thedrifter
03-05-04, 06:00 AM
03-04-2004
AFA Scandals Confirm Senate Oversight Failure
By Roger Charles
Last year, Sen. John Warner, R-VA, reacted with shock and outrage to the Air Force Academy’s latest wave of sexual misconduct scandals. That response suggests that he did not have the slightest clue about the problems’ underlying source: the fundamental leadership failures that continue to plague that troubled campus.
In numerous public appearances, former female cadets forcefully declared that the Air Force continues to play damage-control games rather than deal forthrightly with the systemic problems they had experienced first-hand at “Falcon U.”
Conveying a proper sense of outrage via a gaggle of cameras and reporters, Warner promised that the Senate Armed Services Committee (which he chairs) would see that these fine young Americans would be the last ones treated so vilely at the Academy.
The American public took solace in knowing that this junkyard dog was at his post, overseeing the self-investigation of the Air Force as yet another avalanche of horrific charges documented that the leaders of the Air Force and its Academy again had failed in their most basic responsibility: to protect all assigned to their safekeeping.
In a five-star performance, Warner ignored the long-established pattern of sexual misconduct in the Air Force – not only at the Academy – but also at the highest levels of leadership.
The General Accounting Office had issued major reports of sexual harassment at U.S. service academies dating back to 1991. Filled with statistical displays and interspersed with turgid bureaucratic prose, the reports fail to convey the outrageousness of the sexual assaults and the victims’ emotional suffering. The reports demonstrate conclusively that the Air Force Academy had effected no fundamental change, and that Warner and his fellow members of Congress had flunked their oversight roles.
While the GAO reports may lack the “human factor,” it is readily available elsewhere. A survey of media reports unearths the ugly truth.
What follows are descriptions taken from the public media of three cases of sexual assault/harassment at the Academy. They are presented as reminders that young Americans who wanted only to serve their country were left abandoned and emotionally broken. Such casualties caused by inept leaders weaken our forces just as much as casualties due to hostile gunfire.
“Conduct Unbecoming”
On Apr. 7, 1995, the ABC news magazine 20/20 aired this report to expose abuses and gross leadership failures related to “rape scenario” training at the AFA summer Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) program. This has been taught for decades to those most likely to face capture by hostile forces, i.e., air crews, Special Operations forces, etc. Based on POW experience in the 1991 war with Iraq where two female personnel were captured, the AFA sought to implement “cross-gender captivity training.”
Thirteen million viewers saw the story of Christian Polintan, the son of a USAF career officer and a promising recruit. While participating in the AFA summer SERE program in 1993, Polintan had experienced a bizarre near-rape, which The Los Angles Times later termed “simulated sodomy.”
An exemplary cadet prior to the abuse, Polintan had thrived on the challenges of freshman year. It was as a peer leader that Polintan was singled out for the simulated sodomy by the “cadre” that ran the SERE program.
These cadre were cadets in their junior and senior years, along with a few mid-level NCOs from the SERE training center at Fairchild AFB, Wash. Following the twisted logic that determined that rape-scenario training was a requirement for the future leaders of the Air Force, the older cadets saw “breaking” Polintan as the smart way to show his peers that any of them could be turned into collaborators for the prison camp administration.
Playing the role of female “love toy” for the prison camp staff, Polintan had been made to wear a plastic garbage bag “skirt” and women’s cosmetics. After spending a day in the role, he was taken into an interrogation room where an NCO played the role of enemy interrogator.
According to Polintan, the NCO “sat down on a stool right next to me and started to fondle me … and still said some degrading things, mostly sexual.” On 20/20, Polintan related that the NCO “told me to take off my skirt .… At that moment, as soon as I took off my skirt, I knew I was in trouble .… He told me to bend over the table .… I was just in shock of what they were doing. I could not believe it was happening to me.”
