Women today join the military to perform duties alongside the traditional military serving males. Are women warned upon their recruitment or voluntary sign ups that sexual assault conditions exist? Just how much are women aware of such existing conditions in the military prior to their signing up? Shouldn’t this problem also be included in presentations by military recruiters? Shouldn’t the military guarantee to act promptly to resolve and prevent these incident(s) that protects the rights of females while in the military instead of 'swept under the rug' cover-ups? Shouldn’t women be warned of such existing conditions and expect protection by the very military personnel that they serve under? It appears that there is little or no follow up on such said action by military brass. Is this more of the same ‘good ole boys’ network within our national defense organization, the military?
This topic is about making aware the problems of sexual assaults in the military or one’s own personal experience(s) and possible ideas with how to correct the situation. This also includes sexual assaults by our military on citizens abroad. Articles and reports will be added to expose these terrible events that has existed and still exists in our military today. I have read somewhere that 90% of rape cases goes unreported for fear of the repercussions. It would still be bothersome if that number of unreported cases was much lower. What does increase are more cover-ups. This is important and needs to be addressed. I welcome all women on this message board for their comments on this very serious subject matter.
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/032205WA.shtml
One in Seven Attending Military Academies Report Being Sexually Assaulted
Feminist Daily News Wire
Monday 21 March 2005
The US Department of Defense released a report on sexual misconduct on three military academies' campuses, showing that one female student in seven reported being sexually assaulted last spring. In addition, half of the women attending the Navy, Air Force and Army academies reported being sexually harassed on campus, according to the Washington Post.
The Department of Defense is instituting a new policy that will begin in June to allow victims of sexual assault to report their attacks confidentially as a way to ensure privacy and to encourage victims to come forward and seek help. The new policy also requires that academy coordinators be informed of the assaults within 24 hours of the report and request for medical care or counseling, reports the New York Times. The undersecretary of defense, David S.C. Chu, said that "this policy change will encourage more victims of sexual assault to come forward and seek help, providing commanders with a better understanding of what’s actually happening in their commands," reports the Washington Post.
The Defense Department conducted a survey in March and April of 2004 of 1,906 women and a sample of the 3,107 men who attend the three academies. The survey found that 262 students reported 302 incidents of sexual assault, including 94 cases of rape. It also found that only a third of those cases were reported to authorities. 176 cases of inappropriate touching and fondling were also reported.
Full Version: Addressing Sexual Assaults in the Military
Common Ground Common Sense > Issues that Affect Our Lives > U.S. Military Issues > U.S. Military Issues Archive
Female Veterans
Deal with Postwar Trauma
VA study of women will be largest on easing stress disorder
Assaults by fellow troops
Combat isn't the only potential trauma facing women in the military.
American female soldiers have a high risk of being sexually harassed by male troops, says Dr. Stevan Hobfoll, director of the Center for Traumatic Stress at Summa Health System.
And the potential for sexual assault by the enemy can create another fear.
``There was a high level of rape by the enemy in the Gulf War,'' says Hobfoll, who adds that today's female soldiers are likely to have heard of this from female veterans.
A sense of unpredictability and helplessness contributes to mental stress. Many of the women currently on active duty are reservists who weren't expecting to go to war.
``When we have a war fought by regular military, they expect to go,'' Resick says. ``But reservists aren't prepared, particularly young women who are trying to raise children and worry about what's happening to their children at home.''
In Iraq, troops often have contact with their families at home through e-mail, she adds. This doesn't necessarily help a woman cope better; in fact, it may make stress worse.
``Strangely enough, having a lot of contact with home can keep you actively involved, but helpless,'' Resick says. ``You can't really intervene. Feeling helpless doesn't necessarily lead to PTSD, but certainly can lead to other problems.''
Embarrassed by reaction
Former Staff Sgt. Janice Bragg of Stow, like Pelle, served as an Army Reserve nurse at Walter Reed during the Gulf War. Her husband, Paul, a reservist, also was assigned to Washington.
When she was called up, Bragg, then mother of a 7-year-old, had to sign over custody of her son, Justin, to his grandparents.
``It's the hardest thing in the world to have a lawyer draw papers,'' she says.
