SEXUAL ASSAULTS

In 2017, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis ordered the military academies to institute changes to curb sexual assault and harassment. A survey conducted in 2017-18 revealed incidents of sexual assault were up nearly 50 percent at the academies. A Pentagon report in 2018 said 5,277 service members had been sexually assaulted in 2017, up 10 percent for the year. During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on sexual assault in the military this month, Arizona Sen. Martha McSally, a decorated Air Force officer and the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, said she was raped by a senior officer while on active duty. This week McSally sent a letter to Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson requesting an executive summit on sexual assault within the next 30 days.