A West Point Military Academy staff member has been accused of planting hidden cameras in the shower and locker room facilities of female cadets, U.S. military and Pentagon officials told NBC News.

Sgt. 1st Class Michael McClendon has been relieved of his duties at West Point. McClendon was charged with four counts of indecent acts, dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment and violations of good order and discipline. He has been transferred to Fort Drum in upstate New York.

McClendon, a decorated combat veteran of the war in Iraq, was a staff advisor responsible for the health, welfare and discipline of 125 cadets, defense officials said.

He received the Bronze Star and combat action badge during his combat tour in Iraq.

The story was first reported by the New York Times.

Separately, the Army on Tuesday said Brigadier General Bryan T. Roberts, the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Training Center and Fort Jackson, was being investigated for adultery and for being involved in a physical altercation. Roberts was suspended from his duties.

A rash of recent incidents — including an annual report showing increased sex assaults in the military, and two separate cases of men tasked with stemming sexual assault being charged with sexual assault — has critics, lawmakers, and even President Barack Obama focused on the problem.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last week ordered all branches to “retrain, recredential and rescreen all sexual assault prevention and response personnel and military recruiters.”

Related:

• Facebook shutters page that taunted lawmaker’s push to curb military rape
• Army sex-abuse officer dismissed over domestic dispute
• Male rape survivors tackle military assault in tough-guy culture

US Army

Army Brigadier General Bryan T. Roberts.

Army Brigadier General Bryan T. Roberts, the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Training Center and Fort Jackson, located in Fort Jackson, S.C., is being investigated for adultery and for being involved in a physical altercation, the Army announced Tuesday. Roberts has been suspended from his duties.

The altercation allegedly involved Roberts and an unidentified woman he is now being investigated for having an affair with, a U.S. military official told NBC News. The two were apparently involved in a recent argument. While making up, Roberts allegedly bit the woman’s lip, causing her to seek medical help.

The Command and Staff page on Fort Jackson’s website showed a vacant spot under Commanding General on Tuesday evening.

While the investigation is ongoing, Brig. Gen. Peggy Combs, Commandant of the U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear School at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, will serve as the interim commander.

jackson.army.mil

A screen shot shows Fort Jackson's senior leadership. The commanding general is notably no longer included on the page.

A "direct threat" against a U.S. congresswoman — posted on a military-oriented Facebook page that graphically belittled her and her efforts to stem sexual misconduct within the branches — has been referred to U.S. Capitol Police for investigation. 

The threat was made last week against Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and her husband shortly after Speier sent a letter May 8 to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel informing him of the Facebook page which, according to Speier, helped "contribute to a culture that permits and seems to encourage sexual assault and abuse." U.S. Capitol Police have asked Speier and her staff not to divulge the nature of the threat.

Before that page was taken down Friday afternoon by Facebook, Speier's staff was able to confirm that several active-duty Marines had posted messages on the page, which disparaged the congresswoman and made numerous sexual jokes about women in the military. At least three people who had "liked" the page — and who had posted comments there supporting its content — list themselves as active-duty service members on their personal Facebook pages. As of Friday morning, the page — called "F*** You Jackie Speier — was active and had 182 "likes."

Speier's staff has not been able to determine the identity of the person or people or who created the Facebook page — or several earlier versions of the same page (with other names) that contained the same content, commentary and photos. Those previous iterations were also dismantled by Facebook. 

In her May 8 letter, also sent to Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, Speier said it was her "understanding that not only is the Marine Corps Inspector General aware of this page and monitoring it, but they have been doing so for over three years." 

Speier has authored three bills aimed at transforming the military justice system’s treatment of sexual assault cases. Those include the STOP Act (HR 1593), which seeks to take all cases of sexual assault outside of the chain of command by creating an independent office within the military to handle the reporting, investigation, and prosecution of such crimes. The bipartisan bill has 122 co-sponsors but has not been placed into consideration for a House vote. 

Before the anti-Speier Facebook page was removed, it displayed a banner photo of a topless woman holding up her middle fingers as well as multiple posts and pictures making fun of military rape, including an image posted Friday morning with a caption that joked about raping a pregnant woman.

