--- title: Military Sexual Assaults Highest at a Small Number of Bases description: A newly released Pentagon study revealed that many military sexual assaults occur at a relatively small number of bases and naval ships. canonical: https://time.com/5403526/more-than-500-sexual-assaults-happen-in-a-single-year-at-some-military-installations-report/ author: W.J. Hennigan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-21T19:42:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:58.588Z article:section: Politics og:title: More than 500 Sexual Assaults Happen in a Single Year at Some Military Installations og:description: According to a Pentagon report. og:url: https://time.com/5403526/more-than-500-sexual-assaults-happen-in-a-single-year-at-some-military-installations-report/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt444a7cdfb08aecbb/69893ae8ab6d77697e6b3c08/pentagon-study-soldier-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5127 og:image:height: 2884 og:image:alt: pentagon-study-1 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: More than 500 Sexual Assaults Happen in a Single Year at Some Military Installations twitter:description: According to a Pentagon report. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt444a7cdfb08aecbb/69893ae8ab6d77697e6b3c08/pentagon-study-soldier-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # More than 500 Sexual Assaults Happen in a Single Year at Some Military Installations: Report > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=aace9c97-6008-4103-8be8-ae73b8111011&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME Person of the Year 2017: The Silence Breakers [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Person of the Year 2017: The Silence Breakers](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/jbtW5SvJ.m3u8) (5:02)  _Published 2017-12-06. For giving voice to open secrets, for moving whisper networks onto social networks, for pushing all of us to stop accepting the unacceptable, the Silence Breakers are the 2017 Person of the Year._  by [W.J. Hennigan](https://time.com/author/w-j-hennigan/)  ## W.J. Hennigan Sep 21, 2018 7:42 PM UTC  Daniel Grill—Getty Images/Tetra images RF  by [W.J. Hennigan](https://time.com/author/w-j-hennigan/)  ## W.J. Hennigan Sep 21, 2018 7:42 PM UTC A newly released Pentagon study revealed that many sexual assaults in the U.S. military occur across the globe at a relatively small number of bases and naval ships, including some installations where more than 500 incidents occurred in a single year. The 119-page study, [conducted by Rand Corporation](https://www.rand.org/pubs/research%5Freports/RR870z7.html), surveyed American service members to uncover where troops were most at risk of sexual assault and harassment. In many cases, installations with large populations of younger, single, and more-junior-ranking service members had a greater probability of these incidents occurring. “Each service member’s estimated risk of being sexually assaulted in the next year depends, to a surprising extent, on his or her duty assignment to a particular unit, command, and installation,” [the study said](https://www.rand.org/pubs/research%5Freports/RR870z7.html). Navy sailors assigned to ships at sea, for instance, were among the most predatory installations for women to be sexually assaulted. “Ships dominate the highest-risk installations,” the study said. “Of the 15 highest-risk installations for Navy women, 13 are ships or clusters of ships, including eight of the ten aircraft carriers.” Assaults most often occurred on training bases in the Army and Marine Corps. Both of the services were found to have installations where Rand estimated that in fiscal year 2014 there were more than 500 sexual assaults of men and women: Fort Hood, Fort Bragg, Fort Lewis, Fort Campbell, Fort Bliss, and Camp Lejeune. The study found that sexual assault risk for women in the Air Force was lower than the average for women in other services, but the top three bases where it did most often occur were all focused on undergraduate pilot training. Military installations in the Washington, D.C.-region, such as the Pentagon, were reportedly the safest places to work across all the branches. [The Pentagon commissioned](http://www.sapr.mil/index.php/research/rand) the study, entitled Estimates for Installation- and Command-Level Risk of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment, with the aim of identifying risk factors and locations where sexual misconduct most often occurs. The Defense Department has spent years launching various initiatives aimed at combating rape and sexual assault within U.S. military services without reporting significant progress. “By targeting prevention, training, and other interventions at the largest and highest-risk installations, the services might efficiently make important reductions in their sexual assault rates,” the study said. Air Force Major Carla Gleason, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the Defense Department requested the study in order to provide installation commanders with early warning signals to help prevent sexual misconduct. “Using advanced statistical modeling with 2014 data, RAND developed sexual assault risk estimates for large military installations, ships, and commands worldwide,” she said. “The results are a valuable first look at how the Department can approach estimating sexual assault risk at installations.” Rand said more than 170,000 active duty service and Coast Guard members completed an online sexual assault and sexual harassment survey fielded in August and September 2014\. More than 560,000 were invited to participate. The findings, which are now four years old, did