The Greatest Military in the World

[I]ncidents involving sexual assault in which the children of service members are victims occur hundreds of times each year, data the Defense Department provided exclusively to The Associated Press show. The abuse is committed most often by male enlisted troops, according to the data, followed by family members.

The figures offer greater insight into the sexual abuse of children committed by service members, a problem of uncertain scale due to a lack of transparency into the military's legal proceedings.

[...]

An AP investigation published in November found more inmates are in military prisons for child sex crimes than for any other offense.

[...]

There were at least 1,584 substantiated cases of military dependents being sexually abused between fiscal years 2010 and 2014, according to the data. Enlisted service members sexually abused children in 840 cases. Family members of the victims accounted for the second largest category with 332 cases.

[...]

Most of the enlisted offenders were males whose ranks ranged between E-4 and E-6 [being the largest numbers of personnel with children]. In the Marine Corps and Army, for example, those troops are corporals, sergeants and staff sergeants. Officers were involved in 49 of the cases. The victims were overwhelmingly female.

[...]

The figures also account only for cases involving military dependents, which are the only child victims the department tracks.

[...]

Child sex-assault cases are not included in the Defense Department's annual report to Congress on sexual assaults, which focuses primarily on adult-on-adult incidents.

  AP