The Air Force has made dozens of changes to basic military training in an effort to avoid a repeat of the sexual misconduct scandal that shook the military three years ago, but the service has yet to create a system to gauge whether the changes are working, a government oversight agency said this month.
But the Air Force said it is tracking the changes, according to the Sept. 9 Government Accountability Office report. A council of senior Air Force leaders meets at least once a quarter to discuss progress, shortcomings and ways forward. And anonymous surveys given to all recruits ask about incidents of sexual misconduct and the ease of reporting such crimes.
The Air Force also told the GAO the changes were getting results because there have been no new reports of trainer impropriety since 2012. But service officials conceded that alone was no proof of success, the report said.
None of the more than 65 victims and alleged victims of trainer rape, sexual assault and unprofessional relationships came forward with an allegation and often initially lied to investigators.
One Air Force official said increased scrutiny of basic training could have discouraged potential offenders and that this "spotlight effect" could wane over time.
"Key practices for organizational change call for using a results-oriented framework to enable program oversight and for the framework to include performance goals," the GAO wrote.
Without it, the report continued, the Air Force has no way of evaluating whether it should maintain the changes, which were recommended as a result of an exhaustive 2012 commander-directed investigation into why the widespread misconduct went unabated for months.
"Air Force officials stated that they were in the early stages of developing performance measures to assess the improvements in leadership and institutional safeguards in training," the GAO said.
The report did not draw conclusions about the changes to basic but looked at whether the Air Force had implemented the 46 recommendations from the 2012 CDI. The Air Force said it had fully carried out 42 and partially carried out the rest. The GAO said the Air Force had carried out 39 in their entirety and four partially. One recommendation — that the service consider incentives toward promotion for taking on instructor duty — was not implemented at all, the report said.
The Air Force said it had preserved "top rate for special duty assignment pay" for MTIs while the pay was eliminated or reduced in other fields.
The Air Force does not plan to offer more incentives because it no longer needs to, Air Education and Training Command spokeswoman Amy Bartholomew said in an email. AETC no longer relies on volunteers to fulfill MTI duty.
"They are chosen by their commanders based on their chain of command's belief that they can serve the [Air Force] well as MTIs," she said.
The Air Force said the following changes, while not yet complete, were underway in July:
■ A $2 million security surveillance and monitoring equipment upgrade to track trainer and trainee movement.
■ Filling all 528 authorized MTI positions to reduce instructor stress and increase oversight.
■ Shortening instructor duty to a maximum of three years with no follow-on special duty assignments
■ Reducing BMT by one week to eliminate "white space" in the training schedule when trainer misconduct tended to occur.
