Violating the Sacred Trust: Sexual Misconduct in Initial Entry Training

摘要

In November 1997, a sex scandal involving drill sergeants and their recruits completely shook the American public's confidence in the Army. The Army strictly forbids relationships between drill sergeants and new recruits, and the military views this issue as one of the most highly charged moral issues within the services. Violation of this special trust and responsibility erodes the American public's confidence in the military, may negatively impact female recruitment, and embeds sexual harassment within Army culture. Although the Army took aggressive steps to rectify this problem, incidents involving drill sergeants continue to plague the training base. This paper demonstrates that these incidents have steadily increased since 2001. The paper examines the issue of sexual harassment in Initial Entry Training (IET). It identifies factors associated with this behavior, discusses sexual harassment in the overall Army culture, and provides recommendations for deterring sexual harassment within the Army and the training base. The author speculates that sexual harassment persists within Army culture because of leadership failures. Because of this cultural problem and failure of leadership the sexual misconduct of drill sergeants persists at an alarming rate.