Deadly Power (2018): Season 1, Episode 2 - Lackland Military Scandal - full transcript
A young woman enlists in the Air Force to fight for her country, only to find that her biggest threat lurks within the barracks.
- A 19-year-old follows
- A 19-year-old follows
in her father's footsteps
to join the military...
- I wanted to go to college,
and I was the first female to
join the military in my family.
- And faces the demands
of basic training.
- A male MTI
came in the dorm room.
He starts telling us
to do sit-ups, push-ups.
"Anything that I say goes.
Don't question me."
- His job was to take
brand-new recruits
and turn them into airmen.
- But when her superior officer
takes advantage of his power...
- We're in a small room
by ourselves, no cameras.
I'm basically gonna have
to bend to his will.
- She's going to have
to go to the person
who is assaulting her.
- I'm scared.
I didn't want to get
kicked out of the military.
- She must find
the strength to fight back.
- I'm trying
to stand up for myself
and the nine other victims
that are here.
And he maintained
his innocence the entire time.
- This is
a magnitude eight earthquake,
and nothing has been same
in the air force ever since.
- There's no way
you can beat us all.
- Lackland Air Force Base:
a gateway into
the American military
where women who dream
of entering the air force
have been launching
their careers since 1976.
Virginia Messick, following
in the military footsteps
of her father and grandfather,
was overjoyed to be accepted
to this elite program.
Virginia would be
the first woman in her family
to join the air force.
But this is a story
that unfortunately plays out
too often.
A young woman, determined
to build a future for herself,
is derailed
by a superior whose power
was even more dangerous
and far-reaching
than she had ever imagined.
- Can you believe it's snowing
in Baker, Florida?
- I know. I'm so excited.
- No kidding.
- I grew up in a very small town
called Baker, Florida.
Like, it's so small.
It was really exciting when
we got an actual red light.
When she was in high school,
she was a varsity cheerleader.
Very strong. Loved life.
Very social. Social bug.
- After graduating high school,
Virginia's main goal
was supporting herself.
- I was working three jobs
and completely independent,
on my own,
by the time I was, like, 18.
- She was working as a bartender
at two different places.
Then she was working with me
as a receptionist/cashier.
- I was like, "This
is gonna take me nowhere."
I wanted to go to college.
So when you go
into the military,
after two years,
you'll get your G.I. Bill,
and essentially they'll pay
for most of your college.
I enlisted mostly because
I want to have that kind of,
like, recognition
for being the first female
to go to college.
And then I was the first female
to also join the military
in my family.
My grandfather
was in the Army Air Corps.
And then my dad
was in the air force.
And everybody was like,
"Yay, go for it!"
- Virginia sends in
her application and waits.
- You have to wait
for a slot to open
in whichever job
you're going for,
and actually,
the job that I wanted to do
was TV and radio.
But they didn't
have any slots open,
so I kind of just waited around.
- Weeks later, she gets a call.
- And he was like,
"Okay, you're leaving
for basic training on Monday."
And it was Friday.
"Oh, my God,
it's in, like, three days."
- She was shaken.
She was excited.
And I said, "Well, if you want
"to be in the air force now,
then go sign your name
on the dotted line."
- I was like, "Okay,
so I have to say my good-byes
and prepare for, like,
the next stage of my life."
- In March 2011,
Virginia arrives
at Lackland Air Force Base
in San Antonio, Texas,
for basic training.
- When I arrived at Lackland,
there was a little bit
of, like, excitement.
I have absolutely no idea
what's gonna be coming for me.
- Lackland Air Force Base
is considered the gateway
to the air force.
That is where literally
every person who enlists
in the air force starts
their air force career.
- And every year,
they'll produce
something over 35,000 recruits.
And your recruits
can be as young as 17,
and they are in basic training
for 8 1/2 weeks.
- Ten-hut!
- At 4:30 the next morning,
basic training kicks off
with its standard air
of shock and awe.
- A male MTI,
he came in the dorm room.
He was throwing stuff,
pulling stuff out of lockers.
It is just a storm
of screaming and yelling:
"I'm not waiting on your asses.
Let's go. Let's go. Let's go."
So everybody's
in a mass confusion,
running around,
and then he was like,
"I'm Staff Sergeant Walker.
"I'm gonna be your MTI.
"Basically anything
that I say goes.
Don't question me."
He starts telling us
to do push-ups,
sit-ups, push-ups,
run some more.
Sit-ups, push-ups,
run some more.
This guy is really intense.
- His job was to take
brand-new recruits
fresh to the air force
and turn them into airmen.
- And this officer,
a highly respected sergeant,
is 25-year-old Luis Walker.
- To be a military
training instructor,
he had to be considered
an unusually good airman,
because that's a big honor
to be an MTI,
and it's a big job.
- Walker dreamed
of being in the air force
since he was 14 years old.
- He grows up in
less than ideal circumstances
in Brooklyn.
But he graduates
from high school,
and he does something that
he really dreamed of doing,
which is to go
into the air force.
- A few years after
joining the air force,
Walker marries
his high school sweetheart.
They have two sons,
now four and seven.
- On top of that,
he's sending money home
to a sister
and his grandparents.
He's a good guy.
- Five months after
he arrives at Lackland,
Walker is tasked with overseeing
an all-female group of recruits.
Among them, Virginia Messick.
- I've never been
in that kind of situation
where someone was trying
to control me that much.
You're technically an adult,
but now you have people
telling you that you're doing
everything completely wrong
your entire life.
And you have to learn
how to do it
this exact specific way.
It's like, "You don't know
how to march right.
You don't know
how to make your bed right."
Everything had to be
a certain way in our drawers.
I mean, people are
getting in your face.
- Making matters worse,
isolation from the outside world
is taking its toll.
- Early on, I felt very alone
because you can't talk
to anybody except for
who are around you.
- All the things
that you depended on...
Your phone,
getting on social media,
texting friends... that
disappears in basic training.
- I thought to myself, like,
"Why would you put yourself
in this situation?"
- During her second week
of basic training,
Virginia reaches out
to her MTI for help.
- So I told Walker
that I needed to get in contact
with my friend
who was in Afghanistan,
and he was like, "Oh,
I'm so glad you came to me.
"You know, everybody
who's on deployment
needs someone to talk to."
He was like, "Why don't you
just come in the office
and you can just
email him real quick?"
- Sergeant Walker invites
Virginia into his office
to contact her friend.
- The first time Walker
called me into the office,
he was like,
"Here, just sit in my chair,
and I'll sit
at the chair by the door."
I have never
seen him so relaxed.
He was just very friendly to me.
I know it's against the rules,
but if he's allowing me
to write an email,
then that must mean it's okay.
- The guy who was molding her
into an airman
and into a warrior
was doing something
that was so generous.
- After a few visits,
Walker begins to open up
to Virginia about his life.
- I really remember him
telling me, like, in detail
about his kids
and their ages and his wife
and how they were
high school sweethearts.
Just going on and on and on
about, like, either work
or personal stuff
and was very, like,
across-the-bar talking to me
like I'm his friend,
like it was just
a normal conversation,
like when the door was closed,
like, there was no MTI there,
essentially.
- But once back on the outside,
there is no trace
of friendliness between them.
- Once, you know,
we came outside the doors,
there was no special treatment.
- Sergeant Walker
controlled everything,
you know,
when they're gonna eat,
when they go to sleep,
when they brush their teeth.
- We had to ask
to go to the bathroom,
like we were in kindergarten,
and he'd either say yes or no.
I mean, I do remember
a specific time
that he said,
"No, piss yourself."
- But in his office,
Walker continues
his polite demeanor
with Virginia,
until one day,
the conversation changes.
