Sexual assaults in military rise; Air Force shows biggest jump

WASHINGTON — Reports of sexual assaults across the military increased slightly last year, with the Air Force showing the biggest jump of all the services at 9%, according to a Defense Department report released Thursday.

The annual report shows an overall increase of 3% in the number of reports filed by or about military members during 2019. That percentage is smaller than the previous year’s jump of 13%, which fueled congressional complaints that the Pentagon was failing to adequately address the problem.

Nate Galbreath, acting director of the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, said he’s optimistic that the lower increase suggests a trend in declining assaults, but said it’s too difficult to tell because the crime is vastly underreported.

“We are really aware of the high cost of not succeeding in this,” Galbreath said, adding that the assaults can affect military readiness.

He said reports of sexual assault have steadily increased since 2006, as the department worked to encourage victims to come forward. He said the military is implementing a number of programs to train unit leaders on how to better reach out to their young service members.

One new program is a move to root out serial offenders, and so far it has identified five alleged repeat attackers.

The most dramatic change in the overall totals this year was in the Marine Corps — the only service to have fewer reported assaults than last year. The number fell by about 6% from 1,228 in 2018 to 1,149 in 2019. All the other services saw increases.