In addition, there were photos posted mocking Jewish concentration camp prisoners, African Americans, and President Barack Obama, shown with a rope around his neck. But the page's primary theme involved deriding women in the military, particularly those within the Marines. The administrator posted pictures titled "this is my rape face," and "I can 'bang' even when I'm not on my back!!" atop the image of a woman holding a gun in her camouflage uniform.

Courtesy Facebook

A screen grab shows one of the photos posted on a page about Jackie Speier.

There also was a picture of Speier, photoshopped with a black eye. One poster — whose personal Facebook page lists his occupation as "Military infantry" — wrote of Speier: "I still firmly believe someone needs to struggle snuggle the s*** outta her."

The Pentagon acknowledged that it is aware of the Facebook page.  

"Secretary Hagel made clear that sexual assault is a despicable crime and one of the most serious challenges facing the Department of Defense," Cynthia O. Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said Friday in reaction to the page. "Leaders will be held accountable for preventing and responding to sexual assault in the ranks. The Secretary will respond directly back to Congresswoman as appropriate."

"Unfortunately, we cannot offer comment," added Shennell Antrobus, spokesman for the U.S. Capitol Police. "As a matter of Department policy, we do not discuss information relating to the security of Senators, Members of the House, or the Capitol Complex."

Facebook declines to comment on individual pages within its network but it does list a strict set of "community standards" that govern allowable content.

"We maintain a robust reporting infrastructure that leverages over 1 billion people who use our site to keep an eye out for offensive or potentially dangerous content," said Alison Schumer, a Facebook spokeswoman. "This reporting infrastructure includes report links on pages across the Facebook site, systems to prioritize the most serious reports, and a trained team of reviewers who respond to reports."

Facebook, which also lists its "law enforcement guidelines," has been known to cooperate with police agencies with active investigations that may delve into a suspect's Facebook accounts and activity. 

Related:

• Male rape survivors tackle military assault in tough-guy culture
• Senators seek to reform military's 'unacceptable' sex abuse policies
• Gillibrand leads charge for protocol changes in sexual assault cases
• US military faces historic tipping point on rape epidemic
• Army sergeant assigned to sex-abuse prevention investigated for pimping, sexual assault
• Air Force's sex-abuse prevention honcho charged with sexual battery

A U.S. Navy SEAL was killed when an armored vehicle flipped during a training exercise at Fort Knox, Ky., a military official told NBC News.

The SEAL was a petty officer third class and part of a group based in Virginia Beach, Va., the official said. His name was not immediately made public.

Eight SEALs were riding in the armored vehicle, one on the top, when it flipped during a turn late Wednesday night, the official said. All eight were taken to the hospital, and one died there.

The official said that the men were training on a course routinely used by SEALs and others in the military.

This story was originally published on Fri May 17, 2013 11:13 AM EDT

Jessica Rinaldi / Russell family via Reuters, file

Sgt. John Russell was sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing five fellow service members at a base in Iraq in 2009.

An Army sergeant was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole for the 2009 killings of five fellow service members at a combat stress clinic in Iraq.

A military judge, Army Col. David Conn, found Sgt. John Russell guilty of premeditated murder on Monday and imposed the sentence Thursday morning. The only other possible penalty for Russell would have been life in prison with the possibility of release.

Russell will be transferred within the next several days to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield said late Thursday.

The 14-year veteran from Sherman, Texas, had previously pleaded guilty to unpremeditated murder in exchange for prosecutors taking the death penalty off the table. Under the agreement, prosecutors were allowed to try to prove to an Army judge at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state that the killings were premeditated. A streamlined court-martial ended Saturday.

The shooting was one of the worst instances of soldier-on-soldier violence in the Iraq war and raised questions about the mental stresses of serving repeated tours of duty.

Killed in the 2009 shooting in Baghdad were Navy Cmdr. Charles Springle, of Wilmington, N.C., and four Army personnel: Pfc. Michael Edward Yates Jr., of Federalsburg, Md.; Dr. Matthew Houseal, of Amarillo, Texas; Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos, of Paterson, N.J.; and Spc. Jacob D. Barton, of Lenox, Mo.

