing. I want to thank the witnesses for joining us today and I want to thank Beth Davis, in particular, for her bravery in sharing her story with us today. The cause of this hearing necessitates that it be said that each and every human being is deserving of respect. Color, race, creed, gender do not change this basic right to respect. This truth, the truth of the equality and basic dignity afforded every person, has been fought for throughout our country's history, has been defended by many, many generations of men and women in uniform. How sad it is that we are here at a moment where we have to acknowledge that those women who have served this country and who continue to serve this country are not being afforded the very basic respect for their human dignity that their service to this country is involved in protecting for others. How ironic and sad that is. We learned over the past two decades that many women in our military do not always enjoy the same basic rights. Some are victims of sexual harassment and assault, forced to suffer indignities in silence. We are here to discuss and talk about basic principles of human dignity and to find out whether we are ready to take a stand on that in our own armed forces. As we get into this discussion today it needs to be said that the attitudes of young men when they come into the military, they don't learn sexual harassment in the military. They don't learn the attitudes that result in sexual assault in the military. When you look at the arc of violence in our own society apart from the military--domestic violence, spousal abuse--underneath that is a lack of education in our culture about the basic rights of women. It starts when children are little. People don't come to the armed services and suddenly change. So, while it is important that we are looking at this today, we have to remember that this doesn't occur only in the armed services. This is a problem in our culture. That, Mr. Chairman, is one of the reasons why 73 Members of Congress have now signed on to legislation to create a Cabinet-level Department of Peace which looks at the issues of violence in our own society, of spousal abuse, child abuse, violence in the schools, racial violence, and the whole symptomatology of violence in our society, and through education of our children looks to bring to our children the possibility of learning the appropriate responses in their relationships with each other, boys and girls alike. So when we are speaking about the armed forces today and we must--we know that this troubling pattern beings before many of our servicewomen enter our armed forces. In 2005, 4 percent of female Air Force cadets, 5 percent of female Naval Academy midshipmen, and 6 percent of female cadets at West Point reported being victims of sexual assault in the previous year. Worst still, fewer than half of these young women reported the incidents to the academy authorities, often out of fear of harassment from their peers or placing their career at risk. The scourge of sexual assault is clearly not limited, as I have mentioned, to the military academies, but many of the positive changes in responses to sexual assaults in civilian life have failed to translate easily to the military. The culture of the academies and strict reporting requirements have often limited options for victims when they are at their most vulnerable. The initial steps taken by the military to better protect and support victims are a good start. Implementation of the restricted reporting policy allows victims the ability to seek out care and services confidentially when they otherwise might have opted to not seek help at all, but in order to ensure that all victims are able to seek help, additional policy changes may be required. We need a fundamental change in the culture of the academies to ensure that women are treated with dignity and respect. Over the last decade efforts to better understand and deal with the problem of sexual assault have slowly increased. There is now a heightened commitment by the service academies and the Pentagon to take the issue of sexual assault more seriously by improving the response to sexual assaults and preventing assaults before they even happen. I am encouraged by the initial steps that have been taken by DOD to improve accountability, and I comment recent efforts to expand sexual assault education and training in the military and at the academies. We recognize there is much more work to be done. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses. I also hope the advocates here today will share their concerns and recommendations for ensuring the basic rights of women in the military are respected. I will again repeat, Mr. Chairman, that this is not just a matter that relates to our armed services. This is a challenge to our entire society, and I think it is a challenge that we are capable of meeting, that we do have the capacity to evolve, to be more than we are and better than we are, and it may start very well with our children through education. Thank you. [The prepared statement of Hon. Dennis J. Kucinich follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.004 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.005 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.006 Mr. Shays. I thank the gentleman. At this time the Chair would call on the vice chairman, Mr. Marchant. Mr. Marchant. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For the sake of time and in order to get to our witnesses sooner, I will submit my opening statement for the record. Thank you. Mr. Shays. Thank you. I appreciate the gentleman. Mrs. Maloney. Mrs. Maloney. Thank you, Mr. Shays and Mr. Kucinich, for holding this important hearing. It is very troubling to me, ever since Tailhook, through a series of scandals to the recent reported scandals at the academies and Iraq and Afghanistan, that our military cannot seem to get control of this issue. We have the best military in the world, the best trained, the bravest, the best led, best equipped, and it does not seem to move forward, even though requirements are constantly being placed on the military to set up an accounting system, to set up procedures, to get a uniform system to provide information. It is very troubling we don't seem to be making progress in an area that is totally unacceptable, that women who selflessly decide to go to one of the academies are not protected in the academies, and it is totally unacceptable that women who are risking their lives for their country are also in danger of being assaulted by colleagues. And then they face the hurdle of reporting the incident in what I have been told is a very hostile environment. The military culture traditionally has not encouraged reporting, has been indifferent to allegations, and has not been responsive to the needs of victims. As Members of Congress we have a responsibility to provide oversight of DOD's effort to reduce the numbers of rape and sexual assault and violence against women that is occurring in the military, or against men. In the 2005 Defense authorization bill, Congress required the Pentagon to provide annual reports to Congress about the allegations of sexual violence and assault in the military. In its most recent report to Congress the Pentagon stated that in 2005 the total number of reported sexual assaults involving a member was at 2,374. Yet, according to the report, ``Fulfilling a Promise to America's Daughters'' released by the V.A. Advisory Committee on Women Veterans last year, approximately 17,000 women, 20 percent of the women in the enlisted military, reported being a victim of sexual assault in the previous 3 years. Clearly, women in the military are facing a tremendous threat when they serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they are also facing a threat of being assaulted as they serve, by their colleagues. One in five service women should not face the prospect of being sexually assaulted. Not only should the Pentagon ensure that women can come forward to report their assaults; it also must guarantee that qualified medical personnel are on hand to collect forensic evidence, that the evidence collected will be stored properly, and that the evidence will be analyzed in a timely manner. I successfully attached an amendment to the 2005 Defense authorization bill which directed the Secretary of Defense to eliminate the backlog in rape and sexual assault evidence collection kits, reduce the processing time of those kits, and provide an adequate supply of the kits at all domestic and overseas U.S. military installations and military academies. I would like to hear from the witnesses from the Department of Defense about whether a backlog still exists and if there are enough kits across the services. I firmly believe that the only way to tackle a problem effectively such as this one is to have accurate information, accurate data. The Department of Defense has made several promises that the Defense incident-based reporting system, which collects statistics about crimes committed within the military services, would be up and running by now. Congress first mandated that the Pentagon collect crime statistics in 1988. Here we are 18 years later and, as the chairman mentioned, the task force has not even had their members appointed. Well, the Defense incident-based reporting system is not slated for completion until June 2007; 18 years; 19 years if they do it. But every hearing we have they promised, ``Next year we will have it. Next year we will have it.'' This has been going on for 10 years, the 10-years I have been in Congress. How the greatest military, most organized, most intelligent military in the world cannot get a data system up and running on crime statistics to me is beyond comprehension and it is totally unacceptable. I, therefore, will be introducing legislation that will direct the Secretary of Defense to ensure that this system is fully implemented by January 1, 2007, 18 years after it was first promised to be completed. And if it is not completed, then I believe we should really place greater enforcement on this. We have mandates that need to be met, and personally I don't understand why you can't get a data base system up and running in this country. I yield back the balance of my time. Mr. Shays. I thank the gentlelady. I know, for the record, that she has been very active on these issues, and we appreciate it a lot. I would call on the former vice chairman of the committee, Mr. Turner. Welcome, Mr. Turner. Mr. Turner. Mr. Chairman, obviously this topic is very saddening, and it is not only the issue of the crime and the prevention of those crimes but also the injustice that follows that is identified in the testimony that you have today. I am a member of the Armed Services Committee and I have participated in hearings on this topic in the Armed Services Committee. I have reviewed the written testimony that was prepared for this hearing, and it is clear that there is additional action that must be taken. Mr. Chairman, I want to commend you because this hearing will certainly assist in our ability to find accountability and for identifying recommendations on manners in which to address this issue. I want to thank you for your continued efforts to make certain that our men and women in uniform receive what they are entitled to in respect. Thank you. Mr. Shays. At this time the Chair would recognize Mr. Platts. Mr. Platts. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to add my words of thanks to you and the ranking member for hosting this hearing on a very important issue, that through this hearing we can help to send a message on behalf of our Nation in an unwavering fashion that sexual violence, sexual assault against women in all settings is criminal and will be treated as such and will not be tolerated by our Nation, especially by our Government when it comes to women attending our military academies and serving in our military. I certainly appreciate the witnesses who are here today and our panel that we are about to begin with, and am especially grateful for a resident of the 19th District being with us today and her expertise in this area and her devotion to women in Pennsylvania and throughout our Nation who are victims of these heinous crimes. I appreciate all of your testimonies. Again, my thanks to you, Mr. Chairman, in holding this hearing. Mr. Shays. I thank the gentleman. I would like to ask unanimous consent to allow David Price from North Carolina and Representative Elijah Cummings, if he does come here from Maryland, to participate in our hearings. Without objection, so ordered. By right, Mr. Van Hollen, you would go next, but I am going to, at your request, go to Mr. Price and then come to you. Mr. Price. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do appreciate the generosity of you and the subcommittee in inviting us to participate in this hearing today. I am here to hear the testimony as a member of the Military Quality of Life Appropriation Subcommittee, but I am particularly here to extend a warm welcome to Ms. Beth Davis, who is from Durham, NC, the District I represent, and who has courageously testified in ways that will, I believe, be of great benefit to her counterparts in the future. So I commend you for that and I wait with great interest what you will have to say, and that of your fellow witnesses, as well. Thank you. Mr. Shays. I thank the gentleman. At this time the chair would recognize Mr. Van Hollen. Mr. Van Hollen. I thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for holding a hearing on this and welcome the witnesses. One of the greatest privileges we have as Members of Congress is to be able to recommend some of the young men and women from our Congressional Districts to various service academies, and we really have an opportunity to meet the best and the brightest in our communities who are dedicated to serving their country at those academies. Therefore, I think it is essential that we and the American people have confidence that those academies that we are sending them off to have the highest standards when it comes to issues like sexual harassment policies and policies that deal with the very important issues that are the subject of this hearing. We all, I think, understand that leadership begins at the top. We need to hold people accountable for the highest standards in our military academies. I know that is the goal that we all share, and the key is to find ways to make sure that we implement those goals in a way that achieves the result we all want, which is that when we send our men and women off to the military academies that they are upholding the highest standards of honor and integrity, and that especially the young women that are going into our academies can be confident that they will be treated with respect and dignity. I want to thank all of you here for your testimony. Mr. Chairman, I look forward to the hearing. Mr. Kucinich. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Shays. Mr. Kucinich. Mr. Kucinich. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I ask unanimous consent for the testimony of our colleague, the Honorable Louise Slaughter of New York, be submitted for the record. Mr. Shays. Without objection, so ordered. [The prepared statement of Hon. Louise Slaughter follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.007 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.008 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.009 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.010 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.011 Mr. Shays. Before recognizing our witnesses, I would like to say that I said hello to our first panel and our second panel, and when I came to Jeanette McMann she informed me that her husband, Lieutenant Colonel Michael McMann, was from West Harford. I said, ``Was? Ma'am, he is.'' And then she informed me that Lieutenant Michael McMann, commander of Third Squadron, Fourth Calvary Regimen of the 25th Infantry Division, was killed in action November 27, 2004, in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. I just want to say to you, Colonel McMann, you both served in the military. We appreciate the service of your husband. We appreciate your service. We appreciate your three sons, Michael, Thomas, and Ricky, who are without their dad, and just want to thank you for continuing to serve. Thank you. There are lots of different relationships between men and women, and that is the highest relationship. At this time the chair would recognize Ms. Delilah Rumburg, executive director of Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, National Sexual Violence Resource Center; Ms. Christine Hansen, executive director of the Miles Foundation located in Connecticut; and Ms. Beth Davis, former U.S. Air Force Academy cadet, located in--South Carolina? Ms. Davis. Durham, NC. Mr. Shays. Durham, NC. How could I have ever said South Carolina? I apologize. Welcome each and every one of you. Let me just take care of some business. I ask unanimous consent that all members of the subcommittee be permitted to place an opening statement in the record and that the record remain open for 3 days for that purpose. Without objection, so ordered. I ask further unanimous consent that all witnesses be permitted to include their written statements in the record. Without objection, so ordered. I will just say that, as you may know, we do swear in all our witnesses, so we would ask you to rise and we will swear you in. [Witnesses sworn.] Mr. Shays. Note for the record all of our three witnesses have responded in the affirmative. Just judging, I think, from the Members' statements, this is somewhat of a solemn hearing because the issue is quite significant. We have such respect for the men and women who serve in our military and we want to lick this problem. We want it licked. We want it dealt with. We want it resolved. There is no reason why that can't be resolved. At this time I call on Ms. Delilah Rumburg. What we do is we do the 5-minute rule. We will roll it over another 5 minutes, but we would like you to be as close to that 5 minutes as you can, but we don't want you to rush and we want your testimony to be thoughtfully presented. Welcome. STATEMENTS OF DELILAH RUMBURG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PENNSYLVANIA COALITION AGAINST RAPE, NATIONAL SEXUAL VIOLENCE RESOURCE CENTER; CHRISTINE HANSEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE MILES FOUNDATION, INC.; AND BETH DAVIS, FORMER U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY CADET STATEMENT OF DELILAH RUMBERG Ms. Rumburg. Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding these hearings to draw attention, national attention, to sexual assault and violence not only in the military but, as Congressman Kucinich said, it is a greater societal problem. The military is just a microcosm of what is going on throughout this country. I am very hopeful that these hearings and what we learn and do within the Department of Defense will be a guideline for greater society and our response to the prevention of sexual assault and the treatment of victims. We want to thank you for this opportunity and also state our frustration. It seems like things take a long time, but the anti rape movement is over 30 years old, and so we are feeling as frustrated as Congressman Maloney about how long it takes things to happen, but we have been doing this work for over 30 years. Although we have had some progress, there is still a long way to go. Again, thank you. I am pleased to be here representing the Defense Task Force on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military Service Academies. As you know, the task force completed our work last fall, and that has been made available to you, but I should remind everyone else that those materials, as well as that report, are available on the Web site of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office at WWW.SAPR.MIL. I appreciate this opportunity to express my personal views on these issues, but I do wish to assure you that I was in full agreement with the findings and recommendations of our task force. It is the best source for the results of a highly professional effort that took nearly a year, so I will devote the time allotted to me to highlight some of those key results, and I will read them or otherwise I know I won't finish, so bear with me as I read those. The findings and recommendations contained in our report were reached unanimously by a highly diverse group of 12 individuals, half of whom came from outside the Department of Defense. At the outset, I would like to acknowledge the outstanding rapport that existed between our civilian members and the career military personnel with whom we served. I would also like to recognize Dr. Chu, the Defense Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness, for his commitment to change and his willingness to look outside the Department of Defense for solutions to a series of intractable problems. Let me turn now to the substantive aspects of our report. We believe strongly that the provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that dealt with sexual assault needed to modernized. Our reasons for taking this position were twofold: first, we believed modernization was essential to improved accountability for offenders; second, we concluded that the provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice needed to be better understood by the men and women who are required to live by these standards established by this code. Modernization was essential to ensuring that the troops, as well as the lawyers, understand the meaning of key provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. While the Department of Defense did not share our view, the Congress in its wisdom was not as reluctant. Accordingly, the Congress made a major stride forward and implemented our recommendation in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2006. While these provisions will not be effective until next year, I take real satisfaction in knowing that our recommendations with respect to keeping military criminal law in step with the civilian world have been accomplished. To me these reforms are an excellent example of combining Government expertise with fresh, outside ideas, leading to congressional action. Our task force also believes strongly that the victim's advocate should be able to communicate with the victims of sexual assault in such a manner that the courts will protect the confidentiality of those communications. Several States have extended a legal privilege to those communications, and a need for such a privilege is even greater in the military. Why is this so? The reason is simply that the family or community support that is available in the civilian community is not present within military society. For the young enlisted victim, the chain of command does not provide the safe, confidential support that would be available to that same victim in civilian society. The restricted reporting option established by the Department of Defense is a step in the right direction, but it is not a complete answer. I am also aware that the Department of Defense is studying whether to establish the privilege our task force sought by Executive order in the Manual for Courts Martial, but neither our task force nor I believe that such a measure will be as effective as a privilege established by law. Accordingly, I encourage you to support such a provision through the legislative process. As you are aware, our task force was committed to improving the rate at which offenders were held accountable for sexual acts of misconduct. We saw real improvement in the manner in which the academies were approaching this issue, but we noted that the record in years prior to the tenure of Admiral Rempt or General Lennox, the superintendents at the time of our assessment, reflected that offenders were neither consistently nor effectively held accountable for their crimes. This is an issue about which all concerned about the health of the academies must maintain continued vigilance. The surveys and reports that Congress required from the academies are effective tools for exercising this vigilance and measuring progress, and I encourage your support for maintaining these tools. Our task force was also in strong agreement that education and training were key to progress in reducing the threat of sexual misconduct. The academies have programs that were structured to attack the problem, but they were not well coordinated and they were not treated as an integral part of a core curriculum. We were well aware that the demands on the time available for instructing cadets and midshipmen are almost overwhelming; nevertheless, knowledge of the basic human values that are embodied in sexual assault education is fundamental to effective officer education. While the academies are in agreement on this truism, the difficulty lies in developing a coordinated approach to teaching these lessons that is integrated throughout the 4-years of cadet and midshipman education. Nearly a year has passed since our report was made available to the academies, and I look forward to hearing how they have addressed this issue. I would also like to highlight the issue of community collaboration. Within the larger American community, those of us who have devoted substantial portions of our lives to eliminating the scourge of sexual assault understand that getting the whole community involved in attacking the problem is essential. In Annapolis there is a longstanding tradition of military cooperation with community health and law enforcement officials. We endorse that cooperation and encouraged the academy to formalize much of what was an informal relationship. At West Point, the establishment of community collaboration is much more difficult due to geography; nevertheless, there is much to be gained by reaching out to engage civilian expertise when it is available. The principle of community collaboration is true within the larger military community, as well as at the academies, and I encourage you to support cooperative activities among military and civilian communities throughout the armed forces. In conclusion, I would like to express my appreciation to the members of the Department of Defense, uniformed and civilian, who aided and assisted our task force and me during the year of our efforts. We were truly committed to a common goal of eliminating sexual assault in our society. I would also like to thank my fellow task force members who worked so diligently to assist the Department of Defense to reach the same goal. As we noted in our report, eliminating sexual harassment and assault is not a fix-and-forget problem. Vigorous, thoughtful, sustained effort is essential to success. As you can see, there was a part two to my testimony. That is actually information that, in my work with the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, that I have observed and talked to many of my peers throughout the country about not only successes but some still concerns that we hope that you would address. Thank you. [The prepared statement of Ms. Rumburg follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.015 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.016 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.017 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.018 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.019 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.020 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.021 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.022 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.023 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.024 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.025 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.026 Mr. Shays. Thank you, Ms. Rumburg. I erred in not acknowledging your service on the task force, particularly as co-chairperson. We do thank you for your work, but my staff told me that you wanted to be recognized as the executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, National Sexual Violence Resource Center, and that is how we recognized you. Ms. Rumburg. Thank you. Mr. Shays. Ms. Hansen. STATEMENT OF CHRISTINE HANSEN Ms. Hansen. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee. Mr. Shays. Good afternoon. Ms. Hansen. I am Christine Hansen, the executive director of the Miles Foundation. The Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization that works with victims and survivors of interpersonal violence associated with the armed forces, provides direct and support services to professionals in the field of criminal justice, as well as human services. We serve as a resource center for policymakers, scholars, journalists, and students; conduct an enormous amount of research in this field; as well as initiate public education campaigns; and serve to ensure that public policy is well informed and constructive. Since 1996, the Foundation has provided services to over 25,000 survivors of interpersonal violence associated with the U.S. armed forces. This includes 14,000 survivors of intimate partner violence, 7,500 survivors of sexual violence, 3,500 victims of child abuse, 47 former or current cadets from the service academies, and 50 victims of human trafficking. In the calendar year report that Congresswoman Maloney alluded to, in 2005 the military criminal investigative units acknowledged 2,374 reports of sexual assaults that occurred in the services. Our office has actually received reports of exactly 518 reports of sexual assault occurring in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Cutter, otherwise CENTCOM AOR. Regrettably, as Congresswoman Maloney mentioned, not a centralized data base that would accurately reflect all of these reports. Some of the common threads among the cases of sexual assault in the armed forces include prior victimization of the victim, particularly that of female service members due to child abuse, sexual abuse, or sexual assault as teenagers, and exposure to domestic violence. Also in regards to the availability and accessibility of services remains an issue, revictimization as victims attempt to navigate through the system once they make a report, again, that lack of privilege or privacy of confidentiality. Justice, regrettably, within the military criminal justice system is illusive for many victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse. Congress took strong action in the year 2004 through its authorization of the Ronald Reagan National Defense Authorization Act. It mandated that the Department of Defense establish and implement certain policies, programs, and protocols to address sexual violence among the ranks. To date, the Department has issued 14 directive type memorandums, included restricted reporting and non-restricted reporting, a commander's checklist, numerous training protocols, victim support. To date, approximately a million military service personnel have received sexual assault prevention training, and hundreds of military personnel have volunteered to serve as unit victim advocates. The directives, however, have numerous limitations, including a predominant focus on training without a foundation of law and policy that was only recently passed by Congress in the 2005 fiscal year Defense authorization bill and will be enacted in 2007. Some of the other limitations include the lack of applicability to survivors of other forms of interpersonal violence, such as those who are victimized by domestic violence, spouse abuse. This piecemeal approach doesn't quite address the entire cycle of violence that Representative Kucinich alluded to in his commentary. Finally, the failure to educate, inform, and analyze sex offender behavior is missing from the policy directives issued by the Department of Defense, as well as penalties for those who would choose to commit such crimes. One last note in regards to limitations is the focus upon prevention and victim support without specific guidelines as to intervention which often can inform prevention. A number of the directives or policy matters outlined in the Defense authorization, in fact, have not been completed to date, including protocols for military law enforcement, criminal investigators, and health care protocols. Further examination of the training conducted to date within the military departments is required. The training was conducted prior to any changes in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which I mentioned previously goes into effect in 2007. Research also indicates that training does not necessarily correlate to a reduction in incidence or prevalence level. Also, quarterly training rather than the current mandated annual training is much more effective in regards to retention of material and influence upon prevention rates. Questions should be raised relative to the qualifications of the trainers, their certification, the curriculum, and ongoing continuing education for both military personnel as well as those who choose to serve in certain first responder capacities. The training, for example, of unit victim advocates is woefully inadequate. Numerous States require specific hours of education and continuing education for victim advocates, such as in the State of Connecticut which requires 40 hours. However, unit victim advocates are currently provided approximately 2 days of training and sent back to units, squadrons, and ships to voluntarily serve. Protections for victim advocates and unit victim advocates are still lacking following public disclosure of disbarments, firings, the pulling of contracts, as well as the limited resources afforded to these professionals. Two other issues that I'd like to focus upon relative to the restricted and non-restricted reporting policy as serious implications as the rights of privacy for those who are victims and survivors. In fact, we have received numerous anecdotal reports concerning the fact that victims are either being encouraged, coerced, or threatened, depending upon the terminology used by the victim, to choose non-restricted reporting, and in some instances commanders are making the choice for the victim or overriding the victim's choice prior to them receiving medical care and treatment. One final note relative to collaborative partnerships, which is part of the Department of Defense protocols. The memorandums of understanding which are being promoted between military installations and service providers, in particular, require additional review, in particular concerning the issues of privacy and the right of privacy. Delilah and many of our colleagues work under grant programs within the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, that require confidential reporting and only the reporting of numbers, per se. Regrettable, some of the issues within Violence Against Women Act, as well as HIPAA, may come into play and preclude those type of partnerships, and need to be addressed immediately. A strategic plan has been established within the first comprehensive legislative initiative which was introduced in 2004. It is being reintroduced this year and is H.R. 5212. The bill provides that foundation of law and policy that is required, the infrastructure for services, support, and treatment. It addresses victims' rights and restitution. It establishes a health care system response. It establishes a military criminal justice response. And it adopts the best professional practices that, over the 30-plus years in the battered women and rape crisis movement, we have come to acknowledge and utilize in our society. It addresses community safety and establishes a coordinated community response that addresses those issues within confidential reporting, as well as establishes additional research and evaluation protocols. It is ultimately unacceptable to us and we must address the fact that women who choose to serve and those who dream of service deserve a foundation of law and policy, an infrastructure, and offender and system accountability. The loss of the education, the experience, and the expertise of these women who are victimized by sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, trafficking while serving on active duty is a sacrifice our country can no longer afford. The initiatives outlined also accede the re-establishment of zero tolerance policy and training as implemented by the Department of Defense to date. The policies are intended to create a policy and social change which ensures both the safety and justice for those who choose to wear the uniform of the United States. Thank you. [The prepared statement of Ms. Hansen follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.027 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.028 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.029 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.030 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.031 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.032 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.033 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.034 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.035 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.036 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.037 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.038 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.039 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.040 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.041 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.042 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.043 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.044 Mr. Shays. Thank you very much, Ms. Hansen. Ms. Davis, we appreciate your being here. You had an inquiry. We have a 5-minute rule, but we roll over for another 5 minutes. It is important, in particular, for you to give your statement as you choose to, so you can feel comfortable that we are eager to hear your statement and appreciate your being here. STATEMENT OF BETH DAVIS Ms. Davis. Thank you. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of the thousands of rape victims, victims of sexual assault and violence at the academies and in the military. I cannot imagine a more courageous group of individuals, and it is an honor to be chosen to aid in making the changes necessary to address the issue of sexual assault and violence against women in our prestigious military institutions and to help arrest the grave constitutional crisis that has arisen within its ranks. Before beginning my statement, however, I would like to state that, although I am grateful for this opportunity, the allocation of only 5 minutes to the victims is a woefully inadequate amount of time for the victims to give the subcommittee members an idea of the magnitude of these crimes that have been committed against us. These crimes were first committed by our attackers and second by our own officers and a military system that turned against us, rather than protected us, thus destroying our lives, our careers, and our families, while our attackers were allowed to go on with their careers, free from punishment or responsibility for their reprehensible crimes. Over the past few years the military has had many opportunities to appear before Congress and advocate its position, largely unchallenged, as it will again today, while the victims have not, and while the crime spree against women in our military continues, seemingly unabated. Accordingly, we urge this subcommittee to hold additional hearings so that the victims will finally be able to be heard and to shine the light of truth on this vast, dark stain on our military and on our Nation. We ask that Congress initiate its own non-military, independent investigation of the problem of rape and assault at the Air Force Academy, the other academies, and in the military at large, including an investigation into the culpability of the officers and officials in charge. Nothing short of this will suffice. As the media took hold, a widespread culture of misogyny and abuse was revealed to Congress and to the American people, despite the Air Force General Counsel, Mary Walker's, disingenuous Working Group Report of June 2003, which unbelievably stated that there were no systemic problems with sexual assault at the Academy. The independent Fowler Commission found something much different. In its report, the Commission recognized that a grave scandal had befallen the Academy. It revealed that the Air Force Working Group's Report was rife with conflicts of interest and failed to disclose evidence that the Air Force leadership had known about the problem for years but had not taken adequate steps to address it, and it revealed a paper trail of evidence which incriminated the officers and whitewashed the injustices at the Academy. The Fowler Commission identified culpable officers and recommended action be taken to hold them accountable. The Inspector General of the Department of Defense produced the next military-prepared report on the situation at U.S. AFA on December 3, 2004. Rather than following the directives of the Fowler Commission, though, this report shockingly exonerated the very officers that the Fowler Commission found at fault. Representative Tillie Fowler's comment on the DOD report, given shortly before her death, was that the DOD report was shameful. Around the same time it was revealed in the media that the Air Force's top military leader and Judge Advocate General had resigned amidst scandalous allegations that he had committed sexual misconduct with 13 female subordinates over the past 10 years. It became clear that a deep problem of character, attitude, and example existed throughout the highest ranks of the Air Force leadership. Yet another shocking example of the Air Force's blatant disregard for congressional mandates and the victims was only weeks away. In a memo delivered to the Secretary of Defense on Good Friday, 2005, the new acting Secretary of the Air Force, Peter Teets, officially exonerated all the Air Force officers implicated in the sexual assault scandal at U.S. SAFA and then promptly resigned. It became clear to us that military establishment was now free to act on its own as an autonomous body and would protect its officers and officials at the expense of the victims, unaccountable to and in blatant disregard of Congress and the public, unchecked by the laws of the United States and the Constitution. We commend this subcommittee for taking steps that may help us understand the military culture that allows this problem to continue, and we commend the Defense Task Force on its efforts; however, they are inadequate and devoid of leadership accountability. Please refer to my statement for our recommendations in addressing this problem. In over 3 very long years of pursuing justice, our constitutionally guaranteed first amendment rights to a redress of grievances against our former commanding officers have been repeatedly denied to us by the U.S. military and the continued inaction of our elected officials. The Air Force, Department of Defense, and Congress have still done nothing about the accusations we made against the Academy officers who created false, misleading, and incomplete original crime reports and who deliberately disposed of crime scene evidence, and who also persecuted, libeled, slandered, and ruined our careers in the Air Force just for reporting these crimes. No government of the people, by the people, and for the people that truly values justice should allow alleged criminals to investigate themselves, much less grant blanket exonerations to themselves, while their victims and their witnesses are not allowed to testify or present evidence in court or officially before Congress. The effective result of the last few years of activity has been the denial of justice to the victims and the prevention of the attackers and accused officers from ever being held legally responsible and accountable. Despite this supposed attention given to this problem and the many millions of taxpayer dollars spent on military reports, studies, and training, the problem persists unabated, while the number of convictions and punishments of attackers and criminal officers at U.S. AFA remains at zero. I ask how can you, our elected Members of Congress, send U.S. women Soldiers off to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan with the intent of giving citizens of those countries democratic rights and legal justice when, at the same time, those rights are being denied to the women of our own military. We urge you and the other Members of Congress to, at long last, take decisive action to bind the rising tide of injustice and the unchecked wave of rape and sexual assault that washes through our military and continues to flood our Nation's shore with the drowned bodies of our individual liberty. We ask for the grant of public hearings so that the victims of rape, sexual assault, and reprisal in the military may be clearly heard so that the problem may be properly addressed. We ask for an independent congressional investigation into these matters and the military's response, and that appropriate steps be taken against those found culpable so that an example will be rendered to all Americans that these crimes will not be tolerated by our Nation. And we ask for the restoration of our honor, reputation, educational and medical benefits, and the financial well-beings of the victims of these crimes so that they may attempt to begin their lives again. Nothing short of this will suffice. I commend my fellow victims for their courage in coming forward and I urge other victims to do so, as well. On behalf of all the victims and their families, I thank you so much for this opportunity, and if time permits I would like to go into my story. Would that be OK? Mr. Shays. Time does permit. We would like to hear you tell your story. Ms. Davis. OK. Mr. Shays. We will turn the clock off. Just turn it off. Ms. Davis. I was raped and assaulted repeatedly my freshman year by a superior cadet in my squadron. In earlier---- Mr. Shays. Excuse me, Ms. Davis? Ms. Davis. Yes? Ms. Davis. You have no rush, and you can speak slowly and we appreciate your testimony. We have turned the clock off. Ms. Davis. Thank you very much. I greatly appreciate it. Mr. Shays. OK. Ms. Davis. I was raped and assaulted repeatedly my freshman year by a superior cadet in my squadron. In earlier sexual assault briefings during my basic cadet training, upperclass women cadets informed us that it was very likely that we would be raped or sexually assaulted during our time at the Academy, and they instructed us that, if we were attacked, to not report it to the authorities because it would effectively destroy our career. Images of those women flashed through my mind and deterred me from immediately reporting my crimes to the commanding officers. I remembered my pride in getting accepted to the Academy, and I dreamt of the day I would graduate and fly my jet in defense of my country. I thought that was all I needed to survive the grueling physical military and academic tests and challenges I endured every day, but these dreams couldn't carry me through the pain I was suffering at the hands of my superior. I began to get sick frequently and developed inhibitions and phobias that made the work demand at the Academy unbearable. Finally, after realizing that nothing could possibly hurt more than the pain I was enduring then, I broke down and went to the Office of Special Investigations with my story. The OSI commander sat engrossed as I sopped tears from my eyes reciting every wretched detail for the first time only months after the last incident. He began to weep with me, declaring, ``Don't worry, Beth. This SOB is going to jail.'' Upon leaving his office I felt I had done the right thing, after all, but it wasn't long before that feeling diminished and disbelief set in. About 6 months into the investigation I was called into OSI and the commander informed me that the legal office had shut my case down. Having been integrally involved in the information throughout those 6 months and seeing the many coinciding testimonies from the other cadets in my squadron, this seemed suspicious to me. I went directly to the legal office to inquire why they had closed my case and was adamantly told that every case on the base crosses their desk, and, contrary to the statements of my OSI commander, they had never seen my case. I immediately realized that something was going on and I started to worry that the warnings of the upperclass women in basic training were becoming a reality for me. After questioning the OSI commander again, he apologized for misleading me and told me that, in fact, my training group commander had shut my case down for ``my own good,'' even though he didn't have the authority to do so. Utterly discouraged, I marched into the training group commander's office and blatantly asked why. As he stumbled for words, he claimed that there was nothing more he could do for me and ordered me to see the base psychologist within the half hour. As I arrived at the psychologist's office, the doctor hung his phone up and declared, ``That was your commander, and he says we need to diagnose you with something that gets you sent off base.'' Not fully understanding what was happening, I sat down as he scribbled on my medical records. Immediately after leaving, I called a mentor officer of mine and informed him of what had happened and the diagnosis given. He frantically responded, ``Beth, he not just only took your pilot qualification, he took your commissioning. Go back into his office and get all his information.'' [Crying.] I apologize. Mr. Shays. Ms. Davis, you do not need to apologize. We just are very grateful you are here. Your statement is long overdue. I apologize to you that you have not had this opportunity sooner. Ms. Davis. Thank you. I appreciate it. He told me, ``Go back into his office and get all his information.'' As I walked back in, the psychologist crumbled before me, claiming that he was under a direct order and pleading with me not to turn him in. In the meantime, my training group commander had already scheduled a medical review board to assess the psychologist's diagnosis of me and determine whether or not I would be disenrolled as a result. He was also in the process of officially serving me with three of the Academy's most detrimental punishments, each of which was grounds for disenrollment. To my shock and dismay, the demerits were for sex in the dorms, because my rapes took place in the dormitories; fraternization, because my rapist was an upperclassman; and alcohol, because I had included in my written statement that he was buying alcohol for my classmates, my under-age classmates. As my world and everything I believed in crumbled before me, I realized I was being castigated and thrown out of the Academy for reporting the heinous crimes that had been committed against me. As an additional strike against me, I later learned that certain undisclosed codes on my discharge papers effectively prohibited me from ever holding another military job again, and also coded for me accepting my discharge in lieu of receiving those violations that were grounds for my disenrollment. I returned home and began to hear the stories of many other women cadets that had endured the same mistreatment and retaliation by the Academy after reporting their crimes, one victim raped by a class president at the Academy; another victim raped by a senior cadet and then called a liar by Academy officials after reporting, with her family including her mother, an Air Force colonel at the Academy being affirmatively disparaged by the Academy; another victim being verbally berated and humiliated by the Academy commander, General Taco Gilbert, with his now-infamous $100 billion comments; and another victim raped by a serial rapist whose crimes, including the forcible rape of a young civilian in a wheelchair, were known to the Academy officials, who let him roam free at the Academy. Other shocking stories were revealed of past gang rapes and violence assaults of women cadets by organized groups of male cadets. Although the details of these stories were a little bit different, they all had the same common thread that after reporting these crimes, the women victims were investigated and persecuted, with their reputation and careers destroyed, while the male attackers went free, oftentimes to go on and continue to rape and assault other women cadets. Shortly after my dismissal from the Academy, I sent out an e-mail to fellow cadets detailing what they should do in the case of rape and which was eventually brought to the attention of the Secretary of the Air Force. Around the same time, another cadet sent an e-mail to the media and Members of Congress, which helped bring this terrible problem into the light of day and before the eyes of an angry American public and Congress, which later mandated an independent panel be established to assess the problem. Sir, I would like to stop there. The rest is in my statement. I believe I have covered every main point. [The prepared statement of Ms. Davis follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.045 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.046 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.047 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.048 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.049 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.050 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.051 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.052 Mr. Shays. I was just talking to the ranking member about the need to make sure that you are not the only one who has this opportunity. Ms. Davis. Thank you so much. Mr. Shays. I am going to ask Mrs. Maloney if she wants to start the questions. Mrs. Maloney. My first question is why are we forcing our women in the Academies and the military to report in the chain of command when the chain of command repeatedly makes them the victim, ruins their careers, and then they turn around and get promotions. So my first question is why don't we have the victims report, as every other person in our society does, to the closest police department? Now, granted, in Iraq and Afghanistan you cannot do that, but in the academies you can get in a car, you could go to the police department, you could have the DNA taken, you could have your case listened to. What is so disturbing is this is not the first report. Several years ago Vanity Fair ran a large article. There was Tailhook. There were all these various incidents where the great American military says we are going to end this, and it never seems to end. So my first question is why don't we change this. I can see that if we are in a battlefield the chain of command is absolutely essential, but why in the world is the chain of command essential when a victim is being raped, then told to go to a psychologist and have them say you are insane so that they can have you thrown out of the military. It is absolutely beyond belief and unfair, obnoxious, unfair, and should be changed. So why, at the academies, at the very least, and bases that are on American soil, have the cases reported to the police department? I'd ask the panel to respond. Ms. Davis. I would like to say that freshmen at the military academies, their lives are restricted in every way, shape, and form. They aren't privy to phone use, to cars. They really don't have those resources available. They aren't even allowed to walk in certain areas of the academies. Most of the time they have to be escorted if they are out on their own. Mrs. Maloney. Well, possibly we could set up a program where a police station could send a car to pick up someone so that they could report their crime. Would that have been helpful? Ms. Davis. That may have been helpful. I really feel like my main deterrent was that I knew I was going to be ostracized. The Academy is a very small school and, in turn, a very tight rumor mill, and your reputation at the Academy follows you throughout your career. The feeling there is that women aren't wanted, and everyone is looking for the first reason to get you out. You will sacrifice anything, including your mental health, your well-being, just to survive the Academy. Ms. Rumburg. Congresswoman Maloney, I think we have to also recognize in many cases the women that are sexually assaulted do not want to report to the police, and so now they do have two options, restricted and unrestricted reporting. I think the main thing is that they know what their options are. No. 1, Beth should have been believed. Mrs. Maloney. But if you have unrestricted reporting--in other words, it is confidential, no one knows what happened-- but what happens is the rapist goes free. The rapist goes free. Ms. Rumburg. I think that is something we have to deal with, but I think---- Mrs. Maloney. The rapist goes free, and the culture that says, if you report your career is finished, is basically what you are saying, right, Beth? Ms. Davis. Yes. Mrs. Maloney. Then---- Ms. Rumburg. I still believe the victim should have the option to determine whether or not they go forward, and I think what we are going to find, when those young women have the option and get the emotional support, the medical care that they need in the beginning, we are hopeful that they will go forward with an unrestricted report so that the offender can be held accountable. But I think the first thing we need to make sure is that those resources are available for the victim, whether she chooses to have a restricted report or an unrestricted report. I think it is important for them to know that they have that option and that they will be believed. Once they have the response and the care in place, then I think many of them will go forward. Mrs. Maloney. Beth, what would that have meant for your case? Ms. Davis. Well, I am just thinking to myself, one of my recommendations is that rape victims at the academies are provided with civilian legal counsel. It is a very big deterrent that you have to turn to anybody within the Academy. I am not sure if I can convey the importance of that. You don't want to turn to people that are within the Academy because you feel like they are all against you. I include in my statement there is a feeling, a widespread feeling of a cynicism there because there is a perceived war between the cadets and the leadership because the leadership doesn't adhere to the academy's standards, yet they are trying to enforce the academy standards on the cadets, so the cadets, in turn, resent them for it. Mrs. Maloney. Ms. Hansen wanted to make a comment. My time is up, but I---- Ms. Hansen. Congresswoman Maloney, it actually goes beyond the restricted and non-restricted reporting policies. It gets into the collaborative agreements that we have talked about, the memorandum of understanding. There is currently, with the Air Force Academy, the El Paso County Sheriff's office and District Attorney's office has a memorandum of understanding where any incidents of domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual misconduct, etc., will be handled by Air Force officials. Regrettably, that is counter to the jurisdiction on the Air Force Academy, which is called concurrent jurisdiction. Essentially, the local police department could come onto the Academy with lights and sirens blaring and could respond to a sexual assault that occurred on academy grounds. At this time that memorandum of understanding only permits civilian authorities to have control over criminal cases that occur involving cadets off post. That is one of the serious barriers, let us say, for them reporting to civilian authorities, because oftentimes then military authorities assume jurisdiction in those cases. Mrs. Maloney. You can always change the law. Ms. Hansen. Yes. Mrs. Maloney. You can always change the law, and if women are raped and the hierarchy and the chain of command does nothing about it except send them to a psychologist and have them thrown out, then change the system. Ms. Hansen. Exactly, Congresswoman Maloney. Mrs. Maloney. We have a system that works pretty well now in the civilian community. Ms. Hansen. Yes. Mrs. Maloney. You can go to the police, you can go to the District Attorney, you can go to victim's assistance. If the system is in place, why don't we access that. Ms. Hansen. Yes. I concur with you. I think it also gets to some constitutional issues, as well, for young women like Beth and others who have been victimized by these type of crimes and their rights of equal protection under our Constitution and its amendments. Mrs. Maloney. My time is up. Mr. Shays. Mr. Price, we'd like to go to you next. Mr. Price. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, my appreciation for being able to join the subcommittee today. I think I will focus my questions on Ms. Davis, who is a constituent and who obviously has touched us all here with her courage in coming forward with the story she has told. There are so many questions that the testimony raises. I suppose at the very beginning you stressed the kind of informal orientation you received from senior female cadets, and you imply that, whatever you were told about your legal rights or anything else, that informal advice was what you remembered and what, unfortunately, is what turned out to be accurate. What were you told officially about sexual assault and harassment and the policies of the Academy and your legal rights and that sort of thing? Were you told anything at all? Ms. Davis. Yes. There actually were briefings on it, and they would tell us that the resources were there, that there was a victim advocate on base, and we could go to the Cadet Counseling Center, we could also turn to OSI, but they would also feature upperclass women cadets. These were briefings that they had actually separated us women from the men going through basic training, so it was only the females in the room, and upperclass female cadets would stand up and give their testimony of what they had been through or what they had known to happen, and they would say that, you know, this will happen. Your career will be ruined if you decide to report. I will never forget it. And then, when you enter a squadron in the beginning of your freshman year, we had the informal addresses of the upperclassmen. They would come to our rooms and they would say, ``If anything ever happens to you, you can come tell us, but don't tell the authorities.'' They would say, ``You'd regret it. It will lead to the end of your career.'' Believe it or not, being raped my freshman year, my sophomore year, when my sophomore year came I actually went to the female freshman rooms and did the exact same thing because I could tell what was going on with my case and I didn't want it to happen to them. Dreams are literally crushed by reported. You work so hard to get into the military academy, and I just didn't want them to suffer what I was going through. Mr. Price. Well, what you say about the culture and the ostracism and the attitudes of fellow cadets is terrible, if maybe understandable, given its apparent pervasiveness, but it is even more striking to me, though, about your story is not just the acquiescence in this but the promotion of it in many ways by the leadership, by the psychiatrist or the psychologist and the various leaders who were involved in your case where, far from an attempt to counter this or to somehow come to your defense or to bolster your efforts, you were essentially being given the same message by those officials that you were given by those female cadets. Ms. Davis. Yes. Mr. Price. And you stress throughout the importance of leadership. What would you like to, apart from some changes in policy and the kinds of things Mrs. Maloney has been addressing in terms of the kind of recourse you might have, but in terms of leadership attitudes and practices what needs to happen? Ms. Davis. I really do believe it starts with leadership accountability. I believe that, while it was conveyed to us that officers see an assignment to a military institution as a respite in their career, and when I was at the Academy they wouldn't show up until 11 a.m., noon, for their work day. Our officer, in particular, was gone by 4 p.m. every day and would actually take off weeks at a time to go hunting in Canada. We all knew about it. He was never there to oversee the squadron. The squadron was running amuck 24 hours a day and it was because of his absence. So I just can't stress leadership accountability enough. There is an example being made at the academies that is not a healthy one for the cadets, and the cadets end up leaving the Academy with a hate for the institution, for the military, really. They are constantly trying to find the loopholes in the rules. The cynicism is just pervasive there. Everyone does see it as a war, and especially when you reach your senior year, if you are lucky enough, the phrase is Operation Graduation. That doesn't mean work hard at your grades. That means, you know, cover up anything possible because you don't want to be found out. You are at war with the leadership in the absolute highest sense of that phrase. Mr. Price. Finally, you say something about people's dreams, your own dreams, and the way this situation has brought those to naught in too many cases. There have been some steps taken. The have been commissions, there have been reports, there have been some efforts at improvement. Let me just ask you, bottom line, with the situation as it is now as compared to what you went through, would you now personally feel comfortable recommending to a young woman that she pursue education at a service academy? Ms. Davis. Absolutely not. We are still hearing cases of women coming out of the academies absolutely distraught and having been through the exact same thing that I went through. I specifically know of one that left just recently, having contracted herpes from her rapist, and there is actually a paper trail between the doctors denying her treatment, the herpes actually in rare form became meningitis, and the meningitis became encephalitis because they wouldn't treat her, and she now has brain damage and vomits daily. She has damage to a nerve. She deals with level eight migraines and has been through morphine addictions because they just pump her full of drugs to deal with it. It is devastating. These cases come out of the military academies all the time, but the media doesn't seem to get a hold of them. I am sure it is because the coverup is just too fine tuned. It is really a shame. It is such an injustice. Mr. Price. Mr. Chairman, again thank you. I would hope that in the course of this inquiry we could get such information as is available from the academies. I know there are reports about the incidents. The Defense Department apparently has given a mixed accounting of that, saying that reporting a 40 percent spike in reported incidents actually shows improvement because incidents are now being reported. It also certainly shows there are lots of incidents. But, to the extent there are records available, not just about the incidents but also about the disposal of cases, disciplinary actions taken, that sort of base of information coming right up to the present I think would be very useful for all of us. But in the meantime, Ms. Davis, thank you and thanks to your co-witnesses, as well, for some very enlightening testimony. Ms. Davis. Thank you. Mr. Shays. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Price. Mr. Marchant. Mr. Marchant. Thank you. For each of the panelists, have any of you been asked to testify before the Armed Services Committee or any of their subcommittees before? Ms. Hansen. Yes, Congressman Marchant, I have testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee and presented written testimony to the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee. Mr. Marchant. And how long ago was that? Ms. Hansen. February 2004 relative to the public information concerning sexual assaults in CENTCOM AOR, Military Personnel Subcommittee, Senate Armed Services, and in June 2004, House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee relative to a report from the Department of Defense Task Force on Care of Sexual Assault Victims. Mr. Marchant. How about before the House? Ms. Hansen. Only that one occurrence, and that was actually a written statement. Mr. Marchant. Ms. Rumburg. Ms. Rumburg. The task force had the opportunity to submit certainly our report to the Secretary and the staff of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee and to each of the secretaries of the Armed Services in the fall. Mr. Marchant. But as far as a formal House hearing---- Ms. Rumburg. No, sir. Mr. Marchant [continuing]. There has never been one conducted? Ms. Rumburg. No, sir. Mr. Marchant. Ms. Davis. Ms. Davis. Sir, in the winter of 2003 a few victims and I actually came here to Capitol Hill and met with 17 of the Senate Armed Services Committee members, including Warner and Levin, and Senator Warner promised us hearings, on top of holding impromptu hearings that day for the cause, and we have yet to see those hearings. We are hoping that eventually we will have those hearings. Mr. Marchant. But as far as the House goes, the House Armed Services Committee here, any of those committees? Ms. Davis. Congressman, the only public hearing that they've held to date was on June 3, 2004, relative to sexual assault within the Armed Forces. Mr. Marchant. Ms. Davis, were you ever at any time during the process offered any kind of independent counsel? Ms. Davis. No. Mr. Marchant. I know it was a very traumatic period for you, but were you ever counseled that you could have a lawyer if you needed a lawyer? Ms. Davis. No. And I really was too young to understand my rights at that time. I thought I was turning to the authorities and that was the best thing I could do. Mr. Marchant. Would you feel like, after you have been through all this, would you feel like there is such a thing as independent counsel in the service? Ms. Davis. In the service? Mr. Marchant. In the services. I mean, that you could receive independent counsel from someone that was connected to the Academy? Ms. Davis. I just wouldn't have trusted them. I would much rather, as a recommendation for the effort, I would much rather say a civilian, independent attorney should be appointed. Mr. Marchant. Do you think that the environment in itself, the senior cadets, the senior male cadets have to be aware that the female cadets are being told not to report and that it will ruin their career? Does this become common knowledge among the senior cadets and the male cadets that this is something that, maybe even in outside society, you couldn't get away with, but in this society that you are living in you might be able to get away with it because the female has much more to lose? And I suppose that there are male-to-male contact rapes. Ms. Davis. Yes. Absolutely. Mr. Marchant. We have not heard about that. Ms. Davis. Absolutely. Rape is an issue of power, not of sex. The male cadets I am sure are aware of the briefings. It is just too tight of a rumor mill. There are only 4,000 cadets there, and you practically know everyone by name. I'd have to imagine they do. I would like to say, though, that I believe that the situation of rape may be worse in the military because of the power granted to certain individuals over others, and especially in the military academies where you have literally kids training kids. That just can't be good. Like I said, the officials show up late to work and they leave early. Mr. Marchant. Were you ever aware of faculty or superior officers other than the cadets involved in this kind of activity? Ms. Davis. Yes. Absolutely. It happened a couple of times while I was there, and it was brought to our eyes. I don't ever remember it hitting the media, but it was absolutely disgusting. I don't believe it is as high, you know. Mr. Marchant. Any higher than any institution of higher education? Ms. Davis. Maybe not. The cases I remember were actually civilian professors on the cadets. Mr. Marchant. OK. Well, thank you very much for your testimony today. Ms. Davis. Absolutely. Thank you. Mr. Shays. Let me start out by asking Ms. Hansen and Ms. Rumburg how you reacted to Ms. Davis' testimony, and, Ms. Rumburg, given her testimony, do you feel that this report adequately describes the problem? Do you accept everything that Ms. Davis says? And if you do, tell me why I should feel that this report rises to the level of concern that Ms. Davis described. Ms. Rumburg. I think we heard many stories. We actually heard Ms. Davis when we were compiling our report and we had many opportunities to talk to the victims and survivors of sexual assault, and that actually informed the recommendations that we made. Mr. Shays. Is her statement any different than you recall it being when she came before your committee? Ms. Rumburg. No, sir. That has been consistent with what we heard. Absolutely. And that reflects our recommendations. Mr. Shays. This would be a typical statement before your committee? Ms. Rumburg. It was very similar to some of the things that we heard. We heard, yes, that the cadets and midshipmen didn't want to report because they knew they would be ostracized. There was a culture where there was an understanding that their career may be hurt if they came forward with the sexual assaults. That is why I said the counseling component is so important there. Mr. Shays. Tell me where in this report would most capture the statement that Ms. Davis had. You can look at it. I will ask Ms. Hansen to respond to your reaction to Ms. Davis' testimony. Ms. Hansen. Regrettably, Beth's testimony mirrors many of the experiences of our clients, both victims and survivors, whether they are in the military academies or whether they are in active duty services or they might be veterans who were sexually assaulted while on active duty any number of years ago. Predominantly the revictimization we see quite frequently, and we also see issues with violation of their rights as a victim, abuse of power type of sexual assaults, in particular with upperclassmen or those who are superior in rank. We also notice a significant amount of lack of justice for those who have been victimized. Predominantly court martials are about 2 to 3 percent at this point in time, and the predominant response is an administrative response, non- judicial punishment or an article 15 or resignation in lieu of court martial, forfeiture of pay and allowances. So, regrettably, Beth's testimony mirrors that of far too many who have been victimized by sexual violence within the armed forces. Mr. Shays. Before I go any further, Ms. Rumburg, Ms. Davis, did you have an opportunity to look at this report? Ms. Davis. I did. Mr. Shays. Do you think this captures the problem? Do you think it captures what you were trying to convey to the task force? Ms. Davis. I don't. There are things in it that I definitely agree with. I think they were right on---- Mr. Shays. You said you don't but there are things you agree on? Ms. Davis. Yes. Mr. Shays. OK. Ms. Davis. I would like to state that there are things that I agree with, specifically the confidentiality. It has taken us a long time to get to the point where confidentiality can be granted. We actually put in our statement that recommendation 9A we do agree with. It is Congress should create a statutory privilege--this is regarding the confidentiality--protecting communications made by victims of sexual assault to health care providers and victims' advocates. That is huge, and I think that will---- Mr. Shays. We are talking about the recommendations. But let me ask you, do you think this report captured---- Ms. Davis. No. Mr. Shays. See, I am not even sure it came close. Ms. Davis. It really didn't. It really didn't. Mr. Shays. I was not prepared for your testimony. Let me ask you this. You almost had so much to testify, is there any part that maybe was a bit overstated? And I say this for a variety of reasons. One, I want to hope that it is not as bad as you portray it, but when you started to talk about the woman with herpes and now is impacted in a very serious physical way beyond that, that is almost beyond my comprehension. In other words, you don't need to make your testimony stronger than it was when you started. Is there anything in your testimony that you may feel would give us a false impression? You started to speculate about what you think exists in the military, which is speculation not personal, so you mixed personal experience with speculation, and so I am just asking you is there anything that you would qualify or want to make sure that we don't over- interpret? Ms. Davis. Honestly, I feel like I have cut a lot out of my story to try to fit it in to the time and the statement. It really is that bad. The young lady that got the herpes and it has become encephalitis, she wanted to prepare a statement for this but it was too overwhelming for her. I know that she would be so happy to talk to you. Her story is devastating, and she and I have cried over it. Mr. Shays. Well, we only have a staff of five in this subcommittee, and we had marked out what we would do to the end of the year, but we are going to revise our hearing schedules. We are going to understand your case personally and directly from start to finish, and then we are going to ask you of other people you would recommend to come testify. I don't like to think of you as a victim, but we would have you and other victims make sure that what needs to be said is on the record. When I apologized to you for not being aware and not getting you before this subcommittee sooner, you should not have had to have waited so long. You were the class of 2003? Ms. Davis. Yes. Mr. Shays. So you started the fall of 2000 or when? Ms. Davis. I started in the summer of 1999. Mr. Shays. The summer of 1999. And you left when? Ms. Davis. I left the first time on a medical term back in 2001, and then for good in the fall of 2002. Mr. Shays. Now, was that, given what you said, your choice? Ms. Davis. No. Absolutely not. Mr. Shays. So you would have been willing to endure all this and stay and graduate, etc? Ms. Davis. Absolutely. Mr. Shays. I will say to you the thing--and it may sound silly to you, given the horrible things you said, but the thing that I think I find the most outrageous is, as you were talking, you were describing how excited you were to be commissioned and to be a pilot, and later on you said, in spite of all this, you said your dreams are literally crushed. I can't think of anything that you could have said that would be more horrific for me. I hope you have lots of dreams, young lady, and I hope they all come true. Ms. Davis. Thank you very much. Mr. Shays. Ms. Rumburg, I want to say to you that I almost have the feeling that this report was trying to be overly sensitive and delicate, given what we just heard, so tell me how I would feel the same kind of passion of Ms. Davis in this report. Ms. Rumburg. Well, I need to tell you that we all felt greatly impacted by the statements of the victims. Sometimes we were horrified by what we heard, but I think our challenge---- Mr. Shays. But not surprised? Ms. Rumburg. We heard the stories not only from the civilian advocates that had been working with the individuals, as well as the media coverage, so we knew what to expect, but I don't know how this report could have conveyed the pain and the horror. That informed our work, but I don't know how we could have conveyed that. We certainly let that inform our work. I really think the issues, the way we divided the report address the issues that, if we take these recommendations seriously, I think it is a huge step in the right direction. We talked about, No. 1, the culture, and if you notice in the report we did a whole chapter on the culture, recognizing that is the biggest issue of all. If we could change the culture not only in the military but in our society we could stop sexual violence. So we were clearly aware that imbalance of power in a culture that supports the rape culture in this country and in our military was the biggest issue. And we knew also that we couldn't change that overnight. But we looked at the other things like confidentiality. As Beth said, that is important to give victims that option in the beginning. Mr. Shays. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but what I am wrestling is you are talking about your recommendations. Tell me where in this report you would feel the outrage that you must have felt when you heard Ms. Davis speak. I am not putting pressure on you, I don't mean to be putting pressure on you, but this is the report that we in Congress get and look at and the military gets. I am just not sure it begins to capture. I mean, you basically had brutality take place. You basically had testimony that all the women or almost all were saying, ``You will be raped and you have to just deal with it,'' which is an incredibly unbelievable statement. It is kind of like your rite of passage. You then basically have the testimony that says the people who raped are alive and well and in our military prospering. Tell me how that report captures that. Ms. Rumburg. Again, I don't think it can capture that. Mr. Shays. OK. Ms. Rumburg. And I don't think that is what we tried to do. What we spent months and months doing was coming up with recommendations that we felt, if they were addressed, that it could begin to address this issue. Again, we made recommendations around the culture, things that we could do. No. 1, holding midshipmen and other cadets responsible for their behavior, to look at bystander behavior, how that allowed this culture of rape to exist. We thought that was one of the key pieces under the culture. We addressed the things that Beth talked about, how an academy is young people training young people, how that is part of the problem. There were many, many recommendations on the kind of training that we need to put in place, and it started at the top, from the command all the way down to the civilians that were volunteers at the academies. So I think we did address and made recommendations. You are right. It does not cover the outrage. But we tried to take everything that we heard and put it into a document that the academies could take and use as a guideline to start moving forward. We spent a lot of time under offender accountability and the kinds of changes that we thought should be made in the justice system, and then, again, training and education being a key component. There is a prevention piece there. What can we do to prevent this? There needs to be more money to look at this issue of prevention because as civilians we are struggling with this. How do we stop this kind of behavior in our culture? Mr. Shays. If I was running the academies, if I was in a power of authority in the military, I think one easy way to deal with it is to send your best experts to determine what the hell is happening and then throw these people out of the service and send them to jail. I think that would be the healthiest thing around. Ms. Davis should be viewed as a hero. Ms. Rumburg. And, sir, she is seen as a hero in the eyes of many, many people. She is. Mr. Shays. I am not sure---- Ms. Rumburg. And if it wasn't for brave women like Beth coming forward these hearings wouldn't be happening. And it is going to take more and more women like Beth to come forward. I don't want to diminish their stories. I have been an advocate for 30 years, so I took this task very, very seriously. We wanted to create a document that, again, as a road map--it is not going to solve the problem overnight. As Mrs. Maloney said, there is frustration why it has taken so long. We are all frustrated that we have been doing this work for over 30 years and none of us have seen any real change, not only in the military but in the culture at large. Mr. Shays. Yes, Ms. Hansen? Ms. Hansen. Mr. Shays, I think your assessment of Beth's testimony and her presentation to the public as to what has been transpiring at the Air Force Academy as a hero is correct. We see oftentimes within the victims and survivors that we work with an enormous amount of courage, particularly when many of them actually choose to then turn around and to serve those who are in the middle of a crisis following their own victimization. It not only honors us, but the work that they do on behalf of those who are being victimized is quite incredible. Just one other note. In using the terminology ``victim,'' in our field we use the term ``victim'' to relate to the fact that this person has been victimized by a crime and has not received justice. We use the term ``survivor'' when they are in the process of--I hesitate to use the term ``healing,'' but when they are in the process of treatment, care, etc. Mr. Shays. Right. One of my staff said, use survivor instead of victim. Let me recognize Mr. Van Hollen. I don't think, Ms. Davis, that we have done justice to your testimony in this subcommittee, but I am happy we have it. I, frankly, was not prepared for the extent of your testimony. Is there any point you'd like to make before I go to Mr. Van Hollen? Ms. Davis. I am just thinking we came up with some of our own recommendations. Mr. Shays. Can you just tell me who ``we'' is? Ms. Davis. Well, my lawyer and a couple of the other victims that were in my class. Mr. Shays. So you do not mind being referred to as a victim? Ms. Davis. No. I just see it as a word, I guess. Mr. Shays. OK. Fair enough. Ms. Davis. If I may, I'd like to go over a couple of them. Mr. Shays. Sure. Ms. Davis. The second one that we outline, a congressionally mandated statutory exception to the Farris Doctrine, the Farris Doctrine is pretty much prohibiting rape victims from being able to sue for civil rights when these injustices occur. We have in here that military victims who report crimes of sexual assault within the military and/or who are later persecuted by military officers or officials for doing so can seek redress against the military, the attackers, and/or the officers in question in civilian courts. I think that the Farris Doctrine is pretty much granting immunity to rapists as it is now. Third, we have granting congressional hearings for these rape victims. I think for the main reason that hearing the testimonies, I just don't know how a report really can convey how this problem is just absolutely devastating lives. I feel like that is an understatement. Mr. Shays. Well, the significance of the 9/11 Commission was they had basically finding of facts before they did recommendations, and maybe this report would have been helped by just having some real reality in this document before the recommendations. Maybe that is what I was looking for. So I think the recommendations are probably quite good, and maybe, Ms. Rumburg, because you have dealt with this for 30 years it almost seems like that is not necessary, but I think it is. Ms. Rumburg. No, and I didn't mean to convey that it is not necessary. Mr. Shays. No, you didn't convey that. Ms. Rumburg. I think every story is---- Mr. Shays. I think, though, the fact that you don't find much of it in the report says that to me. Ms. Rumburg. And that was the decision, I think, that we decided to keep it in a format that it would be easy to read and the recommendations would be easy to find. But I must tell you we all felt the outrage and a lot of compassion, much compassion for the victims that came before us. Mr. Shays. I know you did. You have answered my question. To have this report have more impact, we need to have a little more finding of fact, I think. I thank the gentleman for his patience. I'd like Mrs. Maloney to be able to ask a question, too, again, as well, and Mr. Marchant. We thought we were going to go to the next panel. I will say to the next panel it is important that this first panel's comments be addressed, and I would imagine that one of the parts of the testimony is, Ms. Davis, you left 4 years ago? Ms. Davis. Yes. Mr. Shays. I would think that what we will be told is that things have changed, and I think your comment is, based on your communication with others, it hasn't. Mr. Shays. No. Mr. Shays. Thank you. Mr. Van Hollen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank all of you for your very powerful testimony. I am sorry I had to step out during some of the questioning. I'd like to ask you, Ms. Davis, in your statement you pointed to so many failures in the system, in the chain of command. You started out going through the OSI, and then you went to the training group commander, and then, of course, there was the psychiatrist or the psychologist. In each step of the way the system failed you. My question is: what has happened to those individuals who failed you? Because in order, it seems to me, to really fix this problem we have to hold people accountable. And until that signal is sent to other young people in the services, men and women, you are not going to be able to change that culture. You are not going to make people any less afraid to come forward because they are not going to see that anybody is penalized for wrongful behavior. Let me just start by asking you, the individuals in your chain of command, can you tell us whether they have been held accountable in any way? Ms. Davis. Not at all, no. There is one that I know of that has discharged. I know that he had done other things to other cadets, and there were so many complaints against him that he was pretty much forced to retire early. But no, nothing has happened to them. It just became very apparent to me that it was a very fine-tuned effort to get me out, and they were all working together. There was actually even one--it was the vice commandant--whose sole job was to pretty much quell the concerns of my parents. He would call my home and make my parents--he actually even tried to make it sound like I had done something to warrant them punishing me. My parents called, concerned. But I had a very clean report. I was actually on my class council, the student government. I didn't have any disciplinary actions against me prior to this. It was a very, very cohesive effort against me. Mr. Van Hollen. What kind of signal does that send to others, in your opinion, if people who are responsible for failing to take action see no consequences? What kind of message does that send, or did it send? Ms. Davis. You hit it point blank. Yes. Leadership accountability is paramount in this case. It is sending the signal to cadets that as long as you are suave you can get away with it, as long as you cover your bases. It is absolutely sickening to me. Mr. Van Hollen. Let me just read, if I might, Mr. Chairman. In March of this year there was a Washington Post story regarding sexual assault charges against students at the U.S. Naval Academy, concluding that they are routinely dismissed without trial, according to analysis of Navy documents. A review of 56 midshipmen accused of sexual assault since 1998 found that only 2 were convicted, 1 in a civilian court, according to a review by the Washington Post of Navy incident reports, case summaries, and data released by the school. In virtually every other case deals were struck, forcing the accused student to leave the Academy without facing trial and without a criminal record. It seems to me that report and those statistics kind of tell the story here. I look forward to the testimony of panels that come after you, but it sounds from this that these sexual assaults are being treated more like someone who cheated on a test---- Ms. Davis. Yes. Mr. Van Hollen [continuing]. Than someone who committed a crime. If you cheat on a test you are thrown out, but if you are committing a crime you should be thrown in jail. And if there is a question as to whether or not you committed the crime, it seems to me you should go through the normal process that any other individual who is accused of a crime should have to go through, the normal court procedure, establishing your guilt or innocence. I would be interested in all of your sort of sense about that. I don't know if you saw the analysis done by the Washington Post. I assume you did. I know some of you have done your own analyses. But why is it that so many of these cases are essentially dealt with in a way where, ``You can leave the Academy, but the criminal charges are not going to be pursued?'' Ms. Hansen. In regard to the academies, we predominantly see that resignation in lieu of court martial, Congressman. Regrettably, that doesn't address what we know as sex offender behavior, in that oftentimes sex offender behavior begins early, and if there is not significant intervention it can escalate along the way. So you have to also contemplate the fact that these individuals were not penalized, shall we say. There was no significant intervention. There was no change in behavior so that when they are out in our communities they may offend again. Regrettably, we have a large population of veterans within our State and Federal prisons for sex offenses in that regard who have demonstrated prior histories, shall we say, that were not significantly addressed at the time. Mr. Van Hollen. All right. Ms. Davis, I asked you about those in the chain of command who sort of failed you in terms of pursuing your grievances and the complaint and the fact that you were raped. Let me ask you, what has happened to the people who actually perpetrated the crime? Ms. Davis. In the midst of my investigation they actually flew what they considered the best psychologist--I could give her name, but I am not sure I should--the best psychologist in the Air Force in from Germany and out for Turkey the very next day just to evaluate the two of us, and she evaluated my perpetrator first, and then she met with me, and her first words were, ``I just want to tell you you don't have to say a thing. I have already diagnosed him as a sociopath.'' In my squadron it was known that he was an alcoholic. He was actually discharged for dishonorable purposes. They wouldn't tell me what for, but it had nothing to do with me. Mr. Van Hollen. It had nothing to do with you? Ms. Davis. Nothing to do. And if I could just comment, my commandant was actually instructed to brief the Secretary of the Air Force on my case weekly because the Secretary at the time had branded it the worst that the Air Force Academy had seen, and so there was a very cohesive effort against me all the way back to the Pentagon. Mr. Van Hollen. But the individual who perpetrated the crime against you was discharged, but beyond that we don't know if any criminal charges have ever been brought against him? Ms. Davis. No. No criminal charges. When they were handing me the three class D hits, the worst hits that the Academy gives, they were telling me, ``Don't worry, he's going to be getting them, too,'' and he never received anything. Mr. Van Hollen. I just have one more question, Mr. Chairman. Again, thank you for this hearing. After the Tailhook scandal, because of all the attention I believe that was sort of focused on the military at that point, there were certain individuals who were involved in that who were punished, but the true test of whether or not we have accountability is whether the system does it on its own when there are not the big lights shining on what is going on, whether they have sort of institutionalized a process for holding people accountable. Outside of the Tailhook situation, do we know of any people in any of the academies who have been punished for failing to do their job in terms of failing to hold perpetrators accountable, people who have failed others as the system failed you, Ms. Davis? Do we know of cases where the military has held those people accountable? I can't think of any better way to send a message to the system than holding those who are in positions of responsibility and trust in the chain of command accountable when they fail in that trust. Do you know of any instances where that has happened? Ms. Hansen. Regrettably, Congressman, I do not. And that doesn't mirror our work just relative to the academies but the services, generally. Mr. Van Hollen. So nobody knows of any case where that has happened? Ms. Rumburg. No. No, sir. Mr. Van Hollen. Mr. Chairman, I would suggest that is part of the problem that we have here. Lots of very important reports documenting the problem, but it doesn't seem like a lot of follow-through in terms of actions taken to punish people who are negligent in terms of fulfilling their duties. Thank you. Mr. Shays. I thank the gentleman. We are almost done. Mrs. Maloney I think has a followup question or two, and I have one or two questions, and then we will get to our next panel. Mrs. Maloney. After listening to the testimony I would suggest that the best way to improve this report is to include a tally of what happened to the victims, the cadets, the women that were raped, and what happened to the rapist. That would tell us more than all of these words. From the testimony I have heard today, if you are raped, you are sent to a psychologist and thrown out of the military with charges against you so you cannot get a job in the military or Government again, yet if you are the rapist you just might get a promotion, or if you are discharged you are quietly discharged. There is something very, very wrong with that equation, and I would request that the next report have a tally of what happened to the victims and what happened to the rapists. If we want to stop this, the best way to stop it is the way we stop it in the civilian community. We take the rapist to court, we have a