Sergeant Loses Post In Scandal Accused Of Sexual Misconduct, He Was Investigating Others
Amid fresh signs that the Army’s sexual harassment scandal is reaching ever deeper, the Pentagon disclosed Thursday that the commander of an Army training center in Darmstadt, Germany, has been reassigned because of sexual misconduct allegations.
The change of assignment for First Sgt. George Watlington is especially serious for the Army because he topped the chain of command at the center and was on a team investigating charges by 11 women that rocked the facility last week. Two instructors at the center have been charged with rape and sodomy and one with cruelty to a subordinate.
The sexual harassment scandal, the most serious the military has ever faced, has now touched 10 of the 13 domestic Army bases where the Army trains men alongside women, an informal Los Angeles Times survey found. And it appears to be increasingly turning up allegations at overseas Army bases from Europe to Asia.
“More women are learning about it and they’re coming forward to talk,” said Dorothy Macke, a former Air Force captain who has been pressing complaints against two former superiors.
To some women, the scandal found a symbol in Sgt. Major of the Army Gene C. McKinney, the Army’s highest ranking enlisted man who had been assigned to a commission to study the problem of sexual harassment in the Army but was given other duties when he was accused of sexual misconduct by three women. No formal charges have been brought against him.
The Darmstadt training center is charged with preparing soldiers who have just arrived in Europe so that they are familiar with their European communities and ready to start work as soon as they join their units. Training sessions last two weeks and involve groups of fewer than 100 soldiers at a time.
Two of the Darmstadt instructors have been in custody since Feb. 11, after allegedly trying to “influence the testimony” of one woman, according to the Army. Watlington has sexual harassment complaints pending against him but has not been charged with a crime. The Army would not provide further details.
Army officials said last year the European command received 63 formal allegations of sexual harassment, ranging from offensive language to pressure for sexual favors. Thirty of the complaints were substantiated.
Some analysts believe that the Army has had more problems at training installations than other services because - until it set up the hot line - the Army offered fewer avenues of complaint outside the regular chain of command. Other services offered hot lines much earlier, and were more aggressive in letting recruits know that they could call the offices of inspectors general and chaplains with complaints.
The problem has splintered Congress, with many conservatives - including Sens. Dan Coates, R-Ind., and Rick Santorum, R-Pa., - and Sen. Charles S. Robb, D-Va., questioning whether the Army should halt the joint training of the sexes for its 410,000 enlisted personnel.
Putting women under the control of male drill sergeants is like putting “a match near some gunpowder and expecting sparks not to fly every now and then,” Santorum said.
Among many women and more liberal lawmakers, the favored alternatives include setting up a separate ombudsman - perhaps outside the direct chain of command - to hear complaints. Others believe that the best remedy is simply increasing the share of women in the military, now 14 percent of the total, to dilute the “old warrior” culture.