Russell's lawyers argued that he was deluded by depression and despair at the time. An Army mental health board found that Russell suffered from severe depression with psychotic features and post-combat stress.

Russell had long sought help with sleep troubles and was stammering and crying for help in the days before the shooting. His commanders were so alarmed that they disarmed him and sent him for repeated visits to mental health clinics, said attorney James Culp.

However, prosecutors argued that Russell was trying to paint himself as mentally ill in an attempt to win early retirement — just as he was facing a sexual harassment complaint that could derail his career and his benefits.

The day before the killings, psychiatrist Michael Jones told him that a mental disability retirement would require "some kind of suicidal psychotic crisis," Maj. Daniel Mazzone said during closing arguments, according to the Los Angeles Times.

But when Russell saw Jones again the next day, the psychiatrist said he had no intention of giving him "a golden ticket" out of the Army.

When Russell returned about an hour later, prosecutors say, he was looking for Jones, but wound up killing two patients, a bystander and two other mental health workers, including Navy Cmdr. Springle, who had also briefly treated Russell in the days before the shootings. Jones escaped injury by jumping out a window.

The Associated Press

Related:

• 'An evil chuckle': Survivor recalls shooting spree
• Father says Army 'broke' his son
• Doctor says soldier who killed 5 was 'psychotic'

The head of the Army’s equal opportunity and sexual assault-prevention office at Fort Campbell, Ky., has been relieved of his duties, the Pentagon said.

He is the third sex-abuse prevention officer to be dismissed in the past to 10 days.

However, the Fort Campbell Army officer, whose name was not released, was dismissed over a domestic dispute with his wife, not a sexual-assault case, the Pentagon said.

The Army lieutenant colonel was arrested by civilian authorities for violating a protective order that was sought by his estranged wife, according to the Pentagon. The couple are in the process of getting a divorce. The officer was released today on a $15,000 bond.

He holds a protective order against his wife, as well.

Two other cases involving sex-assault prevention officers do involve sex-abuse-related charges.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon said an Army sergeant first class, assigned to III Corps at Fort Hood, Texas, is under investigation for allegedly forcing at least one subordinate into prostitution, abusive sexual contact, assault and maltreatment of subordinates. He has been suspended from his duties pending an investigation.

On May 6, the Air Force officer in charge of that service's sexual-assault program, Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski, was arrested in an Arlington, Va. parking lot for allegedly groping a woman.

Krusinksi was charged with sexual battery and removed from his position pending an investigation.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., a member of the Armed Services Committee, is spearheading a bill to prevent military commanders from handling sexual assault cases that involve subordinates.

Related:

Gillibrand leads Senate charge for protocol changes in military sexual assault cases

Army sergeant assigned to sex-abuse prevention being investigated for pimping, sexual assault

Air Force's sex-abuse prevention honcho charged with sexual battery

Obama: 'No tolerance' for military sexual assault

'Every American should be outraged': Military sees sharp increase in sex-assault cases

Amid the legislation and indignation sparked by the military's sexual abuse crisis, male rape survivors are stepping forward to remind officials that men are targeted more often than women inside a tough-guy culture that, they say, routinely deems male victims as “liars and trouble makers.”

The Pentagon estimates that last year 13,900 of the 1.2 million men on active duty endured sexual assault while 12,100 of the 203,000 women in uniform experienced the same crime — or 38 men per day versus 33 women per day. Yet the Defense Department also acknowledges “male survivors report at much lower rates than female survivors.”

“As a culture, we’ve somewhat moved past the idea that a female wanted this trauma to occur, but we haven’t moved past that for male survivors,” said Brian Lewis, a rape survivor who served in the Navy. “In a lot of areas of the military, men are still viewed as having wanted it or of being homosexual. That’s not correct at all. It’s a crime of power and control.

“But also, you’re instantly viewed as a liar and a troublemaker (when a man reports a sex crime), and there’s the notion that you have abandoned your shipmates, that you took a crap all over your shipmates, that you misconstrued their horseplay,” he added.

Lewis, who was raped by a male superior officer aboard a Navy ship in 2000, spoke Thursday at a press conference introducing a bill that seeks to strip serious sex assaults from the military’s chain of command. At that event, he said: “Too often male survivors are ignored and marginalized.”