Bragg, who didn't see her son for four months, talked to her little boy on the phone and felt helpless to help him when he was struggling.
``The kids taunted him,'' she says. ``On the school bus, they would say, `Hey, we saw your mom and dad on TV last night. They got shot' ''
Even though she didn't participate in combat, Bragg found it very difficult to ``put her life back together'' when she returned home. Ashamed that she had developed problems when she hadn't even entered the battle zone, she didn't seek any sort of help from the VA.
``We were trainers,'' she says. ``We trained other (reservists). How would I be able to explain my weakness? I couldn't handle something that I had trained for 10 years for.''
http://www.healthyplace.com/Communities/An...le_veterans.asp
Deal with Postwar Trauma
VA study of women will be largest on easing stress disorder
Assaults by fellow troops
Combat isn't the only potential trauma facing women in the military.
American female soldiers have a high risk of being sexually harassed by male troops, says Dr. Stevan Hobfoll, director of the Center for Traumatic Stress at Summa Health System.
And the potential for sexual assault by the enemy can create another fear.
``There was a high level of rape by the enemy in the Gulf War,'' says Hobfoll, who adds that today's female soldiers are likely to have heard of this from female veterans.
A sense of unpredictability and helplessness contributes to mental stress. Many of the women currently on active duty are reservists who weren't expecting to go to war.
``When we have a war fought by regular military, they expect to go,'' Resick says. ``But reservists aren't prepared, particularly young women who are trying to raise children and worry about what's happening to their children at home.''
In Iraq, troops often have contact with their families at home through e-mail, she adds. This doesn't necessarily help a woman cope better; in fact, it may make stress worse.
``Strangely enough, having a lot of contact with home can keep you actively involved, but helpless,'' Resick says. ``You can't really intervene. Feeling helpless doesn't necessarily lead to PTSD, but certainly can lead to other problems.''
Embarrassed by reaction
Former Staff Sgt. Janice Bragg of Stow, like Pelle, served as an Army Reserve nurse at Walter Reed during the Gulf War. Her husband, Paul, a reservist, also was assigned to Washington.
When she was called up, Bragg, then mother of a 7-year-old, had to sign over custody of her son, Justin, to his grandparents.
``It's the hardest thing in the world to have a lawyer draw papers,'' she says.
Bragg, who didn't see her son for four months, talked to her little boy on the phone and felt helpless to help him when he was struggling.
``The kids taunted him,'' she says. ``On the school bus, they would say, `Hey, we saw your mom and dad on TV last night. They got shot' ''
Even though she didn't participate in combat, Bragg found it very difficult to ``put her life back together'' when she returned home. Ashamed that she had developed problems when she hadn't even entered the battle zone, she didn't seek any sort of help from the VA.
``We were trainers,'' she says. ``We trained other (reservists). How would I be able to explain my weakness? I couldn't handle something that I had trained for 10 years for.''
http://www.healthyplace.com/Communities/An...le_veterans.asp
The Denver Post
Female GIs report rapes in Iraq war
37 seek aid after alleging sex assaults by U.S. soldiers
By Miles Moffeit and Amy Herdy
Denver Post Staff Writers
Female troops serving in the Iraq war are reporting an insidious enemy in their own camps: fellow American soldiers who sexually assault them.
At least 37 female service members have sought sexual-trauma counseling and other assistance from civilian rape crisis organizations after returning from war duty in Iraq, Kuwait and other overseas stations, The Denver Post has learned. The women, ranging from enlisted soldiers to officers, have reported poor medical treatment, lack of counseling and incomplete criminal investigations by military officials. Some say they were threatened with punishment after reporting assaults.
The Pentagon did not respond to repeated requests for information about the number of sexual assault reports during the conflict. Defense officials would say only that they will not tolerate sexual assault in their ranks.
"Commanders at every level have a duty to take appropriate steps to prevent it, protect victims, and hold those who commit them accountable," according to a written statement from the Pentagon.
Members of Congress told the newspaper they are alarmed by the assault reports, confirming that they have learned of incidents as well.
Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard - a key figure in the investigation of the Air Force Academy rape scandal - said he intends to raise the issue with colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee. And two Pennsylvania congressmen, Rep. Joseph Pitts and Sen. Arlen Specter, intervened last month on one rape victim's behalf to bring her home. "Congressman Pitts is extremely concerned," spokesman Derek Karchner said. "We have heard that there were cases that hadn't been reported or were not being investigated."
Senate leaders pledged last year to investigate the military's handling of rape and domestic-violence cases after a Post series found widespread problems in the armed services, including flawed investigations, inadequate victim services and leniency for thousands of soldier sex offenders. Although congressional hearings were called for, none have been scheduled.
Women have served greater combat support roles in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts than ever before, flying fighter jets, serving on patrols and analyzing intelligence data, among other duties. According to a Department of Defense estimate, women represent 10.4 percent of the total forces who were "in theater" between October 2002 and November 2003. A total of 59,742 women have been or are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. As women have returned from duty overseas in recent months, they have sought help from civilian trauma centers and advocates.
"We have significant concerns about the military's response to sexual assault in the combat zone," said Christine Hansen, executive director of the Connecticut-based Miles Foundation, which has assisted 31 women. "We have concerns that victims are not getting forensic exams. Evidence is not being collected in some cases, and they are not getting medical care and other services."
To protect the soldiers' privacy, the foundation and other victim advocacy organizations contacted by The Post declined to release details of individual cases - such as locations of the attacks or a breakdown of which branch of the military was involved - and revealed only general trends.
Disregard for the victims
Many of the victims are women of high rank. Several are officers. Most were stationed in Kuwait, a common launching point for troops occupying Iraq.
Among the most disturbing trends, say the victim advocates, is a disregard for the women's safety and medical treatment following an assault. Women are being left in the same units as their accused attackers and are not receiving sexual-trauma counseling.
"If you don't even get the victim to a level of medical accessibility, how do you get to anything else, such as evidence collection through forensic exams?" Hansen said. "There appears to be a shortage of criminal justice personnel to help them, too."
HELP FOR VICTIMS
Resources for military women who have been sexually assaulted:
The Miles Foundation Inc.
203-270-7861
National Sexual Assault Hotline
800-656-HOPE (4673)
Department of Veterans Affairs
800-827-1000
The military environment magnifies intense stress for victims, Hansen said.
"Just by virtue of the fact that they have to salute the individual who attacked them adds tremendous emotional trauma."
It could take months or years before a more definitive picture of the prevalence of sexual assault during the war takes shape. Defense Department officials have not disclosed such statistics in the past.
But some surveys have shown high rates of sexual abuse and harassment among women troops during past military conflicts.
Nearly 30 percent of 202 female Vietnam veterans surveyed in 1990 said they experienced a sexual encounter "accompanied by force or threat of force," according to the Congressional Record. And a study of troops in the 1991 Persian Gulf War by Department of Veterans Affairs researchers found that 7 percent of surveyed women reported sexual assaults, while 33 percent reported sexual harassment.
Susan Avila-Smith, a Washington state-based civilian advocate, assisted Danielle, the rape victim who received congressional help to return home. A military intelligence officer who asked that her full name not be used, Danielle was assaulted Nov. 28 while in Kuwait.
She was stationed with her Fort Lewis, Wash., unit at Camp Udairi, about 15 miles from the Iraqi border, for training before deployment to Iraq. She had just finished guard duty at 2:30 a.m. and was stepping into the latrine on the edge of camp when she was hit on the back of her head and knocked unconscious, she said.
She recalled waking to a man raping her: He had tied her hands with cord, stuffed her underwear into her mouth and wrapped cord around her head, as well. He used a knife to slice off her clothes, cutting her in the process. She was blindfolded. When she began to fight, he threatened to cut open her crotch. He then hit her with an object between the eyes, again knocking her unconscious.
When she awoke, the man, who remains unidentified, had left. Danielle said she ran, naked, bleeding and gagging, into camp. A fellow soldier cut the cords binding her hands and mouth and put his coat around her before waking her commanders.
She was driven to an aid station, where a rape examination was performed. She received no other treatment for the injuries to her head, back and knees, she says. After the exam, a commander drove her to another camp, where she was allowed to stay. She was interviewed for about three hours, she said.
