The U.S. Air Force Academy is an institution that prides itself on its fabled “Code of Honor,” but it’s now at the center of what’s shaping up to be the biggest military sex scandal since the 1991 Tailhook Scandal.
The academy’s polished veneer began to crack in January when a cadet named Jessica sent an email to news organizations.
In it, she wrote: “I’m a Senior at the Air Force Academy, and since I’ve been here I know of many females who have been sexually assaulted, including myself … Is there anything that can be done? Can your office help us somehow?”
John Ferrugia and his investigative unit at ABC NEWS’ Denver affiliate KMGH first reported the story on television. Jessica later told 20/20 the sordid details of the incident.
Jessica said she was assaulted during the summer preceding her sophomore year, at the end of an intense week of training, while the cadets were camped out. She was 19. Her alleged attacker was an upper class man, one of her trainers.
According to Jessica, the upperclassman woke her in the middle of the night and asked her to follow him down a dark road and into a tent. “The next thing I know,” Jessica said, “he’s touching me … From there, you know, I’m pinned down on a picnic table and it was surreal — this guy is raping me.”
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