“The biggest reasons men don’t come forward (with sex assault reports) are the fear of retaliation (from fellow troops), the fear of being viewed in a weaker light, and the fact there are very few, if any, services for male survivors,” Lewis told NBC News.

Men in the spotlight
All sexual assault response coordinators within the military are instructed to provide “gender-responsive, culturally competent and recovery-oriented” resources, said Cynthia O. Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman. 

“Based on that guidance, each of the services customizes its training and implementation specific to their service,” Smith said. DOD offers a 24/7 “safe helpline” providing anonymous victim support, and its staffers “have been trained to assist male victims.”

Still, the Defense Department acknowledges it must do more to help male victims.

“A focus of our prevention efforts over the next several months is specifically geared towards male survivors and will include (learning) why male survivors report at much lower rates than female survivors, and determining the unique support and assistance male survivors need,” Smith said.

The Pentagon “has reached out to organizations supporting male survivors for assistance and information to help inform our way ahead,” she added.

“I applaud that stand on behalf of male survivors,” Lewis said. “However, I would be interested in hearing what organizations they are partnering with considering there are none especially geared for male survivors of military sexual trauma.”

'Critical' part of process
At Protect Our Defenders, a leading advocacy group for male and female service members who've survived sexual assaults, president Nancy Parrish said she would welcome the chance to offer guidance to the Pentagon as it develops better programs to support male sex assault victims.

“As of yet, we have not been asked to participate in such an endeavor,” Parrish said. “For the success of the military efforts to end the ongoing epidemic of male and female military sexual assaults, it is critical that survivors are part of the process."

An annual DOD report on sexual abuse, released May 7, described separate attacks on two male soldiers who were shoved down by fellow troops then sodomized with a plastic bottle or broom handle.

Next month, a documentary called “Justice Denied” — which explores sexual assaults against men in the military — premiers at the Albuquerque Film and Media Experience.

Assaults on men have been “carefully hidden from the public and covered up,” not only by the victims themselves but also by superiors within the chain of command, contends the film’s producer and co-director Geri Lynn Weinstein-Matthews. “It’s time for men to have their voices heard. It’s time for them to stand up against these vicious attacks and against the deception of some of their commanding officers.” 

Related:

• Senators seek to reform military's 'unacceptable' sex abuse policies
• Gillibrand leads charge for protocol changes in sexual assault cases
• US military faces historic tipping point on rape epidemic
• Army sergeant assigned to sex-abuse prevention investigated for pimping, sexual assault
• Air Force's sex-abuse prevention honcho charged with sexual battery

A New York senator introduced a bill Thursday that aims to remove sex crimes from the military’s chain of command — a bid to transform an insulated culture that tends to dampen sex-assault reporting, leaving many victims feeling helpless or hopeless.

Under the Pentagon’s current justice system, less than 1 percent of accused sexual perpetrators in the military were convicted last year while during 2012 just 9.8 percent of sex-assault victims reported the incidents, according to a Department of Defense report. Many victims feel powerless because their superiors can control everything from whether a case proceeds to whether a guilty verdict is eventually overturned.

The new proposal by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., rides a rising tide of public anger over separate allegations that two service members tasked with curbing sexual misconduct within the armed forces had themselves committed sexual misconduct:

• A Fort Hood Army sergeant accused Tuesday of allegedly forcing at least one subordinate soldier into prostitution. There is suspicion that other senior non-commissioned officers were aware of these activities, but the extent of that remains unclear, a government official told NBC News;
• An Air Force officer arrested May 6 for alleged sexual battery. 

"When the officer in charge of preventing sexual assault in their ranks is himself arrested for sexual assault — clearly, the strategy we have in place is not working. Twice in just the last two weeks this has happened," Gillibrand said. 

Some service members have confided to Gillibrand, she said, that following sexual offenses committed against them, the military's current system forced them to seek permission from their perpetrators in order to take their cases to trial. 

"This is unacceptable — and is long overdue for change," Gillibrand said. 