But Polintan’s ordeal had just begun: “He brought me over to a bench, and then he tied me, my hands under the bench .… I was lying on my stomach .… They brought another prisoner in told him to act like he was having sex with me. And the cadet tried to resist – he said you know that’s sick – I don’t want to do it .… And they made him get on top of me and act like he’s having sex with me.”
Rather than deny the essential facts of Polintan’s story, the Academy responded that the formal guidelines for the program had been followed: Polintan had overreacted to “realistic resistance training.” Initially, the AFA Public Affairs Office claimed that Polintan was the only cadet to complain.
Filmed in shadow to conceal her identity, a courageous female cadet came forward to relate her experience in an on-camera interview. With two senior staff officers observing, ABC reporter Tom Jarriel led the cadet through her harrowing story:
“The cadet guy had taken me into the room. Told me take off my clothes and I refused and then at that time the other cadre member who as in there picked me up and threw me on the table and held me down as the other cadet proceeded to try and unbutton my shirt .… I was face up. They were holding my shoulders down … and the other cadet was trying to undo my clothing .… I was kicking and screaming and cursing and telling them to get off of me and screaming for help .… [One cadet] was standing between my legs.”
The rape scenario stopped when the female cadet kicked this male cadet in his groin. By interviewing other cadets, 20/20 learned that 24 cadets were subjected to varying degrees of sexual assault while participating in the 1993 SERE program.
In yet another bizarre twist, cadre videotaped and observed most – if not all – of the cadet “interrogations” through two-way mirrors. Indeed, official documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that the Academy commandant had escorted his wife to observe the “training.”
Two gutsy young Americans described their experiences for millions in the Friday night television audience; however, as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Warner did not find their traumas sufficient to launch an investigation into the lack of leadership at the Air Force Academy.
“Her Own Private Tailhook”
Another expose soon put Air Force leadership failures “front and center” in the national media. On May 28, 1995, The New York Times Magazine described the experiences of Elizabeth Saum, another cadet sexually assaulted at the 1993 SERE session.
Reporter Laura Palmer’s first two paragraphs captured the essence of Saum’s traumatic abuse:
continued....
AFA Scandals Confirm Senate Oversight Failure
By Roger Charles
Last year, Sen. John Warner, R-VA, reacted with shock and outrage to the Air Force Academy’s latest wave of sexual misconduct scandals. That response suggests that he did not have the slightest clue about the problems’ underlying source: the fundamental leadership failures that continue to plague that troubled campus.
In numerous public appearances, former female cadets forcefully declared that the Air Force continues to play damage-control games rather than deal forthrightly with the systemic problems they had experienced first-hand at “Falcon U.”
Conveying a proper sense of outrage via a gaggle of cameras and reporters, Warner promised that the Senate Armed Services Committee (which he chairs) would see that these fine young Americans would be the last ones treated so vilely at the Academy.
The American public took solace in knowing that this junkyard dog was at his post, overseeing the self-investigation of the Air Force as yet another avalanche of horrific charges documented that the leaders of the Air Force and its Academy again had failed in their most basic responsibility: to protect all assigned to their safekeeping.
In a five-star performance, Warner ignored the long-established pattern of sexual misconduct in the Air Force – not only at the Academy – but also at the highest levels of leadership.
The General Accounting Office had issued major reports of sexual harassment at U.S. service academies dating back to 1991. Filled with statistical displays and interspersed with turgid bureaucratic prose, the reports fail to convey the outrageousness of the sexual assaults and the victims’ emotional suffering. The reports demonstrate conclusively that the Air Force Academy had effected no fundamental change, and that Warner and his fellow members of Congress had flunked their oversight roles.
While the GAO reports may lack the “human factor,” it is readily available elsewhere. A survey of media reports unearths the ugly truth.
What follows are descriptions taken from the public media of three cases of sexual assault/harassment at the Academy. They are presented as reminders that young Americans who wanted only to serve their country were left abandoned and emotionally broken. Such casualties caused by inept leaders weaken our forces just as much as casualties due to hostile gunfire.
