Nearly 6,000 military employees reported sexual assaults this year, an 8 percent increase compared to 2013. The Pentagon called the increase in reporting "progress" for its handling of sexual assault, but critics call the numbers "appalling."

The Pentagon said 5,983 military personnel in 2014 reported sexual assaults to law enforcement and commanders. Just 359 of those reports resulted in conviction, and in 175 of those convictions they had to register as sex offenders.

The Pentagon also conducted an anonymous survey in which nearly 19,000 troops claimed they were sexually assaulted. From the survey, 10,500 men said they had been sexually assaulted, and 8,500 women reported they had. The claims have dropped 6,000 compared to the last anonymous survey done in 2012. That survey led to a national outcry over what was described as a sexual assault epidemic in the military and created a clamor for reform.

The Department of Defense said the results show "substantive, comprehensive progress" in combating the crime.

There's always a significant gap between the number of sexual assaults estimated to have occurred and the number reported. In 2012, when 26,000 troops were estimated to have been sexually assaulted based on the anonymous survey results, just 3,374 had reported.

Critics of the military justice system called the numbers "appalling." 

"The Pentagon has misled President Obama and the American public with cherry picked information from its new sexual assault survey. When reports of sexual assault go up, the military congratulate themselves, and they go down, they congratulate themselves," said Don Christensen, a retired Colonel of the U.S. Air Force, in a released statement from Protect Our Defenders.

"The facts that have not changed are that the overwhelming majority of victims do not have enough confidence to report their assault at all, and that for those very few who do come forward, 62 percent continue to state they were retaliated against."

The military conducts an anonymous workplace survey every two years of thousands of active and reserve troops, asking about sexual assaults in the previous year. The percentage of respondents who say they have experienced unwanted sexual contact is then applied to the total number of troops in the military, creating the estimate of how many troops have been affected. There are 1.4 million military personnel, according to estimated figures from 2013, with an additional 800,000 in reserve.

For military rape survivor, Michael F. Matthews, the statistics are personal for him.

"I was raped when I was 19 by three men. I didn't know them. I didn't realize it has lasting effects. I had trouble with authority later, and I went through three marriages," Matthews told Mint Press. "I was in New York, six days after 9/11, and it triggered something in men, and I started to talk when I visited a VA counselor. I lied about why I had tried to commit suicide, and she asked me to tell her about my rape. That was 13 years ago."

Matthews and his wife, Geri Lynn Matthews, a clinical social worker, who he told about his rape, worked decided to put his experience in a documentary, "Justice Denied," and also sought out other men to interview who were raped while serving in the military.

Matthews said the discrepancy between the low numbers reported and the numbers surveyed could account for how the military handles reports of sexual assault.

"You report it. And  you have to through your commander, that's what they mean by the chain of command. But here is the fallacy: It is not a chain -- that would infer it goes up the ladder, it goes up to the next link," Matthews said.

"That's not what happens. It goes to the commander -- that's one link -- and he determines whether it's rape or not rape, and then he refers it to the JAG [Judge Advocate General] office, or not. And they might say there is not enough evidence of rape and then turn it down. There is no chain there."

The number of sexual assaults galvanized the support of several lawmakers in the past two years to make recommendations for dealing with the crimes and prevent them in the future.

In 2011 Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., introduced the STOP Act (HR 1593). The bill, the Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Protection Act, would take all cases of rape and sexual assault outside the chain of command of the Department of Defense by creating an independent office staffed by military and civilian personnel to handle the reporting, investigation, and prosecution of the crimes. Specifically, it would create a sexual assault database within the DoD that would share information with the Department of Justice civilian sexual offender database. The bill was reintroduced in April 2013 and has 159 co-sponsors and was to be passed out of the House Armed Services Committee before it can go to a vote.

In the Senate, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has pressed for legislation that would remove authority to prosecute sexual assault and other serious crime from the chain of command.

"For a year now we have heard how the reforms in the previous defense bill were going to protect victims and make retaliation a crime," Gillibrand said. "Instead, 62 percent of people who said they reported a sexual assault also said they were retaliated against for speaking up, the same number as last year.

"There is no other mission in the world for our military where this much would be allowed," she said. "Enough is enough. Last December the president said he would give the military and previous reforms a year to work and it is clear they have failed in their mission."