- Sometimes he would ask me
inappropriate questions.
He would be like,
"Oh, do you have a boyfriend?"
And he would go through, like,
pictures on my phone.
And he said that he thought
that country girls were hot.
He would ask me, like,
"Oh, you must be, like,
"that crazy country girl type,
so where's the craziest place
you've had sex?"
- His authority
was almost limitless,
especially in the eyes
of his trainees.
The chain of command
that you now have to follow
those who are above you.
- I don't want to talk
about that with him.
It made me feel disgusting,
but at the same time,
like, I felt like
I had to answer him.
- And by week three
of basic training,
there's another shift
in Walker's behavior.
- I mean, it started out
like normal.
He was sitting
in the chair talking.
So I'm checking my email,
and I hear him stop talking,
but I don't think
anything about it.
He gets up and moves behind me,
where there's lockers, and I
just start to feel like...
Like, the air changed
in the room.
And I just was just like,
"Okay, let me just
"get my email done,
and I'll get out of here,
'cause I'm starting
to feel weird."
And then I heard the door,
like, slam closed.
And I, like, felt him behind me.
- Coming up...
- He started making us
call him Daddy,
or he'd walk in the door
and he'd be like,
"Where are all my bitches at?"
- You can't simply run away.
That's a crime.
It's called going AWOL.
- I got a phone call
from my best friend,
said that "he would have you
kicked out of the military
and have you killed."
- Air Force recruit
Virginia Messick
is adjusting to the rigors
of basic training
when her MTI officer begins
inviting her to his office
to check her email.
Then, during one of her visits,
everything changes.
- He gets up
and moves behind me,
where there's lockers,
and then I heard the door
slam closed.
And then he, like,
grabs the arm of the chair
and flips it around really fast.
And when he did,
he literally lunged at me
and stuck his hand
down my uniform
and stuck his tongue
down my mouth.
And I push him off,
and I'm, like,
in shock at first,
and I'm like, "What
in the world just happened?"
And I have my hands up,
and I'm like,
"Don't... touch me."
- People may not understand
how amazing that is.
He's a complete
authority figure,
and for her to be able
to stand up and defend herself
in that situation
just speaks volumes
about what kind of person
she is.
- I push him off, and he's like,
"Oh, I'm sorry,
did I read that wrong?"
I said, "What in the hell
do you think you're doing?
"This is not
what we're here for.
"At no point had I ever
given you any sort of sign
"that I liked you in that way.
That's disgusting."
And I was like, "Why don't you
go think about your wife
and your kids?"
- It's a fairly manipulative
thing that he's doing,
and he knows what he's doing.
He has her in
to work on his computer.
He's talking about
personal stuff with her.
He's priming her
for where he wants
to take that relationship.
There was no chance
for other instructors to come
and look in on that flight.
He was on his own,
and he knew it.
- When he apologized, I was
like, "Okay, maybe he's sincere
"and he really
won't touch me again.
"Maybe that was just
him thinking there was
more there than there was."
He told me it was okay,
so I took him at his word.
I just thought
that he was genuinely being
a good, nice person,
and I thought that, you know,
"Maybe it's my fault.
"Maybe I said something that...
"like, led him on
and I didn't mean to.
"Did I look at him
to make him think that...
it was okay to touch me?"
I didn't report it
because I thought, you know,
maybe he just did it
out of, like, a heated moment.
But I had never given off,
like, a sexual sense to him.
So I got up and closed my email,
and I, like, walked out
of the room pissed off.
And just him hearing me say,
"Don't touch me,"
I just thought, "Okay,
he's not gonna do it again,
so I'm just
not gonna tell anybody."
And once
that situation happened,
I never went back
in his office ever again.
- With six weeks left
in basic training,
Virginia returns to
the rigorous training schedule
set up with Walker,
whose behavior intensifies.
- One day,
someone kind of messed up,
and he was so mad.
He was like, "Everybody
get in the day room."
And we already know that
that's not a good thing.
He starts telling us
to do push-ups,
and I mean, we're doing push-ups
for, like, ten minutes.
And there's girls
who are, like, falling out
because it's so hot in that room
with all 50 of us sweating
and, like, trying to breathe.
At this point, he's standing
on his desk, yelling at us,
and all of a sudden,
he points at this one girl,
and he says,
"Start singing me a song."
And she starts singing
"Amazing Grace."
And then about, like,
two lines into it,
he jumps down, like,
right in front of her
and scares the living crap
out of her.
And he says, "Stop singing
that stupid effing song."
And he, like, looks around,
and he goes, "Oh, do you think
your God's here with you?"
And he jumps back up
on the desk, and he's like,
"I'm your God,
"so if you're gonna look up
and sing about anybody,
"you're gonna be doing it to me.
I'm your God. No one else."
That's the same time
when he started
making us call him Daddy,
or he'd walk in the door
and he'd be like,
"Daddy's home.
Where are all my bitches at?"
Like he's a pimp
and we're his tricks.
- It may not be so unusual
that an MTI in the air force
are going to look
at their charges and say,
"I'm God for the next
nine weeks."
But this is a man who would
call his recruits "bitches."
That was a little bit more
than just asserting authority.
- Determined to finish
basic training,
Virginia believes if she
avoids one-on-one interactions
with Walker, she'll be safe.
- So now I'm basically
doing my duties,
and I was downstairs
doing laundry.
Walker came into
the laundry area
and then says,
"You need to go upstairs.
"We left the whole
big duffel bag of rags,
"and all of them
have to be cleaned
before the baby flight
gets here."
I go all the way back upstairs,
and I grab this duffel bag,
and I can't lift it up.
So I start dragging it
to the front door.
And I hear, "Country."
That was my nickname.
Anytime he yelled
for me, it was,
"Country, get over here."
And I was like, "He's not
supposed to be up here.
Why would he be up here?"
And then all of a sudden,
I just see him,
and he was standing
behind the door...
and he slammed it shut on me.
And then at that point,
I, like, froze because...
we're in a large dorm,
in a small room
by ourselves, no cameras.
So he can close doors,
and it doesn't matter...
if I kick or scream...
Or try and fight, like...
It doesn't matter.
I'm basically gonna have
to bend to his will.
- Air Force recruit has been summoned to the
Virginia Messick barrack's sleeping quarters
by her commanding officer.
They are completely alone.
- We're in a large dorm,
in a small room
by ourselves, no cameras.
So he can close doors,
and it doesn't matter...
if I kick or scream...
Or try and fight, like...
It doesn't matter.
I'm basically gonna have
to bend to his will.
Then he forced me down...
And he pretty much
raped me in every way.
He did everything to me
that he wanted to.
And I could do nothing about it.
And I just laid there.
I could barely breathe.
I remember thinking,
"This isn't the experience
that my dad and my grandfather
told me it was gonna be."
The air force tells you,
like, "This person's
"gonna be the person
that takes care of you
and protects you."
And for them to, like,
totally betray you...
And then he tells me...
"Get yourself up, bitch,
and put your clothes on."
And he throws them at me
and then tells me,
"Go downstairs
and take a... ing shower."
- She's going to have
to go to the person
who's sexually assaulting her,
Sergeant Walker,
or go to the person above him,
and it's gonna be pitting her
against the person
in her chain of command
that's doing the assaulting.
- There's nowhere to go.
There's nowhere to report it to
that brings you outside
of the power
of that abusive person.
- So what was I supposed to do
at that point?
The man that I'm supposed to
report my rape to is my rapist.
But it's just... it's sick.
It's so sick.
Girls who report it
get looked down on,
and nobody wants to go
near them 'cause they're like,
"Oh, that's the girl
that cried rape."