For the first few days, Danielle said, a fellow woman soldier from her old camp remained with her. Then the woman had to leave to resume training, and Danielle was left alone. Requests to see the chaplain were denied, and she was not given counseling for sexual trauma.
An investigator scheduled a polygraph exam for her but never followed through. "I was hysterical," she recalled. "There I am, all bruised up and beaten, and somebody in my chain of command wanted me to take a test."
After several more days in isolation, she overdosed on anxiety medication and was hospitalized. Involvement of family and lawmakers enabled her to return to the United States.
Within days of her return, she said, her commanders at Fort Lewis told her to get back to work, even though she still suffered from migraines, blurred vision and pain from back and leg injuries from the assault. Smith, her civilian advocate, intervened, and Danielle was granted leave.
She has been told that a medical discharge could take six months. Meanwhile, she has heard nothing about her case and fears her rapist will return to Fort Lewis. She has requested to be assigned to another base, but so far her request has been refused.
The military's attitude, she said, has been to downplay her assault.
"Just because I came back with all four limbs intact, they're treating me like I'm faking," Danielle said. "I feel like my chain of command betrayed me. I gave four years to that unit, and I feel like it kicked me in the teeth when I was down."
A Fort Lewis spokesman, Jeff Young, said her case is being investigated and that she has received proper health care. "Those who deploy are served well. She received medical treatment both in theater (overseas) and here."
Maj. Shawn Phelps, one of Danielle's commanders, said he could not comment on how her case was handled in Kuwait, but said that, since her return to Fort Lewis, she has received counseling and been given a military victim advocate.
Congressional probe urged
Allard said he plans to inform his colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee of The Post's findings on sexual assaults in the war zone. "I have heard of one or two other cases coming forward," Allard said.
The senator also said he would probably suggest expanding planned congressional hearings to cover issues in the military as a whole, not just the Air Force Academy sexual-assault scandal. But he stressed that the decision rests with committee chairman John Warner and Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia senator who heads up the subcommittee on personnel issues.
Hansen of the Miles Foundation said the recent reports add new urgency to the need for a full-scale congressional investigation.
"There should be a sense of alarm that Congress not only needs to be aware of these cases, but what is happening under the criminal justice system" in the military, Hansen said. "Whether it's in Europe or Iraq or back home, it's incumbent upon Congress to examine these issues."
Additional sexual-assault cases could be reported to rape crisis centers as a growing number of deployed troops return home. More than 100,000 military personnel are expected to return during the next few months.
In recent days, Jennifer Bier, a Colorado Springs sexual-trauma therapist, has counseled women soldiers who have been assaulted in the recent war, but citing privacy concerns, did not divulge any information about the cases.
Emotional trauma for the women has been compounded by the war mission, Bier said, because they had no civilian safe havens to turn to after their assaults.
"Such assaults are horrifying by their nature and violate a person at a very core level - their sense of safety," Bier said. "Back home, they can find some safe solace somewhere. But you can't over there."
http://www.denverpost.com/cda/article/prin...1913069,00.html
Female GIs report rapes in Iraq war
37 seek aid after alleging sex assaults by U.S. soldiers
By Miles Moffeit and Amy Herdy
Denver Post Staff Writers
Female troops serving in the Iraq war are reporting an insidious enemy in their own camps: fellow American soldiers who sexually assault them.
At least 37 female service members have sought sexual-trauma counseling and other assistance from civilian rape crisis organizations after returning from war duty in Iraq, Kuwait and other overseas stations, The Denver Post has learned. The women, ranging from enlisted soldiers to officers, have reported poor medical treatment, lack of counseling and incomplete criminal investigations by military officials. Some say they were threatened with punishment after reporting assaults.
The Pentagon did not respond to repeated requests for information about the number of sexual assault reports during the conflict. Defense officials would say only that they will not tolerate sexual assault in their ranks.
"Commanders at every level have a duty to take appropriate steps to prevent it, protect victims, and hold those who commit them accountable," according to a written statement from the Pentagon.
Members of Congress told the newspaper they are alarmed by the assault reports, confirming that they have learned of incidents as well.
Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard - a key figure in the investigation of the Air Force Academy rape scandal - said he intends to raise the issue with colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee. And two Pennsylvania congressmen, Rep. Joseph Pitts and Sen. Arlen Specter, intervened last month on one rape victim's behalf to bring her home. "Congressman Pitts is extremely concerned," spokesman Derek Karchner said. "We have heard that there were cases that hadn't been reported or were not being investigated."
Senate leaders pledged last year to investigate the military's handling of rape and domestic-violence cases after a Post series found widespread problems in the armed services, including flawed investigations, inadequate victim services and leniency for thousands of soldier sex offenders. Although congressional hearings were called for, none have been scheduled.
Women have served greater combat support roles in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts than ever before, flying fighter jets, serving on patrols and analyzing intelligence data, among other duties. According to a Department of Defense estimate, women represent 10.4 percent of the total forces who were "in theater" between October 2002 and November 2003. A total of 59,742 women have been or are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. As women have returned from duty overseas in recent months, they have sought help from civilian trauma centers and advocates.
"We have significant concerns about the military's response to sexual assault in the combat zone," said Christine Hansen, executive director of the Connecticut-based Miles Foundation, which has assisted 31 women. "We have concerns that victims are not getting forensic exams. Evidence is not being collected in some cases, and they are not getting medical care and other services."
To protect the soldiers' privacy, the foundation and other victim advocacy organizations contacted by The Post declined to release details of individual cases - such as locations of the attacks or a breakdown of which branch of the military was involved - and revealed only general trends.
Disregard for the victims
Many of the victims are women of high rank. Several are officers. Most were stationed in Kuwait, a common launching point for troops occupying Iraq.
Among the most disturbing trends, say the victim advocates, is a disregard for the women's safety and medical treatment following an assault. Women are being left in the same units as their accused attackers and are not receiving sexual-trauma counseling.
"If you don't even get the victim to a level of medical accessibility, how do you get to anything else, such as evidence collection through forensic exams?" Hansen said. "There appears to be a shortage of criminal justice personnel to help them, too."
HELP FOR VICTIMS
Resources for military women who have been sexually assaulted:
The Miles Foundation Inc.
203-270-7861
National Sexual Assault Hotline
800-656-HOPE (4673)
Department of Veterans Affairs
800-827-1000
The military environment magnifies intense stress for victims, Hansen said.
"Just by virtue of the fact that they have to salute the individual who attacked them adds tremendous emotional trauma."
It could take months or years before a more definitive picture of the prevalence of sexual assault during the war takes shape. Defense Department officials have not disclosed such statistics in the past.
But some surveys have shown high rates of sexual abuse and harassment among women troops during past military conflicts.
Nearly 30 percent of 202 female Vietnam veterans surveyed in 1990 said they experienced a sexual encounter "accompanied by force or threat of force," according to the Congressional Record. And a study of troops in the 1991 Persian Gulf War by Department of Veterans Affairs researchers found that 7 percent of surveyed women reported sexual assaults, while 33 percent reported sexual harassment.
Susan Avila-Smith, a Washington state-based civilian advocate, assisted Danielle, the rape victim who received congressional help to return home. A military intelligence officer who asked that her full name not be used, Danielle was assaulted Nov. 28 while in Kuwait.
She was stationed with her Fort Lewis, Wash., unit at Camp Udairi, about 15 miles from the Iraqi border, for training before deployment to Iraq. She had just finished guard duty at 2:30 a.m. and was stepping into the latrine on the edge of camp when she was hit on the back of her head and knocked unconscious, she said.
She recalled waking to a man raping her: He had tied her hands with cord, stuffed her underwear into her mouth and wrapped cord around her head, as well. He used a knife to slice off her clothes, cutting her in the process. She was blindfolded. When she began to fight, he threatened to cut open her crotch. He then hit her with an object between the eyes, again knocking her unconscious.
When she awoke, the man, who remains unidentified, had left. Danielle said she ran, naked, bleeding and gagging, into camp. A fellow soldier cut the cords binding her hands and mouth and put his coat around her before waking her commanders.
She was driven to an aid station, where a rape examination was performed. She received no other treatment for the injuries to her head, back and knees, she says. After the exam, a commander drove her to another camp, where she was allowed to stay. She was interviewed for about three hours, she said.
