Assessment team helps Cannon crack down on sexual assault

CANNON AIR FORCE BASE — A six-member Sexual Assault Assessment Team arrived Thursday afternoon at Cannon and will review the base’s programs designed to detect and prosecute sexual assault cases, as well as programs designed to help victims.

“The message is pretty clear: We are here to assess the programs. There is no place in the Air Force for sexual assault,” said Col. Mary Kay Hertog, the chief of the assessment team who will shortly become a brigadier general in charge of a basic training unit at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

The team includes a mix of mid-range and senior officers as well as both senior and junior enlisted members. Hertog, whose background is in the Security Forces — the Air Force’s equivalent to military police — said the team will meet with senior leaders, squadron and unit commanders and first sergeants, as well as feedback panels of male and female officers, civilians and enlisted personnel.

Col. Jeffrey Stambaugh, vice commander of the 27th Fighter Wing, said Cannon welcomes the inquiry, which over the next few weeks will be repeated at each of Air Combat Command’s 15 bases.

“These (airmen) are our kids out there, and we need to make sure they are treated the way they should be treated,” Stambaugh said.

“I call this a bad news/good news situation,” Stambaugh said. “The bad news is sexual assaults happen. That’s why this team is here. The good news is find me a college campus (or) a work place that has ever dealt with sexual assault as aggressively as we are doing. America holds us to a higher standard, as they should, as military folks.”

Hertog said her team is part of the Air Force’s effort to stop problems such as the sexual assaults at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., that cost many senior leaders their jobs.

“As I see this, this is a step to rebuilding any trust that may have been lost,” Hertog said.

Hertog said her own experience in Air Force police work showed her female victims of sexual assault are sometimes more comfortable speaking to other women. With an increasing number of women in the Air Force — now about 18 to 20 percent of the total — Hertog said it’s now likely female victims can find a sympathetic female ear.

“Any woman in the Air Force, if they don’t feel comfortable talking to a male commander, can seek out other avenues,” Hertog said. “We have female chaplains, we have female doctors, we have female officers and (non-commissioned officers). They just need to tell someone.”

According to Senior Master Sgt. Stefan Alford of Cannon Public Affairs, one case of rape, forcible sodomy and attempted murder brought a sentence of life in prison. Other cases over the past three years included indecent assault and 10 incidents involving consensual or non-consensual sex with minors. In addition to putting a federal conviction on the defendant’s record, those convicted of a sexually violent offense or certain offenses against a minor are subject to sex offender registration under federal law, and there may also be state law registration requirements that vary by state, he said.

While the assessment team will focus on learning what procedures are in place to deal with sexual assault and making sure they work, Hertog said her team will deal with any sexual assault incidents brought to their attention.

“We are out here to take care of any cases that may come up,” Hertog said. “Sexual assault is totally incompatible with our core values in the Air Force.”