WASHINGTON – Air Force Academy commanders over the last 10 years failed to recognize and deal with the seriousness of sexual assaults against female cadets, according to the Pentagon’s inspector general.

In a memo to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld released yesterday, Inspector General Joseph Schmitz wrote, “We conclude that the overall root cause of the sexual assault problems at the Air Force Academy was the ‘failure of successive chains of command over the past 10 years to acknowledge the severity of the problem.'”

He quoted his own report on the academy in the December 3 memo. The Pentagon did not release his full report.

In response to this and other sexual assault issues in the armed forces, David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said the Pentagon would soon implement a new military-wide policy protecting the confidentiality of people who report being sexually assaulted.

“First and foremost, we want victims to come forward for help,” something that hasn’t happened enough in the past, Mr. Chu said.

The scandal at the Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Colo., began to emerge in January 2003. It led to the firing of the academy’s leadership and wholesale reviews of military policy on sexual assault.

Last year, nearly 150 women came forward with accusations that they had been sexually assaulted by fellow cadets between 1993 and 2003.

Many alleged they were punished, ignored, or ostracized by commanders for speaking out. A summary of Mr. Schmitz’s report blamed – but didn’t name – eight Air Force officials for their roles in policies that oversaw sexual-assault reporting at the academy. They are dealt with in Mr. Schmitz’s full report. Mr. Chu and other officials declined to discuss any actions against those officials or say whether they were still in the service.

Mr. Schmitz wrote that the academy commanders “failed to initiate and monitor adequate corrective measures to change the culture until recently.” Academy leaders should have been better role models and should have kept a closer watch on their commands, he said.

Outside investigations concluded the academy’s culture created conditions that contributed to the problem. That included lingering resistance to having female cadets at all: Last year, a survey of cadets found 22% did not believe women belonged at the academy, more than a quarter of a century after they were first admitted.

The Air Force also released a second report, from its inspector general, finding that formal investigations of sexual assault at the academy were generally handled properly.

However, Mr. Chu said, “The problem is deeper than handling of individual cases.”

Air Force officials say matters have improved since the assaults came to light. General T. Michael Moseley, the Air Force’s vice chief of staff, said more than 3,000 women applied for admission to the academy for the academic year that started this fall, a record.