For the first few days, Danielle said, a fellow woman soldier from her old camp remained with her. Then the woman had to leave to resume training, and Danielle was left alone. Requests to see the chaplain were denied, and she was not given counseling for sexual trauma.
An investigator scheduled a polygraph exam for her but never followed through. "I was hysterical," she recalled. "There I am, all bruised up and beaten, and somebody in my chain of command wanted me to take a test."
After several more days in isolation, she overdosed on anxiety medication and was hospitalized. Involvement of family and lawmakers enabled her to return to the United States.
Within days of her return, she said, her commanders at Fort Lewis told her to get back to work, even though she still suffered from migraines, blurred vision and pain from back and leg injuries from the assault. Smith, her civilian advocate, intervened, and Danielle was granted leave.
She has been told that a medical discharge could take six months. Meanwhile, she has heard nothing about her case and fears her rapist will return to Fort Lewis. She has requested to be assigned to another base, but so far her request has been refused.
The military's attitude, she said, has been to downplay her assault.
"Just because I came back with all four limbs intact, they're treating me like I'm faking," Danielle said. "I feel like my chain of command betrayed me. I gave four years to that unit, and I feel like it kicked me in the teeth when I was down."
A Fort Lewis spokesman, Jeff Young, said her case is being investigated and that she has received proper health care. "Those who deploy are served well. She received medical treatment both in theater (overseas) and here."
Maj. Shawn Phelps, one of Danielle's commanders, said he could not comment on how her case was handled in Kuwait, but said that, since her return to Fort Lewis, she has received counseling and been given a military victim advocate.
Congressional probe urged
Allard said he plans to inform his colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee of The Post's findings on sexual assaults in the war zone. "I have heard of one or two other cases coming forward," Allard said.
The senator also said he would probably suggest expanding planned congressional hearings to cover issues in the military as a whole, not just the Air Force Academy sexual-assault scandal. But he stressed that the decision rests with committee chairman John Warner and Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia senator who heads up the subcommittee on personnel issues.
Hansen of the Miles Foundation said the recent reports add new urgency to the need for a full-scale congressional investigation.
"There should be a sense of alarm that Congress not only needs to be aware of these cases, but what is happening under the criminal justice system" in the military, Hansen said. "Whether it's in Europe or Iraq or back home, it's incumbent upon Congress to examine these issues."
Additional sexual-assault cases could be reported to rape crisis centers as a growing number of deployed troops return home. More than 100,000 military personnel are expected to return during the next few months.
In recent days, Jennifer Bier, a Colorado Springs sexual-trauma therapist, has counseled women soldiers who have been assaulted in the recent war, but citing privacy concerns, did not divulge any information about the cases.
Emotional trauma for the women has been compounded by the war mission, Bier said, because they had no civilian safe havens to turn to after their assaults.
"Such assaults are horrifying by their nature and violate a person at a very core level - their sense of safety," Bier said. "Back home, they can find some safe solace somewhere. But you can't over there."
http://www.denverpost.com/cda/article/prin...1913069,00.html
Women at war: Sexual combat
BY: Pamela Martineau and Steve Wiegand , The Sacramento Bee
03/08/2005
Gina W. went to Iraq, and came back with a different kind of war story. Her battlefields were in the barracks and the mess hall. The weapons were innuendoes and threats. And the enemy? Her own boss.
"When you go there, you have to be prepared for war," she says. "And then you have to be worried about being raped by your own people."
The former Army specialist is one of dozens of military women interviewed by The Bee who say they faced some kind of sexual harassment while in the combat theater in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Though publicity about sexual misconduct in the war zone has focused on rape, female soldiers said unwelcome advances, demeaning comments - and a feeling that being alone around male comrades in arms meant being unsafe - were far greater concerns.
"I think every female (soldier in Iraq) has been sexually harassed," said Sgt. Yolanda Medina of Long Beach, who is doing her second tour there with the California National Guard's 2668th Transportation Company.
The exact number of U.S. military women who have been assaulted or harassed is probably somewhere between Medina's "every female" and the number reported by the Department of Defense.
Defense Department numbers show that from August 2002 through October 2004, 118 cases of sexual assault on military personnel were reported in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. But the Miles Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps victims of military domestic violence and sexual assault, reports that it was contacted by 258 military assault victims in the combat theater during that same time span. That number rose to 307 through mid-February, according to the foundation.
