Army CID special agents are investigating allegations that multiple Fort Sill training instructors sexually assaulted a woman trainee at the Oklahoma post.<\/p>\n
Fort Sill commander Maj. Gen. Ken Kamper told reporters Thursday that the trainee reported the incident March 27 and an investigation was launched within hours.<\/p>\n
Kamper said he was limited from offering more details, such as where the incident took place and how many instructors were allegedly involved.<\/p>\n
A person familiar with the incident told Army Times that more than 20 individuals were under investigation in the wake of the initial report, and there are potentially more victims based on the allegations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our statement, the way we are characterizing it is cadre members. I will leave it at that. That means more than one,\u201d Kamper said Thursday. \u201cIn an attempt to protect the integrity of the investigation we won\u2019t go into much more detail than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Fort Sill spokesperson reiterated over the telephone Friday that the post can not say anything more about the number of instructors allegedly involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s important is we\u2019ve taken immediate action with any cadre member that has been named and possibly involved in this allegation,\u201d Kamper said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve removed them from their normal duties. They\u2019ve been suspended,\u201d Kamper added. \u201cAnd with that, we will conduct a full and thorough investigation. We will pursue the facts wherever they lead us and we\u2019ll take any and all appropriate action as the investigation concludes.\u201d<\/p>\n
CID agents began conducting initial interviews within hours of the sexual assault allegation being reported, and that investigation has continued this week, according to Fort Sill.<\/p>\n
Fort Sill also asked for, and received, extra investigative help from the Department of the Army, to include additional specialized CID personnel and more attorneys.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Army has moved fast to help us ensure that we have all the resources necessary to fully and completely investigate these allegations,\u201d Kamper added.<\/p>\n
Fort Sill hosts basic training and advanced individual training for soldiers. But Kamper would not elaborate on the training environment in which the incident allegedly occurred.<\/p>\n
The woman who made the initial report has been assigned a special victims counsel and is safe, according to Fort Sill. Though few details were provided Thursday, Kamper acknowledged that this case is significant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have had experience with sexual assault allegations and cases,\u201d Kamper said. \u201cNot very often do we see the characterization of being assault by cadre members. That\u2019s the significance here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sexual assault has been a rising focal point in the Army since allegations arose that Spc. Vanessa Guillen, a soldier killed inside an armory at Fort Hood, Texas, was sexually harassed before her death but did not report it for fear of retribution from her chain of command.<\/p>\n
A study released by the Defense Department in May 2020 showed that the military still has a long way to go when it comes to stamping out sexual misconduct, as well as the toxic and harassing command cultures that set the stage for sexual violence.<\/p>\n
Overall, the annual report found that sexual assault reports were up 3 percent in fiscal year 2019, for a total of 6,236.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We’ll report more when new information comes to light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jeff LPH 3 sends in this dour news. Army Times reports; Army CID special agents are … Fort Sill instructors suspended after trainee alleges sexual assault<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,232,447,406],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-army","category-army-news","category-dick-stepping","category-guest-link"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112116,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112114\/revisions\/112116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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