Her push to revamp the military's machinery for the investigation and discipline of reported sexual assaults has bipartisan backing. Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Mich., said he will file a companion bill in the House. 

“Right now, too many sexual assaults in our military go unreported," Benishek said. "Many soldiers are uncomfortable reporting the details of these traumatic events. My daughter is a military veteran so I know exactly the kind of hard-working women we have in our armed forces. This situation is a travesty and we need to fix it now.

"We need to reform how the military handles sexual assault cases and make sure victims aren’t afraid to report a crime," he added. 

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was informed Tuesday about the allegations against the Fort Hood sergeant, leaving the Pentagon chief "frustrated, angered, and disappointed over these troubling allegations as well as the breakdown in discipline and standards they imply," said Cynthia Smith, a DoD spokeswoman. 

Hagel immediately directed every branch to "re-train, re-credential, and re-screen" all sexual assault prevention and response personnel and military recruiters — and he has "made it clear he has not ruled out any options for improving the military's response to sexual assault," Smith said.  

Under Gilliland's proposed legislation, any reported offense committed by a service member that’s punishable by confinement of one year or more would be handled not by branch and unit commanders — like now — but instead be funneled to independent military prosecutors. Her proposal also seeks to ensure that military commanders may not set aside a guilty finding.  

She began writing her bill — working with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. — just two days after her impassioned critique of the military's desire to retain "convening authority" in sex crimes went viral last March. She since has emerged as one of the Senate's loudest proponents for wholesale Pentagon reform on the issue, calling for a format that's more parallel to the civilian legal system. 

Related:

• Gillibrand leads Senate charge for protocol changes in military sexual assault cases
• US military faces historic tipping point on rape epidemic
• Army sergeant assigned to sex-abuse prevention being investigated for pimping, sexual assault
• Air Force's sex-abuse prevention honcho charged with sexual battery
• Obama: 'No tolerance' for military sexual assault
• 'Every American should be outraged:' Military sees sharp increase in sex assault cases

The U.S. military seems increasingly incapable of policing itself or ridding its ranks of sexual predators, watchdogs charge, but the latest litany of accusations — leveled Tuesday at Fort Hood — has thrust the Pentagon to the brink of wholesale reform long sought by victims of sexual assault. 

With the second member of the military's campaign to stem sexual misconduct falling under investigation — for alleged sexual misconduct — critics were quick to lambast Pentagon brass for "gross negligence" and for maintaining an internal system of investigation and discipline that appears to be in desperate need of being ripped down and rebuilt with fresh independence and transparency. 

"It is abundantly clear that the military cannot adequately handle its sexual violence crisis from within," said Anu Bhagwati, executive director of Service Women's Action Network and former Marine captain.

"If military culture is to transform in any meaningful way, we need to break down the doors of silence and make sure our troops who are harmed have access to the same legal remedies as all civilians whom they protect and defend," she added. "We can start by ensuring that military crimes are no longer handled by commanding officers, but rather by impartial attorneys and judges."

Nancy Parrish, president of the victims advocacy group Protect Our Defenders, agreed that "the Pentagon is responsible for failing to effectively govern its personnel," following news that a Fort Hood Army sergeant first class allegedly forced at least one subordinate soldier into prostitution and sexually assaulted two others. 

"The problems are so long standing and pervasive that, at a minimum, it constitutes gross negligence on the part of the leadership," Parrish said. 

Late Tuesday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel directed all branches to "re-train, re-credential, and re-screen all sexual assault prevention and response personnel and military recruiters," according to the Pentagon. 

'Open to any and all options'
The Fort Hood scandal, coming just nine days after the sexual battery arrest of an Air Force officer tasked with preventing rape, cranked the volumed on long-standing cries "to get to work reforming the military justice system that clearly isn’t working," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. "I believe strongly that to create the kind of real reform that will make a difference we must remove the chain of command from the decision making process for these types of serious offenses.”

Ironically, hours before the Fort Hood allegations surfaced, Gillibrand was prepping a final draft of her bill — set to be introduced Thursday — that seeks to accomplish precisely that goal: transferring sex crimes from the watch and authority of military brass and instead funneling such cases to independent military prosecutors, said a spokesman for Gillibrand. 

