Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, and CMSAF James Roy have sent a message to airmen saying they are committed “to eliminating sexual assault” from the service. “Sexual assault is a crime, and there is no place for this behavior in our Air Force. We demand better of ourselves,” they wrote in their letter to airmen. Although the Defense Department conducts its own sexual assault study every year, USAF contracted the Gallup polling company to conduct an anonymous survey to get a better idea of the magnitude of the problem. Gallup found that in the 12 months prior to its survey, 2,143 female airmen (3.4 percent) and 1,355 male airmen (0.5 percent) believed that they had been sexually assaulted, a significant spike compared to the 585 sexual assaults officially reported in the Air Force in Fiscal 2010. (SAF/PA release) (Gallup report; caution, large file)
U.S. Air Force F-35s and F-22s regularly deploy deep into the Pacific region from Alaska, Utah, and Hawaii. In the future, though, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command would like to see the Air Force permanently station fifth-generation aircraft west of the international date line—closer to China.