Less than a week after a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that found a 50% rise in abuses by military recruiters from 2004 to 2005, a six-month investigation by the Associated Press has found more that more than 100 young women interested in joining the military were sexually assaulted or harassed with more than 80 military recruiters disciplined for sexual misconduct in the past year. While the GAO report tracked allegations of abuse and confirmed cases of abuses—defining abuse as anything ranging from paperwork errors to sexual harassment—the Associated Press article focused exclusively on sexual misconduct and uncovered activities ranging from rapes committed at recruiting offices, assaults in government cars, and women being groped en route to enlistment exams. The investigation found that abuses took place across the country and in all of the branches of the military, with 35 Army recruiters, 18 Marine Corps recruiters, 18 Navy recruiters, and 12 Air Force recruiters being disciplined for sexual misconduct in 2005 according to records obtained by the Freedom of Information Act. Among the findings of the Associated Press:

• The Army, which accounts for almost half of the military, has had 722 recruiters accused of rape and sexual misconduct since 1996.
• Across all services, one out of 200 frontline recruiters - the ones who deal directly with young people - was disciplined for sexual misconduct last year.
• Some cases of improper behavior involved romantic relationships, and sometimes those relationships were initiated by the women.
• Most recruiters found guilty of sexual misconduct are disciplined administratively, facing a reduction in rank or forfeiture of pay; military and civilian prosecutions are rare.

The report details a number of cases, one of which is described in the following excerpt:

The sexual misconduct almost always takes place in recruiting stations, recruiters apartments or government vehicles. The victims are typically between 16 and 18 years old, and they usually are thinking about enlisting. They usually meet the recruiters at their high schools, but sometimes at malls or recruiting offices.

"We had been drinking, yes. And we went to the recruiting station at about midnight," begins one girl's story.

Tall and slim, her long hair sweeping down her back, this 18-year-old from Ukiah, California, hides her face in her hands as she describes the night when Marine Corps recruiter Sgt. Brian Fukushima climbed into her sleeping bag on the floor of the station and took off her pants. Two other recruiters were having sex with two of her friends in the same room.

"I don't like to talk about it. I don't like to think about it," she says, her voice muffled and breaking. "He got into my sleeping bag, unbuttoned my pants, and he started, well ..."

Her voice trails off, and she is quiet for a moment. "I had a freak-out session and just passed out. When I woke up I was sick and ashamed. My clothes were all over the floor."

Fukushima was convicted of misconduct in a military court after other young women reported similar assaults. He left the service with a less than honorable discharge last fall.

It is also worth noting that unlike most states, the Uniform Code of Military Justice that bars recruiters from having sex with recruits also defines the age of consent as 16, meaning that recruiters who can “prove” that sex was consensual will likely face only a simple reprimand rather than jail time. As Anita Sanchez, director of communications at the Miles Foundation (a group for victims of violence in the military), says when she states in the article that:

You have a recruiter who can enable you to join the service or not join the service. That has life-changing implications for you as a high school student or college student… If she does not do this her life will be seriously impacted. Instead of getting training and an education, she might end up a dishwasher...

recruiters hold considerable power in any interaction with potential recruits, whether recruiters chose to acknowledge it or not. Moreover, sexual assault and sexual harassment are widespread in the military. According to the War Resisters League:

The atmosphere in the military encourages rape, murder, and other kinds of violence against civilian women, women who live with men in uniform, and women who are enlisted in every branch of the Armed Forces. Violence against women is not only an accepted part of military culture but an integral component in the training that desensitizes soldiers to violence and killing

Such an assessment is consistent with both the findings of the Associated Press investigation as well as other studies that have found that 50% of women at the Air Force, Army, and Naval academies report being sexually harassed and that 79% of women report being sexually harassed during their military service with 30% reporting attempted rape or rape.