Her proposal was further hastened by the Pentagon's May 7 revelation that 26,000 troops last year claimed anonymously to be sex-assault victims (up from 19,000 in FY11), and a May 9 White House meeting with lawmakers pitching various ideas to stem the military’s rape crisis.

“Sexual violence in the military is not new. And it has been allowed to go on in the shadows for far too long," Gillibrand said Tuesday. "Congress would be derelict in its duty of oversight if we just shrugged our shoulders at these 26,000 sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, and did nothing. We simply have to do better by them."

The appetite for a dramatic military shift on the issue seems to have reached a tipping point, lawmakers and advocates agree, especially after the Department of Defense signaled Monday that Hagel is "open to any and all options." That marked a clear pivot from Hagel's position as recently as May 7 when he said decisions on sex cases must stay inside the command structure. 

"Make no mistake," Pentagon press secretary George Little wrote Sunday in a letter to the New York Times, "Mr. Hagel believes sexual assault is one of the urgent matters facing the Defense Department today and will work very closely with the White House and members of Congress to confront this urgent challenge." 

'Debilitating' crisis
Gillibrand began writing her bill — working with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. — just two days after her impassioned critique of the military's desire to retain "convening authority" in sex crimes went viral last March. She chose to include in her bill all military crimes punishable by one year or longer in the brig because she felt sending only rape cases to the Judge Advocate General's Corps would further stigmatize sex-assault victims and create "a two-class system," her spokesman said.  

Meanwhile, Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Mich., plans to introduce a companion bill in the House, his office confirmed.

The first embers of true Capitol Hill fury were stoked in February when Air Force Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin reversed the aggravated sexual assault conviction of Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, a fighter pilot. A jury of five military officers found Wilkerson guilty of assaulting a civilian contractor as she slept at his home on the Aviano Air Base In Italy. Franklin also dismissed Wilkerson's sentence: one year in the brig and dismissal from the Air Force.

Gillibrand's bill seeks bar military commanders from setting aside guilty findings.

"Hopefully, we have reached the tipping point," Parrish said. "It is ultimately up to the military leadership. If they decide that this epidemic and all of the recent scandals is a problem that should be solved, reform can happen and happen relatively quickly.

"At least until now, the military has treated the issue of sexual assault and rape in the military as a public relations problem," she added. "There are some recent signs that some in the leadership realize that it is a real crisis: a crisis that, for the military, is debilitating."

Related:

• Air Force's sex-abuse prevention honcho charged with sexual battery
• Army sergeant assigned to sex-abuse prevention being investigated for pimping, sexual assault
• Obama: 'No tolerance' for military sexual assault
• 'Every American should be outraged:' Military sees sharp increase in sex assault cases

Just a week after an Air Force lieutenant colonel working in its sexual-assault prevention office was arrested and accused of sexual battery, a second U.S. service member assigned to a military sexual assault program is being investigated for various forms of sexual misconduct, officials revealed Tuesday.

A U.S. Army sergeant first class, assigned to III Corps at Fort Hood, Texas, is now under investigation for pandering — a prostitution solicitation charge — abusive sexual contact, assault and maltreatment of subordinates, the Pentagon said.

A Defense Department source told NBC News the publicly unidentified soldier allegedly forced at least one subordinate soldier into prostitution and sexually assaulted two others.

This soldier was assigned as an equal opportunity advisor and Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program coordinator with one of the III Corps' subordinate battalions when the allegations came to light.

He has been suspended from his duties pending an investigation.

Since the soldier has not been charged and the Army has not released his identity. Special agents from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command are conducting an investigation.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was informed about the allegations against the Fort Hood soldier on Tuesday, said George Little, Pentagon spokesman.

“I cannot convey strongly enough his frustration, anger, and disappointment over these troubling allegations and the breakdown in discipline and standards they imply,” Little said.

Hagel has directed Army Secretary McHugh to fully and rapidly investigate the case “to discover the extent of these allegations, and to ensure that all of those who might be involved are dealt with appropriate,” Little said in a statement.

In addition, Hagel ordered all branches of the military to re-train, re-credential, and re-screen all sexual assault prevention and response officers as well as military recruiters. 