proceeding, and we convict those that are guilty. This will continue unless we sincerely go after this in a sincere way. This is a crime. People who rape are criminals, yet the women are sent to psychologists and thrown out and the men continue with their careers or, in extreme cases where they are psychopaths you said they are quietly dismissed. So I would just suggest we just follow the laws of this country that apply to everyone unless you are in the military. I would like to better understand how the confidentiality proposal helps. I don't see how it helps. I would like to know, Ms. Davis, if you had the 9A provision, if you could have claimed confidentiality, how would that have helped your case? I would assume when you are talking to the chain of command it is a confidential situation. How does this change the case? Ms. Davis. It wouldn't have changed the case so much; it would have given me the opportunity to turn for mental health help for some coping skills. As far as actually helping with the prosecution, it wouldn't have helped with that really. Mrs. Maloney. So it would not have helped with the problem, which, in my belief, the way to crack down on a crime is to crack down on a crime. Ms. Davis. Yes. Mrs. Maloney. But if people are abused and hurt and violated, the new reform is to allow them to be quiet about it and go to a psychologist? That is the reform? Ms. Davis. Yes. Mrs. Maloney. I don't consider that much of a reform, quite frankly. Ms. Davis. Yes. I agree. Mrs. Maloney. I feel like it is a ``speak no evil, say no evil, pretend there is not a problem.'' If that occurred, how would that have helped your case? Your rapist would still probably be in the military and you would be talking to a psychologist. How does that help? Ms. Davis. I guess it would have prevented the ostracization to some extent. Mrs. Maloney. But who ostracized you? Your fellow cadets did not? Ms. Davis. Well, they did to some extent. Mrs. Maloney. The women ostracized you? Ms. Davis. The military teaches you to cut the weakest link out. Unfortunately, in the military the women are the weakest link in many respects. Academically they usually excel, but physically they absolutely don't. The physicality of things is held to a very high--that is valued there, how physical you are. So if you cut the weakest link out, the women are at the bottom of the chain trying to fight to not be cut out, and a lot of them just don't talk to each other. They can't confide in each other. There is a lot of competition there. It is like a bunch of hungry dogs biting for meat. It is not a healthy situation. So a lot of my friends, as soon as I left the Academy we started talking candidly about our experience, and every single one of them had been raped or assaulted. I am ashamed to say it, but we had no idea. Mr. Shays. Could I just ask you, when you say ``every one,'' could you just be sure it is every one or almost every one? I don't want to put you in a setting where you say something and then people come back later. Ms. Davis. I really appreciate that. I feel free to say that because the percentage of females at the Academy is so low. I really didn't know that many females. There were only five in my class, in my squadron, so---- Mr. Shays. So that statement you are comfortable making? Ms. Davis. Yes, I absolutely am. Mr. Shays. OK. Ms. Davis. I know for a fact that the women that I was---- Mr. Shays. OK. I just---- Ms. Davis. Unfortunately, it is true. Mr. Shays. It is, and it is very unfortunate. I do want to ask one question of you, Ms. Rumburg and Ms. Hansen and then Ms. Davis. I will just read it, but I would like to put it on the record. Why do you believe it has taken over 25 task forces, commissions, panels, and reports to address the issue of sexual violence in the U.S. armed forces? Why so many? In other words, are we getting anywhere? Ms. Rumburg. I think, again, it is the bigger problem that nobody takes this as seriously as they need to. I know what we tried to do--and I think Beth has been able to convey it today--is create an outrage at every level of our society of what we feel every time we see a victim, and for some reason or another we have not been able to convey that outrage that everyone should feel that it could be my daughter, it could be my son, my grandchild. That is our biggest struggle. How do we make every one of the people that are in positions to make these decisions feel the same outrage that each one of us feels day in and day out. Can I give you an example of what I just did in Pennsylvania trying to create an awareness in my legislature, because there is no money to provide services or it is dwindling? I took a pair of baby shoes to everybody on the Appropriations Committee to say this is a child that is on a waiting list in Pennsylvania. This represents a child who cannot get services. I think it takes that kind of action, you know, with people like Beth going out and saying, ``You have to hear my story.'' I think that is the best thing that we can do is allow victims an opportunity to tell their stories so that everyone else that is making those decisions is going to feel the same outrage that you and the rest of the panel feels. It is critical that they are heard and that they begin to realize how serious this problem is, in any way that we can convey it. That is our struggle. Ms. Hansen. Mr. Chairman, I don't think there is an excuse that is acceptable. Women have always volunteered to serve. We currently have an all-volunteer force. This has been an ongoing problem for decades. There are reports of women who were sexually assaulted in the Vietnam era that are one of the more significant influxes to the Veterans Administration at this time, that 30 to 35 years later they have not received appropriate care and treatment, and the issues in their lives have escalated tremendously. I don't think there is an excuse. I think also, in regards to what Mrs. Maloney said, we have an enormous amount of information within our case files relative to mental health evaluations of those who filed complaints of sexual harassment and sexual assaults, particularly women who are serving in the intelligence community, at this point in time. I think that it is important for us to do the tally that has been suggested as to what you see, what the response is, what transpires for the victim/ survivor and what transpires for an alleged offender. Within our case files there is a significant disparity and a lack of justice for those who have been victimized. Mr. Shays. Ms. Davis. Ms. Davis. I just feel like the efforts are somewhat spinning wheels. It is hard. I just have to go back to the leadership accountability. I just don't feel like anything of substance has ever been done. There is a lot of protocol in regards to dealing with an issue that we can implement these ideas and the civilian counsel. It will all help to some degree, but unless people are actually held accountable it is just sabotaging the effort. Mr. Shays. Well, is there anything that you would like to have as a last word? I am going to have the very last word, but is there anything, Ms. Davis, that you would like to say, wish we had asked you, wish you put on the record, Ms. Hansen or Ms. Rumburg, something that we just need to put on the record that we didn't? Ms. Rumburg. I don't think so. Thank you. Mr. Shays. OK. Ms. Hansen. Ms. Hansen. I'd just like to expand the conversation beyond sexual assault into domestic violence, as well, within our forces, particularly spousal abuse when you are talking about violence against women. Also, human trafficking and sexual exploitation, regrettably we are seeing some issues in that regard of an ongoing nature. Mr. Shays. Thank you. Mrs. Maloney. What are you seeing in sexual trafficking in an ongoing basis? Ms. Hansen. Regrettably, we are actually seeing in some of the combattant commands it has become an issue, and within some of our coalition partners, as well. We have also seen Beth's terminology, ``sham marriages,'' ``sham engagements,'' in which women are brought here into the United States for purposes other than a happy marriage and family life, essentially for prostitution purposes. Mrs. Maloney. And who are you reporting this to? Ms. Hansen. We have spoken to numerous Members of Congress and we have also spoken to various individuals within the services in that regard. Mrs. Maloney. Thank you. I'd like to know more about it. Thank you. Ms. Hansen. We will get you more information. Mrs. Maloney. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Shays. If you would direct that to the subcommittee, we will also make sure that Mrs. Maloney gets that information at the same time we get it. Ms. Rumburg, anything we need to put on the record? Ms. Rumburg. Yes, sir. Again I want to thank you, because, as I said in the beginning, this light that you are shining on this problem within the military and the Department of Defense is only going to open a broader conversation about our responsibilities as citizens to continue to address this problem until we no longer have to deal with sexual violence, not only in the military but in the society, as a whole. And I just want to make one observation, getting back to what Beth said. One of our recommendations was that we really pay attention to the screening as it relates to the individuals that are admitted into the academy. If there had been appropriate screening of the individuals that come into the academy, we could eliminate some of the men, particularly someone that is a sociopath, so we did address that in our recommendations. We really need to pay attention to the way we screen individuals before they go to the academy. Mr. Shays. Thank you. What I would like all of you to know is that when we started chairing these hearings in 1995 we used to have the Government officials come first and then the victims/survivors of any particular issue, like Gulf war illness, come second. Then what happened is sometimes the Government officials would say there is no problem and then some would leave and then we would have the victims describe the problem, so we reversed that, and we appreciate the Government officials recognizing it is important to hear from the experts in this field and the victims/survivors. To you, Ms. Rumburg and Ms. Hansen, you are, in fact, experts on this issue, have dealt with it for a long time, and you probably had more patience than you would like to have. I'd like to think that you would see this committee have some impact. That is fully my pledge to you. To you, Ms. Davis, you are a remarkable young woman. You were very candid from the moment you spoke. I was a little taken aback because I thought, my goodness, you are getting a chance to speak, but you were right on target. You should have been heard sooner by Congress. I will say you are one of the most articulate witnesses I have ever had come before any committee that I have ever served. You are a good teacher. You are articulate. You are a remarkable person. I was thinking how proud I would be to have you as my daughter, and to think of the contribution you have made. I would like to ask you to say what you would like to come from these hearings. In other words, what would you like to see happen as a result of your testifying? What would be your hope? What would be your dream about the result of your testimony, not just in the short run, in the long run. Ms. Davis. I guess it is more or less the impression that the victims make on Congress. I feel like Congress just hasn't been influenced enough to really take hold of this. The DOD is running wild with it. They are kind of running their own show. There is just no oversight. I feel like these hearings would impress upon the Members of Congress the dire need for an oversight, for the congressional influence on their efforts. I just don't feel like the DOD is running an honest show and it is really disheartening. Mr. Shays. You would like to see your testimony result in Congress doing more oversight, questioning the so-called ``internal efforts'' of DOD, and you would obviously like to be able, I would think, in the future be able to recommend to another young woman, ``You know, the best thing in the world would be to join the academy and to pursue your dream, and I would be advocating your doing that,'' and right now your testimony is you wouldn't. Ms. Davis. No. Mr. Shays. But would that be a fair thing to say, that you would hope that some day real soon you could say what? Ms. Davis. I hope that I could say that the Academy is living up to its prestigious title. All of the military academies are acclaimed as some of the best institutions in this country, and to hear of someone that is admitted, is nominated, just the grueling process that you have to go through to get admitted, it should be that wondrous thing and it is just not right now. It is not a place that I would wish anybody of any substance, of any great intelligence, that is a wonderful, great person with great dreams, I wouldn't wish them to go there at all. I just feel like you'd be throwing them into the wolf pit. I really do hope some day that the Academy can become that prestigious thing. They have a lot of values and standards that are great if they could follow them, if they could live up to them, but they fall very short. Mr. Shays. OK. Thank you all very much. I think what we will do is--does anybody know how many votes we have? I am going to say to our next panel that we will probably not be back until at least 10 of or 5, so if you want to just take a short break from here I think we will just empanel the second panel when we get back. Thank you all very much. We stand at recess. [Recess.] Mr. Shays. I'd like to call this hearing back to order. We thank our second panel, No. 1, for understanding why we wanted you to be second and not first, and I am sure that some of the testimony was a little difficult to listen to. We have before us Dr. Kaye Whitley, Acting Director, Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, Department of Defense; Vice Admiral Rodney P. Rempt, Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy; Brigadier General Robert L. Caslen, Jr., Commandant of the U.S. Military Academy; Brigadier General Susan Y. Desjardins, Commandant of the U.S. Air Force Academy; and Rear Admiral Paul J. Higgins, Director of Health and Safety, U.S. Coast Guard. As you know, we swear our witnesses. We'd request that you rise, raise your right hands, and we will swear you in. [Witnesses sworn.] Mr. Shays. Note for the record our witnesses have responded in the affirmative. I want to say at the outset that we appreciate your service to our country. We are grateful for your service to our country. Ultimately, we have the same goal, and that is to just have this country be a blessing to everyone and to make sure, particularly in your tasks in the military, that the highest standards are upheld. I know that is your goal and your desire. I would like to just start with Dr. Whitley. We will have you start off. We do the 5-minute rule, but we do roll over. I don't want you to think you have to be done in 5 minutes if you can finish in 7 or 8 or whatever, but you don't want to go past 10. Thank you. STATEMENTS OF KAYE WHITLEY, ACTING DIRECTOR, SEXUAL ASSAULT PREVENTION AND RESPONSE OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE; VICE ADMIRAL RODNEY P. REMPT, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE U.S. NAVAL ACADEMY; BRIGADIER GENERAL ROBERT L. CASLEN, JR., COMMANDANT OF THE U.S. MILITARY ACADEMY; BRIGADIER GENERAL SUSAN Y. DESJARDINS, COMMANDANT OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY; AND REAR ADMIRAL PAUL J. HIGGINS, DIRECTOR OF HEALTH AND SAFETY, U.S. COAST GUARD STATEMENT OF KAY WHITLEY Dr. Whitley. Thank you, Chairman Shays, for inviting me to discuss the Department of Defense's sexual assault prevention and response program. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Davis and acknowledge her courage. I am the Acting Director of the Department's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, but I fully understand the devastating impact that sexual assault can have on victims and our society. When I was a counselor, several of my clients struggled with the long-term effects of sexual assault, and all of them suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. They all had to muster incredible courage just to get through each day. I sometimes think of these individuals and that reinforces my commitment to ensuring that DOD's program truly protects and assists the men and women who protect our Nation. As you have heard, sexual assault is a challenge to our society, and it is the Nation's most under-reported violent crime. Some studies indicate that 1 of 6 women and 1 of 33 men will experience rape or attempted rape in their lifetime. Since the military reflects the society it serves, this criminal offense confronts the Department, as well. But, moreover, sexual assault is a readiness issue that strikes the core of our military preparedness. As Secretary Rumsfeld stressed to senior leadership in a May 2005, memorandum, such acts are an affront to the institutional values of the armed forces of the United States of America, and then he charged them with effecting a concerted, successful implementation of the Department's sexual assault policy. That policy strikes at sexual assault three different ways. First, it emphasizes career-long training and education to prevent sexual assault. Second, it ensures that, in the event of an assault, the victim receives complete and effective services from well-trained responders. And, third, it provides for system accountability. This policy applies to active and reserve components, alike, as well as the three military surveillance academies. In addition, it provides for consistent programs wherever military units are stationed. I believe the Department is off to a great start. During the past year the military services trained more than 1 million service members. They also established sexual assault program offices at every major installation and every deployable command. They trained more than 5,000 sexual assault response coordinators and victim advocates, and 2,500 were deployable SARCs and victim advocates. In addition to a comprehensive response structure, DOD established a protocol to ensure a consistent level of care and support for victims and implemented a fundamental change in how the Department responds to sexual assault by instituting confidential reporting. Since June 2005, victims may not elect to make a restricted report and receive care and support without notifying command channels or law enforcement. Restricted reporting also allows victims the time, care, and empowerment to consider pursuing an investigation at a later date. This provision and others designed to eliminate barriers to reporting are succeeding. More victims came forward in 2005 than in the previous year, and 435 requested restricted reporting. But, more significantly, 108 of those later changed to unrestricted reporting and pursued criminal investigations. These accomplishments underscore DOD's efforts to transform into action its commitment to sexual assault prevention and response. I am confident that 2006 will show greater progress. I am particularly looking forward to the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services beginning its examination of the Department's program. Their assessment will provide a thorough and independent assessment of our program, and as we refine each facet of our prevention response program we will create a climate of confidence and trust where everyone is afforded respect and dignity. Thank you again, and I will look forward to answering any of your questions. [The prepared statement of Ms. Whitley follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.053 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.054 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.055 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.056 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.057 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.058 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.059 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.060 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.061 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.062 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.063 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.064 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.065 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.066 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.067 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.068 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.069 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.070 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.071 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.072 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.073 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.074 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.075 Mr. Shays. Thank you, Dr. Whitley. Vice Admiral Rodney P. Rempt, thank you. STATEMENT OF ADMIRAL RODNEY REMPT Admiral Rempt. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and other members of the subcommittee. I am honored to appear before you today on behalf of the outstanding men and women of the U.S. Naval Academy. The subject that you are addressing is critical and very important to our academies, the services, and our Nation. Sexual harassment, misconduct, and assault should not be tolerated in the Navy and Marine Corps, and I can assure you that they are not tolerated at your Naval Academy. I can report to you good progress with respect to our sexual harassment, misconduct, and assault prevention and response efforts, but we still have work to do. We expect our midshipmen to live and uphold the highest standards, just as they will be expected to do in setting the example as junior officers in the Navy and Marine Corps. Many of you have constituents attending the Naval Academy. Our over 4,300 member brigade of midshipmen is made up of the best young people from your Districts and States, and our faculty and staff are also comprised of top-notch academia and military officers. The very idea that anyone in the Academy family could behave in a way that fosters sexual harassment, misconduct, or even assault is of great concern to me as superintendent. Preventing and deterring this unacceptable behavior is a leadership issue that I take to heart. My goal is to do all in my power to ensure situations like Ms. Davis never occur. As you know, our mission at the Academy focuses on developing midshipmen morally, mentally, and physically to become combat leaders of the highest character to lead sailors and Marines, and it is not by chance that moral development is listed first in our mission because it is the most important. We want our graduates to become leaders of strong character, with the highest ethical standards and unimpeachable values. With this in mind, we attempt to develop a culture that fosters dignity and respect among everyone at the Naval Academy, while also encouraging personal responsibility and accountability. Our policy to prevent and deter sexual harassment, misconduct, and assault within the brigade and at the Academy as a whole is focused on seven key elements: first, awareness, training, and education to ensure our midshipmen, staff, and faculty know what is expected of them and what our standards are; 24/7 response and support to rapidly and compassionately respond to any incidents; fostering an environment that encourages incident reporting so we know what is occurring and we can respond appropriately; multiple paths for reporting, midshipmen, officers, enlisted, chaplains, counselors, medical personnel, and many others; prompt, thorough investigative procedures employing fully trained and sensitive NCIS investigators; immediate and continuous support for the victim and all involved; and case resolution and follow-on counseling, holding perpetrators accountable, and providing long-term support to victims. Key to deterring unacceptable behavior is a climate within the brigade of midshipmen, specifically how men and women treat each other. We teach our future officers to be inclusive of all, regardless of race, background, or gender, to value diversity, and to develop teamwork within their shipmates. The vast majority of midshipmen exceed our standards every day. Annual climate surveys given to the midshipmen indicate that the culture in the brigade is improving. Our most recent survey conducted in 2005 shows a steady downward trend in sexual harassment. While 93 percent of the brigade reported that they did not experience sexual harassment, the fact is that unwanted comments and jokes and innuendo among the 18 to 24 year old midshipmen still occur within the brigade. Acceptance of women within the brigade continues to improve, but young women coming to Annapolis are still a minority in a predominately male environment. In August 2005, the Defense Task Force both challenged and applauded the Academy's efforts at preventing and responding to sexual harassment and violence and recommended improvements and noted it would take some significant resources to implement all its recommendations. This report was the latest of seven studies and assessments addressing gender relations that the Naval Academy has undergone within the last 15 years. The outcomes of these 7 studies resulted in 243 recommendations for change or improvement, and of those recommendations most have been implemented, many have ongoing actions, and few have not yet been or will not be implemented. The recent Defense Task Force report which was discussed earlier identified 44 findings and 62 accompanying recommendations within 7 key areas, and they range from the need for external assistance for statutory reform, to internal process changes, and responses detailing actions taken or planned were provided to Academy oversight and guidance bodies, including our Presidentially appointed Naval Academy Board of Visitors and the Secretary of the Navy appointed Executive Steering Group. The Naval Academy has the full support and encouragement of the chief of Naval Operations and the Secretary of the Navy, as well as our Board of Visitors and Executive Steering Group to continue the gains we have made. We have answered your specific questions with my prepared statement. I am happy to touch on each area, but I will wait for questions in that area. I do want to say that this year marks the 30 year anniversary of the first admission of women to the academies. At this milestone of 30 years we show a remarkable trend from the beginning year when 80 women were admitted in 1976 to 136 admitted in 1990 to more than 270 women who are projected to report tomorrow as new members of the Class of 2010. The key elements of the Naval Academy sexual harassment, misconduct, and assault prevention and response plan includes 68 specific actions that I and my staff are working on, organized into 7 key areas of the Defense Task Force report. They are aimed at improving gender culture, increasing dignity and respect, better preventing and responding to sexual harassment, misconduct, and assault. In addition to the findings and recommendations from the Defense Task Force, we continue to gain valuable insight from other survey and management tools. In April 2005, the Defense Manpower Data Center administered the service academies' sexual assault survey to 682 female and 1,082 male midshipmen, and as a result of those findings what they showed us was that sexual assault incident rates are very low, sexual harassment incident rates are more prevalent than assault, as we would expect, sexist behavior is a lingering concern in Academy culture, alcohol is often a factor in sexual assaults, and the reason most often indicated for not reporting sexual assaults was that victims thought they could deal with it themselves. Nearly all midshipmen acknowledged having had training on sexual harassment and assault, and the majority of midshipmen feel that sexual harassment and assault have become less of a problem. These results indicate that the Academy is making positive progress, but we are continually working to improve our prevention and response efforts. Our own values survey most recently conducted in October 2005, assesses command climate and asked a number of questions in different areas. In response to this, what we learned was the most frequent offense regarding sexual harassment, negative comments, remarks, and offensive jokes, about 6 percent, and 93 percent reported they were not harassed, 93 percent of women do not feel that sexual harassment impeded their development as midshipmen, and 98 percent of both men and women reported that they did not experience sexual assault. Of the remaining 2 percent who did, the most common offenses were unwanted touching or kissing. Resentment against midshipmen who report harassment dropped to a low of 10 percent among males, down from 24 percent in 2001, and 5 percent among females, down from 50 percent in 2001. Respect for midshipmen who report harassment grew from 34 percent to 56 percent amongst males, and from 25 percent in 2001 to 65 percent amongst females. And 97 percent of the women and 98 percent of the men feel safe sleeping in Bancroft Hall. And 97 percent of women and 98 percent of men rate teamwork and cooperation between themselves and midshipmen of the opposite gender as favorable. These are encouraging results. They tell us that we are making progress in the area of fairness and gender relations. As you well know, sexual assault on the Nation's college campuses has been receiving more attention lately. In an October 2002, report to Congress, the National Institute of Justice provided a comprehensive benchmark of sexual assault policy on the Nation's campuses and delineated promising practices in the area of sexual assault prevention policy, reporting, investigation, adjudication, and victim support. I am pleased to report that the Naval Academy has in place through its sexual assault/victim intervention program each of the promising practices of that research report. We are continuing to expand those. In the interest of time I will skip our recurring and new initiatives. They are contained in my statement. I will conclude. I have consistently made clear to all of our staff and midshipmen that the Navy does not tolerate sexual harassment, misconduct, or assault. These actions have no place in the Navy or Marine Corps and are contrary to the values of the Naval Academy and what we are striving to develop in our future officers. Public trust that the academies will adhere to the highest standards and that we will serve as a beacon for the Nation that exemplifies character and dignity and respect, and we will continue our efforts to meet that trust. Destined to be the future leaders of sailors and Marines, we hold our midshipmen to the highest standards. These high standards apply equally to each and every midshipmen in the brigade. I invite each of you and your colleagues to visit us at the Naval Academy and to talk to your midshipmen, and perhaps that is something I'd suggest for this subcommittee, to have a chance to actually talk to midshipmen to get information on these and other subjects firsthand. Preventing and deterring sexual harassment, misconduct, and assault is a critically important issue that needs to be continuously emphasized. We are on the right track and this serious issue has our fully focused attention. As superintendent, I ensure you that we will continue to do the right thing and uphold the Academy's standards when dealing with these cases. The Naval Academy will continue to focus on improving gender relations toward the goal of greater dignity and respect among midshipmen and eliminating sexual harassment, misconduct, and assault. Thank you, sir. [The prepared statement of Admiral Rempt follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.076 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.077 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.078 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.079 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.080 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.081 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.082 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.083 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.084 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.085 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.086 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.087 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.088 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.089 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.090 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.091 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.092 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.093 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.094 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.095 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.096 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.097 Mr. Shays. Thank you, Admiral. The statistics that you were providing, were those statistics done by---- Admiral Rempt. They are contained in my statement, yes, sir. Mr. Shays. Are they statistics that were done by an outside firm or done internally? And if they were done internally, can the individual---- Admiral Rempt. There have been three separate surveys---- Mr. Shays. Let me just finish. If they were done internally, can the cadets be absolutely convinced that, whatever their response, it was totally and completely confidential? Admiral Rempt. Yes. There were three separate surveys, and all of them are done completely anonymously and they are assured of that. Mr. Shays. Done internally though? Admiral Rempt. Only one was an internal survey. The other two were done from the Defense Task Force and from the DOD SASA survey. Mr. Shays. OK. Thank you, Admiral. General Caslen. STATEMENT OF BRIGADIER GENERAL ROBERT L. CASLEN, JR. General Caslen. Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting the U.S. Military Academy to discuss the sexual assault prevention and response program at West Point. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before this subcommittee to highlight the study recommendations from the Defense Task Force Report and our subsequent efforts to address sexual assault and violence against women at West Point. We also would like to thank the first panel, and in particular Ms. Davis, and recognize her courage and acknowledge each of their efforts in changing a culture that will not only affect our service academies but also our services at large. Many personnel at the Academy have worked very hard with the task force during the year it conducted its data collection, its analysis, and published its report. The task force found the academies have been actively addressing these issues prior to their assessment and applauded our efforts. In addition, a recent Department of the Army IG inspection on our program applauded the efforts made thus far in implementing the sexual assault response program, and their final summary highlighted the West Point program as a model for the Army at large. The U.S. Military Academy revised policy now states that sexual assault is a leadership issue and is inconsistent with the concepts of officership and leadership and contrary to the good order, discipline, and values of the Army. Leaders of good character do not commit sexual assault. They do not, under any circumstance, tolerate sexual assault by superiors, peers, or subordinates. Academy leaders will continue to take ownership of this issue and make every effort to support the Army's initiative to eliminate sexual assault. Respect and dignity for all are inherent in the Army's Warrior Ethos, where our Soldier's Creed states, ``I am a member of a team, mission first, never accept defeat, never quit, and never leave a fallen comrade. I am disciplined, I am professional.'' Sexual harassment, sexual assault, and violence against women have no case in that non-negotiable contract of who we are and what we stand for as a profession of arms. In the 1-year since the release of the DOD Task Force Report we have developed action plans and, based on the 44 recommendations, we have developed 107 actions to improve our overall program. Of these, 78 are green, 29 are amber, and none are red. Additionally, we have identified 53 actions that, although currently green, they require continuous or periodic review. The first question asked us to address are plans for increasing the number and visibility of female officers in key positions. We have increased the numbers and visibility of female officers by increasing from 8 to 20 percent the women selected in our advanced schooling programs. We have increased 14 percent the number of women in our tactical department. We have selected seven women for senior faculty positions, to include a department head and a permanent professor, selected women for cadet leadership details from 10 to 16 percent. We have assigned two female chaplains, women in military and civilian counselors, women doctors and coaches, and two sexual assault response coordinators, one for the installation staff and one for the corps of cadets, and also two advisors, one for the office of the dean and one for the intercollegiate athletic office. In order to increase visibility of women war fighters, women are included in all lecture series which bring combat veterans with recent tours in Iraq and afghanistan back to the Academy to highlight their experiences. The subcommittee also requested we address the type of training we are providing to our cadets regarding sexual harassment. The cadet leader development system is our process for continuing that tradition as we develop tough, competent, confident leaders for the Army. This program develops the attributes needed in future Army leaders and includes over 70 hours of respect training, which covers sexual assault, sexual harassment, and gender discrimination. This past year we revamped the cadet lecture series, making the sessions during academic hours, bringing in new speakers, incorporating new material obtained from national sexual assault resource centers. Highlights included outstanding performances by Veraunda Jackson, a rape survivor, and Tony Porter, head of a men's group to stop violence against women, both nationally known advocates for sexual assault programs. Academic directors made changes to core curriculum courses which included course objectives on human sexuality, the impact of sex roles on behavior, rape myths, communications in sexual relationships, officer counseling to emphasize building strategies to combat sexual harassment and assault in units, Uniform Code of Military Justice definitions of sexual harassment and assault and rape, and why voluntary intoxication fails as a defense to rape and gender discrimination in the context of equal protection. Course material is tested during the term and again on the final exam. I have further details on the third, the fourth, and the fifth questions, sir, but I am going to leave those for the record in order to keep us on time. In my concluding comments I would like to mention a little bit about where we are on our amber programs quickly. Our amber actions include our requirement to address cadet responsibilities, accountability, and maturity in the changing Academy culture category. We are doing this with our social maturation plan and we are integrating it into our cadet leader development system. The social maturation plan is designated to teach cadets personal and leader accountability in social settings. We want to get them through puberty as quickly as we can. Other key amber items we are working include continuing to increase the number of women on the staff and faculty in the corps, ensure female representation in all training positions out there at Camp Buckner where we do our Cadet field training for both the cadets and cadre, reviewing our Academy policy that establishes appropriate consequences for harassment and gender discrimination, updating victim/witness liaison training programs, assessing recently implemented academic course revisions, and obtaining approval in order to publish our recently updated West Point sexual assault response policy, the West Point Experience Handbook, and a memorandum of understanding with our Orange County Rape Crisis Center. We feel it is important to work with and share our best practices with our sister academies and we look forward to providing possible assistance to the task force and to the services at large based on our own experiences. Our current emphasis has shifted from awareness to prevention, developing a culture in which sexual assault and sexual harassment are unacceptable. All leaders at the Academy are aggressively pursuing actions to better educate our community academy ensure we can eliminate the behaviors that may lead to assault or harassment in our workplace. The militaries goal remains steadfast: to produce leaders of character for our Nation. Sir, again the Academy thanks the subcommittee and the Congress for its longstanding commitment to and substantial support for the U.S. Military Academy. [The prepared statement of General Caslen follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.098 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.099 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.100 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.101 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.102 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.103 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.104 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.105 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.106 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.107 Mr. Shays. Thank you, General. General Desjardins. STATEMENT OF BRIGADIER GENERAL SUSAN Y. DESJARDINS General Desjardins. Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the progress we have made at the Air Force Academy in preventing and responding to sexual assault and violence against women. I would also like to thank the previous panel, in particular Ms. Beth Davis for her courage and for her articulate and moving testimony. We have studied the 2005 report of the Defense task force on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military Service Academies and we believe we are responding to its concerns. The Air Force Academy has come a long way in addressing sexual assault and violence since the events of 2003 and before. We have changed and institutionalized processes that makes victim care our first priority. In 2003 we established the Academy Response Team composed of victim advocate, the sexual assault response coordinator, OSI, and the JAG, under the supervision of the training wing vice commander, providing dedicated assistance to victims of sexual assault. We strongly supported the confidential reporting option to allow victims to come forward and receive care without automatically triggering a law enforcement investigation, while maintaining that option for them. We made significant progress but we know and understand the challenge remains to keep the focus on this national problem of sexual assault as it affects the Air Force Academy and to continue our journey for long-term cultural change. America demands its Air Force and its Air Force leaders adhere to the highest standards of conduct; task force, we have refocused our efforts on building leaders of character that reach and exceed these higher standards. Our efforts to combat sexual assault fall into three broad areas I will briefly review for the subcommittee: prevention, cultural change, and victim care. I will also summarize our progress in these areas and highlight the challenge that remains. Prevention. In order to prevent sexual assault we first had to understand sexual assault as a continuum of inappropriate behaviors ranging from sexual harassment to physical sexual violence that are contrary to the concepts of honor in service that we in the Air Force have embraced through our core values: integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all we do. Through consultations with nationally renowned experts such as Dr. David Lisak of the University of Massachusetts in Boston, the Air Force Academy began to understand better the nature of these crimes and to educate all Academy personnel, cadets and permanent party, on a standard definition of sexual assault, on the means by which the most egregious sexual assaults occur, and on insights into the methods for the community to prevent all sexual assaults. These prevention efforts are some of the steps we have taken to effect cultural change. Long-term, institutional change to enhance prevention will be based on making cultural changes through education and institutionalizing positive behaviors, including respect. Respect for self and others is at the core of our cultural change. Our graduated approach devotes over 150 structured curriculum hours to character and leadership development. More than 55 of these hours are devoted to lessons with respect as the baseline on topics such as substance abuse, accountability, and human relations, including sexual assault and sexual harassment training. This education supports the basic premise that interpersonal bonds are not forced in times of war; rather, they are formed according to the strength of the relationship experienced prior to combat. Our education and training programs focus on helping cadets internalize and respect their identity and that of their fellow cadets as members of our U.S. Air Force, while also equipping our permanent party members to mentor cadets throughout their time at the Academy. Victim care. If sexual assault does occur, the need for victim care is our first priority. The Academy's sexual assault response coordinator, working with the Academy response team, provides immediate and long-term assistance and ensures victims receive appropriate physical and emotional care for as long as needed. We also initiated small group education and training lessons for cadets and permanent party on the means to report sexual assault and receive care. These lessons are largely provided by a small cadre of hand picked instructors to ensure consistency of our message, explaining the victim focus of our response is to maximize the care available to a victim while keeping options open for prosecution of perpetrators. Through agreements with local helping agencies we provide a wide range of services to ensure confidentiality and preservation of evidence so victims will be encouraged to report these crimes so that perpetrators will be held accountable once the victim has recovered to the point of opening a criminal investigation. Equipping every cadet in the Academy's permanent party with the tools and knowledge regarding our network of integrated professionals who are devoted to preventing and responding to sexual assaults has enhanced victim trust and confidence, as evidenced by the willingness of those assaulted to seek medical, legal, and emotional support. We had a handful of restricted reports filed with our sexual assault response coordinator during the academic year 2005-2006. This is good news as an indicator of trust and confidence in our reporting system and the treatment of victims as a first priority. The willingness to report is supported by anonymous survey data collected by the Defense Manpower Data Center annually in compliance with the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2004. Since 2003, we have seen a marked decline in sexual assault allegations with a cadet/victim reporting rate of almost 36 percent in 2004, which was nearly double the rate from the 2003 rate of 18.6 percent. For 2005, the DMDC survey was modified, but 44 percent of women cadets that identified themselves as having experienced a sexual assault since 2004 responded that they discussed or reported the assault to some authority, individual, or organization. These rates point to program success in terms of an increasing willingness to seek assistance when sexually assaulted. This is both good news and part of the challenge that remains. Our sexual assault education and training programs have made a difference in our impact in the climate and culture of the Air Force Academy. The incoming class of 2010 has 277 women, the largest number of women ever entering the Academy in a single class and the largest percentage of women for any class. Clearly, the parents of the class of 2010 feel that the Academy is a safe place to send their sons and daughters. But we know that more needs to be done so we continue to refine our lesson plans, processes, and programs, employ the best guest speakers to discuss sexual assault with our cadets early and often, train and equip our staff to focus first on victims while preserving the victims' options for future action, and continue to educate everyone on sexual assault as a national issue. We will also continue to stress that your Air Force and your Air Force Academy have zero tolerance for sexual assault. Sexual assault is a crime, one we will not condone, enable, or overlook. We will continue our efforts of cultural change to embed the overarching concept of respect for each other and to each and every member of the Academy. America has entrusted its finest sons and daughters to the Air Force Academy. They are proud to wear the cadet uniform, and they cannot wait to help defend our Nation by joining the operational Air Force after graduation. This year we graduated the first class of cadets that volunteered for the Academy after the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Each and every member of the Class of 2006 knew when they sought admission to the Academy that they were volunteering for military service during wartime. Every class that has entered since then has knowingly volunteered for the same responsibility. The Academy will mold these men and women into leaders of character that America demands, especially during war time. We know we can count on Congress' assistance in this important task. Thank you again for the opportunity to maintain attention on the sexual assault prevention and response at the U.S. Air Force Academy. [The prepared statement of General Desjardins follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.108 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.109 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.110 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.111 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.112 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.113 Mr. Shays. Thank you, General. Before recognizing you, Rear Admiral Higgins, I just want to say that the catalyst for this hearing was a briefing I had in which a former cadet at the Coast Guard Academy, Ms. Katelyn Stopper, made testimony that certainly caught our interest, and that is why we are having this hearing today, and we thank her for that. At this time we would recognize you, Rear Admiral. STATEMENT OF REAR ADMIRAL PAUL J. HIGGINS Admiral Higgins. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the subcommittee, and thank you to our distinguished witnesses from both panels. I am heartened by this subcommittee's interest in this important subject and grateful for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss what the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Academy are doing to thwart sexual harassment, abuse, and violence. Today at the Coast Guard Academy 28 percent of the Academy cadets are women and 28 percent of the staff of over 500 are also women. The newly reported Commandant of Cadets, Captain Judith Keene, is a 1981 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and the first female to hold this esteemed position. Many female officers and senior enlisted members are currently serving in senior leadership positions at the Academy, as well. Despite that critical mass, we have had nine reports of sexual assault or harassment since the year 2000 at the Coast Guard Academy. We are currently holding a court martial of a Coast Guard cadet for allegations of sexual assault. Since that case is not resolved, it is inappropriate for me to discuss that case further. The class of 2010, which reports aboard next Monday, will attend 12 value training sessions during Swab Summer. The goal of this training is to instill the Coast Guard's core value of honor, respect, and devotion to duty in each newly reported cadet. Within this framework are training sessions on sexual harassment prevention, sexual assault prevention, diversity, human relations, substance abuse prevention, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and human relations and civil rights. This training continues throughout the 4-years as a cadet at the Coast Guard Academy and annually thereafter as a Coast Guard active duty member. The Coast Guard Academy adopted its own distinct sexual assault policy predating the June 2005, Defense Task Force Report on Sexual Harassment and Violence in the Military Academies. The policy provided clear guidance and procedures to ensure our primary goal: that victims receive appropriate mental and physical health care in a timely manner, in addition to providing crucial victim empowerment by allowing a victim to report sexual assault either confidentially or non- confidentially, a feature subsequently recommended by the task force and now known as ``restricted reporting.'' All unrestricted reports initiate an immediate investigation by trained Coast Guard investigative service agents. Our policy has since been upgraded to align with the task force report. In summary, the Coast Guard strives to employ a diverse work force by maintaining a workplace that is one of inclusion, free of violence, discrimination, or harassment of any kind. Through constant monitoring of and improvements to the cadet environment, we will enable ourselves to continue to attract America's best and brightest young men and women to our Academy, where they will train to be the future leaders of the U.S. Coast Guard. Thank you for this opportunity to testify before you today. I ask that my written statement be admitted to the record, and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have, Mr. Chairman, and to the other distinguished subcommittee members. I would like to say that Ms. Katelyn Stopper and her mom I believe are here in the room. I talked to her earlier this evening. [The prepared statement of Admiral Higgins follows:] [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.114 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.115 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.116 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] 33682.117 Mr. Shays. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. I am going to go to Mr. Marchant, who is the vice chairman of the subcommittee. I am just going to say what I will be looking for is connecting what is, for me, a theory of how it works to the reality of what we heard earlier. And I am going to be asking you to relate what you heard, particularly from Ms. Davis, as to why that could have happened in the past and why it wouldn't happen today. And if you tell me it couldn't happen in the past, then we are on a total different wave length. And then I have to know why it won't happen today. Then I will want to know--I am just giving you a chance to think about this--I will want to know what does a person like her have as any recourse in terms of potentially coming back, of potentially making sure that she has no financial liabilities, and so on. I need you to connect your statements to what I think is the real world. I want to acknowledge that you put your lives on the line for our country, and I have tremendous respect for your service. General Caslen, I have a sense that you probably served in Iraq and Afghanistan, one or both? General Caslen. Afghanistan, sir. Mr. Shays. Well, thank you for your service. General Caslen. Yes, sir. Mr. Shays. I know this is not necessarily a comfortable experience for all of you to deal with this issue, but it is very important. I am taking the liberty of the subcommittee a bit, but I just know the Code of Conduct that has had some cadets I am aware of be kicked out because they left campus without having the right or permission to leave. Lying has sent them packing. So when I hear about these other events dealing with sexual harassment it just strikes me that somehow the code just disappears, and I need someone to explain to me why that is the case. But that will happen when my turn comes. Mr. Marchant, you have the floor. Mr. Marchant. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If you would please, for your respective academies, just answer the two questions for me, and we will just go down the line. First of all, would you explain how a victim's accusations would be investigated and processed through your Academy today. How would it go from start to finish? And then, to the best of your knowledge, how many court martials and/or ejections from the Academy have there been since let's say 2000 as a result of an investigation of a sexual assault? Admiral Rempt. Yes, sir, I would be happy to answer that. Clearly, any accusation involving a sexual assault is, in fact, immediately investigated, given that the victim desires to proceed. We will initiate investigations at the NCIS. We have three trained people at the Academy that are well trained in how to do this in a very sensitive manner. The victim, of course, is assigned an advocate to proceed with them through the whole process--medical, legal, counseling, etc. So in every case that we can we will open an investigation and get to the bottom of the facts that are involved. With respect to the numbers of cases and what occurred, I think it is very important that the subcommittee understand the different ramifications and things that can occur here. In the past 5 years, if I take that timeframe, we have had 60 accusations of sexual assault at the Naval Academy. Now, if we go through these, of those 60, 41 involved midshipmen accused of assault, which means there were another 19 where midshipmen were not accused but were, in fact, victims, so a potential perpetrator or alleged perpetrator from outside the Academy. So we then have 41 cases of concern for discipline, 60 cases of concern for counseling and care. Out of these accusations, only nine were substantiated as sexual assaults. That may seem like an astonishing number when you look at the number of accusations, but, in fact, 31 were investigated by either NCIS or a civilian agency with NCIS assistance. Ten of them were not investigated because the victim either declined to participate or continue the case further. There are many reasons for this. It can be it is a friend of theirs and they don't want to proceed, they are embarrassed by the situation. There are many different reasons. We provide them extensive counseling to help them through that decision and what is right for them, but it is still a difficult one for them. Out of these 31 investigations, 2 are still ongoing, 15 investigations yielded evidence of a range of misconduct other than assault. So, in looking at the evidence it turned out it was not an assault, it was something else violating Academy rules, participating in something prohibited, etc. They were handled in the Academy's administrative conduct system. Three were sent to an article 32 hearing, which is much like a grand jury precursor to going to trial, and were determined to have insufficient evidence to proceed further. In one case the victim recanted. We know that victims recant because they just don't want to deal with the situation, so again counseling is appropriate to try to help a victim think through what are the circumstances. In one investigation the victim declined to participate any further. We don't know the reason why they elected to do that. Of the nine cases in which the evidence supported sexual assault, six midshipmen referred to court martial or civilian trial and the remaining three midshipmen referred to the Academy's administrative conduct system. There are specific reasons for that in each case. Eight of these nine midshipmen were separated from the Academy. We still have two cases ongoing. We strive to establish a climate to encourage reporting of sexual harassment and misconduct and assault so we can support the victim and we can, in fact, respond to the allegations fairly and appropriately. Very important here is protecting the confidentiality of the victim, ensuring the rights of the accused, and some degree of privacy for both of them. Mr. Marchant. Thank you. General Caslen. Sir, for the U.S. Military Academy, obviously we work on each investigation on whether or not it is a restricted investigation, restricted reporting or non- restricted reporting, and if it is restricted reporting--first, let me just say in either case the primary concern is the victim and the necessary care that the victim gets. We have the whole plethora of support for the entire installation, whether it is the chaplain or the health clinic to the hospital to the emergency room and to all the different psychologists to support for the victim. That is in both cases. That is, I think, the primary concern as we enter into this. As we go to unrestricted reporting, in an unrestricted case we assign a victim assistant who accompanies a victim to CID for the investigation, so that person accompanies the victim through the entire investigation process and stays with her and provides the necessary psychological counseling and other type of counseling that she may need or that the victim may need. Mr. Marchant. I feel maybe that I didn't state my question clearly enough. You have all done a good job of explaining what you are doing for the victims. At this point I would like to know what the process is for the accused, what process the accused goes through other than I know they are investigated, but how timely is it. Is it immediate? Is there a set process? And do both victim and accused stay in the system? General Caslen. I can get you specific dates and timelines for the record and a follow-on report. Mr. Marchant. That would be fine. General Caslen. Being I am kind of new in this sort of thing I don't have personal experience at the U.S. Military Academy with each one of these, but I do know it follows the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The criminal investigation division does the investigation and they go through the investigation, and then they refer it, as necessary, to the commander. And then the commander will then make a decision if it requires an article 32 investigation or whether or not, you know, whatever disposition he makes, because the gravity of some of these article 32 is often the case is followed. Then it would go to a court martial or not. I do have, though, the statistics from last year. I can offer those to you, as well. But I do know that at the U.S. Military Academy they follow the Uniform Code of Military Justice in the criminal investigation procedures that are normally done with CID and article 32 investigations when directed by the convening authority. Of the 18 cases that the U.S. Military Academy had last year, 15 of them went to criminal charges. The three that didn't did not go to criminal charges. The 15 that did went through the complete process. Of those 15, 3 were unfounded because of evidence, which means 12 were disposed of to completion. Two ended with court martial, and the other were with separation or resignation, all with the agreement of the victim, but they went through the entirety of the process, itself. Mr. Marchant. Thank you. General Desjardins. As far as the Academy's response, when a victim is sexually assaulted there is one number that we tell the cadets to call and notify, and that is 333-SARC, a sexual assault response coordinator. That energizes then the Academy response team. That is the one number to call and that energizes the Academy response team, which is which is composed of the OSI, JAG, the victim advocate, as well as a SARC in the first tier, and then the next tier involves the chaplain and other counselors. But then an investigation is open and a cadet is allowed to determine whether she or he wants to keep the report restricted. In other words, just get the medical care and the physical care that they need first, until they get to the point where they might want to go unrestricted and have an investigation, a law enforcement type investigation completed. So that is the initial response. The SARC is notified. And we also have other avenues for cadets. This 18 to 22 year old group, they are going to talk to their peers before they talk to anyone, and so we do have cadets assigned to each squadron on a voluntary basis that understand. In fact, they are called PEERS, professional education and ethics representatives, that understand intimately the process of reporting, and they actually encourage and they are available to encourage cadets within their squadron of about 100 cadets to the proper reporting, what help is available. That is what happens on a sexual assault report and that is how the Academy response team is energized. As far as Academy response team cases, since academic year 2003 we have had 49, and each of those cases was thoroughly investigated. None of them went to a court martial, but all of them were investigated fully, and some of them--I don't have the exact number--were criminally charged on lesser accounts that could be proven. Those are numbers there. Mr. Marchant. Thank you. Admiral Higgins. We have very similar processes to the other academies. We have a group of about 125 cadets called the ``cadets against sexual assault,'' CASA, who do have specialized training to counsel folks. The cadets at the Coast Guard Academy can go through the chaplains, medical, through CASA, to employee assistance program, or can still use their chain of command. I can quickly give you the results of the nine. We have one ongoing court martial right now that is unresolved, although it is my understanding is that this morning at 11 the Defense rested. It is now with the panel. We had five sexual assaults, most of which were inappropriate touching, and with agreement of the victims we had five disenrollments from the Coast Guard Academy. We had three sexual harassment cases. All received administrative punishment, and that is done through the commandant of cadets and a group of cadet officers who do that. That is since the year 2000, the nine cases that we had. The one ongoing court martial, that went to an article 32 and may be resolved within a week or so. Mr. Marchant. