On the Tuesday, November 25, 2025 episode of The Excerpt podcast:The Army's investigation into Fort Hood OBGYN Major Blaine McGraw has unfolded into one of the largest patient outreach efforts in recent years, with more than 1,400 women contacted as officials review allegations spanning multiple duty stations. In this episode of The Excerpt, USA TODAY's Cybele Mayes-Osterman details the lawsuit, the evidence uncovered, and why the Army's response is raising new questions about oversight and accountability.
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Dana Taylor:
A woman told USA TODAY that nearly a year ago, she walked into the OBGYN's office in Fort Hood, an army base in Texas because she wasn't sure what to take for a sinus infection during her pregnancy. She said that the doctor, Major Blaine McGraw, then sexually abused her. She said that when she told him to stop, he laughed. Hello and welcome to USA TODAY's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Tuesday, November 5th, 2025. The woman is one of more than 1400 patients of Major McGraw, who the army says it has contacted in a snowballing investigation alleging sexual exploitation. For more on this disturbing story, I'm now joined by USA TODAY National Security Reporter, Cybele Mayes-Osterman. Cybele, thank you so much for joining me.
Cybele Mayes-Osterman:
Thanks for having me.
Dana Taylor:
Let's start with the broad strokes here. What are the main allegations?
Cybele Mayes-Osterman:
Yeah, so this army, Dr. Major Blaine McGraw, who has had a practice as an OBGYN on Fort Hood in Texas for several years now, he's been accused in a lawsuit of sexually exploiting, manipulating his female patients and recording them secretly without their permission. And this lawsuit is also alleging that the Army essentially allowed McGraw's conduct for years to continue, even though it had heard about complaints about what he was doing. The woman who filed the lawsuit, she said that Army investigators showed her pictures that she realized were from the appointment that she had had with McGraw days earlier, and they were from her pelvic exam that he administered to her at that time. She told me that over the course of her seeing McGraw, she had had bizarre experiences with him. He would sometimes call her up after hours and have long conversations that veered out of what doctors and patients would normally be talking about, that he sometimes made off-color comments to her, like complimenting her on her body during a breast exam, and now she is the plaintiff in this lawsuit that is moving forward.
Dana Taylor:
I know that other women have come forward to allege that McGraw's behavior started years earlier when he was based in Hawaii. What have they said?
Cybele Mayes-Osterman:
There are at least 56 women now that are represented by the attorney for the plaintiff. The lawsuit is alleging that this conduct from McGraw actually goes back beyond his time at Fort Hood when he was stationed at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii.
Dana Taylor:
While McGraw is currently under investigation, so far no charges have been brought yet despite there being what I would describe as compelling evidence that you've outlined. Videos, for instance, of him performing pelvic examinations found on his cell phone. Why is that?
Cybele Mayes-Osterman:
Right now, it's important to note that McGraw has not yet been charged with any crime. This is still under an internal investigation by Army CID, which is the Army's Criminal Investigation Division, and so that's going to continue to progress. It's not for certain yet. We don't know if these charges are going to get referred to an outside court. He could also face charges within an internal Army court as well. Separately, there's a lawsuit ongoing that has been filed in Texas Court by one of his patients, the woman that was called in by the investigators and shown pictures of her body that was filed on November 10th.
Dana Taylor:
Cybele, this story is really striking in the breadth of its scope. The Army has contacted 1,400 women to ask them about their interactions with Major McGraw. What is the Army giving as the reason that it took this long, five years to look into his behavior? The
Cybele Mayes-Osterman:
Army has told me that this is still under investigation and they have not reached a determination yet about whether McGraw actually did these things of which he's accused. So it still remains to be seen, but there are a growing number of women who have reached out to the attorney for the plaintiff in the case, an additional woman who I spoke with saying that she didn't receive basically psychological care and she wasn't checked in on by the Army. Now, the Army also disputes that. They say that as they reach out to these patients of McGraw, they're also offering them counseling, whatever they need, but that's also under dispute by women, including one that I spoke with.
Dana Taylor:
This isn't the first time Fort Hood has been at the center of a national reckoning with sexual harassment in the Army. Tell me about that.
Cybele Mayes-Osterman:
So just five years ago in 2020, Fort Hood spawned this reckoning over sexual harassment and assault in the army and in the military more broadly, after Vanessa Guillen, who was a 20-year-old private first class who was stationed at Fort Hood at the time, she went missing and it was revealed by her family as they searched for her, that she had told people close to her that she was a victim of sexual harassment. And then come to find out, tragically, her body was found dismembered actually, and it sparked this horror and this push for change in how the Army handles reports of sexual harassment and assault, and some of those changes were codified into law in 2021 in the annual National Defense Policy bill that goes out every year, and one of the things that happened is that reports of sexual harassment were moved outside of the chain of command so that unit leaders were not handling reports from people directly under them.
Dana Taylor:
I want to go back to the woman I talked about at the top. For our listeners and viewers, USA TODAY has a policy of not naming the victims of sexual abuse abuse. She told you that not only did she attempt to report the abuse immediately, but that she continues to suffer from the psychological trauma of it.
Cybele Mayes-Osterman:
Yeah, so this woman told me she had an interaction with McGraw, she told me that made her feel very violated. And she said that after this appointment she ran out of the room in tears and told a desk attendant there about what had happened to her. She said that she had asked repeatedly to make a statement or a complaint about the doctor and that she was not able to do that. She also told me that she called the hospital back seven times trying to make a report and was told to call or send an email. She was brushed aside and she said that she's still a year later has lasting trauma from this experience.
Dana Taylor:
I understand that the investigation is ongoing, but I have to ask, has McGraw been put on leave or is he still practicing?
Cybele Mayes-Osterman:
McGraw has been suspended from his practice the Army says within hours of the complaint that triggered this investigation, and we're going to continue to watch what happens with this lawsuit. So far, the attorney for McGraw has said that he hasn't seen the lawsuit, but that is going to progress in the days forward. So we'll continue to follow this closely.
Dana Taylor:
Thank you so much for coming on The Excerpt.
Cybele Mayes-Osterman:
Thanks for having me.
Dana Taylor:
Thanks for our senior producer, Kaely Monahan, for production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts@usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. I'll be back tomorrow morning with another episode of USA TODAY's The Excerpt.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Army OBGYN investigated, accused of abusing patients | The Excerpt