A 7NEWS Investigation is shaking the very foundation of Colorado's prestigious Air Force Academy. Allegations of rape and betrayal have now made their way to the Pentagon.

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7NEWS Investigates Alleged Rapes At AFA Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4

7NEWS Investigator John Ferrugia has been working on the story for three months and says that a high-level Air Force investigation is under way after 7NEWS uncovered information about sexual assaults at the academy.

7NEWS Investigates found that when female cadets have reported a rape, they are punished, ostracized by their peers and the administration, and in some cases, drummed out of the academy.

These cadets charge they are victims of the very honor code they are sworn to uphold.

"I grew up in this back yard looking at the sky all the time. Every time I saw a plane it just really gave me chills. I knew flying was something I always wanted to do," former AFA cadet Liz said.

The dream was to be and Air Force officer and to fly jets. The Air Force Academy is the dream of thousands of the nation's brightest and most patriotic young people who embrace the regimented military lifestyle and pledge themselves to a code of honor.

But behind the facade of spit polish and sharp creases is a culture that many women found to be accepting of rape and sexual assault.

"If the administration doesn't kick you out, the rest of the cadets will, so don't report it," said Ruth.

It's a culture where a male cadet can be expelled for lying but can receive only a minor reprimand for date rape.

"It seemed like the guys were getting off the hook. And if they did get punished, it was like a slap on the hand," said Jessica.

It's a culture where women who report a crime are themselves targeted by their peers and the administration for expulsion.

"They wanted to put blame on somebody and it was hard to put it on three guys as opposed to putting it on one freshman girl," said Justine.

It's a culture where it is made clear to women cadets that if they report a rape by another cadet, their days at the academy are numbered.

"If you want your career to just dissolve in front of you, then go and report," Liz said.

When Liz left her family farm for the Air Force Academy, she knew as a freshman she was in for the toughest regimen of her life.

"You don't have a voice at all. Anybody that tries to have a voice is reprimanded and ridiculed so some extent by upperclassmen," Liz said.

In fact, upperclass trainers control cadets' lives, even to the point of giving you reprimands or "hits" for any real or imagined violations.

"This person can ruin your life as well as the lives of the 30 or so in your class, in your squadron," Liz said.

John Ferrugia/7NEWS: They control you?
Liz: Yes.

Liz said she was targeted as a freshman by friendly e-mails from an upper classman offering to hold some everyday items for her that freshmen aren't allowed to have, but everyone does. But then, knowing he had something he could use against her, the e-mails turned ugly.

John Ferrugia/7NEWS: So he blackmailed you?
Liz: Yes.
John Ferrugia: And eventually he said you are going to do this?
Liz: Right.
John Ferrugia: You are going to have sexual relations with me or else?
Liz: He said you know what you have to do and then, at that point, I would say no.

Then the e-mails that had been explicit became angry.

"I felt like if I didn't rectify the situation, if there was something I had done, if it was insubordination or something like that, it would have come back down on all my classmates," Liz said. "He was telling me that if I wanted to rectify the problem that I had to talk to him in person and he would meet me at the bottom of the stairs."

And there, outside her dorm, on academy grounds, she was raped.

"He forced me physically at that point," Liz said.

After the rape, Liz hit bottom.

"You are completely degraded. You feel like you are dirty. You feel like nobody is going to believe you, you are not worth anything," she said.

Because she knew he could damage her career, Liz decided not to report it.

Liz: I really, sincerely, wanted to completely forget about it and try to keep moving on with my career.
John Ferrugia: But he wouldn't let you?
Liz: No, it didn't end.

"From the time period of August to March in my freshman year, I was raped and assaulted five times. It was the hardest time," Liz said. "I just remember being so scared ... I knew that anything I said was going to be blown up. He was threatening to spread rumors about me that were untrue as to get others punished in my class."

All the while, Liz's closest friends were telling her not to report the rapes by her superior.

"People over and over continued to tell me that the victim becomes victimized," Liz said.

That is the message that permeates the culture at the academy -- the message that no current woman cadet can speak about without hiding her identity.

"Rape is acceptable and don't say anything about it. Because if you do, they are going to find some way to keep you quiet, to get you out or to punish you. To get you in trouble," said Ann.

Ann is a rape survivor presently at the Air Force Academy.

"No one wants to report. They know and they've seen other cadets get into trouble for reporting their sexual assault. They have seen it happen and they have seen it threatened," Ann said.

These recent cases come almost 10 years after the academy admitted it had a serious problem with sexual assaults.

In 1994 and again in 1995, a General Accounting Office investigation found pervasive problems including "unwelcome deliberate physical contact of a sexual nature."

In response, the academy set up Cadets Advocating Sexual Integrity and Education or the CASIE program so women would have a hot line to call -- a hot line staffed by trained cadets.

Ann is one cadet who worked closely with the CASIE program.