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you for your responses. I know that I am out of time, but I would like just one followup comment. Mr. Shays. You may have that followup comment. Mr. Marchant. I would just like to know, and no response necessary, if there is a tracking system in place where you track the victims that have reported the assaults and tracked whether they have stayed in school or they have left. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Shays. I thank the gentleman. He certainly had the time to make that comment. I am going to call on Mr. Kucinich, but I still feel a disconnect from this panel and the previous panel. I just feel like we are in two different worlds. To hear, for instance, that there is no court martial since 2003 at the Air Force Academy is surprising to me. Mr. Kucinich. Mr. Kucinich. I want to thank the Chair for causing this hearing to happen and, once again, you have caused this committee to be an important committee for public policy and, in particular, on this issue of how the women who serve this country in the military academies are treated when it comes to being assaulted. Now, Brigadier General, I read your testimony very carefully and, in light of what my chairman just said, I have to tell you it is somewhat surprising to see the extent of Former Cadet Davis' testimony and to see the rather discursive response to this general issue. Would you like to take a moment on behalf of the U.S. Air Force to respond definitively to charges that the entire chain of command or a good part of your chain of command was involved in trying to discourage this woman's rights from being defended? General Desjardins. Yes, sir. In 1999 Cadet Davis said the sexual assault started and then continued on to 2000, 2001, and then when she left for the second time, I believe, in 2002. This was brought to light very clearly, all of this, in absolute crisis at our Air Force Academy in 2003. That is how we all looked at it. I was out in the operational Air Force by then, and those of us who are graduates--I graduated in 1980 in the first class of women at the Air Force Academy--it was total dismay. It was just awful to see. So in 2003, when this was all brought to light, the Academy and the Air Force, the Secretary of the Air Force, responded aggressively and, in fact, the Secretary of the Air Force lost confidence in the leadership at the Air Force Academy and replaced the leadership team with an entire new team from the commandant to the training group commander and ultimately a new superintendent came in. Since that time, which was 2003, in 2005 when the Defense Task Force did its report---- Mr. Kucinich. Were those people replaced or did they resign? You mentioned some replacements. Were people replaced or did they quit? General Desjardins. Sir, I think the superintendent actually retired and then they were replaced, the other two were replaced. But then there was a full court press on what do we do now and how do we respond and how do we change, because this absolutely can't continue to happen. This identified a problem not only at the Air Force Academy but in the Air Force and ultimately in the Department of Defense. The crisis turned into an opportunity to make change, and I can't overstate how important it is to make this change and continue to shine this light. This is not one of these problems that will go away. We have to always keep our focus on it. I am optimistic that we are making good changes, but we have a long way to go. We have a very long way to go. Mr. Kucinich. One of the things I thought was very telling in the former cadet's testimony was she went to the base psychologist, ``As I arrived at the psychologist's office, the doctor hung up his phone and declared, `That was your commander and he says we need to diagnose you with something that gets you sent off base.' '' How long have you been in the chain of command over at the U.S. Air Force Academy? General Desjardins. Sir, I took command as the commandant in December 2005; 6 months. Mr. Kucinich. And do you have an entire new chain of command? General Desjardins. Yes, sir. Mr. Kucinich. And are you confident that your chain of command would respond appropriately in case of a sexual assault on one of your cadets? General Desjardins. Yes, sir, I absolutely am. In fact, our superintendent, his daughter was in the class of 2003, and so he takes it as an absolute personal commitment that every sexual assault is thoroughly investigated and the victim care is utmost in our minds. I will tell you, sir, I also have a lot of confidence in the chain of command below me. All of our tactical officers or air officers commanding in charge of each one of the squadrons, majors or 04s, are hand selected to be good role models for our cadets. They are 20 percent women and they come from all specialties across the Air Force. It is a very select panel. They have to have a record of success. And so above and below me I have the utmost confidence in the chain of command at the Air Force Academy to handle aggressively and with vigilance the issue of sexual assault. Mr. Kucinich. How many psychologists do you have on staff? General Desjardins. Sir, we have in the Academy Counseling Center four psychologists. Mr. Kucinich. And are those individuals free to make their own assessment absent the requirements of the higher command? General Desjardins. Yes, sir, they are. Mr. Kucinich. They are not dictated as far as assessments-- -- General Desjardins. No, sir. Mr. Kucinich [continuing]. To be made? General Desjardins. No, sir. Mr. Kucinich. I notice in your testimony you pointed with pride to the incoming class of 2010, the largest number of women ever entering the Academy. General Desjardins. Yes, sir. Mr. Kucinich. So you have taken even greater responsibility now. General Desjardins. Absolutely. I do, sir. Mr. Kucinich. I would like to thank you. I'd like to ask Brigadier General a question, if I may. General Caslen. Yes, sir. Mr. Kucinich. This question relates to the extent of your engagement with local law enforcement. I see that on December 5, 2005, your testimony was that you had a civilian law enforcement working lunch and talking to some local people, and that you also provided a briefing for civilian law enforcement officers. What is the position of West Point with respect to if a rape occurs do you handle it in-house first at this point or do you share it with the local law enforcement authorities? And is that dependent on your restricted or unrestricted rule? General Caslen. Well, sir, as necessary, when local law enforcement agencies get involved in a particular case, whether it is through reporting or through a service that is provided, we are in the process of developing that relationship and refining it through a memorandum of understanding on exactly how that would be played out and who would do what and how you would respect confidentiality when that occurs and so forth and so on. The good news is that, as a result of the task force's recommendation, it was the impetus for us to gain contact with the local authorities and to establish that relationship, teach them on what our Army policies are, what our West Point policies are, and then establish the lines of communication and the procedures for reporting and care as necessary, so---- Mr. Kucinich. How many women are at West Point now, General? General Caslen. About 600 or so. Mr. Kucinich. That is 600 out of how many cadets? General Caslen. I believe 4,400, sir. Mr. Kucinich. OK, 4,400. And how long have you been in the chain of command? General Caslen. Since last week, sir. Mr. Kucinich. Welcome. General Caslen. Sir, I will tell you, sir, I just went through R-day yesterday where our cadets reported, but it was really my sixth R-day. I went there, of course, as a plebe, but then as an upperclassman in the cadre, twice as a tactical officer, the title 10 commander. Last year was No. 5 as a parent because my son was a cadet at West Point. He's now an upperclass yearling, third classman. And yesterday was No. 6. I think last year as a parent gave me the best preparation to be the commandant of cadets over any other preparation I had because, you know, I have seen my son, who really experienced everything of a fourth class year that you could experience, whether it is walking on the area or struggling through academics or whatever, and it was really helpful to me. It brought into my mind's eye the whole relationships that he has, because I think he is developing a relationship with a cadet girl, as a matter of fact, and we have been around some of these girls in some of the social settings, as well, so it has been very helpful for me the last year in that regard. Mr. Kucinich. Well, you know, Mr. Chairman, I had to step away for business on the floor of the House earlier, but during the testimony, particularly by former Cadet Davis, I was watching you in the back row, General. I was watching your face. When you just told me that you took the command a week ago, I could see--Mr. Chairman, I could see the concern on the General's face. I could see how you responded to what she was saying, and your response was not just as a General but you seemed to be responding as a parent, as well. It was really interesting. I was watching you. I hope what that means is that, as you take responsibility for West Point in your new responsibilities there as a Commandant, that all of the information that we have here and all the testimony that has been given and your sense of what is really going on--and any of us who have ever had sons or daughters, we understand when they get to that age all the complexities that occur. But you know now. General Caslen. Oh, yes, sir. Mr. Kucinich. You know the whole range of things that can happen, so what we need here in this House, as my colleague Chris Van Hollen said earlier, we need your assurance that wherever this sexual harassment or sexual assault exists that you are going to make sure that all the way through the ranks this is not just pursued but that a culture of respect is developed, that cadets will see respect for one another as part of their duty, and that young men will see respect for young women as part of their duty, and vice versa. I really appreciate hearing your personal story there. General Caslen. Yes, sir. I firmly believe strategically that our military academies embody everything that is right with America, and particularly the values, the ethics, and our traditions, and as the average American citizen looks at the military academies, it is inherent on us, the senior leaders, to maintain that responsibility, to maintain those values, and in so doing it is our responsibility to pass those values down to this next generation to the point where they assume ownership of it. When they assume ownership of it, I mean the whole line of it, then the culture will begin to change. What does it take to change a culture, not only in the service academies but even in our services, even in our country, itself, and our college campuses? What does it take to change that culture? We are going to start at the service academies and I think these plans and programs that are now in place are the beginning of that. That is why I give credit to the courageousness of Ms. Davis and her testimony and what she is doing, because a lot of that is the impetus of this change that is going to take place. Mr. Kucinich. I think the academies would do well to, on occasion, invite her in as a speaker to remind people how serious this is. I mean, she gave something up. She gave something up. General Caslen. Yes, sir. Mr. Kucinich. I think that we need to find ways of recognizing her service. I also want to say that, as someone who recommends for consideration by the Academy young women in my District, I want their parents to know that myself and other Members of Congress are vitally concerned about how the young women who are their pride and joy---- General Caslen. Yes, sir. Mr. Kucinich [continuing]. Are going to have their safety and security assured. General Caslen. Yes, sir. Mr. Kucinich. Thank you, General. General Caslen. Yes, sir. Mr. Shays. Before calling on Mr. Platts, I would like to say that in my many trips to Iraq I will interact with men and women in the service, and you can't help but be impressed with both the men and women who serve. But I remember one dialog, and I feel very badly that I don't remember her name. She was an enlistee, and I asked her if this was her first tour, and she said, ``No, sir, it is my second tour.'' And I asked her if she had any children, and she said she had one 4 months old and 2 years old. This was her second tour. And I said, ``You have to return safe to your kids.'' She said, ``Sir, I am not concerned about returning safely home to my children; I am only concerned that they forgive me for leaving them.'' She responded by saying but she knew she needed to be here. That was the nature. She was in the Army. You don't forget comments like that. Mr. Platts. Mr. Platts. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to first thank each of the witnesses for their testimony and add my words of thanks for each of your personal service to our Nation. We certainly are a blessed Nation because of all who wear the uniform. I apologize. I am running late for another commitment but I wanted to stay because the disconnect that the chairman referenced a number of times, the way it came across to me in each of your written testimonies is I believe--and I may have missed one here or there--but in the four academy testimonies I only find the words ``crime'' or ``criminal conduct'' referenced in one of the four. ``Inappropriate behavior,'' ``irresponsible behavior,'' lots of words about wrongful behavior, but only in the Air Force, General Desjardins, I believe only in your testimony do I see an open acknowledgement for what we are talking about. General Desjardins. Yes, sir. Mr. Platts. Criminal conduct. I think that is the disconnect that we are missing here is, whether it is at a military academy or on the streets of America, sexual assault, rape is criminal. General Caslen, I appreciate you are in this job 1 week and clearly you have a belief in doing right by the cadets, but in referencing your opening statement you are referencing the policy of the institution and you say, ``In general, our policy states that sexual assault is a leadership issue.'' I would start by changing the way we talk about this and say it is a criminal issue. The cadets need to know that it is a sign of weakness as a leader to engage in this conduct, but first and foremost it is a criminal issue which we will pursue to its fullest and throw the book at you. I see that as the disconnect here. Let's call it what it is, a crime. I think until America began to treat violence against women in the home or any place for what it is, a crime, we didn't really get serious about it. I would encourage you. I believe I am accurate that in three of your four testimonies the word ``crime'' does not appear. It is about unacceptable behavior. I think that is part of the challenge we have. I don't doubt and I appreciate the efforts that each of your academies are making. I look at this hearing in several fashions. One is as a member of this subcommittee in our oversight responsibilities, as one who has the privilege of nominating courageous and dedicated men and women to the academies, and, probably most importantly, as the parent of a 10-year old and 7 year old. My thoughts as Ms. Davis testified were if I was her father I don't know I would have been very restrained. I would have been at the Academy door seeking justice one way or another, which clearly has not been achieved. I hope that we can go forward. General Desjardins, your statement here referencing the increase of women attending the Air Force Academy, which is great to see, but you say clearly the parents of the Class of 2010 feel that the Academy is a safe place to send their sons and daughters. I would imagine that Ms. Davis' parents thought that they were sending their daughter to a safe place, as well. All of our institutions have a responsibility, and especially our military academies. I think we need to be careful how we talk about this issue and be frank about it. The more frank, the better, especially to those midshipmen and to those cadets. They need to know that we are not just talking about inappropriate behavior; we are talking about criminal conduct. I do thank each of you for your efforts. I do come away from this hearing with the efforts being made that the experiences that Ms. Davis, the horrific experiences that she experienced will not be repeated. That, in the end, will be up to you and those within your chain of command to ensure it never is repeated. I believe that we are on the right track, but call it what it is, a crime, and treat it for what it is, a crime, and throw the book at those individuals who truly are not leaders and not deserving to wear the uniform of this Nation. I thank each of you. I do apologize. I need to run. It is so important. We are so grateful for those who are serving, and when we make our nominations as an office I just cannot express my gratitude enough to the sons and daughters and the parents who are sending their loved ones to our academies and knowing what they will be going into, especially as I think was referenced in one of the testimonies, in a post-September 11th environment where we are a Nation at war. Again, I thank each of you for your individual service throughout your careers. Distinguished careers they are, and we are fortunate to now have you in place of authority at these academies so we do right by all of our men and women attending your academies. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Shays. Thank the gentleman very much. We are going to go to Mrs. Maloney, and then we are going to go to Mr. Van Hollen. Mrs. Maloney. I would like to thank everyone for their testimony and for your service to our country, and I would like to focus on the Defense Incident Based Reporting System, which I understand has been under development for 18 years; that is correct? Dr. Whitley. We are developing a Defense case record management system which has only been in development for about a year. Mrs. Maloney. Well, the DIBRS program that was around for a long time, the Defense Incident Based Reporting System. Dr. Whitley. I am sorry. I don't have an answer for that, ma'am. Mrs. Maloney. Well, could you get an answer for the committee? Dr. Whitley. I will get back to you and find out. Mrs. Maloney. And could you get us a report on where the DIBRS system stands, what success rate it has had, exactly where it stands? Dr. Whitley. Yes, ma'am. Mrs. Maloney. What system are you working on? The sexual assault data management system? Is that what you are working on? Dr. Whitley. We have created a system for sexual assault response coordinators to help them manage their caseload and track victim care. Mrs. Maloney. OK. Could you explain how that system works? Dr. Whitley. It is a data base. The only person that has access to the entire data would be the sexual assault response coordinator in the field. There was nothing in existence---- Mrs. Maloney. Is the coordinator in what field? Dr. Whitley. The installation. The sexual assault response coordinator. There is one at every installation. Mrs. Maloney. At all of the academies, you mean? Dr. Whitley. Yes, by have sexual assault response coordinators, and also I am talking about the entire Department of Defense. Mrs. Maloney. Now, this system will be for all of the academies and the entire Department of Defense, so every man and woman in the military, if they are assaulted, would be in this system? Dr. Whitley. Yes, ma'am. Mrs. Maloney. So it is program wide. What data is collected about the victims in this system? Dr. Whitley. Certainly the information about the incident, the care that the victim receives. I don't think it specifies exactly what care, but it would account for how many times they went to counseling, if they sought medical care or had a forensic exam. It also does keep up with what is happening to the offender, and---- Mrs. Maloney. So it keeps four elements? Could you break it down? Actually, I would like to see the system. I would like to see how it is collected. So you have to have the name of the person in it, right? Dr. Whitley. We do. Mrs. Maloney. Can you go exactly through the elements of it for the victims? So you have the name? Dr. Whitley. And the last four of the Social Security number. Mrs. Maloney. OK. Dr. Whitley. We do not have anything in our data base that isn't in another data base. In other words, criminal investigative offices have data bases, the medical has their data bases. This is an attempt to bring all of that together. Mrs. Maloney. Yes. Dr. Whitley. And it is a tool so that the SARC can manage their caseload. Mrs. Maloney. I understand it, but I want to know specifically what elements are in. The name, the last four digits, then the incident. Is that the time, date, and place? Dr. Whitley. Exactly. Mrs. Maloney. And then the care that they've gotten. Dr. Whitley. Right. Mrs. Maloney. And then the counseling they've gotten and any forensic exam. So six elements are in it? Dr. Whitley. There may be more that I have forgotten. But also, because we require the commander to give the victim an update, they also keep where they are with the case as far as what has happened to the offender. Mrs. Maloney. So this is the victim. What elements do you keep in for the offenders? Dr. Whitley. We do not put anything in the data base such as the name of the offender unless they have been prosecuted and found guilty. Mrs. Maloney. So the name of the offender is not even in there? Dr. Whitley. Correct. But what we do, because we have to give reports to the victim, we require that the victim be given reports and updates on the case. We do keep up with that. Mrs. Maloney. So you don't keep anything on the offender unless the offender is convicted; is that correct? Dr. Whitley. Yes, ma'am. Mrs. Maloney. So it is zero on the offender. Now, are all of the academies sending information to this system now? Dr. Whitley. Our system has not gone live yet. We have done training. I recently came back. Last week we had a conference where we trained over approximately 400 SARCs. We had set up computer labs and we gave them hands-on training for the system. So no, everyone has not been trained yet. That was a train the trainer. The system will go live hopefully in July. Mrs. Maloney. It is going to go live in July. Well, let me tell you something. Ever since Tailhook, the Women's Caucus has been working with the Department of Defense on developing this DIBRS system. At other prior testimony a member of the Department of Defense said it had been in process for 18 years. I would like the background information on DIBRS which we have put in legislation repeatedly, and for some reason it just never seems to be completed. If you could get back to us, we want to see the system exactly. Dr. Whitley. Yes, ma'am. Mrs. Maloney. If I could ask one question, Mr. Chairman, my time is up, but on this to the academies? Mr. Shays. You can have more time. Dr. Whitley. Can I clarify that DIBRS does track criminal activity. The system that I brought up is a system that is a tool for the sexual assault response coordinator just to help them manage their caseload. There is two entirely different systems. But I will get you the background on DIBRS as soon as we get back. Mrs. Maloney. What I'd like on DIBRS, which we were told from the Department of Defense, tracked cases of rape, allegations, and sexual violence, and I would like to know exactly what the elements are in DIBRS. We have been told by the Department of Defense repeatedly by people in charge of it that it would be completed by 2007. I'd like to ask the rear admiral, is your Academy coordinated with DIBRS on sexual assaults at the Academy? Admiral Higgins. Ma'am, currently our data is held by the Coast Guard Investigative Service. We are aware of DIBRS and we are willing to join once it becomes operational, but at this time, since we are Department of Homeland Security, not Department of Defense, we are not involved in the creation of the program. Mrs. Maloney. But have they told you what elements you have to collect in order to go into DIBRS? Have they given you a guideline of what elements are supposed to be collected by your Academy to go into the DIBRS system? Admiral Higgins. Ma'am, I personally am not familiar with that, but I can take that question for the record and we can get you an official response back. Mrs. Maloney. Thank you. Brigadier General, are you aware of the DIBRS system, the Defense Incident Based Reporting System? General Desjardins. My lawyer behind me is, but I am not personally aware. I, again, can get you the information that you'd like. Mrs. Maloney. Are you processing your information into the DIBRS system now? General Desjardins. If not the Academy, specifically, it is being done at the headquarters Air Force level. So we report to the Air Force our statistics and they input it into the DIBRS system. Mrs. Maloney. OK. So the Air Force Academy is connected to the Air Force that goes into the DIBRS system? General Desjardins. As far as we know. Yes, ma'am. Mrs. Maloney. The Coast Guard, you don't even know if you are connected to the DIBRS system? Admiral Higgins. Ma'am, my understanding is we use our Coast Guard Investigative Service data and we do send our data to DOD for inclusion. Mrs. Maloney. You send your data, too? Admiral Higgins. We send our data, but it comes from our source that we collect and hold through our Coast Guard Investigative Service. Mrs. Maloney. So if you are sending it to DOD, I have to assume you are part of the DIBRS system, but get back to me. Can you give me, Brigadier General, what elements--when you keep a computer system you have specific elements of information that goes into it. Does your attorney know the exact elements that are going into DIBRS? General Desjardins. Yes, ma'am. The case identification number, type of report, restricted or unrestricted, victim military affiliation, subject military affiliation, the offense alleged, and the victim's name. That is masked for restricted cases. Mrs. Maloney. What information do you give to the DIBRS system on the--I will call it the rapist, the offender, the alleged rapist? General Desjardins. Ma'am, I don't know that and I don't have that information. Mrs. Maloney. Could you get it? General Desjardins. On the accused? Mrs. Maloney. Yes, on the accused. General Desjardins. I don't have that information, ma'am. Mrs. Maloney. Could you get that information back to the committee? General Desjardins. Yes, ma'am. Mrs. Maloney. And exactly how you are connected to this system, which I was told was 18 years. Brigadier General, you have been busy. I saw you were anti- terrorism. We appreciate that. Does your attorney know if your are connected to the DIBRS system? General Caslen. Here's what I know right now, ma'am. Yes, we are connected. It is connected through our criminal investigation division [CID]. Those are the ones that do the investigation, so it is really for the prosecution piece. For the sexual assault response coordinator, they are going to operate that same information that goes into DIBRS, the same data base information that was just laid out for you, but that same sort of information will go into the SATF system, which is the system---- Mrs. Maloney. I am interested in the DIBRS system. If you could get back to me the elements. Vice Admiral, I know my time is up, but I have to ask. Are you connected to the DIBRS system? Admiral Rempt. We are not directly connected. Our Naval criminal Investigative Service [NCIS], collects data on all of its cases and I believe they submit to it. We also submit personnel incident reports on all the cases that arise. Mrs. Maloney. Can you get back to me? So the Navy has finished your reporting system? Admiral Rempt. We have several different reporting systems. Mrs. Maloney. The DIBRS reporting system. Admiral Rempt. I don't know that, ma'am. I will have to get back to you. Mrs. Maloney. I was told that the Naval Academy has not participated and is not participating in the system. Could you get back to me exactly? Admiral Rempt. Certainly. Mrs. Maloney. Where it stands? Admiral Rempt. Yes. Mrs. Maloney. Thank you. Mr. Shays. The Chair would recognize Mr. Kucinich. I think he has a question. Mr. Kucinich. I want to thank Mr. Van Hollen for indulging me for a second and thank the Chair. Brigadier General---- Mr. Shays. We have two. Mr. Kucinich [continuing]. Actually I was out of the building and the thought occurred to me. Maybe the question has already been answered, but I just had to come back and ask this. Mr. Shays. Is this Air Force or---- Mr. Kucinich. The Air Force, Desjardins. Has Cadet Davis' record been expunged? General Desjardins. Sir, I don't know that answer. She resigned from the Air Force Academy, so---- Mr. Kucinich. She testified that she had demerits for sex in the dorms because the rape took place in the dormitory, fraternization because the rapist was an upperclassman, alcohol because in a written statement the perpetrator was buying alcohol for her under-aged peers. Has that record been expunged? General Desjardins. Yes, sir. Those things that happen as a cadet that are those kinds of cadet actions, if you will, fraternization, sex in the dorms, those are cadet incidents, if you will. Those don't follow them. Mr. Shays. Can I just say that is really an uncomfortable answer. The implication is the other way. Sometimes they should count. I mean, that is the whole point of this hearing. I am sorry to interrupt my colleague, but we have two interests. One, we want to move forward, but we do care about Ms. Davis' record because she came before this subcommittee and basically has been told that she reports rape and now she is blamed for having sex in the dorm. Hello? So I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Kucinich. So then, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, so how is this handled then? How is her record handled? If an employer in the future wants to go and inquire of the Air Force about her time in the Air Force, what are they told? General Desjardins. Sir, there are no records. When a cadet resigns from the Air Force Academy for such cadet incidents, if you will, not crimes but cadet incidents, then their record is destroyed. Mr. Shays. To be continued, all right? This is unsettling. Mr. Kucinich. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, members of the committee. Mr. Shays. The gentleman has the floor, Mr. Van Hollen. Mr. Van Hollen. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I join my colleagues in thanking all of you for your service to our country and for your testimony here today. Let me just start where I think Ms. Davis left off, which is I think she was clearly of the mind that in her particular case she has still not seen any justice, and she also seemed in her testimony to be clear that she's not convinced that the system has been adequately changed to make sure that those who come through it now are adequately protected. If I could just begin with you, General Desjardins, with respect to Ms. Davis' case and the particular individuals who, according to her testimony, clearly failed her and the interest of justice--and she named a number of individuals in the immediate chain of command--have any of them ever faced any question or disciplinary action regarding their failure to follow through appropriately with respect to her allegations? General Desjardins. Sir, as I stated, this was all brought to light in 2003, and the Secretary of the Air Force indicated and took action because he had lost confidence in the leadership at the Air Force Academy. Mr. Van Hollen. Right. Do we know whether any of the specific individuals in her case---- General Desjardins. Sir---- Mr. Van Hollen [continuing]. In the chain of command---- General Desjardins. I am not aware of any. Mr. Van Hollen. OK. Because I think that the test here, as I said earlier, with respect to whether the system is changed to respond appropriately is whether it responds when the spotlight is not on the system. I mean, after Tailhook and the hearings that were held after Tailhook, yes, people were disciplined. After 2003 and the publicity that surrounded what happened at the Air Force Academy, yes, there was action. I guess my question--and I ask all of the members of our panel here--do you know of any case where someone in the chain of command has been disciplined for their failure to take appropriate action, for their failure to make sure that justice was served, because in all these cases clearly the testimony suggests that there are many instances or have, at least in the past 10 years, been many instances where people have dropped the ball and been negligent in their duty. And so my question is: outside of Tailhook, just as part of the normal day-to-day process, are you aware of anybody who has been disciplined for failure to protect the interests of the victims of sexual assaults or sexual harassment? That is a question for each of the members of the panel. General Desjardins. Sir, I know that both the Air Force and the Department of Defense Investigating General reviewed Cadet Davis' case. In no cases but one there were no derelictions found. So an internal Department of Defense investigating general and the Air Force investigating general looked at Cadet Davis' case and in none of these investigations but one was there any dereliction of duty found. Mr. Van Hollen. OK. I mean, if I could just enter---- Mr. Shays. On the part of whom, if the gentleman would yield, just so we are clear. Mr. Van Hollen. Yes. Mr. Shays. As to dereliction on the part of the--on the attackers or---- Mr. Van Hollen. On the leadership, the immediate leadership of the Air Force Academy at that time. Mr. Shays. So you are speaking code? In other words, the person who raped her was not found to have raped her? General Desjardins. No, sir. The chain of command--the question was, was there anyone held accountable, was I aware of anyone that was held accountable in the Cadet Davis case, and there were two investigations, one by the Headquarters Air Force Inspector General, one by the Department of Defense Inspector General, and only in one case of one leader was any dereliction of duty determined or found. Mr. Van Hollen. I thank you. With respect to the other cases of sexual harassment and assault--and we have heard back at the time of the 2005 report, the Task Force Report, that listed the number of occasions where there have been allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment--in any of those other cases, to your knowledge has anybody been held accountable for dereliction of duty in failing to prosecute these cases appropriately? I would just go right down the line if we could begin with you, Rear Admiral. Admiral Higgins. Sir, I am not aware of any cases at the Coast Guard Academy. In the last several years there has been one case in the field of a supervising officer who did an inappropriate investigation, but that was not at the Coast Guard Academy. General Desjardins. Sir, for the Air Force Academy, no derelictions were found except the one mentioned. Mr. Van Hollen. Thank you. General Caslen. Sir, I am not aware but that is probably not appropriate since I haven't been there that long. My folks said that they are not aware of any incidents that resulted in this, but that is not to say there weren't any. But I can clearly state that, not only because of the events of today but the events of what has transpired and the policies that the institution has now put in place, that type of command climate is not an acceptable command climate. This is a policy that is clear is a zero tolerance policy with regard to this, so that type of behavior occurs, you can trust that I believe I speak for all my colleagues at the table here that our leadership will take action as a result of that, and I know we will at the U.S. Military Academy. Mr. Van Hollen. Thank you. I appreciate that. Admiral Rempt. Sir, I have not had to discipline anyone for failure to act responsibly in this area. In fact, my observation is I have a highly motivated staff who work this issue with great heart and compassion and determination. The commandant and I routinely review the judgment of junior officers to ensure consistency in the maintenance of standards at the Academy, and certainly in this area where there is misconduct or harassment occurs. In the area of harassment, I have, in fact, disciplined a senior officer, faculty members, others, as well. Mr. Van Hollen. For harassment, itself? Admiral Rempt. For harassment. That is correct, sir. Mr. Van Hollen. Thank you. I think that as I listened to Ms. Davis and the testimony that others have given in this area, they are looking for a sort of signal on behalf of the institutions that dereliction of duty and failure to adequately and appropriately address these issues will be addressed appropriately, beyond just the individuals who committed the crimes or committed sexual harassment. I appreciate the commitment here everybody has, but I think the numbers from the past at least suggest that in the past this has not been dealt with in any really serious fashion, so we look forward to going forward with a change of attitude. I appreciate your testimony in that regard. If I could just ask with respect to the line of questioning that my colleague Mr. Platts was pursuing, you do get, throughout this whole area, a sense that this has been treated in the academies somewhat as a violation of regulations and rules rather than a violation of the criminal law. I guess would you object if we ended up handling this as a normal criminal procedure? For example, if somebody in one of your academies calls the local police to report a sexual assault, do you have an objection to the local police coming onto one of the service academies and investigating it like they would any other citizen of the United States in a similar situation? Admiral Rempt. We certainly have had a number of cases where we have jointly investigated them with the local police, county sheriff, D.C. police, etc., so we have MOUs in place. We do a number of joint things together in that regard. I think what is important here, sir, is that typically the sexual assault cases that are reported reflect what are really national characters of alleged sexual assault cases. They are perpetrated against an acquisition and they involve two people, normally behind closed doors with no witnesses, and they often involve the use of alcohol. Because of these factors they impact the availability of evidence that is necessary to prove that an offense occurred when they are taken to military or civilian court. It is frustrating to us in that we frequently are unable to develop evidence. But, of course, that is not our task. Our task is to evaluate the evidence that is, in fact, developed. In these courts, the standard of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt, which is a purposefully very high constitutional standard. That is why so few of these accusations result in sufficient evidence to take the matter to military or civilian court. What we see at the Naval Academy in the cases that we have are one-night stands and failed relationships or failing relationships and alcohol-fueled events. Our circumstances are such that we certainly, in my experience there thus far, I have not seen the level of cases that we were talking about earlier. So I agree that we should call crimes crimes and criminal cases criminal cases, but, as it turns out, in the majority of these cases it is very, very difficult to come to that conclusion. Mr. Van Hollen. I understand that, Admiral, but I think our normal criminal justice system every day has to address these same kind of issues---- Admiral Rempt. Right. Mr. Van Hollen [continuing]. Every day through our criminal courts, and the question is: why should they be addressed any differently with respect to these kind of allegations that happen with respect to actions taken on the service academy campus? I'd be interested in the policy with respect to each of the service academies. If something happens, if someone on campus, if Ms. Davis was to have picked up the phone and called the police to report a sexual assault on the service academy campus, are the local police welcome to come on the campus---- Admiral Rempt. Yes, sir. Mr. Van Hollen [continuing]. Investigate the crime in the normal course and prosecute that individual in the local court system? Admiral Rempt. They are certainly welcome to do that. We would probably assist them, work together as a team, but we would have no problem with that. It is straightforward. We have an agreement in place to do exactly that. Mr. Van Hollen. They can come right on campus and do that? Admiral Rempt. Yes. Let me make one other point on this. In a recent case that was handled by the D.C. Police, ended up going to the prosecuting attorney in the District of Columbia, they ended up turning it down for lack of evidence. They didn't want to proceed with the case. We took the case back to the Academy and that is one of our court martial cases that we are currently proceeding with. So what we try to do is find the best way to proceed that we can in all of these cases, realizing that one of our primary responsibilities is to protect the rights of the accused, and that is very important to us. Mr. Van Hollen. I understand. General Caslen. Sir, thank you for the question. Actually, I really like Mr. Platts' suggestion when he told us that sexual assault is a leadership issue. He challenged that and said that sexual assault was a criminal issue that would be prosecuted to its fullest. I think that is a fair suggestion and we will take that back and we will have our lawyers and our policy people review it. I think there is some goodness in that we should incorporate that and communicate strategically out to our corps. As I say, we are developing the memorandum of understanding that we will work with the local authorities and what that looks like. Our cadets are under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and as such when a criminal offense occurs they should be prosecuted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Having said that, we have worked on a couple of occasions with local authorities or even not local authorities, for example, the Miami Police, Washington, DC, Police, and the New York City Police, for crimes that were committed in their jurisdiction. We work with them. Mr. Van Hollen. I understand. I am specifically referring to crimes committed or allegations made with respect to things that happened on the facilities and campus of the Academy and whether or not you would be willing to have the local police investigate and prosecute those cases in the normal course. General Caslen. I think what I should get you is a copy of the current memorandum of understanding so that it will lay the specifics out so I won't speak out of turn for what they are, but personally I would say I think that is a fair suggestion, even the one that you are suggesting, and that we ought to take that into consideration. But let me offer for the record the full MOU and what it states. Mr. Van Hollen. I would appreciate that. Thank you. General Desjardins. Sir, the Air Force would have no objection; however, in the past the local community often defers to the Air Force because we can do an investigation a little bit more quickly, more swiftly, and a more complete investigation. By conducting our own investigation--and, again, we work on a case-by-case basis with the circumstances of the particular incident--but by conducting our own investigation in courts it gives a big sign to the victims that we consider this a crime. Mr. Van Hollen. Thank you. Admiral Higgins. Sir, I would like to take that question for the record, but I will say that the local authorities in New London, CT, work with the Coast Guard Investigative Service. I do not believe that the New London Authorities would come on to the Coast Guard Academy without discussing with CGIS first. An article 32 is like a grand jury, and that can be the convening authority, could be a civilian police department or the Coast Guard Investigative Service. But I would like to give your question an answer for the record on that. Mr. Van Hollen. I appreciate that. I will just close with this, Mr. Chairman. I think that the testimony we heard from Ms. Davis was clearly indicated that there was not confidence in the system through the regular chain of command to prosecute and fully investigate these issues. So if the academies would at least allow as an alternative the local authorities, who are obviously not in the chain of command, who would be hopefully not part of whatever pressures may or may not exist within that chain of command, it seems to me that might instill greater confidence in the process if that was an option available to people. So I appreciate the responses we have gotten. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Shays. I thank the questions of the subcommittee members. I am pretty convinced that we have a huge problem that is underneath the surface and that the fact that no one really sees the incredible outrage of a young woman who basically was raped and testified she's raped, asks for help, discloses that she was raped in a dorm where liquor was involved, and she's out and the person who raped her is still in and progressing through the system, to hear all of you congratulate her for her courage, but courage is one of the things she should be congratulated for, but what she basically said was there was, particularly at the Air Force Academy, a huge tolerance. To have been told by her fellow cadet women that you will probably be raped, but you can't talk about it because you will lose your commission, and she ends up talking about it finally and loses her opportunity to have a commission, somehow we are just like ships passing in the night here. I was waiting for someone in the Air Force Academy to say, ``You know what? We want this young lady back. With courage like that, we want her back.'' Then give her the opportunity to say no thank you, but say, ``We want you back. You are the kind of person we want in the Academy.'' I would have loved to have seen that. This subcommittee has two objectives: one, to make a difference in what happened and to investigate potential cases like Ms. Davis and make sure that she is made whole. I have religion on that. I will start with you, Dr. Whitley. I have no confidence in DOD for the simple fact that we had this, the Defense Task Force on Sexual Harassment and Violence. They did their job, but Public Law 108-375, subtitle K, Sexual Assault in the Armed Forces, made it very clear this would be the first, and then what was to happen after, Ms. Whitley? Dr. Whitley. There is supposed to be another task force as a transition from that one to examine sexual assault in the military services. Mr. Shays. And when did they complete this work? Dr. Whitley. Almost a year ago. Mr. Shays. Almost a year ago. Some time in the fall, correct? Dr. Whitley. Right. Mr. Shays. Almost a year. So why should I have confidence that the Department of Defense takes this seriously when the law requires you, the Department of Defense, to have a task force on sexual harassment and violence in the military, why should I take seriously any of this dialog when that hasn't occurred? Dr. Whitley. I can tell you, sir, the infrastructure is in place. They have a staff. The staff has been doing data calls and collecting data, doing research. I don't know a lot about how the selection process is going, because it would be a conflict of interest for me because---- Mr. Shays. Let me just tell you, though, the law said that this had to be completed, but it didn't say they had to start to find people afterwards. They could have been ready to go as soon as this report had been submitted if the Department of Defense was serious, but the Department of Defense can't be serious because if they were they would have done this. So I believe that DOD is just simply giving us a very real message, ``It ain't a priority.'' That is what I get. Dr. Whitley. Well, if I could take the opportunity to just go over the chronology of how things have happened since that-- -- Mr. Shays. No, I don't want you to. I want you to tell me why this hasn't been done. Dr. Whitley. I know the decisions on who will be on that task force is being considered at the highest levels of my leadership and they are taking their time to make sure they find the right people and it is not an easy process. Mr. Shays. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. That is silly. They've have 2 years, because the law was written and passed October 28, 2004. That is embarrassing to say, you know, they haven't had time. They don't take it seriously. Dr. Whitley. I will take that back to my leadership, sir. Mr. Shays. What this subcommittee is going to do is it is going to have another hearing fairly soon. We are going to meet with a number of victims privately. We are going to have them tell us their story. We are going to have them sign papers that allow us to get all the information that we need from the academies, and the academies will be required to provide us how they have dealt with every case, and there can't be any argument that this is confidential because we will have a sign- off. That is how we are going to proceed. I think everybody's heart in theory is in the right place, but I don't think there is really a sense of how you all came across to me in telling me that you congratulate Ms. Davis for her courage. What does that mean? I would like to know, Admiral Higgins, what does it mean by congratulating her for her courage. Admiral Higgins. Well, I think I am not terribly proud 5 years ago of the Coast Guard's policy or our responses. I think recently we have taken it much more seriously. We have better policies now. We have better integration with the local system. We have better training for our people. But it is going to continue to be a problem if we don't get reports. I look forward to the day when our number of reports are identical to the Miles Foundation, because some of our folks still don't feel comfortable coming forward, and until the atmosphere is that good--we still need people to come forward. They need to tell their difficult stories so we can act on that difficult story and make progress. I hope to see the day when our numbers are identical to the Miles Foundation, because that means our folks trust us as much as they trust the Miles Foundation. I think it is important that we do consider these folks as heroes and courageous for coming forward. It is very difficult for them to do that. Without that suffering, unfortunately, we are not going to make as good a progress. Mr. Shays. Well, there is a huge disincentive for her to come forward. I mean, she's the one who is out, and the one who raped her is in. There is a huge irony in that. The fact that you can't prove the rape does not mean that the reality is that he's in and she's out. General Desjardins. General Desjardins. Yes, sir, her perpetrator was discharged from the Air Force Academy. Mr. Shays. Because of that case? General Desjardins. Subsequent cases. Mr. Shays. Right. General Desjardins. Subsequent issues. Mr. Shays. Think about it. Not because of her case. General Desjardins. Yes, sir. Mr. Shays. So she stepped forward. When you said to me and to this subcommittee that there is no record because these kinds of things are viewed not as significant because they happened--whatever, I am assuming because they are college kids, and, that was like another disconnect that I had in the testimony. The reason why it shouldn't be a record is what? Do you believe her? Do you congratulate her on her courage but don't believe her? That is what I am missing in here. General Desjardins. Sir, I absolutely believe her. Mr. Shays. OK. General Desjardins. I absolutely believe her and it was very painful for me to sit through her testimony, so I absolutely believe her. Mr. Shays. Thank you. So the fact is she should have no record because of why? Because you just get rid of these, or because of what? Shouldn't there be a proactive acknowledgement? Has there been any acknowledgement to her, not publicly but in writing, that these have been dismissed because the complaints against her were found the be warrantless? General Desjardins. Sir, in fact, we keep in contact with Cadet Davis and, in fact, she recently, when we heard about this hearing, she spoke with our former vice commandant for policy, Colonel Deb Gray. Mr. Shays. I understand you have stayed in contact. I want to know does she have any document that she can turn to that says, ``Thank you for your courage, because there is a record.'' You said it, but, ``Thank you for your courage. We want you to know that all charges against you were dropped because they were without merit, and we apologize that they were ever there.'' Is there any kind of letter like that? General Desjardins. Sir, what she went through--and, in fact, we learned so many lessons from her case. One of the things that we have done because of her case and the discipline that she was faced with, the discipline action that she was faced with while we were investigating the sexual assault is now we have a completely different process now. Mr. Shays. I understand the impact of her case. I want to know has anyone provided her a document like what I described, or even, as you describe it now, congratulated her for helping to change what takes place at the Air Force Academy? Does she have such a document? General Desjardins. Sir, I am not aware of any document that was given to her. Mr. Shays. Maybe you want to think about that. General Desjardins. Yes, sir. Mr. Shays. Let me just ask, is there anything that any of you want to put on the record before we adjourn? Excuse me. Let me do this. Let me turn to Mrs. Maloney. Let me then turn to have the professional staff ask a question. I am going to do this. Mrs. Maloney, this is out of protocol. I hope I don't pay the penalty, but I am going to ask you to take the chair because I don't want to end this hearing and I have to leave, so I am going to ask you to sit here and take the Chair. Mrs. Maloney [presiding]. Thank you. First of all I would like to ask unanimous consent to place in the record press reports and testimonials of other women that have had experiences similar to Beth Davis. Without objection, so ordered. 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I would also like to place in the record an information paper that was given to me by Tom Jones, who is the legislative liaison for the Department of Defense. It is on the DIBRS system. I keep coming back to it because if you don't have a record of what happens, you don't have an understanding of the extent of the problem. Congress passed legislation in 1988 calling upon the Department of Defense to maintain a centralized data base on crimes throughout the military and the academies. I am focusing in particular on sexual assault, which was the focus of this, and the elements that are in the DIBRS system. According to this memorandum, the Army is now participating in the DIBRS system, and you will be getting back to us the exact elements that pertain to it in the academies. The Air Force is up to date and participating, and your attorney is going to get back to us the exact elements that you are sending to the DIBRS system and that are maintained in it. I understand the Navy is converting from another system. There will be a little bit of time before you get up to it, but you should be up and reporting by June 2007, according to this information paper from DOD. The question that I would ask, I have been told by the Department of Defense through a series of task forces and meetings that they will have the DIBRS system fully implemented by January 1, 2007. Do you believe that this is possible, that it can be up and running? I will ask you, Admiral, yes or no. Admiral Higgins. I can't answer that question, ma'am. I am not familiar enough with the system to say. Mrs. Maloney. Brigadier General, it is wonderful to call a woman a brigadier general. Congratulations on your career. General Desjardins. Thank you, ma'am. Mrs. Maloney. Congratulations to all of you. General Desjardins. Thank you, ma'am, and yes, ma'am. Mrs. Maloney. You will. Do you believe, Brigadier General, that this will be---- General Caslen. Yes, ma'am. Mrs. Maloney. And Vice Admiral. Admiral Rempt. I don't know enough about the system to answer that, ma'am. I will have to give you that for the record. Mrs. Maloney. Could you get back to us once you check on this. Admiral Rempt. Yes. Mrs. Maloney. What I find incredibly disturbing, on top of the personal stories that I have heard, is that a mandate, a directive of Congress has been totally ignored by one of the most efficient departments in the entire country, maybe the entire world, and it goes back to the sentiments of my friend here, the chairman, and the gentleman over there that spoke so passionately about it. It is a crime and it should be treated as a crime. We have passed legislation over and over and over again asking to keep the data, and for some reason it can't happen. Ultimately the Department of Defense is headed by the Secretary of Defense. It is his responsibility to make things happen. I am considering putting in legislation that if this system is not up and operating by January 1, 2007, that we begin to dock the pay of the Secretary of Defense. There is absolutely no excuse. Congress has written about this, requested it, legislated it for 18 years. What I find so disturbing, the military has led this country on major reforms. I come from a military family. My father served in World War II. My brother served in the Army in Vietnam. My brother-in-law is a graduate of your great institution, the Naval Academy. Some of the finest young people in my District ask for appointments to your establishments. They turn down some of the finest universities in the country to go to the Naval Academy, West Point, the Air Force Academy. Why you can't get a culture that respects the rights of every individual, that if you are raped your case is going to be listened to, is just beyond me. I want to go back to the point that my colleague raised on having the civilians take more of a roll. As it was explained to me by many military leaders, our goal is to win a war. Our goal is a line of command. It is very important. But if you are not in a war zone, why use your resources on this? Why not let the local police department come in and handle allegations of sexual assault and let that happen, as opposed to really what has turned into a scandal, an absolute recurring scandal? The stories, many people are disturbed by the story of Ms. Davis today. I have heard stories for 10 years that have come into my office that are exactly the same photocopy of what she's saying today, and yet the change doesn't happen. Civil rights in this country first took place in the military. We led the country in civil rights reform. I keep waiting for the military to lead the country in equality of rights for men and women and basic respect, and I am incredibly disappointed. The one thing I totally agree with Secretary Rumsfeld--and I don't usually agree with Secretary Rumsfeld--but he said that sexual assault in the military would not be tolerated. Well, it is hard for me to believe that he really believes that if you can't even get the Secretarial data base system that would track the depth and challenge of the problem in place. I don't doubt for a second if the Department of Defense wanted this to happen it would happen tomorrow, because they can make things happen and I have seen them make things happen, and I am extremely disturbed by the lack of seriousness on this. I just want to ask you, basically, why do you feel we haven't been able to get a data base system running? Why do you feel that we have testimony like we heard today from an outstanding young woman who probably could have gone to any university in the United States and chose the Air Force Academy? You report a crime and you are ostracized? There is something wrong with the culture in a community for that to happen in the finest institutions in America. I would like, starting with you, Brigadier General, you are part of the system. You were the first woman in a pretty wonderful legacy that your life represents, to be the first class in the Air Force Academy, to now head the Air Force Academy. Why is this? I am sure you have read the reports on the Air Force Academy. I assume that they have never been refused, so I assume that they are accurate. How has this happened? General Desjardins. Ma'am, back in 2003 it was difficult to watch, but I think that, having been put in this position now and having those events of 2003, I would like to refer to Ms. Beth Davis as not a victim but as a change agent. I think that we all agree and we are all working very, very hard to correct those problems, those issues, to learn from them and really be relentless in pursuing, eliminating sexual assault, providing care for our victims of sexual assault, and allowing them to report where they are not ostracized, where our victims are not harassed, where our victims are free to report without getting disciplined for other collateral kinds of issues until the sexual assault investigation is complete, and continue to educate and train and turn this tide. We are all, all of the academies, all of the services, this came to light in 2003, and we are all incredibly aware now and working toward progress. Mrs. Maloney. One last question. Do you think we should pass a legislation similar to whistleblower protection for victims of sexual assault, that they will not be victimized further and punished for having reported? We have to do that to protect whistleblowers in the Federal Government and in the private sector. Do we need to have a law to protect women and men who report sexual assault, that they will not be punished for having spoken up for their rights? General Desjardins. Ma'am, it certainly bears consideration. Mrs. Maloney. Would anyone like to comment further? [No response.] Mrs. Maloney. Thank you very much. Mr. Shays [presiding]. Thank you all for your patience. We are almost done. I will have a question after the professional staff. Ms. Fiorentino. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My question for Vice Admiral Rodney Rempt, you had mentioned there were 60 accusations at the Naval Academy and only 9 substantiated as sexual assault charges. The question is, you said six were referred to a court martial but three were referred for an administrative hearing. Why was a substantiated sexual assault charge put into an administrative hearing instead of a court martial, and how are those administrative hearings handled in regards to sexual assault claims and accusations? Admiral Rempt. Sure. Each case is, obviously, unique and viewed for its facts and the severity and the situation with the victim and what is the best thing to do in every case. As I mentioned, in nine of the cases--and this is over a period of time. I don't have personal knowledge on several of them which occurred before I was assigned as superintendent, but over that period of time decisions were made in each case as to how to proceed. Obviously, our goal is to hold perpetrators accountable. We have to follow the legal procedures correctly. It is very important that each case be given the light of day with respect to the legal process, and we are very careful to do that. Those decisions are made very deliberately. Ms. Fiorentino. It is still a little unclear about the use of an administrative hearing when it has been substantiated as sexual assault, charges are legitimate somewhat. Admiral Rempt. It may depend on the gravity. The definition of sexual assault includes unwanted kissing, unwanted touching. It depends on the circumstances that are involved. I think that is what you would find if we looked through the record. Mr. Shays. What I would like to do is I would like to ask each of you how Ms. Davis' case would be handled today, and I am going to read some of her testimony. She said, ``As has now become known, I was raped and assaulted repeatedly my freshman year by a superior cadet in my squadron. In a situation where I was blackmailed, degraded, and threatened daily, I found myself utterly distraught. In earlier sexual assault briefings during my basic cadet training, upperclass women cadets informed us that it was very likely that we would be raped or sexually assaulted during our time at the Academy, and they instructed us that, if we were attacked, to not report it to the authorities because it would effectively destroy our careers.'' Well, she was right about that, wasn't she? ``Images of those women flashed through my mind and deterred me from immediately reporting these crimes to my commanding officer. I remembered my pride in getting accepted to the Academy and I dreamt of the day I would graduate and fly in my jet in defense of my country. I thought that was all I needed to survive the grueling physical, military, and academic tests and challenges I endured every day. But these dreams couldn't carry me through the pain I was suffering at the hands of my superior. I began to get sick frequently and developed inhibitions and phobias that made the work demand at the Academy unbearable. Finally, after realizing that nothing could possibly hurt more than the pain I was enduring, then I broke down--'' that is an interesting phrase to say I broke down--``I broke down and went to the Office of Special Investigations, OSI, with my story.'' I will stop in a second. ``The OSI commander sat engrossed as I sopped tears from my eyes reciting every wretched detail from the first time months after the last incident.'' This person comes in to you, said, ``I was raped repeatedly,'' said, ``I was blackmailed, I was degraded, and threatened daily.'' She is obviously very distraught. And she, in fact, informs you that her fellow female cadets told her not to bring a complaint forward because it would probably mean-- which is exactly what happened to her--that she would be out. Now, I want each of you to tell me how now, in your academies, what she had to deal with wouldn't have been dealt with the way it was. I think I will start with you, Admiral. Admiral Rempt. Yes, sir, I would be happy to relate. Our hope would be that she would come forward, talk to a roommate, talk to a savvy guide, one of our peer counselors, and inform people, or to our SARC or other individual, and be counseled and encouraged to report and assigned an advocate as we proceed through the process that will stick with her through the whole way. Mr. Shays. This is what I am going to say, and this is no disrespect to you, Admiral, but as you say this I want you to visualize our committee, whether it is Republican or Democrat, whether I chair it or whether Mrs. Maloney does, having contact with cadets now in the system. Admiral Rempt. Right. Mr. Shays. This is all going to be a matter of public record. Maybe a year or two from now or three there is going to be someone who looks exactly what you said, and there is going to be a cadet who comes in and said how it actually happened. We hope and pray it will be like what it is, but I want you to think of that as you are saying this, OK? Admiral Rempt. I am actually relating to you the most recent cases and how they proceed in the Academy. Mr. Shays. Fair enough. Good. Admiral Rempt. We would then initiate an impartial investigation conducted by NCIS, which does not report to me, it reports to the NCIS director, so I have no control over the investigation as it proceeds. Once we get the facts we make decisions as to how we proceed, consulting with the victim, continuing to provide counseling and support for the victim. It is a pretty set forward process, and it is focused on support to the victim as No. 1 priority, with the second being seeing if we can get at the facts and develop the case. I would like to make one other comment, sir, concerning Ms. Davis. I agree that because of her and others we are all taking it seriously. We are working this hard. We are making good progress. Because of her, the situation she described 4 years ago is considerably different than what we see at the academies today. We have a completely different circumstance. For instance, we have more data. I have more data about all this than I need. I don't need more data. What I need is the ability to educate and train and encourage and support our young men and women as to how they should treat each other and ensure that culture is established there. One of the questions that was raised of the earlier panel is: would you recommend coming to the Academy to a friend? Well, our most recent data of our survey---- Mr. Shays. I don't want you to go down there right now. Admiral Rempt. I want to mention one thing. Mr. Shays. No, I let you mention it. I just want to know how the system works right now, because I really want to go down the line. You will have a chance to make your point. All I asked you, the question I asked you, Admiral, was how it would be handled. You will have a chance to make your other point before we adjourn. How would this case be handled? I am sorry, Admiral. So this individual brings a complaint. I will just say that it is Ms. Davis, and she comes back and reports to you that the person who is charged, the complaint she brought against, found out about it obviously because he was involved and questioned and he told some of his fellow cadets and she started to receive some real anger on the part of some of the cadets. How would you deal with that? Admiral Rempt. If there was any physical or risk of any intimidation or ostracism, we would remove the accused midshipman from Bancroft Hall. Mr. Shays. Let me ask you this: if he had disclosed that she had done this, would that have been grounds for--if the man who was alleged to have raped her in this theoretical case-- well, in this case who raped her, told someone else that he was under investigation, would he have been breaking part of the code? Admiral Rempt. Not at all. Mr. Shays. Why not? He's allowed to tell his friends that a charge has been brought against him? Admiral Rempt. He's free to say whatever he wishes. Mr. Shays. Well, doesn't that potentially put her at risk? Admiral Rempt. Not in the cases that we have seen. Mr. Shays. Maybe you don't understand the question. I am not trying to play a game. She brings a complaint. She comes in to bring a complaint, a confidential complaint. In the process of your investigating, and you have told no one else but that young man, and that young man tells someone, then what privacy does she now have? Admiral Rempt. I can't constrict what young men and women are going to say, sir. There is no way I can do that. What I can do is counsel them and provide them education and encourage them to do the right thing. Now, certainly this is one of the issues that we see day in and day out in the press on these cases. The only information that gets into the press is from the defense, from the one who is protecting the accused. The reason is because they get access to the reports. They are able to redact and provide information to the press that covers their viewpoint in part. That is what we all see occurs in the newspaper, because we are held to a higher standard, which is providing privacy. We want to protect the accused's rights, we want to protect the individual who is a victim, we want to protect their confidentiality. Every time we see this occur and repeated in the press it undermines the willingness of young people to come forward and talk about very sensitive and private matters. Mr. Shays. I am not quite sure of this one aspect, and the part I am not sure of is, if you bring a complaint forward confidentially and the accused then tells his friends that this female cadet is after him, and then she starts to feel the pressure---- Admiral Rempt. If it is a confidential report, we would not initiate an investigation until the individual, the victim, is willing to proceed and is willing to step away from what is now called a restricted report. Mr. Shays. So, in other words, you don't even contact and investigate until that cadet has given you permission? Admiral Rempt. In the case of a restricted report where a victim does not desire her name or his name revealed or any personal information, we have no basis to proceed on an investigation until that occurs. We provide counseling, we provide advice, we provide help for them to help them come to the decision to go to an unrestricted report so we can initiate an investigation. Mr. Shays. OK. Thank you. Admiral Rempt. OK. Mr. Shays. General. General Caslen. Sir, I think it is a good question because it will measure the effectiveness and give us an assessment of our sexual assault prevention and response plan. Now that plan is put in place, we are hoping--and hope is not the real course of action, but we are hoping that it will have a significant impact on changing our culture, because I think if you get to the root of the issues, it is the culture. The first thing that we would like to see is how this incident was reported, because that would give us some indicators and some metrics for whether or not the culture is changing, because if the cadets take responsibility for it and the cadets police immediately their ranks in terms of the perpetrator and any other rumors, insinuations, and the fact that the cadet, itself, felt comfortable enough, confident in the chain of command to report it, those are cultural changing indicators. So I think the reporting thing is significant, and we will measure these in the future. The first thing in how we handle this is victim care once it is reported, and that is the victim care, the victim's right, the advocate and other things, even what the vice admiral had mentioned. The second piece is the investigation. That is the criminal investigation that will, exactly as the Admiral had said. The Army has a criminal investigation detachment that works at CID, and then they will refer to the superintendent, who has the convening authority for an article 32 investigation as necessary. Let me point out that is a criminal investigation. I agree, I think that is the proper way to proceed for this. Third is the institution's response. Besides the institution's response for the protection of the victim, the institution has some recurring plans and programs that are in place. We have a monthly sexual assessment review board that takes all the people in the entire institution--the doctors and the counselors and the chaplains--and they are involved in sexual assault cases so that we look at it from the victims' standpoint and the proper care, and then we look at it from the perpetrator's standpoint and the progression of the investigation. We also have the cadet health promotion and wellness clinic that works with the cadets. We meet on a monthly basis and get the reports back, as well. That is how that would be handled today, and all of that is in accordance with the Military Academy Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Plan. Mr. Shays. Thank you. General Desjardins. Sir, the process is the same at the Air Force Academy. The one thing or two things that I would add is the first thing when a person who thinks that they have been sexually assaulted reports to the SARC or the sexual assault response coordinator, the first thing we do is believe her or him, because if they believe that they have been sexually assaulted, perception is reality. That is the first thing. Then, as was indicated by Admiral Rempt and General Caslen, we run through the restricted report and allow the victim to get the care that he or she needs to get to a place where they can go unrestricted and we can do a full, very thorough investigation and get the perpetrator. Mr. Shays. Let me ask you of the ethics. If you believe that a rape has occurred, if you believe that blackmail has occurred, if you believe someone has been degraded and threatened daily, if you believe that and the victim, eventual survivor, isn't willing to have it go public, what do you do? General Desjardins. Well, that remains restricted then, and in the restricted reporting realm, and so the best we can do is provide her or him all the medical, physical, and counseling care to make them well again that we can, within that very restricted guidelines. But that has to be first. That victim care has to be first. Mr. Shays. What about the perpetrator? General Desjardins. Sir, if the individual who was assaulted is unwilling to open up an investigation because she wants to maintain power, maintain control, then we have to respect that. Mr. Shays. Wait. I don't understand. General Desjardins. If she or he wants to keep it in the restricted realm, so wants to be---- Mr. Shays. We are talking about the victim, whether it is a he or she, right? General Desjardins. Yes, sir. Mr. Shays. Yes. General Desjardins. So if they want to keep it in those confidential lines, then we really can't do anything to get to the perpetrator. If she wants to maintain her---- Mr. Shays. I will come back to this. General Desjardins. Yes, sir. Mr. Shays. Thank you. I realize you have given me a straightforward answer. You had a question? Why don't you jump in? Mrs. Maloney. With a restricted report, as I understand this is a new development coming out of the DOD Task Force that you have a restricted and non-restricted report. Is the restricted report part of the DIBRS data base? General Caslen. No, ma'am. Mrs. Maloney. It is not? OK. Thank you. Mr. Shays. I am going to come back to this question though before we close up, but Admiral Higgins? Admiral Higgins. I will answer the question in what happened in a recent court martial case, Mr. Chairman. That victim came forward with an unrestricted report. We simultaneously started mental and physical health care for the victim and started an aggressive, professional investigation by our CGIS agents. In addition, in this particular case the perpetrator was quickly reassigned, disenrolled from its classes, restricted to a certain part of the Coast Guard Academy, and removed from the dormitory, so, to avoid contact with the victims as well as with other cadets, this member was taken out of class, restricted to a part of the Academy, and taken out of the dormitory. In that particular case, because of the issues involved in that case, we did temporarily disenroll that member from the classes. We held an article 32 hearing when we got the evidence back from the professional investigation. We had enough evidence to go forward with the victim's testimony to a court martial. That is how the recent case was handled, sir. Mr. Shays. You all are aware of the exceptions to confidentiality? What would they be? We will start with you, Admiral Rempt. Admiral Rempt. Certainly. There are a number of people who have full confidentiality, which means that their discussions are privileged. Those are normally the clergy, our chaplains, and our counselors in our Midshipmen Development Center. They are the ones that have full confidentiality and are only ethically required to report if they are aware of something that could be a future danger to someone. Mr. Shays. Are you aware of any other exceptions? Anybody? There are others? What are some others? Admiral Higgins. Sir, our medical providers at the Coast Guard Academy have limited confidentiality and, to some extent, the PEER programs, the cadets against sexual assault, have some limited confidentiality. Admiral Rempt. That would be the same thing at the Naval Academy. We have designated individuals who have limited confidentiality who can receive a report but must, in fact, report the fact that something has occurred without identifying information. Mr. Shays. I am really not trying to test you, though it sounds like it. I am just trying to have a dialog. If someone is raped and is alleged to have raped others and has been involved in blackmail and threatening activity on a daily basis, and the individual is not willing to step forward, I make an assumption that some of the exemptions would apply. The command officer law enforcement disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of the victim or another person. I mean, isn't it very possible that if he raped one person he will rape someone else? And so, I mean, you have to tell a potential victim that they have confidentiality, but---- Admiral Rempt. Sir, you are asking us to make a big leap in assumption here, and that is why we are struggling. Mr. Shays. OK. Admiral Rempt. The leap that you are asking us to make is you are saying a rape has occurred and someone had been blackmailed and these events have occurred. We typically have no facts or data to support that when we first hear about a case. We will hear about a case that something has occurred. In order to get to the point where we know that a violent crime has occurred, we have to do some level of investigation. Otherwise, we have no information. That is what we struggle with, is whether the facts that we are basing it on that will enable us to go to an article 32 will enable us to go to further disciplinary action. Until we develop that information and that data, it is very hard. Now, if we believe someone is at imminent risk, we will take immediate action to separate people, to isolate them, or to do what is necessary to preserve their safety. Mr. Shays. And I want to say obviously we have had very powerful testimony on the part of the young lady. I realize that not every accusation is true, and I understand that. I understand that a rape may, in fact, not have occurred. I understand that. What I am just wrestling with is we have a process, it seems to me, kind of unfolding because, frankly, if someone came to me and I was aware that this person is violent and I believe the individual that this is not the first person, she's not the first person, I am struck with the fact that I will want to know--you are told who that person is, so you are aware of him. I can't believe that somehow there is not some oversight of that individual just to make sure that individual doesn't do something harmful. So it seems to me that we are putting you in a bit of a quandary, and you have to use some judgment here. That is what it seems. Mrs. Maloney. The FBI rates rape as the worst crime, preceded only by murder, in the psychological damage and lasting impact on an individual. In the private sector now most rapists are sick people. They strike seven to eight times. We passed legislation--it happened to have been my legislation-- that created a data base in the FBI of DNA so that rapists could be tracked and put behind bars. What I think is troubling to some people is this particular man that was eventually, after he abused several people. The problem is if someone makes an allegation is there a way to track that this person, even though you don't convict this person, the allegation is there so that if the allegation comes again and again and again and again then the degree of probability is that this is a sick person. I mean, that is what we do in the private sector now. We keep that information, and if there is another attack we have the DNA to build a case that this is the third reported rape, the DNA is there, and the case is stronger. I'd just give that as an example of what we are doing in the private sector. Again, this is a serious, serious crime. I have talked to women who have been raped and they have never recovered. They have not been able to function. They have not been able to hold jobs. It is a very, very serious crime. So, to the extent we can prevent another man or women from being violated and destroyed, I think it is our civic and moral responsibility to do so. So if you want to keep your military chain of command, then maybe you should try to think of a way to sort of mirror what we have done in the private sector so that you don't get to the fifth victim before you feel like you have enough evidence to remove them from the military and convict them. Admiral Rempt. I certainly didn't mean to give you any impression that we are waiting around for evidence. We are going to move on exactly what we know and what we are about. We are going to move immediately in a case. Very few of our cases are---- Mrs. Maloney. Admiral---- Admiral Rempt [continuing]. Of the type that are being described by the admiral from the Coast Guard or in other cases. Most of them are much more difficult to discern what has occurred. Mrs. Maloney. But the first step in building a case is maintaining an accurate data base. What I have learned today is the Navy is not part of this data base. The Army and Air Force are. Now, in the elements that are in the data base, the elements are put in on the victim. Nothing is put in on the alleged rapist until he is convicted. That is the difference with the civilian. The information is put in on the allegation. So absolutely nothing, based on the testimony today, is put into that system. Admiral Rempt. I am happy to report that, in fact, DNA is collected on every single person that comes to any one of the academies, so we should have a good data base for future cases. Mrs. Maloney. But not in the DIBRS system that keeps the information on rape. It is not in there. And then, as was testified by all of you, you have now this dual system where you can decide whether your case goes forward or not. And even though you may believe it and a person does not want to go forward, that particular rape is not put into the system. That I see is problematic in maintaining accurate information of what is happening. Do you follow what I am saying? And your response to that? Do you believe that element should be in the system? General Desjardins. Ma'am, we track restricted and unrestricted cases by case number, but, again, because it is a restricted case, the whole idea--it is so important. I am sure you all know the most important thing about victim care in a restricted report is so that they, the victims, will not be revictimized before they are ready to open up a full investigation. That is why the restricted reporting and getting the individual to a place where she is ready to open up--we don't want to go down the road of revictimizing someone who has undergone such a traumatic event, and so that is why the restricted reporting is so important. But we do keep track and, in fact, restricted reporting and unrestricted reporting, this process has been in place for almost a year, since June 2005, for all the academies and for the Department of Defense. Mr. Shays. I want to clarify one point with you, Admiral Higgins. Given that you are under the Department of Homeland Security, how many of the 25 task forces, commissions, panels, and reports looked into the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Coast Guard Academy? Admiral Higgins. I know we participated in several. Sir, I would have to get---- Mr. Shays. Would you provide that? Some but not all? Admiral Higgins. That is correct. Mr. Shays. OK. I feel in this last bit of time I have been functioning almost with a filibuster, but I think I have figured out why, what I am wrestling with. It strikes me that one of the things that the military is never willing to do is admit a mistake. They will do it in an offhanded way by saying, ``You know, Cadet Davis, you are the reason why all these good things are happening,'' but it doesn't happen directly. That is why I made reference to has anyone ever given her a document that thanks her. And then I began to think, if you all agree that the system sucked before and it is getting better now, and you all agree that it was really bad in the past, that tells me there are a lot of other people like Ms. Davis that got really hurt badly. It would strike me that one of the ways that you would help make cadets now have comfort in the system, that you would go back in the past, try to identify some of those individuals, exonerate them in a way that is meaningful, maybe even invite them to the Academy in a way that salutes them and honors them, but in a way that is so meaningful that female cadets now will say, ``You know, the military is taking this seriously.'' I think until you are willing to not just acknowledge that mistakes were made in the past, but try to right some of those mistake, I don't really think you are going to be believed. I just don't think you will be. That is kind of what I am getting out of this. I believe that you all want to be believed, but I just think it is against your culture to want to say, ``We screwed up. There are people who were hurt. We are going to find out who they were and we are going to try to make amends.'' That would be a huge thing. I am not holding my breath, but I tell you if you wanted to move this process along faster that is my judgment of how it could happen. Ms. Whitley, I didn't allow you to make a point you wanted to make earlier because I wanted to make sure you heard my point about the task force, but I am happy to have any of you-- I know, Admiral, I interrupted you at a point where you wanted to describe something. I don't want you to leave here without you feeling that you made the point that you need to make, and lord knows Carol Maloney and I have been able to make the points we wanted to make. Dr. Whitley, what would you like to say? Dr. Whitley. Well, I would like to thank you again for this opportunity and basically three points to kind of bring some things together. First, I would like to point out that the Department of Defense office responsibility for this policy stood up just in October 2005. That is how new this is. Mr. Shays. That is helpful to know. Thank you. Dr. Whitley. We also are outraged, just as you are, and my leadership is determined to do something about this. We recognize it is a crime and we know we have a lot of work to do, and a lot of that work will be in the area of prevention. The second point I wanted to make is I am not sure everyone understands the benefits of restricted reporting. Victims come forward that would not otherwise come forward, and for commanders in the field they might not know who is sexually assaulted but they would know that it is a problem in their unit or on their base and they can take action. For example, they may put extra help in the barracks, they may install lighting. So we have more information than we had before. And we all know that victims feel a loss of control and power, and this restricted reporting option gives that back to them. Of course, we would like for them to come forward so that we can go after the alleged offender, but sometimes just having that power given back they can go away and gather the courage and gather confidence in our system to come forward later. But also, even with the restricted report, we can do a full forensic exam and keep the data on file in case they come forward later. At least we get some information. And, finally, sir, I pledge to you that the Department will do everything we can. We do recognize it is a problem. I think we have an extremely unique opportunity. It is a problem in society, but society doesn't have some of the tools that we have. We can get to every person in the Department of Defense, every cadet in every academy, and we can train them and educate them, and that is something that I don't think society can do. I am looking forward to the challenge ahead, and I pledge to you the Department will do our best to make this not a problem. Mr. Shays. Thank you. That was a very helpful statement. I am very grateful you put it on the record. Thank you. Dr. Whitley. Thank you. Mr. Shays. Admiral. Admiral Rempt. Sir, just to sum up, preventing and deterring sexual harassment, misconduct, and assault are very complex issues. There are no simple answers here. We take these issues extremely seriously. We encourage reporting. We investigate allegations. We do that objectively and fairly. We endeavor to protect the confidentiality of the victims and the rights of the accused and the privacy of both. As I was mentioning before, we try to use all the data in our surveys and focus groups to learn what is actually occurring and applying our best leadership ability and programs to where we can make a difference. As I mentioned, on the panel raised earlier the question of would you recommend going to the Academy to a friend. Well, in our last survey, 91 percent of our men said yes, but 95 percent of our women said yes. That is a pretty good indicator to me that the conditions are, in fact, improved over where they were a few years ago. Since women were first admitted to the Academy in 1976, we have come a long way, but we have to continue to improve. This has our full focus and attention, and we are going to continue making solid progress. Mr. Shays. Thank you very much. General Caslen. Sir, thank you very much for the opportunity to sit on your subcommittee. I certainly learned a lot and there is a lot I am going to take back and we will implement those that we need to. I think, in particular, your comment here at the end was very interesting. We are studying that and I will take that back, for sure, about going back in the past. I think it is very helpful. In that regard, what we did here recently in April at the U.S. Military Academy is that we had a Women's Conference to celebrate 30 years of women at West Point. We had 410 ladies that came back and participated. We had a number of sexual harassment/sexual assault panels that addressed some of these issues. But I think it is worth, like you said, going back and digging in and finding the ones we need to and restore some dignity and honor that we need to. Again, thank you for the invitation, sir. Mr. Shays. General Caslen, thank you. General Desjardins. General Desjardins. Yes, sir. I have one correction to an earlier question that you had asked. I answered it part right, part wrong. It was I think Congressman Marchant asked how many court martials we had since 2000 that dealt with sexual assault, and we have had three. I said zero. We had zero convictions of rape. We had one conviction of a lesser charge. Again, I also want to thank the committee for asking us to come here today. We will continue our journey to change the culture at the Air Force Academy and embed the culture that is one of respect for human dignity, respect for each other. We will continue to get role models, women, in their contributions to the military, in their contributions to our Nation, and continue in our journey. Again, I thank you. Mr. Shays. General Desjardins, thank you very much. General Desjardins. Yes, sir. Mr. Shays. I appreciate your statement, as well. Admiral Higgins. Admiral Higgins. Mr. Chairman and Mrs. Maloney, I also thank you for the opportunity to come here. I have also learned a lot, and I pledge to take this and the Coast Guard will take this as seriously as you two take it. We do have lessons to learn. We try in the Coast Guard to learn lessons on the run, and we will learn these lessons, as well. Thank you, sir. Mr. Shays. I thank you all very much. Mrs. Maloney, any last comment? Mrs. Maloney. Thank you very much. Mr. Shays. OK. I just want to thank you, Mrs. Maloney, for working on these issues for years and being so informative in making sure that this hearing was as helpful as I think it was because of your presence. Thank you all very much. To our recorders, thank you for sitting in. I am sorry we have kept you here so late. This hearing is adjourned. [Whereupon, at 8 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] [The prepared statement of Hon. C.A. 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