The Air Force investigation centers on a unit of boot-camp instructors at Lackland, near San Antonio, where 36,000 recruits undergo basic training each year.
About one-quarter of the instructors in the 331st Training Squadron have either been charged with crimes or are under investigation for sexual misconduct . One trainer has been charged with raping or sexually assaulting 10 recruits.
Senior Air Force officials said they have found problems in other units as well, prompting them to open multiple investigations to determine the extent to which female recruits face harassment and whether the Air Force s selection process for male instructors is fundamentally flawed.
We are leaving no stone unturned, Gen. Edward A. Rice Jr., the Air Force s commander of training and education, said Thursday. I am being as aggressive as I can.
Rice was in Washington to brief lawmakers and senior Pentagon leaders on the status of the investigations. Last week, the Air Force relieved the commander of the 331st Training Squadron, Lt. Col. Michael Paquette, citing an unacceptable level of misconduct by members of his unit.
The Air Force also appointed a two-star general to investigate whether the Lackland boot camp and other Air Force training centers suffered from systemic issues related to sexual misconduct .
Even as more women fill its ranks, the U.S. military has struggled to cope with the issue of sexual harassment and assaults. Despite numerous high-profile education campaigns and directives from the Pentagon, military officials acknowledge that a culture persists in which victims are reluctant to report abuse.
Last year, about 3,200 incidents of sexual assault were reported or investigated by the armed services a fraction of the estimated 19,000 cases that took place, according to Defense Department figures.
To address the problem, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta in April announced several new policies designed to encourage victims to come forward and to require that all sexual-assault complaints be investigated by senior officers.
In recent days, the Air Force has come under pressure from lawmakers to provide a fuller accounting of what happened at Lackland.
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), a leading critic of the military s record on sexual assault, has called on the House Armed Services Committe to hold hearings as it did in the Aberdeen scandal in 1996.
This scandal is exploding at Lackland, and it is frighteningly similar to what happened at Aberdeen, Speier said in a phone interview.
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