Barely one week after an Air Force officer working in the sexual assault prevention office was arrested for sexual battery, another U.S. service member in a similar position is being investigated for "abusive sexual contact," according to MSNBC.
The U.S. Army has suspended the Sergeant First Class who had served as a coordinator of a sexual assault prevention program at Fort Hood. The Army has not released the identity of the soldier.
The Sergeant is being investigated for sexually assaulting two other soldiers and forcing a subordinate soldier into prostitution, according to a defense official who spoke with MSNBC.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered a full investigation into the allegations. A statement from the Pentagon said the military will need to re-train their sexual assault prevention officers due to recent events, including a report that the number of sexual assaults in the military have risen dramatically in the last two years.
"I cannot convey strongly enough (Secretary Hagel's) frustration, anger, and disappointment over these troubling allegations and the breakdown in discipline and standards they imply," the statement read.
The chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., released a statement expressing her frustration and the dire need to fix the Pentagon's sexual assault policies.
"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 the tip of the spear preventing sexual assault being investigated for committing that very act."
Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., called the Fort Hood allegations "utterly abhorrent," reports the Washington Post.
"It has become painfully evident that saying the military has a cultural problem in regard to sexual assault and sexual misconduct is a glaring understatement," Tsongas said.
According to MSNBC, Sen. Gillibrand is working with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Ca., to write a bill that will remove major criminal cases such as this one from the military's chain of command.
"It is time to get serious and get to work reforming the military justice system that clearly isn't working," Gillibrand said. "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."