“Conduct Unbecoming”
On Apr. 7, 1995, the ABC news magazine 20/20 aired this report to expose abuses and gross leadership failures related to “rape scenario” training at the AFA summer Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) program. This has been taught for decades to those most likely to face capture by hostile forces, i.e., air crews, Special Operations forces, etc. Based on POW experience in the 1991 war with Iraq where two female personnel were captured, the AFA sought to implement “cross-gender captivity training.”
Thirteen million viewers saw the story of Christian Polintan, the son of a USAF career officer and a promising recruit. While participating in the AFA summer SERE program in 1993, Polintan had experienced a bizarre near-rape, which The Los Angles Times later termed “simulated sodomy.”
An exemplary cadet prior to the abuse, Polintan had thrived on the challenges of freshman year. It was as a peer leader that Polintan was singled out for the simulated sodomy by the “cadre” that ran the SERE program.
These cadre were cadets in their junior and senior years, along with a few mid-level NCOs from the SERE training center at Fairchild AFB, Wash. Following the twisted logic that determined that rape-scenario training was a requirement for the future leaders of the Air Force, the older cadets saw “breaking” Polintan as the smart way to show his peers that any of them could be turned into collaborators for the prison camp administration.
Playing the role of female “love toy” for the prison camp staff, Polintan had been made to wear a plastic garbage bag “skirt” and women’s cosmetics. After spending a day in the role, he was taken into an interrogation room where an NCO played the role of enemy interrogator.
According to Polintan, the NCO “sat down on a stool right next to me and started to fondle me … and still said some degrading things, mostly sexual.” On 20/20, Polintan related that the NCO “told me to take off my skirt .… At that moment, as soon as I took off my skirt, I knew I was in trouble .… He told me to bend over the table .… I was just in shock of what they were doing. I could not believe it was happening to me.”
But Polintan’s ordeal had just begun: “He brought me over to a bench, and then he tied me, my hands under the bench .… I was lying on my stomach .… They brought another prisoner in told him to act like he was having sex with me. And the cadet tried to resist – he said you know that’s sick – I don’t want to do it .… And they made him get on top of me and act like he’s having sex with me.”
Rather than deny the essential facts of Polintan’s story, the Academy responded that the formal guidelines for the program had been followed: Polintan had overreacted to “realistic resistance training.” Initially, the AFA Public Affairs Office claimed that Polintan was the only cadet to complain.
Filmed in shadow to conceal her identity, a courageous female cadet came forward to relate her experience in an on-camera interview. With two senior staff officers observing, ABC reporter Tom Jarriel led the cadet through her harrowing story:
“The cadet guy had taken me into the room. Told me take off my clothes and I refused and then at that time the other cadre member who as in there picked me up and threw me on the table and held me down as the other cadet proceeded to try and unbutton my shirt .… I was face up. They were holding my shoulders down … and the other cadet was trying to undo my clothing .… I was kicking and screaming and cursing and telling them to get off of me and screaming for help .… [One cadet] was standing between my legs.”
The rape scenario stopped when the female cadet kicked this male cadet in his groin. By interviewing other cadets, 20/20 learned that 24 cadets were subjected to varying degrees of sexual assault while participating in the 1993 SERE program.
In yet another bizarre twist, cadre videotaped and observed most – if not all – of the cadet “interrogations” through two-way mirrors. Indeed, official documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that the Academy commandant had escorted his wife to observe the “training.”
Two gutsy young Americans described their experiences for millions in the Friday night television audience; however, as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Warner did not find their traumas sufficient to launch an investigation into the lack of leadership at the Air Force Academy.
“Her Own Private Tailhook”
Another expose soon put Air Force leadership failures “front and center” in the national media. On May 28, 1995, The New York Times Magazine described the experiences of Elizabeth Saum, another cadet sexually assaulted at the 1993 SERE session.
Reporter Laura Palmer’s first two paragraphs captured the essence of Saum’s traumatic abuse:
continued....