Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal year 2004

SEN. WAYNE ALLARD (R-CO): Okay. Just very briefly, I don't know if any of you want to comment on this, and that's kind of the future of what we're looking at with bases. Bases in Europe, you know, we're looking at another round of BRAC here, but there's also with General Jones, what he's talked about as far as shifting the bases, did any of you want to comment on as far as what you see is the future of those bases, and just kind of your general impressions of that?

First of all, I ask—as chairman I'm willing to ask unanimous consent that I make my opening statement a part of the record. And then also I would like to enter a letter to Secretary Roche on the Air Force concerning rapes and sexual assaults into the record as well, and without objection I'll so order.

I want to say a few things about the Air Force situation and ask Secretary Roche a few questions. Several reporters over the last week have asked if I consider the current situation at the academy to be worse than the Navy's 1991 Tailhook scandal. I told him that I think it's worse and here's why. We have a system breakdown at the academy. Over two dozen current and former cadets who were allegedly sexually assaulted or raped have contacted my office. Each one of these cadets provided information on how the academy failed to adequately support them after they reported a sexual assault or rape.

The perception by some of these cadets were that they were actually punished for reporting. Clearly the academy's support and legal system failed to assist these cadets. This problem begins with leadership but it doesn't end there. And I appreciate the comments by both Secretary Roche and General Jumper that this can't be tolerated. And, Secretary Roche, I appreciate your personal involvement and was pleased when you ordered an investigation into this matter. However, I believe more needs to be done. The victims need to feel good about the process, they need genuine action that seeks to solve the problem.

And having just made this brief comment before the questions, now let me proceed onto the questions. The investigation, Secretary Roche, that you ordered has been proceeding now for over two weeks. Can you give this committee an update on the progress of the Air Force investigation?

SEN. ALLARD: The crisis center has the same problem. And so we need to get the victim to understand that we're going to treat their concerns seriously and this confidential issue comes up. I think there needs to be a frank discussion with the victim as to what's most important, the confidentiality aspect or whether this goes to a court or a case or somewhere or other then it may jeopardize that case somehow or the other, and sometimes they have to make that decision. But I guess the question I want to ask you, those that think that they would like to have their confidentiality protected, you're willing to grant confidentiality to victims that might be willing to come forward?

SEN. ALLARD: Many of the victims have approached me to say that their assailants have gotten off lightly and I understand that a few cadets have been administratively discharged but it's unclear to me how many cadets have been courts-martialed for sexual assault or rape. And can you share with this committee how many cadets have been courts-martialed at the Air Force Academy for sexual assault or rape in the last 10 years?

SEN. ALLARD: Well, as was mentioned by the chairman who's now joined the committee and is—you know, we all sort of have something at stake here. Members of Congress do make nominations to the Air Force Academy and we frequently promote the Air Force—the academies in general as a good education and a wonderful opportunity for young people who measure up and I think it's vitally important that we have a system in place where they're comfortable going to the academies and know that there will be some justice if there is a situation where a victim evolves, maybe from rape or incest or whatever reason. And so the integrity of the system is at stake and I think this is a really important time in the life of the academies and in particular the Air Force Academy. And thank you for your interest and we'll continue to be watching over --

SEN. ALLARD: Well, you know, and there's this loyalty to the squadron and the loyalty needs to start with the perpetrator of the act, and if he's going to be a loyal member of that squadron he should not have done what he did and should not come back later on onto the victim in the squadron --

SEN. ALLARD: I think in the—Secretary Johnson, I think in the test phase here we've sort of allocated a certain amount out to the land-based and then also some to the Navy too. And I was thinking the number that we'd allocated to the Navy was more than what you just mentioned in the actual numbers of ships that you have available.

SEN. ALLARD: Mr. Secretary, when I first came onto this committee I had the opportunity to serve as chairman of the Personnel Subcommittee at that particular point in time and we were struggling with how it is that we were going to retain our specialty areas. And so my question is right now, how are we doing in retaining individuals in these personally—in these specialty areas? We put some provisions in that legislation so that there could be salary adjustments so you can compete with the private sector, and so I'd like to hear from all three of the secretaries on how they view our ability to retain and recruit individuals into various specialty areas that we were having a difficulty a number of years back in retaining and recruiting.

SEN. ALLARD: Secretary Roche, I have a question on our access to space, which is essential as far as our military operations. And the EELV program has been critical, I think, to assuring that we do have that access. Is the Air Force willing to commit in the long-term to having two launch service providers for EELV program?

There are some programs, and it wouldn't be appropriate to talk them in this setting here, but there are some programs where just because we didn't have sort of a duplication of effort we've gotten into trouble. And I'm concerned if we end up with a sole source here that if we get a problem with some type of vehicle then we don't have a backup, and this is so vital. And I'd like to hear your comments on that.

SEN. ALLARD: I thank the chair's indulgence. This has to do with what is the Air Force doing to protect our space assets? I grant that's a question that perhaps may not be able to be answered in this question, but there may be some things that you could answer in this setting. And also in relation to that, I'm concerned about security as far as cyberspace is concerned. During these times of conflict I know there's an unprecedented amount of hits coming in to the Pentagon and various computer systems, so I'm interested in how we're doing this and maybe all—if you could kind of deal with the space aspect and maybe all of you would be willing to respond to the cyberspace issue. I appreciate it.