“The 1st thing you did was a barrel roll, right?” Our friend was a B-26 squadron leader in WWII. He was extremely proud his daughter was in the Air Force Academy in line to be a fighter pilot. Until a cadet raped her & she was pregnant.

They were friends from Skippack PA. Can’t remember their names. 

They named their daughter Reagan. After leaving the Air Force Academy to raise her daughter Reagan began a long fight to be reinstated and graduate from the Air Force Academy. Her rapist did not even receive a reprimand. 

She was assigned to the Space Force, then less prestigious than a fighter pilot, but now the frontier of flight.

In the end our friends had a daughter with a promising Space Force career. And a granddaughter. But the good was tinged with sadness & anger.

***

"President Biden is set to give final approval on Friday to the biggest reshaping in generations of the country’s Uniform Code of Military Justice, stripping commanders of their authority over cases of sexual assault, rape and murder to ensure prosecutions that are independent of the chain of command.

By placing his signature on a far-reaching executive order, Mr. Biden is set to usher in the most significant changes to the modern military legal system since it was created in 1950. The order follows two decades of pressure from lawmakers and advocates of sexual assault victims, who argued that victims in the military were too often denied justice, culminating in a bipartisan law mandating changes.

In a statement, the White House called the changes made by the executive order “a turning point for survivors of gender-based violence in the military” and said they kept promises Mr. Biden made as a candidate.

“He’s made clear that our one truly sacred obligation as a nation is to prepare and equip those we send into harm’s way, and to care for them and their families both while they are deployed and when they return home,” the statement said. “The reforms implemented through today’s executive order do just that.”

The changes had for years been opposed by military commanders. But they were finally embraced by the Pentagon in 2021 and mandated by a law spearheaded by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York. Mr. Biden signed the landmark legislation into law two days after Christmas that year.

The law set up a two-year process for the Defense Department to create a cadre of special prosecutors to handle sexual assault and a handful of other high-profile crimes. The Offices of Special Trial Counsel, as they will be called, will be staffed by experienced military prosecutors who will report to the civilian leaders of the military’s branches.

The final step needed to change the Uniform Code of Military Justice under the law was a presidential executive order. Lawmakers directed Mr. Biden to issue it by December 2023. White House officials said Mr. Biden would do so on Friday, more than five months ahead of the deadline.

Under the rules established by Mr. Biden’s order, commanders in the military will no longer have the authority to decide whether to pursue charges in cases of sexual abuse and a handful of other serious crimes. Instead, that decision will fall to the new, specialized lawyers, White House officials said.

The decisions by those special prosecutors will be final and binding, and cannot be overridden by military commanders...

The fading of the military resistance provided the opportunity for bipartisan negotiations, eventually leading to the law in 2021 and, on Friday, Mr. Biden’s executive order.

The move to change the military justice system was also galvanized by the 2020 case of Specialist Vanessa Guillen, whose burned and mutilated body was discovered after she had tried to report instances of sexual harassment by another soldier, who the Army said killed her and later himself.

That case and others were frequently cited by Ms. Gillibrand and other female lawmakers, including former Representative Jackie Speier, Democrat of California, and Senator Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican who is a retired National Guard lieutenant colonel. Ms. Ernst said her own experience as a victim of sexual assault informed her views on the issue.

White House officials said that the military branches had already begun hiring for the Offices of Special Trial Counsel, which they expected to be fully operational by the end of the year. But they conceded that it would take years to measure how the changes affected the culture surrounding the prosecution of sexual assault and other serious crimes in the military.

Under the executive order, the special trial counsel offices will have their authority expanded in 2025 to include cases of sexual harassment.

MORE AT:

The New York Times

Biden to Overhaul Military Justice Code, Seeking to Curb Sexual Assault

The largest overhaul of the Uniform Code of Military Justice since its creation in 1950 will remove commanders’ authority over cases of sexual assault and a handful of other high-profile crimes.

July 28, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

By Michael D. Shear

Reporting from Washington