The Air Force has fully or partially implemented all but one of the 46 recommendations from an Air Education and Training Command report on how to prevent, investigate, and respond to sexual assaults and sexual misconduct. However, the service has not instituted a method to evaluate the effectiveness of its corrective actions, according to a Government Accountability Office report, released Sept. 9. “Without fully establishing an oversight framework for evaluating the effectiveness of its actions to prevent sexual assaults during basic training, the Air Force will not know whether to sustain the efforts it has implemented or undertake different actions,” states the report. AETC ordered a command investigation in 2012 after 34 basic military training instructors at JBSA-Lackland, Texas, were implicated in sexual assaults or other improper sexual actions with recruits. The resulting report recommended 46 actions intended to stop sexual misconduct, to deal with violators, and better serve the victims. GAO investigated Air Force’s response and found it had fully implemented 36 of the recommendations, partially implemented six, and took no action on one. GAO recommended the Air Force establish an oversight framework to evaluate the effectiveness of its efforts. (See also Breaking the Sexual Assault Stalemate from the July 2014 issue of Air Force Magazine.)
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.