Long Haul to Acceptance

That kind of concern touched off a 2003 scandal at the Air Force Academy, amid revelations of more than 140 reported rapes and sexual assaults over 10 years.

Since then, government studies have looked into harassment and sexual assault at the service academies. A recent Defense Department survey of midshipmen found that more than half of women who said they had been sexually assaulted did not report it. In all, 83 of 652 women -- more than 12 percent -- said they were victims of sexual assault between 1999 and 2004, the report said.

It also noted that women "do not report sexual harassment because they live and deal with it daily; it almost becomes normal. . . . They fear being ostracized and abandoned by their peers, both male and female."

One woman wrote that the academy was "one of the most emotionally devastating places I can imagine. Most of the women came here expecting mental and physical challenges. We thought we'd have to put up with overdoses of testosterone. What we did not expect was to be looked down upon for being women -- to be suddenly less than human in their eyes."

Before Congress, Rempt spoke of efforts to improve training and reporting. He cited an academy survey that found that 5 percent of women believe they would be resented by peers for reporting harassment, down from 50 percent five years ago.

In 2001, surrounded by hundreds of classmates, Candice Sarlese climbed up a lard-slicked granite monument, called Herndon, at the end of her plebe year. It is a tradition, and Sarlese had heard about women being pushed off. For her, it was different. A fellow midshipman turned to her and said, "Don't worry. I'm not going to let you fall."

Sarlese, 25 and now a first lieutenant in the Marines, said she believes some women "look for things. Some guys will make a joke, and they will take it as hurtful."

Over 30 years, relations between women and men have become better and more complex.

Sandee Irwin, part of the first class, recalls the insult of a midshipman two years her junior. "Why are you here, anyway?" he sniped.

Irwin took the young man aside and told him squarely: "You knew we were here when you signed your name on that piece of paper. If you don't like it, go home!"

Disher, the 1976 plebe, recalls blatant hostility after she joined the cheerleading team.

Worst of all was an Army-Navy football pep rally, in her second year on campus, she said. As Disher and the other cheerleaders came bouncing out onstage, the crowd stopped clapping.

"Get off the stage!" she heard. Then boos. "Get out of my school!"

A generation and more than 2,770 female graduates later, Disher had no reservations about sending her twins to the academy, where they will be part of the Class of 2010, with women such as Ashley Houston, 18.

"I think women are just as capable as men," said Chelsea Wright, 18, of Valley Forge, Pa., getting her hair cut to above the collar -- not far from where men were being shorn to the nub -- as she imagined herself on a Navy ship or jet, possibly in combat.

"I'm sure the level of respect has changed" over 30 years, ventured Margaret Boyle, 17, of Leonardtown.

The young man next to her in line nodded in agreement.

"I'd rather have them here than not," said John Howser, 17. "I've grown up with them."