I don't believe a single one of Frankens accusers

[rpannier]

156. That's not entirely true

Have you ever served in the military? In a combat area?
I was US Army and in the first Gulf War -- though it wasn't much of a war by comparison to others
Officers put in charge of entertainment are supposed to keep everything flowing smoothly
An accusation against one of their main performers/celebrities/etc would be a problem -- One that would likely make its way into his jacket come the next OER review.
Most service members, including officers and senior NCOs don't get a lot of training into how to handle these situations.
In the early 90's I was named the assistant NCO for EEO complaints. We spent three days in 'specialized' training, most of which was statistics based, how to write a report, etc. It did have some useful information, like 'dos' and 'don'ts' when interviewing complaints.
One thing they stressed was, most field officers and NCOs when a complaint is lodged against someone who is of higher ran or a 'person of significance' (which in a USO tour Al Franken would apply), the officer on the scene will often ask multiple times, "Are you sure?" and will often remind the soldier "This could be truly damaging to that person's reputation." and "If you're lying, you could be brought up on charges."
In a combat area, there is a real sense of isolation. Making a complaint against any individual could isolate you from everyone else; that includes making complaints against one of the main performers, because the show could get postponed or cancelled -- great way to make enemies and, as a civilian, get you kicked out of the area.
It's likely there are hundreds, if not thousands of unreported complaints in that region that we'll never hear of, because the culture out there is not interested.
Also, take time to read ESPN's website when there has been a charge of violence or sexual assault against an athlete and read the voluminous number of posts about how the woman is just trying to get money. This place has been little better with the number of 'experts' on how people respond to being violated sexually, that eerily resemble that ass-circus Moore's expert opinion.

I am not saying Franken did what is claimed -- that picture is just creepy. Sorry, but I think it is. A 50-something year old man acting like he's 15. I am almost the age he was when the picture was taken and I'd never do something like that. I never did anything like that when I was in the service.
But, to claim it wasn't a position of power or possible recrimination for reporting is not necessarily true. Depending on who the OIC was for the Tour, it could have had recriminations for reporting because it would have negatively impacted perceptions of him among the higher ups, especially anyone who could be involved in his evaluations.

For me, I don't know. I wasn't there. The picture is a snapshot of a moment -- a moment of stupidity, similar to people posting on Facebook and then surprised when it bites them in the ass. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt to a point.
But the other thing we were taught from the class was, "In 90% of sexual harassment and sexual assault cases the charges are 100% true and of the 10% that aren't, it's usually most of what they said is true, but one or two facts may be incorrect. It's less than 2% that are not true.