Washington ? Air Force Secretary James Roche said Thursday that the service needed to move quickly to fix a climate that had led to at least 54 alleged cases of rape and sexual assault at the Air Force Academy.

“We have cadets who have misused power, that have done things we cannot tolerate,” Roche said. “We have to deal with a climate that has allowed this to happen.”

Investigators who spent two weeks at the academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., identified 54 cases and met with at least six alleged victims, although there are probably many more who will not come forward, Roche said.

“What frightens me most is the climate that has affected so many others who have not come forward,” he said. “While we have seen, whatever the number is, 25, 50, there are probably a hundred more that we do not see.”

Roche did not say during what time period the alleged assaults occurred.

Cases are being prioritized for follow-up by the Defense Department’s inspector general, focusing efforts on cases “where the person who placed the accusation felt the system let them down.”

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said the situation at the academy was worse than the Navy’s 1991 Tailhook Scandal — when dozens of women complained they were groped or assaulted by drunken pilots at a Navy booster group’s convention — because the system let down the victims in these cases.

He said his office had been contacted by two dozen cadets who said they had been raped or sexually assaulted and each one said the academy either did not support the victim in the case or did not adequately punish the assailants.

“We have a system breakdown at the academy,” Allard said. “The entire support and legal system at the academy appears to have failed.”

Allard said changes must be made to ensure the safety of cadets, and to give victims confidence that reporting attacks would not jeopardize their military career.

Roche said he expected reforms by the end of the month that would change the climate at the academy.