The Air Force has added three boot camp instructors to its list of 12 under investigation for misconduct, as well as seven new victims, commanders said Thursday.
The instructors weren't identified and the nature of the allegations was not explained. But the Air Education and Training Command reported that the new cases brought the number of victims in a sex scandal at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland to 38.
Around 500 basic training instructors work on the base.
“We've always known this is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Nancy Parrish, founder of Protect Our Defenders, a group that supports sexual trauma victims in the military. “In all likelihood we are just beginning to document how horrible this problem really is.”
The latest development comes amid multiple investigations looking at not only possible instructor misconduct, but also the possibility of command climate problems that fueled the illegal activity.
Saturday, former trainer Luis A. Walker was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty on seven charges and 28 specifications of misconduct. He had faced a maximum of life without the possibility of parole. He'll instead be eligible for release after serving six years.
He was charged with having illicit relationships with 10 women, all of them in basic training and some in the units that he oversaw.
Until now, instructor misconduct had been found in three of Lackland's eight basic training squadrons, with a number of incidents in one of them. But investigators now have found evidence of misconduct in five squadrons.