“Sexual assault is a crime and will be treated as such,” Little said. “The safety, integrity, and well-being of every service member and the success of our mission hang in the balance.”

Calling the latest investigation "disturbing," U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said she will unveil legislation Thursday to reform the military justice system in the prosecution of sexual-assault crimes to remove "chain of command influence." Senior commanders now have the ability to overturn guilty verdicts in sexual assault cases.

"To say this report is disturbing would be a gross understatement," Gillibrand said. "For the second time in a week we are seeing someone who is supposed to be preventing sexual assault being investigated for committing that very act."

The latest report comes after a string of bad news regarding the military's effort to staunch sexual assaults in its ranks.

On Monday, May 6th, the Air Force officer in charge of its sexual-assault program, Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski, was arrested in an Arlington, Va. parking lot for allegedly groping a woman.

Police said the 41-year-old officer grabbed a woman's breasts and buttocks just after midnight. She managed to fight off her assailant.  

Krusinksi was charged with sexual battery. The Air Force removed him from his position pending an investigation.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon released its annual report from the DoD's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, which find a spike in sexual assaults.

According to the report, 3,374 incidents of "unwanted sexual contact" occurred within all branches of the Armed Forces in the 2012 fiscal year. That is a 6 percent increase from the previous year, when there were 3,192 reports.

The results of an anonymous survey, however, showed that an alarming 26,000 respondents said they had been sexually assaulted in the past year, compared to 19,000 respondents in last year's survey. 

President Barack Obama said last week he has “no tolerance” for sexual assault in the military. He made the comments in the wake of a new Pentagon report showing the instances of such crimes have spiked since 2010.

The bottom line is: I have no tolerance for this,” Obama said. “‘I expect consequences,” Obama added. “So I don’t just want more speeches or awareness programs or training, but ultimately folks look the other way. If we find out somebody’s engaging in this, they’ve got to be held accountable – prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged. Period.”

Related:

Air Force's sex-abuse prevention honcho charged with sexual battery

Obama: 'No tolerance' for military sexual assault

'Every American should be outraged:' Military sees sharp increase in sex assault cases

Courtesy Ashley Gonzalez

Ashley Gonzalez, 40, retired from the Navy last year after a 21-year-career. He had a smooth transition back to civilian life thanks to a network of veterans organizations in San Diego.

After 21 years in the Navy, Ashley Gonzalez, 40, had to make a tough choice last year: uproot his family from San Diego for an assignment in Mississippi or retire and rejoin the civilian world. 

Gonzalez, a chief petty officer, had previously deployed to counter-narcotic operations in South and Central America and participated in a routine war games exercise on the Korean peninsula. Civilian life, he knew, would be much different. But his daughter, 16, and son, 12, wanted to stay in San Diego, and so began Gonzalez’s transition back to a life he’d left long ago. 

Gonzalez was confident at first; after all, he’d spent the past two decades earning a masters degree and learning skills like management, mentoring and public speaking. The shaky economy, however, tested his optimism. 

“It was overwhelming, it was tough,” he told NBC News. “There were times when we questioned the transition.”

Gonzalez is lucky to live near a city where there are more than 100 non-profit organizations that provide a range of services to veterans. In the past few years, these groups have formed a coalition to ensure that every service member has access to resources like health care, education, legal aid and job counseling, which can be essential for starting anew as a civilian. 

Gary Rossio, co-founder of the San Diego Veterans Coalition, said the collaboration has an urgent mission to assist those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, more than 1 million service members will leave the military in the next four years as positions are eliminated through budget cuts and the drawdown from Afghanistan. 

“We don’t want another lost generation of veterans like we had with Vietnam,” said Rossio, who served in the Air Force in the 1970s and spent 30 years as an official at the Department of Veterans Affairs.  

San Diego, where 15,000 service members leave the military annually, may be unique in its demographics, but there is a concerted effort nationwide to provide communities with tools to connect veterans to resources, streamline services, and recruit civilian volunteers.  

'It's not just about a job'
Gonzalez, who retired from the Navy last October, quickly found assistance from San Diego’s web of providers. 