- When victims do step forward
and identify someone
who's sexually assaulted them,
they suffer severe
and persistent retaliation
that often ends their career.
- I didn't want that
to happen to me.
The only way for me
to get to a safe place
would be to completely leave
San Antonio
and get off
of Lackland Air Force Base.
- But it would be
impossible for Virginia
to abandon basic training.
- You can't simply run away.
That's a crime.
It's called going AWOL,
absent without leave,
and you will be thrown in jail
for doing that.
- Virginia's trapped, and...
that's how he gets
what he wants.
- So I just buried it
and let it stay there.
I told no one
about what happened.
- Adding insult to injury,
Walker takes
any opportunity he can
to publicly degrade Virginia.
- Walker proceeded to say,
"She's been using email
this whole time,
and none of you bitches
get that."
And it was, like,
a way of chastising me
and getting everyone to hate me.
Now he's just gonna make me
feel as terrible as possible.
- When you're in
a training environment,
to have access to that when
the rest of the flight doesn't,
that would cause huge problems
with her in the flight.
- That was hugely manipulative.
He could make her weaker
so that whatever he had in mind
would be easier to have happen.
- I wouldn't show the pain
on my face,
that I was hurting,
so it kind of pissed him off,
and I think that made him push
harder on saying things to me.
We were taking everything
out of our bags
and shaking them out,
and I just remember
Walker was yelling at us,
talking about how dirty
our clothes were.
And then, like,
he walks up behind me
and whispers in my ear,
and he's like, "Maybe we should
do something some other time."
That point is when I got,
like, sick to my stomach.
My coping mechanism that
whole time was just focus on
the task at hand,
don't think about it,
and I just carried on
like normal.
I had two weeks left.
It's my only option to leave.
I can't break down.
- Despite her fear and anger,
Virginia persists
and makes it to the end
of basic training.
In April 2011,
she's set to graduate.
- I was so excited
'cause I knew my family
was gonna be there,
and, like, the one thing
I wanted the most was my mom.
- When we first
got to graduation,
it was kind of chaotic.
And I'm trying
to search to see her...
and I couldn't find her.
And then I finally got...
a glimpse of her,
and I just started crying.
I don't normally
get emotional like that.
She was so beat down,
I didn't even recognize her.
She was so thin, which I know,
going through basic training,
you're gonna lose weight,
but she was pretty thin
when she went in,
so she was, like...
thinner than I've ever seen her.
- I finally got to see my mom,
and I hugged her,
and I'm trying, like,
not to cry the whole time.
And my mom just looked at me,
and I just knew that she knew
something was wrong,
'cause moms can do that.
- She was blank-eyed
and just emotionally drained.
There was no spark in her eyes
like there usually always were.
- And my mom's just like,
"I'm concerned.
You can tell me anything."
And I'm like, "No, Mom,
everything's fine."
I didn't tell my parents,
'cause I was just trying
to enjoy the time
that I had with them,
and I honestly
didn't want them to know,
because I didn't
want them to have
to go through that heartbreak.
- After graduation,
Virginia heads to tech school
in Gulfport, Mississippi.
She may be eight hours away
from her attacker,
but there is no escaping
the nightmare.
- Two weeks after
I got to tech school,
we were running PT one morning,
and both of my knees gave out.
And I just, like,
bam, hit the floor.
And they took me to the doctor,
and they found out
that I have a knee condition
and I can't run.
That's when they put me
on med board
and I become the taxi driver.
So one day, I was taking
a group of airmen
to a finance lecture.
So I had to sit in the van
the whole time.
And I got a phone call from Amy,
my best friend
from basic training.
She was like,
"Hey, how are you doing?
I made rank."
So she had went from
airman first class
to senior airman.
Amy was excited that
she was getting promoted,
but I could still tell
that there was something
off about her.
Like, she went silent
for a minute,
and then she finally said,
"Sergeant Walker has been
texting me
inappropriate pictures."
And I was like...
"What?" And she was like,
"If I didn't text
inappropriate pictures back
"that he would have you
kicked out of the military
and have you killed."
- Air Force recruit
Virginia Messick
she'd put the nightmare
of basic training behind her,
Sergeant Walker, the man
who raped and tormented her,
starts harassing
Virginia's best friend, Amy.
- I was like,
"He threatened to kill me
so you would send him
dirty pictures?"
And she said, "Yes."
I was angry that
he was doing this to her
after everything
he had done to me.
And I felt so much guilt
about it happening to her.
And I'm glad that it didn't go
as far as it did with me.
But still, I didn't want
to talk about it,
but at the same time, I had
to let her know something.
And so I said,
"Listen, Amy, it was just sex.
I don't want to talk about it."
And she was like,
"Well, what do you mean?
Like, what does that mean?"
And I was like,
"I just told you.
It was just sex.
"I don't want to talk about it.
That's all I'm going
to tell you."
Because I didn't want
to tell anybody.
And she was like,
"Okay, I just...
"I won't press about it anymore,
but it's just starting
to freak me out."
And at that point,
I was so pissed off,
I just couldn't think straight.
I told her it was empty threats.
I was like, "Tell him to try
"and kick me
out of the military,
"and tell him
to try and kill me,
'cause he'll have
a damn hard time doing it."
- Less than a week later,
Virginia gets a visit
from OSI, the Office
of Special Investigations.
- An OSI agent is basically,
like, the detectives
of the air force.
One of the OSI agents
looked similar to my attacker,
so I automatically
did not want to speak to him.
And he asked me,
"So how was your
basic training experience?"
And he said it just like that.
On the inside, I'm, like,
screaming, like, "Oh, my God.
They know something,
or they wouldn't be here."
And they told me
they had talked to Amy,
so I automatically knew
that Amy had said something.
The OSI agent, the male,
he was quite aggressive,
and he basically was telling me,
"You don't have to lie to us.
We already know everything."
OSI made me feel like
I was a criminal, not a victim.
I'm terrified.
I thought if I were to actually
tell them that I was raped,
I would get in trouble
and yet again, that stigma
that nobody wants to work
with the girl that cries rape.
- When a victim comes forward,
she is considered
to be a troublemaker,
and 1/3 of women who report
sexual assault in the military
are out of the military,
on average,
within seven months
of reporting.
- I mean, I'm scared,
and I didn't want to get
kicked out of the military.
I sat there for 2 1/2 hours
and didn't say anything.
And they got fed up.
So they threw a piece of paper
and a pen at me
and said, "Write your statement
so we can get out of here."
- Virginia has a choice to make:
say nothing or report Walker
and risk losing
the military career
she worked so hard to achieve.
- I literally just, like,
kind of went into panic mode.
So I just basically
told them a complete...
like, made-up story.
So I just...
told them what
they wanted to hear
just to get them out of the room
and to leave me alone.
I wrote down that Walker
and I had had consensual sex
and that it was not
sexual assault.
I felt pretty terrible
that I had to write
those words down,
because it wasn't the truth,
but at the same time, I...
still don't want anybody
to know about it.
And I'm hoping that that
piece of paper was gonna go
in a file somewhere
and never show back up.
But that is not what happened.
Turned into a huge scandal,
and I was
the front-runner of it.
- Air Force recruit
Virginia Messick
and desperate to move on
from her brutal assault,
is interrogated by OSI agents,
she does what
many other victims
in her situation have done.
She lies to hide the shame
and remain in the air force.
- I wrote down that Walker
and I had had consensual sex
and that it was not
sexual assault.
It wasn't the truth,
but at the same time, I...
still don't want anybody
to know about it.
I thought if I were
to actually tell them
that I was raped,
I would get in trouble.
- But soon after
Virginia's interrogation,
other stories
of Sergeant Walker's abuse
begin to surface.
