For Female Soldiers, Texas Bases Are the Worst

Study finds higher risk of sexual assault
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 18, 2021 1:52 PM CDT
For Female Soldiers, Texas Bases Are the Worst
Traffic flows through the main gate past a welcome sign in Fort Hood, Texas.   (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)

Female soldiers at Army bases in Texas, Colorado, Kansas, and Kentucky face a greater risk of sexual assault and harassment than those at other posts, accounting for more than a third of all active-duty Army women sexually assaulted in 2018, according to a new Rand Corp. study. The study looked at Army incidents and found that female soldiers at Fort Hood and Fort Bliss, both in Texas, faced the highest risk, particularly those in combat commands or jobs such as field artillery and engineering. And units with more frequent deployments to war also saw higher risk. Other bases with high risk were Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Fort Carson in Colorado, and Fort Riley in Kansas, per the AP. Rand's study provides greater detail on the rates of sexual assault and misconduct across the Army, a chronic problem military leaders have been struggling to combat.

According to the Rand study, the risk of assault for women at Fort Hood was nearly a third higher than the average risk faced by all women in the Army. Overall, Rand said that the risk across the Army varied widely depending on the female soldiers' base, unit, career field, age, and even whether they were at posts with a higher number of civilians. For example, female soldiers in medical or personnel jobs have the lowest risk, while those in field artillery face the highest risk. Soldiers assigned to the Washington, DC, region, meanwhile, have some of the lowest risk totals, with the Pentagon showing the lowest of all installations listed. Among the bases with the lowest reported risk were Fort Belvoir, in northern Virginia, and Fort George G. Meade and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in Maryland. (Read much more on the study here.)

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