Over 30 years ago the FBI documented sexual assault on college campuses as being a widespread and significant threat (Koss et al., 1987), and although a plethora of reduction programs have been introduced, the distressing reality is that few have empirically demonstrated a reduction in prevalence (Vladutiu et al., 2011). The US Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a case in point. For almost two decades, a myriad of sexual assault prevention programs have been introduced to the USAFA, but the rates of unwanted sexual contact have not decreased (The Department of Defense SAPRO ODEI, 2019).

The authors of this chapter are professors in the Department of Political Science at the USAFA, who served as leaders for a nontraditional program aimed at preventing sexual assault at the Academy. As political scientists, they had no special training in victim advocacy or counseling, and neither professor saw themselves as someday spearheading any sexual assault reduction efforts. Nor did either fathom how hard it would be to test and implement a new program at the Academy. This chapter is a reflection on their unlikely story.

As part of their duties in advising and teaching, both professors found themselves meeting with victims often crying in their respective offices. With little professional training on these matters, the professors could do little more than listen sympathetically and walk the distraught cadets to a helping agency. There was a desire to help. Fortuitously, the professors met with two former members of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) office, who had recently conducted a small pilot test of the Enhanced Access, Acknowledge, Act (EAAA) sexual assault resistance program. EAAA, which consists of four 12-hour sessions, has demonstrated significant results in reducing campus assaults among college females. Together they formed a small team to implement the EAAA program on a larger scale and to conduct further research of the evidence-based program to a military academy.

It is this effort to test the efficacy of bringing EAAA to the USAFA that informs this chapter's insights into gender, privacy, and the military. It was heartening to see how earnest all elements of the USAFA community were in wanting to end sexual assault, and it also was gratifying to see how vigilant the USAFA leadership was at protecting cadet privacy.