- Walker had discovered
an intimate video
of one of his trainees
and her fiancé.
And he said,
"If you can do that with him,
then you can do that with me."
- Two of the victims,
fellow recruits,
witnessed the abuse
and told another female
in their flight,
a brave third party who stood up
and blew the whistle.
- The woman became concerned,
and she went to a commander
and reported what happened,
and fortunately that commander
did the right thing
and started the investigation.
- That's how everything just
started falling into place.
This girl made
everything happen.
- OSI were very dogged
in this case.
They tracked down
virtually every woman
who'd ever been trained
by Sergeant Walker,
and they were able
to uncover ten victims,
including Virginia.
The senior legal officer
at Lackland Air Force Base
called me up and told me,
"Hey, we got this
huge problem breaking,
and we're gonna need help."
We immediately tasked
two of my very best prosecutors
to go to Lackland and become
part of that legal office.
- The air force launches
a pretrial investigation,
similar to a grand jury
in the civilian world,
which will determine
if charges will be filed
against Sergeant Walker.
- There's a JAG officer
who presides over it,
and witnesses are called.
They're not the victim's lawyer.
Their job is to represent
the government
and American people.
- During the pretrial process,
I had to go up and testify.
The JAGs asked me
if I wanted my first statement
that I gave to OSI
to be put in as evidence.
- She gave a statement to OSI
that said that she willingly
had sex with Sergeant Walker,
but that's not
what really happened.
- But I did not
understand that question,
and the JAGs
are not my attorneys,
so they could not
give me legal advice,
and I did not understand
that I could have thrown out
my initial statement.
So I said yes
'cause I didn't know
what was going on.
Essentially, what I had
lied about and watered down,
that was gonna be my charges
and my evidence against him.
- But even this diluted
account of what happened
proves to be valuable
in bringing charges
against Walker.
- An instructor
in basic training cannot have
a consensual relationship
with a student, period.
It's an offense for which
you can be thrown out
of the air force for.
- The commander sent it
to a general court-martial,
the military's equivalent
of a felony court.
- Seven months later,
on July 17, 2012,
the court-martial begins.
- Sergeant Walker faced
a long laundry list of charges,
7 charges and 28 specifications,
the most serious being rape.
It was very intense,
and the intensity
was magnified a hundredfold
by the people who testified,
the victims.
During the trial, another victim
is in the same situation
Virginia was:
in a room, alone, trapped,
and he wants to have sex.
And the airman knows
that she's the prey.
They were trapped
by a cunning, experienced man
who had rank
and who controlled their lives.
- We sat in
a separate room downstairs
while the other girls
were testifying,
and it's just sickening,
'cause I keep hearing
the same story
over and over again,
and it's just like mine.
- Finally, it's Virginia's
turn to take the stand.
- A lot of people said
that they pointed the chair
away from him purposely
so nobody had to look
straight at him,
and the first thing I did
when I walked in the room
was pick up the chair
and move it towards him.
Walker had a cold, blank face.
I think he honestly thought
that nothing was ever going
to happen to him.
I'm like, "There's no way
you can beat us all.
If it was just me, maybe,
but you can't beat us all."
- She wanted to have her day
in court and confront him.
She was going to make sure
she had everyone understand
what happened
and her anger about it.
That was clear.
Sergeant Walker took notes,
seemed to be in the game.
I guess that's training for you.
- He maintained his innocence
the entire time.
But the bad part
about going to court
is, the defense attorney
is always trying to make you
seem like you're lying,
and I get pissed off
because I know what happened.
He knows what happened.
He wants to deny it.
I'm trying
to stand up for myself
and for, also,
the nine other victims
that are here, and she's
telling me that I'm a liar.
When I walked off the stand,
I was pissed off.
He's sitting
right in front of me,
and, like, I just wanna
choke the life out of him.
- Air Force recruit
Virginia Messick
the prosecution
and defense rest,
leaving the jury
to decide his fate.
Even with the evidence
stacked against him,
a guilty verdict
isn't guaranteed.
- In the military,
the commander hand-selects
what we call court members
to sit as the jury,
and it can actually be unfair.
If the commander
has a certain desire
for conviction or acquittal,
he or she can select people
that he or she believes
will more likely convict
or more likely acquit.
- More than 70% of the rapes
that are reported
never go to court-martial.
And even of those
that go to court-martial,
the conviction rate is dismal.
It's only 9%.
It's a terrible situation.
- It was 6 1/2 hours
before the jury came back.
You could see on their faces
that it had been grim work.
And you could hear a pin drop
in that courtroom
when they announced the verdict.
They had found him guilty
of all 7 charges,
28 specifications.
That was a huge victory
for the prosecution.
- When they did
the guilty verdicts,
all of us were just crying
and hugging each other.
And it was
a really great moment.
- Walker is sentenced
to 20 years
at Fort Leavenworth,
a military prison in Kansas.
He's also
dishonorably discharged
from the United States
Air Force.
- Two years per girl
isn't very much, so...
that was a really big
letdown for us,
but it was also a win because
most people don't even
get to go to court-martial.
- During the course
of Walker's investigation,
OSI discovers
he is not the only MTI
who abused his power.
- The investigation
revealed there were
more than 30
military training instructors
that were caught up
in misconduct:
sexual relations with trainees,
nonconsensual sex.
- It turned out that
there were nearly 70 victims
and there were
something like 30 trials.
So it raised a lot of alarms.
What in the world was going on
at basic training at Lackland?
Staff Sergeant Luis Walker,
his case
literally broke the dam.
It started a whole series
of investigations
going all the way
to the top of the air force.
And eventually it goes
to the White House.
This scandal is
a magnitude eight earthquake.
Turns everything into rubble,
and then you have to rebuild it.
And nothing has been same
in the air force ever since.
Basic training doesn't look
at all like it did
back in 2011
when Walker was running around.
- Now there's
much more oversight.
- I didn't have an attorney.
Now they have
the Special Victims Unit.
So now if anything happens,
every person gets assigned
an actual attorney.
- We have long ways to go
to reform
the military justice process,
but we should not
have another Sergeant Walker.
- Two years after the trial,
with Virginia still struggling
to heal from her painful past,
she gets a shocking call.
- They said, "This is so-and-so
from the air force.
"We want to inform you that
Airman Basic Walker
is deceased."
- Walker hung himself
in his cell.
- I had very mixed emotions
about it.
There's part of me that's like,
"I wish he would have rotted
for a little bit longer."
But if I could have pulled
the rope, I would have.
- Today,
seven years after her ordeal
and getting honorably
discharged from the air force,
Virginia is happily married
to James Messick
and raising
their two-year-old daughter.
Being a mom brings tons of joy.
I love her to death.
She is everything to me, and...
I don't think
I could go a day without her.
But PTSD just, like...
It makes everything
in your life harder.
Like, it's terrible
that when my husband
wants to touch me, I flinch,
even though he's just trying
to show me affection.
- It's very hard on a marriage.
So we work together, and so far,
the hard work has been worth it.
- Virginia fights
through her PTSD
for herself, her family,
and for other victims
of sexual assault.
- I have a tattoo, and it says,
"Never a victim,
always a fighter."
And whether you're gonna
fight for yourself
or if you're gonna
help fight for others,
keep fighting.
- It's a horrific irony
when the women who sign on
to defend our country's freedom
are instead forced
to defend themselves
before ever leaving the base.
In a system built on power,
hierarchy, and blind obedience,
Sergeant Walker's abuse
continued unchecked
for far too long.
But Virginia Messick
found her inner strength,
and, with it, she stood together
with the other victims
of Lackland to face her abuser
and fight until she got justice.
