At Fort Leonard Wood, too, a 63,000-acre base in the Ozarks, there have been reports that fraternization between drill sergeants and recruits was common knowledge. Drill sergeants talk, just like girls talk. It's part of life. That may be so, but many soldiers at Aberdeen expressed profound shame at the scandal swirling around them. But now there's a question in the privates' minds.
Many new trainees do feel betrayed.
So when something like this happens, it hurts. The Army is reinforcing a buddy system that requires trainees to travel in pairs. Cook, for one, applauds it. The problem, explains one officer who says her career was derailed after she filed assault charges against a superior, is that the people investigating complaints are often the abusers. Now that the military has decided to ask, it is likely that more women soldiers will start to tell.