Rep. Jane Harman’s "jaw dropped" when she heard that four in ten women who walk into a veterans hospital reported being sexually assaulted while serving their country in the military.

The California Democrat, who heard horror stories of women being raped while on duty during a recent visit to such a hospital in Los Angeles, spoke Thursday before a House panel investigating how the military handles reports of sexual assault.

Harman, a long-time advocate of better protection of women in the military, called the incidents an "epidemic," noting that women serving in the military now are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than be killed by enemy fire in Iraq. As of July 24, 100 women had died in Iraq.

"Twenty-nine percent say they were raped during their military service," said Harman, reports CNN. The women she spoke to in the hospital "spoke of their continued terror, feelings of helplessness and downward spirals many of their lives have taken since."

Even with sexual assault being apparently so prolific in the military, the number of offenders actually charged is miniscule.

Whereas 40 percent of those arrested for a sexual assault in the civilian world were prosecuted in 2007, only 181 out of 2,212 reports – or 8 percent – were referred to courts-martial in the military. The Defense Department says in another 419 cases, military commanders took other actions, such as punishment or dismissal.

Ingrid Torres described being raped while she slept on a U.S. base in Korea when working with the American Red Cross. Her assailant, a flight director, was found guilty and dismissed from the Air Force.

"He still comes after me in my dreams," Torres said.

The Pentagon’s top official on sexual abuse, Dr. Kaye Whitley, was ordered by higher-ups at the Defense Department not to show up to testify before Congress, despite a subpoena.

"I don’t know what you’re trying to cover up here, but we’re not going to allow it," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-CA. "This is unacceptable."

"What is it you’re trying to hide?" Waxman asked the principal deputy under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, who was present at the hearing but was not the person Congress wanted to hear from.

Waxman said the Pentagon "has a history of trying to cover up sexual offense problems … I don’t know what you’re trying to cover up here, but we’re not going to allow it. I don’t know who you think elected you to defy the Congress of the United States. This is an unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable position for the department to take."

Rep. John Tierney, the panel’s chairman and a Democrat from Massachusetts, called the DoD’s response "inexplicable."

One Army official insisted his division takes allegations of sexual abuse extremely seriously.

"Even one sexual assault violates the very essence of what it means to be a soldier, and it’s a betrayal of the Army’s core values," Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle testified.

A Government Accountability Office report released Thursday on the DoD and Coast Guard sexual assault prevention and response found that, among other things, there are not enough mental-health services provided to victims, not all military commanders support the programs and "the occurrences of sexual assault may be exceeding the rates being reported, suggesting that DoD and the Coast Guard have limited visibility over the incidence of these occurrences."

At the 14 military installations surveyed by GAO in 2006, 103 service members said they had been assaulted in the past year, but 52 of them had not officially reported it.

"Factors that discourage service members from reporting a sexual assault include the belief that nothing would be done; fear of ostracism, harassment or ridicule; and concern that peers would gossip."