Virginia's courage
made a difference,
leaving a once dangerous
and corrupt system
forever changed.
- A 19-year-old follows
in her father's footsteps
to join the military...
- I wanted to go to college,
and I was the first female to
join the military in my family.
- And faces the demands
of basic training.
- A male MTI
came in the dorm room.
He starts telling us
to do sit-ups, push-ups.
"Anything that I say goes.
Don't question me."
- His job was to take
brand-new recruits
and turn them into airmen.
- But when her superior officer
takes advantage of his power...
- We're in a small room
by ourselves, no cameras.
I'm basically gonna have
to bend to his will.
- She's going to have
to go to the person
who is assaulting her.
- I'm scared.
I didn't want to get
kicked out of the military.
- She must find
the strength to fight back.
- I'm trying
to stand up for myself
and the nine other victims
that are here.
And he maintained
his innocence the entire time.
- This is
a magnitude eight earthquake,
and nothing has been same
in the air force ever since.
- There's no way
you can beat us all.
- Lackland Air Force Base:
a gateway into
the American military
where women who dream
of entering the air force
have been launching
their careers since 1976.
Virginia Messick, following
in the military footsteps
of her father and grandfather,
was overjoyed to be accepted
to this elite program.
Virginia would be
the first woman in her family
to join the air force.
But this is a story
that unfortunately plays out
too often.
A young woman, determined
to build a future for herself,
is derailed
by a superior whose power
was even more dangerous
and far-reaching
than she had ever imagined.
- Can you believe it's snowing
in Baker, Florida?
- I know. I'm so excited.
- No kidding.
- I grew up in a very small town
called Baker, Florida.
Like, it's so small.
It was really exciting when
we got an actual red light.
When she was in high school,
she was a varsity cheerleader.
Very strong. Loved life.
Very social. Social bug.
- After graduating high school,
Virginia's main goal
was supporting herself.
- I was working three jobs
and completely independent,
on my own,
by the time I was, like, 18.
- She was working as a bartender
at two different places.
Then she was working with me
as a receptionist/cashier.
- I was like, "This
is gonna take me nowhere."
I wanted to go to college.
So when you go
into the military,
after two years,
you'll get your G.I. Bill,
and essentially they'll pay
for most of your college.
I enlisted mostly because
I want to have that kind of,
like, recognition
for being the first female
to go to college.
And then I was the first female
to also join the military
in my family.
My grandfather
was in the Army Air Corps.
And then my dad
was in the air force.
And everybody was like,
"Yay, go for it!"
- Virginia sends in
her application and waits.
- You have to wait
for a slot to open
in whichever job
you're going for,
and actually,
the job that I wanted to do
was TV and radio.
But they didn't
have any slots open,
so I kind of just waited around.
- Weeks later, she gets a call.
- And he was like,
"Okay, you're leaving
for basic training on Monday."
And it was Friday.
"Oh, my God,
it's in, like, three days."
- She was shaken.
She was excited.
And I said, "Well, if you want
"to be in the air force now,
then go sign your name
on the dotted line."
- I was like, "Okay,
so I have to say my good-byes
and prepare for, like,
the next stage of my life."
- In March 2011,
Virginia arrives
at Lackland Air Force Base
in San Antonio, Texas,
for basic training.
- When I arrived at Lackland,
there was a little bit
of, like, excitement.
I have absolutely no idea
what's gonna be coming for me.
- Lackland Air Force Base
is considered the gateway
to the air force.
That is where literally
every person who enlists
in the air force starts
their air force career.
- And every year,
they'll produce
something over 35,000 recruits.
And your recruits
can be as young as 17,
and they are in basic training
for 8 1/2 weeks.
- Ten-hut!
- At 4:30 the next morning,
basic training kicks off
with its standard air
of shock and awe.
- A male MTI,
he came in the dorm room.
He was throwing stuff,
pulling stuff out of lockers.
It is just a storm
of screaming and yelling:
"I'm not waiting on your asses.
Let's go. Let's go. Let's go."
So everybody's
in a mass confusion,
running around,
and then he was like,
"I'm Staff Sergeant Walker.
"I'm gonna be your MTI.
"Basically anything
that I say goes.
Don't question me."
He starts telling us
to do push-ups,
sit-ups, push-ups,
run some more.
Sit-ups, push-ups,
run some more.
This guy is really intense.
- His job was to take
brand-new recruits
fresh to the air force
and turn them into airmen.
- And this officer,
a highly respected sergeant,
is 25-year-old Luis Walker.
- To be a military
training instructor,
he had to be considered
an unusually good airman,
because that's a big honor
to be an MTI,
and it's a big job.
- Walker dreamed
of being in the air force
since he was 14 years old.
- He grows up in
less than ideal circumstances
in Brooklyn.
But he graduates
from high school,
and he does something that
he really dreamed of doing,
which is to go
into the air force.
- A few years after
joining the air force,
Walker marries
his high school sweetheart.
They have two sons,
now four and seven.
- On top of that,
he's sending money home
to a sister
and his grandparents.
He's a good guy.
- Five months after
he arrives at Lackland,
Walker is tasked with overseeing
an all-female group of recruits.
Among them, Virginia Messick.
- I've never been
in that kind of situation
where someone was trying
to control me that much.
You're technically an adult,
but now you have people
telling you that you're doing
everything completely wrong
your entire life.
And you have to learn
how to do it
this exact specific way.
It's like, "You don't know
how to march right.
You don't know
how to make your bed right."
Everything had to be
a certain way in our drawers.
I mean, people are
getting in your face.
- Making matters worse,
isolation from the outside world
is taking its toll.
- Early on, I felt very alone
because you can't talk
to anybody except for
who are around you.
- All the things
that you depended on...
Your phone,
getting on social media,
texting friends... that
disappears in basic training.
- I thought to myself, like,
"Why would you put yourself
in this situation?"
- During her second week
of basic training,
Virginia reaches out
to her MTI for help.
- So I told Walker
that I needed to get in contact
with my friend
who was in Afghanistan,
and he was like, "Oh,
I'm so glad you came to me.
"You know, everybody
who's on deployment
needs someone to talk to."
He was like, "Why don't you
just come in the office
and you can just
email him real quick?"
- Sergeant Walker invites
Virginia into his office
to contact her friend.
- The first time Walker
called me into the office,
he was like,
"Here, just sit in my chair,
and I'll sit
at the chair by the door."
I have never
seen him so relaxed.
He was just very friendly to me.
I know it's against the rules,
but if he's allowing me
to write an email,
then that must mean it's okay.
- The guy who was molding her
into an airman
and into a warrior
was doing something
that was so generous.
- After a few visits,
Walker begins to open up
to Virginia about his life.
- I really remember him
telling me, like, in detail
about his kids
and their ages and his wife
and how they were
high school sweethearts.
Just going on and on and on
about, like, either work
or personal stuff
and was very, like,
across-the-bar talking to me
like I'm his friend,
like it was just
a normal conversation,
like when the door was closed,
like, there was no MTI there,
essentially.
- But once back on the outside,
there is no trace
of friendliness between them.
- Once, you know,
we came outside the doors,
there was no special treatment.
- Sergeant Walker
controlled everything,
you know,
when they're gonna eat,
when they go to sleep,
when they brush their teeth.
- We had to ask
to go to the bathroom,
like we were in kindergarten,
and he'd either say yes or no.
I mean, I do remember
a specific time
that he said,
"No, piss yourself."
- But in his office,
Walker continues
his polite demeanor
with Virginia,
until one day,
the conversation changes.
- Sometimes he would ask me
inappropriate questions.
He would be like,
"Oh, do you have a boyfriend?"
