The Air Force has launched 28 investigations into instructor misconduct at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland since starting a 24-hour hotline last fall.
Lackland graduates over the past decade have been asked to report misconduct as the Air Force looks to find trainers who had forbidden personal or romantic relationships. So far, a hotline used last summer during an Air Force investigation and the one now in place have produced a total of 45 investigations.
Retired Col. Morris Davis, who led a probe into a 2003 Air Force Academy sexual assault scandal, said the number of probes launched over three months wasn't alarming given what is known about Lackland.
But retired Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jennifer Norris, a sexual assault victim who heads the Military Rape Crisis Center in Maine, said the hotline is barely scratching the surface of a much deeper problem.
“They've opened up Pandora's box,” she said Sunday. “It is just the beginning because we're getting new referrals and new clients every single day, both active duty and people who are veterans, but mostly active duty.”
The Air Force's training command, which put the hotline in place Oct. 15, couldn't say how many calls had been made to the hotline or provide other details. The number of cases continues to rise on an almost weekly basis, with 32 instructors under investigation for illicit conduct with 59 trainees — three of them men.
Six courts-martial have been held, with 10 more in the works. The latest trials begin today, with Staff Sgts. Eddy Soto and Donald Davis facing proceedings in different courtrooms. Soto faces life for rape and aggravated sexual assault, while Davis is accused of abusive sexual contact and assault on one trainee, and having sex with another airman, who was in a technical school.
The newest abuse hotline, 210-652-0008, fielded calls after Gen. Edward Rice Jr., head of the training command, told airmen he wanted to uncover unprofessional relationships, sexual misconduct and sexual assault in basic and technical training.
A hotline established during a command-directed investigation last summer that led to sweeping changes in basic training fielded 110 calls. Of those, 17 Air Force investigations resulted, though so far there have been no details of what, if any, actions were taken.