Air Force base training head out amid sex scandal

Air Force Col. Eric Axelbank is seen in this undated picture. / U.S. Air Force

(AP) SAN ANTONIO - The head of training at Lackland Air Force Base has stepped down and is headed to the Pentagon amid a sweeping sex scandal involving instructors and trainees.

The San Antonio Express News reports Wednesday that Air Force Col. Eric Axelbank handed command of the 37th Training Wing to Col. Mark Camerer in a ceremony closed to the media.

The Air Force had previously announced Axelbank's departure and said it was a normal change of command. But it comes as the Air Force implements new training guidelines.

The base's top commander, Col. Glenn Palmer, was ousted last month.

Military prosecutors have investigated over a dozen Lackland instructors and charged six with crimes ranging from rape to adultery.

Top commander dismissed in Air Force scandal probe
Another Air Force trainer punished in sex scandal
More under investigation in Air Force sex scandal

A court-martial was set to open Wednesday against one of the instructors, Master Sgt. Jamey Crawford.

He's accused of wrongfully conducting a sexual relationship with a basic trainee, wrongfully serving alcohol to the trainee, adultery with the trainee and making a false official statement.

He's the latest instructor at Lackland to face trial in the sex scandal. Lackland is where all Air Force recruits go through basic training. It has about 500 instructors for about 35,000 airmen who graduate every year.

[AdamVM]

A celebrity getting caught fooling around behind their partner's back is a "sex scandal". Alleged RAPE is not a sex scandal, it is a VIOLENT CRIME. Calling it a sex scandal trivializes it and demeans the victims while simultaneously presenting is as something sexy. If you think otherwise, you are fooling yourself.

Furthermore, to the commenter above, women should have the right to go into ANY environment without being sexually harassed or assaulted, regardless of it being "male dominated" or filled with "macho men". There is absolutely no setting where men have the right to behave like that. Or are you making the argument that by entering what is considered a male dominated area women are CONSENTING to this behavior? Because that's asinine. There's no such thing as a 'harassment-okay zone' or whatever delusion you're harboring where it's okay to treat women that way, or they should expect that sort of treatment.

You mention full contact sports. If a woman chooses to play football, she is consenting to be tackled, pushed, and shoved and all the other things which come along with that sport. It is physically demanding and rough. She is NOT consenting to be groped, felt up, or otherwise sexually assaulted. I doubt you would make the argument that those sorts of activities are going on when only men are involved, and even if they are, that's STILL not acceptable. So I fail to see the point of your analogy.

[KnowerseekerReturns]

This is what you get when you mix women and "macho" men together in a male-dominated environment. It would be the same if full-contact sports started mixing gender. Sometimes feminism is wrong and hurts women.

Extremes in any direction are never good; everything needs moderation.

[formerlyluvnut]

Very true.

[formerlyluvnut]

Somebody always has to take the fall when nimrods mess up. Just like Richard Nixon, Lt Calley, Ollie North, etc etc etc. Just politics.

[John782011]

You mean accountability. Hard to maintain disipline without people being held accountable.