And he would go through, like,
pictures on my phone.
And he said that he thought
that country girls were hot.
He would ask me, like,
"Oh, you must be, like,
"that crazy country girl type,
so where's the craziest place
you've had sex?"
- His authority
was almost limitless,
especially in the eyes
of his trainees.
The chain of command
that you now have to follow
those who are above you.
- I don't want to talk
about that with him.
It made me feel disgusting,
but at the same time,
like, I felt like
I had to answer him.
- And by week three
of basic training,
there's another shift
in Walker's behavior.
- I mean, it started out
like normal.
He was sitting
in the chair talking.
So I'm checking my email,
and I hear him stop talking,
but I don't think
anything about it.
He gets up and moves behind me,
where there's lockers, and I
just start to feel like...
Like, the air changed
in the room.
And I just was just like,
"Okay, let me just
"get my email done,
and I'll get out of here,
'cause I'm starting
to feel weird."
And then I heard the door,
like, slam closed.
And I, like, felt him behind me.
- Coming up...
- He started making us
call him Daddy,
or he'd walk in the door
and he'd be like,
"Where are all my bitches at?"
- You can't simply run away.
That's a crime.
It's called going AWOL.
- I got a phone call
from my best friend,
said that "he would have you
kicked out of the military
and have you killed."
- Air Force recruit
Virginia Messick
is adjusting to the rigors
of basic training
when her MTI officer begins
inviting her to his office
to check her email.
Then, during one of her visits,
everything changes.
- He gets up
and moves behind me,
where there's lockers,
and then I heard the door
slam closed.
And then he, like,
grabs the arm of the chair
and flips it around really fast.
And when he did,
he literally lunged at me
and stuck his hand
down my uniform
and stuck his tongue
down my mouth.
And I push him off,
and I'm, like,
in shock at first,
and I'm like, "What
in the world just happened?"
And I have my hands up,
and I'm like,
"Don't... touch me."
- People may not understand
how amazing that is.
He's a complete
authority figure,
and for her to be able
to stand up and defend herself
in that situation
just speaks volumes
about what kind of person
she is.
- I push him off, and he's like,
"Oh, I'm sorry,
did I read that wrong?"
I said, "What in the hell
do you think you're doing?
"This is not
what we're here for.
"At no point had I ever
given you any sort of sign
"that I liked you in that way.
That's disgusting."
And I was like, "Why don't you
go think about your wife
and your kids?"
- It's a fairly manipulative
thing that he's doing,
and he knows what he's doing.
He has her in
to work on his computer.
He's talking about
personal stuff with her.
He's priming her
for where he wants
to take that relationship.
There was no chance
for other instructors to come
and look in on that flight.
He was on his own,
and he knew it.
- When he apologized, I was
like, "Okay, maybe he's sincere
"and he really
won't touch me again.
"Maybe that was just
him thinking there was
more there than there was."
He told me it was okay,
so I took him at his word.
I just thought
that he was genuinely being
a good, nice person,
and I thought that, you know,
"Maybe it's my fault.
"Maybe I said something that...
"like, led him on
and I didn't mean to.
"Did I look at him
to make him think that...
it was okay to touch me?"
I didn't report it
because I thought, you know,
maybe he just did it
out of, like, a heated moment.
But I had never given off,
like, a sexual sense to him.
So I got up and closed my email,
and I, like, walked out
of the room pissed off.
And just him hearing me say,
"Don't touch me,"
I just thought, "Okay,
he's not gonna do it again,
so I'm just
not gonna tell anybody."
And once
that situation happened,
I never went back
in his office ever again.
- With six weeks left
in basic training,
Virginia returns to
the rigorous training schedule
set up with Walker,
whose behavior intensifies.
- One day,
someone kind of messed up,
and he was so mad.
He was like, "Everybody
get in the day room."
And we already know that
that's not a good thing.
He starts telling us
to do push-ups,
and I mean, we're doing push-ups
for, like, ten minutes.
And there's girls
who are, like, falling out
because it's so hot in that room
with all 50 of us sweating
and, like, trying to breathe.
At this point, he's standing
on his desk, yelling at us,
and all of a sudden,
he points at this one girl,
and he says,
"Start singing me a song."
And she starts singing
"Amazing Grace."
And then about, like,
two lines into it,
he jumps down, like,
right in front of her
and scares the living crap
out of her.
And he says, "Stop singing
that stupid effing song."
And he, like, looks around,
and he goes, "Oh, do you think
your God's here with you?"
And he jumps back up
on the desk, and he's like,
"I'm your God,
"so if you're gonna look up
and sing about anybody,
"you're gonna be doing it to me.
I'm your God. No one else."
That's the same time
when he started
making us call him Daddy,
or he'd walk in the door
and he'd be like,
"Daddy's home.
Where are all my bitches at?"
Like he's a pimp
and we're his tricks.
- It may not be so unusual
that an MTI in the air force
are going to look
at their charges and say,
"I'm God for the next
nine weeks."
But this is a man who would
call his recruits "bitches."
That was a little bit more
than just asserting authority.
- Determined to finish
basic training,
Virginia believes if she
avoids one-on-one interactions
with Walker, she'll be safe.
- So now I'm basically
doing my duties,
and I was downstairs
doing laundry.
Walker came into
the laundry area
and then says,
"You need to go upstairs.
"We left the whole
big duffel bag of rags,
"and all of them
have to be cleaned
before the baby flight
gets here."
I go all the way back upstairs,
and I grab this duffel bag,
and I can't lift it up.
So I start dragging it
to the front door.
And I hear, "Country."
That was my nickname.
Anytime he yelled
for me, it was,
"Country, get over here."
And I was like, "He's not
supposed to be up here.
Why would he be up here?"
And then all of a sudden,
I just see him,
and he was standing
behind the door...
and he slammed it shut on me.
And then at that point,
I, like, froze because...
we're in a large dorm,
in a small room
by ourselves, no cameras.
So he can close doors,
and it doesn't matter...
if I kick or scream...
Or try and fight, like...
It doesn't matter.
I'm basically gonna have
to bend to his will.
- Air Force recruit has been summoned to the
Virginia Messick barrack's sleeping quarters
by her commanding officer.
They are completely alone.
- We're in a large dorm,
in a small room
by ourselves, no cameras.
So he can close doors,
and it doesn't matter...
if I kick or scream...
Or try and fight, like...
It doesn't matter.
I'm basically gonna have
to bend to his will.
Then he forced me down...
And he pretty much
raped me in every way.
He did everything to me
that he wanted to.
And I could do nothing about it.
And I just laid there.
I could barely breathe.
I remember thinking,
"This isn't the experience
that my dad and my grandfather
told me it was gonna be."
The air force tells you,
like, "This person's
"gonna be the person
that takes care of you
and protects you."
And for them to, like,
totally betray you...
And then he tells me...
"Get yourself up, bitch,
and put your clothes on."
And he throws them at me
and then tells me,
"Go downstairs
and take a... ing shower."
- She's going to have
to go to the person
who's sexually assaulting her,
Sergeant Walker,
or go to the person above him,
and it's gonna be pitting her
against the person
in her chain of command
that's doing the assaulting.
- There's nowhere to go.
There's nowhere to report it to
that brings you outside
of the power
of that abusive person.
- So what was I supposed to do
at that point?
The man that I'm supposed to
report my rape to is my rapist.
But it's just... it's sick.
It's so sick.
Girls who report it
get looked down on,
and nobody wants to go
near them 'cause they're like,
"Oh, that's the girl
that cried rape."
- When victims do step forward
and identify someone
who's sexually assaulted them,
they suffer severe
and persistent retaliation
that often ends their career.
