Eight current and former U.S. service members are accusing U.S. military officials of tolerating a “staggering” level of sexual assaults within their ranks in a lawsuit that focuses in part on events at one of the most prestigious Marine Corps bases in the country — the U.S. Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C.
The lawsuit includes graphic charges by two former Marine Corps officers: One, Ariana Klay, a Naval Academy graduate and Iraq war veteran, charges she was gang-raped at the barracks in August 2010. Elle Helmer, the former barracks public information officer, says she was raped by a superior officer at the barracks in March 2006.
Officials at the Marine Barracks, home of the Marine Corps Commandant and the Corps drum and bugle corps, strongly dispute the allegations.
Click here to read the full story by NBC News National Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff.