Ann: In the time I've been familiar with the CASIE program, I have known of roughly 20 reports in one semester.
John Ferrugia: In one semester? 20 women who reported attacks?
Ann: That's correct. Over the phone they've called in and reported. The administration knows. They get briefed on the quantities of calls. And they know the ones who have officially reported.

John Ferrugia: Do you know the number of female cadets on an annual basis who call the hot line who say they've been sexually assaulted while at this institution?
Maj. Kelly Phillips-Henry: No.
John Ferrugia: Why not?
Maj. Kelly Phillips-Henry: I guess I'm as confused to why you asked why not. That's not the focus of our counseling program.

Maj. Kelly Phillips-Henry is chief of sexual assault services at the academy.

John Ferrugia: Wouldn't you want to know how many of those occur at the AFA? Is that not important?
Maj. Kelly Phillips-Henry: Every sexual assault to any of our cadets are important. One is too many. So for us what we look at is when they report, how do we help them maintain themselves, continue with their academics, continue with the stresses so that they do not disenroll. That's the focus of a victim-focused program.

Two weeks after that interview, the Air Force supplied information admitting that 24 women called the hot line in 2002 reporting sexual assault.

In fact, there have been 91 reports to the hot line since 1996; 20 cases have been formally investigated in that time and no cadet has ever been court-martialed for assaulting another cadet.

John Ferrugia: Was the CASIE program helpful to you?
Liz: No, not at all. I felt that if I called them ... It's a bunch of cadets. I didn't want other cadets to know about my case.

Despite the risks, Liz decided to report her assaults to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. That began months of questioning by investigators -- over and over every detail.

"My story was completely straight and narrow , you know, the entire time. And you know they were trying to trip me up. They were trying to find fault in my story and it never, never surfaced," Liz said.

And while her story never changed, her life at the academy did.

"It became clear to me that I was going to be the black sheep -- one at the academy that wasn't liked," Liz said.

Finally she was called in by her superiors and told the investigation had ended.

Liz: And they told me I was to expecting a number of Form 10s. They said Class D hits are coming down ...
John Ferrugia: Which are reprimands?
Liz: Right, right. Punishments. One for sex in the dorms, for being raped. One for alcohol because he, my perpetrator, was buying alcohol for my classmates and coming back to me and telling me I owed him for it. Not monetarily, but in favors. The Third Class D hit was for fraternization because he was an upperclassman and I was a freshman.
John Ferrugia: You are telling me that you reported a rape and that you are getting a reprimand for having sexual activity in the dorm?
Liz: Right, right. I was flabbergasted. I was really just floored. I remember I started to cry, because I looking at these officers and they all know that everything I have done is the right thing to do. I've been standing up for what I believe in. My case was so strong ...
John Ferrugia: What is the message to other women?
Liz: To not at all talk. Who wants to talk when they are going to be punished? I mean each Class D hit is grounds for disenrollment.

7NEWS Investigates took our findings along with statements of former women cadets to Sen. Wayne Allard. He is a member of the Armed Services Committee and the board of visitors at the Air Force Academy.

"These are believable women and I'm just ... I am appalled," Allard said.

Almost immediately he sent an official letter to the secretary of the Air Force requesting "a full and complete investigation into this matter."

He said he was concerned "that school officials may have attempted to prevent an investigation."

This week, 7NEWS Investigates met with Allard in his Washington office.

"When you came to me with the facts that you shared with me, I carried them to the chairman of the Armed Services Committee. He agreed that we have a serious problem and I know that they have increased the intensity of that investigation," Allard said. "I think they understand he means business and so we will see what happens in the investigation."

"I have gone up and down my chain of command and I've lost faith in my chain of command and that's why I am turning to you, to hopefully get people to realize that this is a problem and it needs to be fixed. We need help," said Ann, a current AFA cadet.

After a year of fighting the system, Liz finally gave up her dream and left the academy.

"What's driving me is the thought of the person that is my spitting image before I went to the academy. The fairly naive girl that doesn't have the first thing to believe about the military, doesn't know anything about what she is getting into. That image is driving me ... because that girl is walking into a pit of wolves, a sea of sharks, and has no idea," Liz said. "It's got to change. It's got to change."

This investigation has made it to the Pentagon. 7NEWS Investigates has now met with Sen. John Warner, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

After seeing our findings, Warner sent a letter to the Pentagon asking an undersecretary of defense to monitor the investigation.

Warner said he is concerned about instances "in which the academy did not respond appropriately to reports of sexual offenses and to the victims of such criminal acts."

He also wants the Pentagon to expand the review to "identify any parallel situations at the other academies that might be instructive."

On Thursday night at 10, 7NEWS Investigates will introduce you to a woman who was afraid to report her rape for fear of being forced from the academy. But in the end, she lost her dream anyway.