- I didn't want that
to happen to me.
The only way for me
to get to a safe place
would be to completely leave
San Antonio
and get off
of Lackland Air Force Base.
- But it would be
impossible for Virginia
to abandon basic training.
- You can't simply run away.
That's a crime.
It's called going AWOL,
absent without leave,
and you will be thrown in jail
for doing that.
- Virginia's trapped, and...
that's how he gets
what he wants.
- So I just buried it
and let it stay there.
I told no one
about what happened.
- Adding insult to injury,
Walker takes
any opportunity he can
to publicly degrade Virginia.
- Walker proceeded to say,
"She's been using email
this whole time,
and none of you bitches
get that."
And it was, like,
a way of chastising me
and getting everyone to hate me.
Now he's just gonna make me
feel as terrible as possible.
- When you're in
a training environment,
to have access to that when
the rest of the flight doesn't,
that would cause huge problems
with her in the flight.
- That was hugely manipulative.
He could make her weaker
so that whatever he had in mind
would be easier to have happen.
- I wouldn't show the pain
on my face,
that I was hurting,
so it kind of pissed him off,
and I think that made him push
harder on saying things to me.
We were taking everything
out of our bags
and shaking them out,
and I just remember
Walker was yelling at us,
talking about how dirty
our clothes were.
And then, like,
he walks up behind me
and whispers in my ear,
and he's like, "Maybe we should
do something some other time."
That point is when I got,
like, sick to my stomach.
My coping mechanism that
whole time was just focus on
the task at hand,
don't think about it,
and I just carried on
like normal.
I had two weeks left.
It's my only option to leave.
I can't break down.
- Despite her fear and anger,
Virginia persists
and makes it to the end
of basic training.
In April 2011,
she's set to graduate.
- I was so excited
'cause I knew my family
was gonna be there,
and, like, the one thing
I wanted the most was my mom.
- When we first
got to graduation,
it was kind of chaotic.
And I'm trying
to search to see her...
and I couldn't find her.
And then I finally got...
a glimpse of her,
and I just started crying.
I don't normally
get emotional like that.
She was so beat down,
I didn't even recognize her.
She was so thin, which I know,
going through basic training,
you're gonna lose weight,
but she was pretty thin
when she went in,
so she was, like...
thinner than I've ever seen her.
- I finally got to see my mom,
and I hugged her,
and I'm trying, like,
not to cry the whole time.
And my mom just looked at me,
and I just knew that she knew
something was wrong,
'cause moms can do that.
- She was blank-eyed
and just emotionally drained.
There was no spark in her eyes
like there usually always were.
- And my mom's just like,
"I'm concerned.
You can tell me anything."
And I'm like, "No, Mom,
everything's fine."
I didn't tell my parents,
'cause I was just trying
to enjoy the time
that I had with them,
and I honestly
didn't want them to know,
because I didn't
want them to have
to go through that heartbreak.
- After graduation,
Virginia heads to tech school
in Gulfport, Mississippi.
She may be eight hours away
from her attacker,
but there is no escaping
the nightmare.
- Two weeks after
I got to tech school,
we were running PT one morning,
and both of my knees gave out.
And I just, like,
bam, hit the floor.
And they took me to the doctor,
and they found out
that I have a knee condition
and I can't run.
That's when they put me
on med board
and I become the taxi driver.
So one day, I was taking
a group of airmen
to a finance lecture.
So I had to sit in the van
the whole time.
And I got a phone call from Amy,
my best friend
from basic training.
She was like,
"Hey, how are you doing?
I made rank."
So she had went from
airman first class
to senior airman.
Amy was excited that
she was getting promoted,
but I could still tell
that there was something
off about her.
Like, she went silent
for a minute,
and then she finally said,
"Sergeant Walker has been
texting me
inappropriate pictures."
And I was like...
"What?" And she was like,
"If I didn't text
inappropriate pictures back
"that he would have you
kicked out of the military
and have you killed."
- Air Force recruit
Virginia Messick
she'd put the nightmare
of basic training behind her,
Sergeant Walker, the man
who raped and tormented her,
starts harassing
Virginia's best friend, Amy.
- I was like,
"He threatened to kill me
so you would send him
dirty pictures?"
And she said, "Yes."
I was angry that
he was doing this to her
after everything
he had done to me.
And I felt so much guilt
about it happening to her.
And I'm glad that it didn't go
as far as it did with me.
But still, I didn't want
to talk about it,
but at the same time, I had
to let her know something.
And so I said,
"Listen, Amy, it was just sex.
I don't want to talk about it."
And she was like,
"Well, what do you mean?
Like, what does that mean?"
And I was like,
"I just told you.
It was just sex.
"I don't want to talk about it.
That's all I'm going
to tell you."
Because I didn't want
to tell anybody.
And she was like,
"Okay, I just...
"I won't press about it anymore,
but it's just starting
to freak me out."
And at that point,
I was so pissed off,
I just couldn't think straight.
I told her it was empty threats.
I was like, "Tell him to try
"and kick me
out of the military,
"and tell him
to try and kill me,
'cause he'll have
a damn hard time doing it."
- Less than a week later,
Virginia gets a visit
from OSI, the Office
of Special Investigations.
- An OSI agent is basically,
like, the detectives
of the air force.
One of the OSI agents
looked similar to my attacker,
so I automatically
did not want to speak to him.
And he asked me,
"So how was your
basic training experience?"
And he said it just like that.
On the inside, I'm, like,
screaming, like, "Oh, my God.
They know something,
or they wouldn't be here."
And they told me
they had talked to Amy,
so I automatically knew
that Amy had said something.
The OSI agent, the male,
he was quite aggressive,
and he basically was telling me,
"You don't have to lie to us.
We already know everything."
OSI made me feel like
I was a criminal, not a victim.
I'm terrified.
I thought if I were to actually
tell them that I was raped,
I would get in trouble
and yet again, that stigma
that nobody wants to work
with the girl that cries rape.
- When a victim comes forward,
she is considered
to be a troublemaker,
and 1/3 of women who report
sexual assault in the military
are out of the military,
on average,
within seven months
of reporting.
- I mean, I'm scared,
and I didn't want to get
kicked out of the military.
I sat there for 2 1/2 hours
and didn't say anything.
And they got fed up.
So they threw a piece of paper
and a pen at me
and said, "Write your statement
so we can get out of here."
- Virginia has a choice to make:
say nothing or report Walker
and risk losing
the military career
she worked so hard to achieve.
- I literally just, like,
kind of went into panic mode.
So I just basically
told them a complete...
like, made-up story.
So I just...
told them what
they wanted to hear
just to get them out of the room
and to leave me alone.
I wrote down that Walker
and I had had consensual sex
and that it was not
sexual assault.
I felt pretty terrible
that I had to write
those words down,
because it wasn't the truth,
but at the same time, I...
still don't want anybody
to know about it.
And I'm hoping that that
piece of paper was gonna go
in a file somewhere
and never show back up.
But that is not what happened.
Turned into a huge scandal,
and I was
the front-runner of it.
- Air Force recruit
Virginia Messick
and desperate to move on
from her brutal assault,
is interrogated by OSI agents,
she does what
many other victims
in her situation have done.
She lies to hide the shame
and remain in the air force.
- I wrote down that Walker
and I had had consensual sex
and that it was not
sexual assault.
It wasn't the truth,
but at the same time, I...
still don't want anybody
to know about it.
I thought if I were
to actually tell them
that I was raped,
I would get in trouble.
- But soon after
Virginia's interrogation,
other stories
of Sergeant Walker's abuse
begin to surface.
- Walker had discovered
an intimate video
of one of his trainees
and her fiancé.
