THE conviction of a drill sergeant for 18 rapes of six women recruits at an arms training base in Aberdeen, Maryland, may be only the tip of the iceberg in what is the biggest sex scandal to hit the US armed forces since women have been admitted.

The Secretary of the Army Togo West, has called it "the worst we have seen" and has demanded a full review. Eleven other sergeants at Aberdeen are facing numerous sex charges including rape, sodomy, adultery and indecent assault.

Army criminal investigators are pursuing more than 300 cases of alleged rape and sexual misconduct at other bases since female recruits at Aberdeen decided last year to reveal a ring of abuse and harassment by their superiors. When the army set up a hotline for other women to make complaints, more than 3,000 calls poured in concerning the US Navy and the air force as well.

The huge publicity for the Aberdeen abuses has apparently led the army, air force and navy to crack down on cases of adultery and consensual sex by members of the armed forces who are subject to much stricter codes of conduct in sexual matters than civilians. Later this month (May 20th), the first woman pilot to fly a B52 bomber will be court martialled for adultery with a man who lied to her that he was divorced.

Lt Kelly Flinn (26) could face prison if she is found guilty - as well as discharge in disgrace from the air force. She is one of five women and seven men in the air force to face trial this year for adultery or the related charge of "fraternisation". The army and navy will not release details of similar offences in their services.

Another air force woman officer, Lt Col Karen Tew (41), shot herself last March after she had been found guilty of adultery and faced dismissal with loss of pension within one year of retirement.

The investigations into alleged adulteries are salacious in their zeal, according to a report in the Washington Post. It claims that air force detectives are known to have filed reports detailing a defendant's sexual performance, type of foreplay, preferred positions and method of birth control.

The investigator's report on Kelly Flinn has a cover page saying "This Report Contains Explicit Material". The Post says that "inside are salacious and even obscene details assessing Flinn's sexual performance and disclosing her method of birth control. There is a sketch of the floor plan in her rented off base house so investigators could better visualise where illegal intercourse might, have taken place. They photocopied her love letters."

At Karen Tew's court martial, the air force prosecutor summed up his case stating that she had "traded the integrity of the military, professional for sexual desire. She traded the honour of wearing the military uniform for lust and she traded her ability to act as an effective leader in a position of authority for sexual intercourse.

The chief military justice in the air force, Col Robert Reed, says that "the military does not go out undercover and seek out adulterous relationships" but it cannot ignore those that come to light. "The ultimate goal is maintaining good order and discipline," he adds.

Pregnancies in the gender integrated armed forces are also giving rise to problems. US women soldiers were being evacuated from Bosnia for pregnancy at the rate of one every three days during the first half of 1996 according to the US Army newspaper, Stars' And Stripes. Pregnancy is seen as one way of getting out of "hell tours". On the USS Acadia nicknamed "the Love Boat" by the press, 36 out of a total of 360 female sailors had to be evacuated for pregnancy during a Persian Gulf tour.

The rules about sexual relations for the services are complex. "Fraternisation" or heterosexual intercourse is an offence if it is with a subordinate in the "same line of command". But heterosexual intercourse between consenting soldiers who are single and which does not come under the "fraternisation" ban is allowed.

In Bosnia, where there were 1,500 female troops in the first US deployment, there were co-ed tents with eight to 10 people. An army spokesman told Stars And Stripes that "the army does not prohibit heterosexual relations among consenting single soldiers - but it does not provide facilities for sexual relations".

While there will certainly be no attempt to reverse the policy of having women integrated into the armed forces, there are calls for a far reaching review of how the policy is being carried out, especially at the initial training stage.

As male recruitment falls off, increasing numbers of young women are joining up. The 196,000 women in the services represent 13 per cent of the total - compared with 2 per cent at the end of the Vietnam War.

But now recruitment offices across the US are also being revealed as sources of sexual harassment. Carissa Schaper, of Missouri is suing for $10 million for trauma and medical bills arising from her experience when she applied to join the army. Already suffering from depression, she ended up having a six month affair with her married recruitment officer, Sergeant Paul Belisle. He has since been discharged for adultery.

He told Time magazine: "I didn't realise how powerful the uniform is. They look up to it - and to you when you're wearing it. We're generally a bit older and they talk to us about everything, even having sex with their boyfriends, and that leads to compromising situations."

The sensitive race question is also a factor in some of the sexual abuse cases. At the Aberdeen base the drill sergeant convicted of rape, Delmar Simpson, is black, as are most of the others now facing rape and other sex charges, while all their alleged victims are white.

The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) has expressed concern that black drill sergeants are being targeted by the army for prosecution. It has also emerged that in some cases the army prosecutors pressurised the women victims to make more serious charges than they originally did.

Simpson and another Aberdeen instructor, Capt Derrick Robertson, who was also accused of rape but pleaded guilty to adultery, argued in court that their sex with the recruits was consensual. There was also some evidence offered that the women involved offered or agreed to sex in the hope of passing their exams.

The army judge, however, applied the criterion of "constructive force", which defines sexual intercourse between a superior officer and a subordinate as rape, even if there is no resistance, because of the fear of authority involved. Drill sergeants at training bases are all powerful figures as far as the new recruits are concerned.

The court martial heard, evidence that Aberdeen was a virtual sexual playground where some drill sergeants kept lists of women who seemed to be willing to have sex.

Until this scandal, there were signs that sexual harassment was declining in the armed services, although still at an unacceptable level. A 1995 Pentagon survey found that 55 per cent of military women said they had experienced sexual abuse (ranging from rape and assault to "looks" and "gestures"). This compared with 64 per cent in 1988.

The Marine Corps had the highest rate at 64 per cent followed by the army (61), the navy (53) and the air force (49). Some 77 per cent of the cases occurred on duty. Men, incidentally, are also victims of sexual harassment by women in the military.