Two female soldiers walk back after checking their targets at a qualification range at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, March 9, 2014.

Last week’s Department of Defense’s 2018 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military reported more than 37% increase of “some kind of contact or penetrative sexual assault” of service members as compared to 2016 based on data from an anonymous survey of military service members. In a memo, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan commented on the need for action in light of these findings: “To put it bluntly, we are not performing to the standards and expectations we have for ourselves or each other.”
 
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