And he said,
"If you can do that with him,
then you can do that with me."
- Two of the victims,
fellow recruits,
witnessed the abuse
and told another female
in their flight,
a brave third party who stood up
and blew the whistle.
- The woman became concerned,
and she went to a commander
and reported what happened,
and fortunately that commander
did the right thing
and started the investigation.
- That's how everything just
started falling into place.
This girl made
everything happen.
- OSI were very dogged
in this case.
They tracked down
virtually every woman
who'd ever been trained
by Sergeant Walker,
and they were able
to uncover ten victims,
including Virginia.
The senior legal officer
at Lackland Air Force Base
called me up and told me,
"Hey, we got this
huge problem breaking,
and we're gonna need help."
We immediately tasked
two of my very best prosecutors
to go to Lackland and become
part of that legal office.
- The air force launches
a pretrial investigation,
similar to a grand jury
in the civilian world,
which will determine
if charges will be filed
against Sergeant Walker.
- There's a JAG officer
who presides over it,
and witnesses are called.
They're not the victim's lawyer.
Their job is to represent
the government
and American people.
- During the pretrial process,
I had to go up and testify.
The JAGs asked me
if I wanted my first statement
that I gave to OSI
to be put in as evidence.
- She gave a statement to OSI
that said that she willingly
had sex with Sergeant Walker,
but that's not
what really happened.
- But I did not
understand that question,
and the JAGs
are not my attorneys,
so they could not
give me legal advice,
and I did not understand
that I could have thrown out
my initial statement.
So I said yes
'cause I didn't know
what was going on.
Essentially, what I had
lied about and watered down,
that was gonna be my charges
and my evidence against him.
- But even this diluted
account of what happened
proves to be valuable
in bringing charges
against Walker.
- An instructor
in basic training cannot have
a consensual relationship
with a student, period.
It's an offense for which
you can be thrown out
of the air force for.
- The commander sent it
to a general court-martial,
the military's equivalent
of a felony court.
- Seven months later,
on July 17, 2012,
the court-martial begins.
- Sergeant Walker faced
a long laundry list of charges,
7 charges and 28 specifications,
the most serious being rape.
It was very intense,
and the intensity
was magnified a hundredfold
by the people who testified,
the victims.
During the trial, another victim
is in the same situation
Virginia was:
in a room, alone, trapped,
and he wants to have sex.
And the airman knows
that she's the prey.
They were trapped
by a cunning, experienced man
who had rank
and who controlled their lives.
- We sat in
a separate room downstairs
while the other girls
were testifying,
and it's just sickening,
'cause I keep hearing
the same story
over and over again,
and it's just like mine.
- Finally, it's Virginia's
turn to take the stand.
- A lot of people said
that they pointed the chair
away from him purposely
so nobody had to look
straight at him,
and the first thing I did
when I walked in the room
was pick up the chair
and move it towards him.
Walker had a cold, blank face.
I think he honestly thought
that nothing was ever going
to happen to him.
I'm like, "There's no way
you can beat us all.
If it was just me, maybe,
but you can't beat us all."
- She wanted to have her day
in court and confront him.
She was going to make sure
she had everyone understand
what happened
and her anger about it.
That was clear.
Sergeant Walker took notes,
seemed to be in the game.
I guess that's training for you.
- He maintained his innocence
the entire time.
But the bad part
about going to court
is, the defense attorney
is always trying to make you
seem like you're lying,
and I get pissed off
because I know what happened.
He knows what happened.
He wants to deny it.
I'm trying
to stand up for myself
and for, also,
the nine other victims
that are here, and she's
telling me that I'm a liar.
When I walked off the stand,
I was pissed off.
He's sitting
right in front of me,
and, like, I just wanna
choke the life out of him.
- Air Force recruit
Virginia Messick
the prosecution
and defense rest,
leaving the jury
to decide his fate.
Even with the evidence
stacked against him,
a guilty verdict
isn't guaranteed.
- In the military,
the commander hand-selects
what we call court members
to sit as the jury,
and it can actually be unfair.
If the commander
has a certain desire
for conviction or acquittal,
he or she can select people
that he or she believes
will more likely convict
or more likely acquit.
- More than 70% of the rapes
that are reported
never go to court-martial.
And even of those
that go to court-martial,
the conviction rate is dismal.
It's only 9%.
It's a terrible situation.
- It was 6 1/2 hours
before the jury came back.
You could see on their faces
that it had been grim work.
And you could hear a pin drop
in that courtroom
when they announced the verdict.
They had found him guilty
of all 7 charges,
28 specifications.
That was a huge victory
for the prosecution.
- When they did
the guilty verdicts,
all of us were just crying
and hugging each other.
And it was
a really great moment.
- Walker is sentenced
to 20 years
at Fort Leavenworth,
a military prison in Kansas.
He's also
dishonorably discharged
from the United States
Air Force.
- Two years per girl
isn't very much, so...
that was a really big
letdown for us,
but it was also a win because
most people don't even
get to go to court-martial.
- During the course
of Walker's investigation,
OSI discovers
he is not the only MTI
who abused his power.
- The investigation
revealed there were
more than 30
military training instructors
that were caught up
in misconduct:
sexual relations with trainees,
nonconsensual sex.
- It turned out that
there were nearly 70 victims
and there were
something like 30 trials.
So it raised a lot of alarms.
What in the world was going on
at basic training at Lackland?
Staff Sergeant Luis Walker,
his case
literally broke the dam.
It started a whole series
of investigations
going all the way
to the top of the air force.
And eventually it goes
to the White House.
This scandal is
a magnitude eight earthquake.
Turns everything into rubble,
and then you have to rebuild it.
And nothing has been same
in the air force ever since.
Basic training doesn't look
at all like it did
back in 2011
when Walker was running around.
- Now there's
much more oversight.
- I didn't have an attorney.
Now they have
the Special Victims Unit.
So now if anything happens,
every person gets assigned
an actual attorney.
- We have long ways to go
to reform
the military justice process,
but we should not
have another Sergeant Walker.
- Two years after the trial,
with Virginia still struggling
to heal from her painful past,
she gets a shocking call.
- They said, "This is so-and-so
from the air force.
"We want to inform you that
Airman Basic Walker
is deceased."
- Walker hung himself
in his cell.
- I had very mixed emotions
about it.
There's part of me that's like,
"I wish he would have rotted
for a little bit longer."
But if I could have pulled
the rope, I would have.
- Today,
seven years after her ordeal
and getting honorably
discharged from the air force,
Virginia is happily married
to James Messick
and raising
their two-year-old daughter.
Being a mom brings tons of joy.
I love her to death.
She is everything to me, and...
I don't think
I could go a day without her.
But PTSD just, like...
It makes everything
in your life harder.
Like, it's terrible
that when my husband
wants to touch me, I flinch,
even though he's just trying
to show me affection.
- It's very hard on a marriage.
So we work together, and so far,
the hard work has been worth it.
- Virginia fights
through her PTSD
for herself, her family,
and for other victims
of sexual assault.
- I have a tattoo, and it says,
"Never a victim,
always a fighter."
And whether you're gonna
fight for yourself
or if you're gonna
help fight for others,
keep fighting.
- It's a horrific irony
when the women who sign on
to defend our country's freedom
are instead forced
to defend themselves
before ever leaving the base.
In a system built on power,
hierarchy, and blind obedience,
Sergeant Walker's abuse
continued unchecked
for far too long.
But Virginia Messick
found her inner strength,
and, with it, she stood together
with the other victims
of Lackland to face her abuser
and fight until she got justice.
Virginia's courage
made a difference,
leaving a once dangerous
and corrupt system
forever changed.