not provide direct information about where the assaults occurred. “They may have occurred in the local community, in off-base housing, during off-base training exercises, or on the installation,” the study said. “For example, when referring to rates of sexual assault for personnel assigned to the USS George Washington, we do not infer that all such assaults occurred while sailors were on that ship.” The study is the latest document to detail the U.S. military’s long-running sexual assault problems. In April, [an Pentagon’s annual report](http://sapr.mil/public/docs/reports/FY17%5FAnnual/DoD%5FFY17%5FAnnual%5FReport%5Fon%5FSexual%5FAssault%5Fin%5Fthe%5FMilitary.pdf) stated the number of alleged assaults spiked across all four military branches. The highest increase came from the Marines, which remains [embroiled in a scandal](https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/03/01/seven-marines-court-martialed-in-wake-of-marines-united-scandal/) in which nude photographs of female Marines were posted online without their knowledge. [A total of 6,769 men and women reported](http://time.com/5260183/military-sexual-assault-rape-reports/) assaults in the year that ended Sept. 30, up from 6,172 a year earlier. The reports came in from uniformed service members and civilian workers. It was the highest number of [reported assaults](http://sapr.mil/index.php/reports) since at least 2006, the last year the Pentagon has available on the data. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] We can't all be ****. We can't all be asking for it. I am here to give you permission to be angry. This reality might not have to be our reality anymore. I felt this crushing sense of powerlessness. This is the time to take my power back. Here's my story. Uber promises. Investigation into sexual harrassment. Fox News cutting its ties with Bill O'Reilley. I felt it was my duty for the women who are silent to be brave. It's okay to stand up for yourself. Taylor Swift appearing in court today. Harvey Weinstein, the New York- People forget a lot that there's a human behind this. Someone who was very hurt and wronged. [ MUSIC ] [ CROSSTALK ] I always thought maybe things could change for my daughter. I never thought things could change for me. [ MUSIC ] Honestly, I was furious. I have had a man grope me in front of multiple collegues and I was tired of wondering if it was something I wore, I was tired of wondering if it was a vibe I was giving off and when I talked to other women they were furious too >> I felt that if I can speak out, may be if I just stand up then someone else would stand up with me >> There wasn't a place For us to report these experiences. But I sure did talk about it a lot over the years. The least I could do was actually tell my own story and validate theirs for them in a way, just as I was hoping someone much bigger than me would help validate my story. And I knew that other women Would continue to apple for jobs there and that made me feel really uncomfortable. I was afraid of the retaliation, I know the power of patriarchy. I know what men can do when their angry. They did everything that they could to prevent me from raising my concerns further. They asked me if there were other girls, maybe that he has done this too and can I go get them. I had to show them that I wasn't lying And it's like they took me for a joke. And if they couldn't stop us from talking, well, they were gonna stop everybody from listening to us. People digging into my Instagram and pulling up sexy photos as if they kind of discredited me. Well, I've seen you in committee. You're really tough. Why didn't you just hit him? Why did you let it go on for so long? I was a smart young woman that had gone to college, that knew how to fight, and I still was manipulated and conned. I felt ashamed that I hadn't spoken out sooner, not having the strength earlier on to make it stop. The feeling of being humiliated as a woman And there's a point you think is it my fault? For so long I went around harboring this ridiculous belief that because I was a non white woman in my 20s, it was expected that I would have to be treated this way. We don't have to just live like this. Few things could change from my daughter I never thought things could change from me. I'm here to give you permission to be angry, people are afraid specially women where conditioned since birth to be polite. To be nice, to be kind, to be liked to not make waves. ****. We can't all be crazy, we can't all be ****, we can't all be asking for it. And I'm telling you that all the people who stand up, all the people who speak out you are teaching people how to treat and you should not be shamed for that. The shame is not ours to hold, the shame is on perpetrator. Me Too can be a conversation starter or it can be the whole conversation. It took away the power from the predator. And placed the power on the victim. And maybe, just maybe we would be able to get a glimpse at the magnitude of this problem. The amount of people sharing the stories with me is so intense. People that were complete strangers reached out to tell very personal stories. It's What they did with this and they did a lot and not only in France in Hong kong japanese. The most months >> I feel like the day that I spoke up and I said you are a sexual harasser I changed >> some of the. Things in the night. [ FOREIGN ]. It's an honor to be the person that hey I spoke up about this. I took on the risk. And I was very humbled and I was very proud. I'm very glad now that the story has been heard. It's a direct response to that arrogance and that show of power and [ UNKNOWN ]. A sense, we won't be silenced. 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