U.S. lawmakers looking into the military's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program found that at least 60 instructors were accused of sexual misconduct against high school cadets in the past five years, a figure far beyond what was previously known.
Of those 60 allegations, 58 were substantiated, according to a congressional memo released Wednesday by the House Oversight and Reform Committee's majority staff ahead of a hearing on the JROTC program.
An earlier investigation: The New York Times released a sweeping investigative report in July that found dozens of retired service members who became leaders in JROTC programs targeted, groomed and sexually abused or harassed underage girls.
The Times investigation found at least 33 such instructors who were criminally charged with sexual misconduct involving students — in addition to many others who were accused but never charged — over a five-year period.
Digging deeper: The report prompted Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), chairman of the committee's national security subpanel, in August to write letters to the Pentagon asking for information on how the military services conduct oversight of their respective JROTC corps.
After that, an initially reported figure of 33 nearly doubled when the Pentagon this month acknowledged there were 60 allegations of sexual abuse, harassment and other sexual misconduct made against JROTC instructors during the past five years.
A 'disturbing picture': "The information our Subcommittee is releasing today paints a disturbing picture of how some JROTC instructors are using their positions of authority to exploit and abuse students who have placed their faith and trust in the U.S. military," Lynch said in a statement accompanying the new information.
"What we have learned from the department is truly alarming," Maloney said at the national security subcommittee hearing Wednesday. "Our investigation has exposed that a lack of Pentagon oversight appears to have enabled the predatory behavior of some of the JROTC instructors. Any allegation of sexual assault, abuse or harassment in this program is one too many and needs to be addressed."
The breakdown: The Army experienced the highest number of allegations against JROTC instructors with 26 total, followed by 16 against Marine Corps JROTC instructors, all of which were substantiated. In the Navy's program, there were 11 allegations, 10 of which were substantiated, as well as seven against Air Force JROTC program instructors, all of which were confirmed, according to the memo.
Of the substantiated allegations in the Army program, 24 instructors were decertified and one died by suicide, according to the report. For the Marines' JROTC program, 15 of the instructors were decertified and one died by suicide. The 10 substantiated allegations in the Navy's program, meanwhile, resulted in the instructors being decertified, and the same occurred for the seven allegations within the Air Force's program.
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