Glass ceiling broken. Female Army Colonel relieved for sexually assaulting her male troops

A female Army officer was fired from command of a unit based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord amid allegations of multiple sexual assaults against several male subordinates and a pattern of sexual harassment, according to a service spokesperson.

Col. Meghann Sullivan served as commander of the 5th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade, at the base in Washington state. She was relieved of command Oct. 13, but this is the first time her firing has been reported.

Military.com first reported on her suspension and the subsequent investigation into her conduct in April. That reporting was part of the publication's investigation into the 5th SFAB, which uncovered potentially systemic issues with counterproductive leadership and performance and morale struggles among its rank and file.

Sullivan, who did not immediately return a request for comment, is still in the service and was reassigned to I Corps, based out of the same installation. She is seemingly not facing a court-martial, according to a Military.com review of the public-facing court docket. It was unclear whether she had hired an attorney.

The former commander faced allegations of assaulting at least two male subordinates and harassing several others, with some of those incidents allegedly tied to alcohol abuse, according to one source with direct knowledge of the situation. One of those instances allegedly involved forcefully kissing one of the males, and grabbing another below the belt without his consent.

Women offenders who are also senior officers are so rare that they do not appear in most of the DoD's reporting on offender statistics. Meanwhile, senior male officers account for 8% of offenders.

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