Gen. Edward Rice Jr., who led the Air Force's response to its worst-ever worst sexual
misconduct scandal, will soon retire as head of the San Antonio-based Air Education and Training Command.
Rice, an Albuquerque, N.M., native who spent part of his childhood on
the South Side, will close out a career that ran 35 years. He'll be
replaced by Lt. Gen. Robin Rand, now commander of the 12th Air Force at
Davis-Monthan AFB.
“It will be several months before I actually retire,” Rice, 57, said
in a brief statement. “I look forward to continuing to serve the airmen
of AETC and the American people during this period of challenge and
opportunity.”
The scandal that so far has engulfed 33 basic training instructors at
Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland for alleged misconduct with 67 recruits
and technical school students fell on Rice's desk two years ago. Just
last week, two instructors were sent to prison for having sex with
trainees.
Air Force chief of staff Gen. Mark Welsh III credited Rice with acting to uncover the depth of the scandal, while former Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters said Rice would have been replaced sooner if he had been blamed.
“He did what he could do, which is prosecute the people involved,
replace the leadership, replace the (instructor) cadre that needed
replacing,” said Peters, the Air Force's top civilian under President Bill Cllinton.
Rice asked Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward, to investigate basic and technical training. A report they released at the Pentagon last November called for sweeping changes in basic and technical school training.
So far, 34 of 45 recommendations have been completed, Lt. Col. Richard Johnson,
an AETC spokesman, said Sunday. Instructor manpower is on the rise, and
six officers will be added to every squadron by August.
“The reason we're finding all these cases is that when Gen. Ed Rice
first learned about this thing, and I think in a very positive and
aggressive way took charge of the investigation, he committed to looking
long-term at every case that was unveiled in any way, shape or form
going back at least 10 years,” Welsh said.
Lackland triggered widespread media coverage of sexual assaults in
the services, a congressional investigation and calls for a makeover in
the military justice system. Other incidents put a spotlight on the
issue, including the arrest of a sexual assault prevention officer
accused of groping a woman in Virginia.
A military brat, Rice lived on the now-defunct Brooks AFB from 1962-64 and led the Air Force Recruiting Service
from 2002-04. He returned to head up AETC, which has 12 bases and
trains 293,000 students a year. It is the largest Air Force command.
While many shied away from speaking about the scandal, he talked
about it on several occasions. Asked about the impact of a series of
highly publicized trials, Rice said he didn't fear that they would
tarnish the Air Force's image.
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