He attended several job fairs and followed leads, including a recommendation from his Navy career counselor to attend a local workshop called Reboot that covered not only how to compete for the right position, but also how to find purpose in a post-military life. Within a few months, thanks to the Reboot class and networking, Gonzalez landed a well-paying job as a senior consultant in logistics support for a firm that contracts with government and commercial clients. 

“I was very fortunate,” said Gonzalez, who now attends Reboot classes to share his experience with students. “Because of my whole process, I’ve decided to pay it forward.” 

Success stories like Gonzalez’s are becoming more common. The unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans, particularly among women, has been stubbornly higher than the national civilian rate. The unemployment rate for veterans of post-9/11 conflicts was 7.5 percent in April, down from 9.2 percent in April 2012, according to the Labor Department.

Increasing veteran employment has been the target of several initiatives, most notably the White House program Joining Forces, which last week announced that American companies have committed to hiring 435,000 veterans and military spouses in the next five years. 

While this is welcome news, some advocates worry that an exclusive focus on jobs ignores other important elements of transitioning from military culture to civilian life. 

Maurice Wilson, a retired chief petty officer in the Navy and president of NVTSI, the non-profit that runs Reboot, said that the program guides veterans through a psychological reintegration before even talking about jobs. 

Service members, he said, go from “a very organized, ordered world that is so established you don’t even have to ask questions about who you are, where you belong. What happens is that people go from order to disorder and their mind goes into a tailspin.”

Each veteran also has different needs. While one may be a double amputee, another may have post-traumatic stress disorder. “It’s not just about a job,” Wilson said. “It’s about his life now.” 

Reboot, which has graduated more than 800 students in nearly three years and has a long waiting list, identifies those unique needs and refers veterans to other organizations that offer assistance. This could include, for example, a VA program called From Warrior to Soul Mate, which helps veterans develop better communication skills and strengthen trust and commitment in their relationships. A legal aid program helps veterans facing jail time for minor offenses, often drug- or alcohol-related, enter therapy instead. 

Wilson, who serves as a board member on the local coalition, said that the project has been a success as leaders recognize the value of working together rather than in silos with little knowledge of what other groups are doing. 

“It takes the community to do it,” Wilson said of helping veterans to reintegrate. “The government can’t do it alone.” 

Going national
This is the philosophy of a recently launched nationwide initiative called Community Blueprint. 

The project, which is run by the Atlanta-based non-profit organization Points of Light, was developed over the past three years with the expertise of several dozen leaders of veteran organizations. 

The goal, said Mike Monroe, vice president of military initiatives at Points of Light, is to provide communities with a model for how to efficiently serve veterans while also offering civilians opportunities to volunteer for a cause they may feel is important but know little about. 

The program offers a “toolbox” of solutions in eight key areas, including employment, family strength, housing and education. The toolbox gives guidance on how to improve resources for veterans. If a community wants to train health providers in treating veterans with PTSD or TBI, for example, a tip sheet outlines how to measure success and raise money for training in addition to suggesting related volunteer opportunities. 

Community Blueprint also runs Veteran Leader Corps, in which 75 AmeriCorps volunteers are placed in 19 communities across the country for one year of service. 

Since launching in October, Community Blueprint has been adopted in 44 cities, including Phoenix, Cincinnati, Boston and San Diego. Each month, partner organizations will join a call to discuss different challenges or strategies for success. “It’s pretty humbling when you start looking at the numbers and there’s 75 people on the call,” Monroe said.

Yet, he is concerned this momentum could be blunted both by a perception that service members become “poor, sad veterans” to be helped only by the government and that reintegrating into civilian life will be a less urgent a public priority once there are no longer front-page stories about battle.

“There’s going to be a tipping point and I hope it goes in the right direction,” he said. 

Gary Rossio is hopeful that coalitions like the one in San Diego, as well as initiatives like the Community Blueprint, can provide models for how to help veterans successfully reintegrate into civilian life. 

“The idea is that it takes everybody to bring these folks home, and that they come home to a community, not to the VA or VFW,” Rossio said. “With that kind of attitude, you can do just about anything.” 

Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter based in Oakland, Calif.