A Pentagon official said the military would release more up-to-date numbers sometime this month. Yet military officials acknowledge their numbers don't reflect the true situation because many women are reluctant to report an assault. One study by the Department of Veterans Affairs found nearly 75 percent of military women who said they had been assaulted did not tell their commanding officer.
No statistics are kept on cases of sexual harassment that fall short of physical assault, and none reflect what many women interviewed by The Bee described as a bawdy combat zone environment that made them feel like second-class soldiers:
Playboy magazines on sale at the Post Exchange. Porno films purchased on the Iraqi black market and pornographic pictures scrawled on the bathroom walls. Platoon leaders handing out condoms even though sex between soldiers is illegal.
And the reality of mostly young women, vastly outnumbered and surrounded by mostly young men, far from home in a highly stressful situation.
One of the standing jokes in Iraq, returning female vets said, was that on the 10-point scale some men use to rate women, female soldiers got two extra points just for being there.
Those bonus points came with bathroom-wall taunts like the one a female soldier remembered from an Iraq camp latrine: "All you queens will turn back into frogs once you leave Iraq."
The sexually charged atmosphere brought continual come-ons from male soldiers, leaving women feeling unsafe even inside the military camps. Virtually every woman interviewed by The Bee said that while she was in the camps in Iraq or Kuwait, she did not walk alone at night.
A common thread in tales female soldiers bring back from Iraq concerns the disregard for military rules against fraternization among officers, noncommissioned officers and enlisted personnel.
"There were affairs going in all directions, up, down and sideways, with command staff and lower ranks," said Elizabeth Vasquez, of Vallejo, who served with a California National Guard unit in Kuwait and Iraq. "It's almost like the Army helped to push the sexually charged scene."
Complaint does no good
Gina pushed back, challenging what seemed to be accepted behavior and filing a complaint against her tormentor.
The result was the end of her four-year Army career and a lingering fear that her accused would pursue her even in civilian life - a fear so intense she asked that her real name not be used.
One of about 100 women in a 500-member battalion, Gina said she began receiving unwanted attention from male colleagues almost as soon as the battalion reached Iraq.
"Most of the men who would hit on me were senior enlisted, warrant officers and officers," she said. "They feel they can do anything to you and nothing will happen.
"They can't go to the bar on weekends to let off steam, so they look to the female soldiers. (But) I wasn't exactly in the mood to be picked up. I was in a war zone."
That didn't matter much to her sergeant, she said, who unleashed a steady sex-tinged bombardment. It began with comments about her appearance, then graduated to questions about which sexual positions she preferred. The comments grew increasingly lewd.
Finally, Gina said, he got physical, grabbing her and trying to kiss her.
Tired of the weeks of harassment, Gina filed her complaint. Another woman in her unit, who said she also had been harassed, joined her. But other female targets stayed quiet.
"Some people either got scared, or they were worried about their own careers," Gina said.
The complaint was passed from the unit's Equal Employment Opportunity Office to the battalion commander - who was a friend of the sergeant's.
"He thought it was minor," Gina said of the commander's reaction. But he did assign an officer from within the battalion to investigate.
The sergeant, meanwhile, threatened to beat up Gina and the other woman for filing the complaint. He began making crude comments about them to other soldiers and spreading gossip about how Gina and the other woman had received "irregular" results from their pre-deployment Pap smear tests for cervical cancer.
If she had threatened the sergeant the way he threatened her, Gina said, "I would have gone to prison."
In the end, no charges were filed. Instead, the sergeant was passed over for promotion and received a letter of reprimand.
When her hitch was up, Gina left the Army in disgust.
"Basically, it's fair game on women soldiers, and nothing's going to happen," she said.
"You're a piece of meat."
No escape from abusers
Echoes of Gina's complaints about a look-the-other-way attitude by military leaders reverberate through the combat theater.
Testifying before a congressional women's caucus last summer, Army Capt. Jennifer Machmer said she was assaulted by her jeep driver in Kuwait, 17 days before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
After reporting it, she told the panel, she was forced to work in the same unit as the man and was threatened with fraternization charges. Her assailant, who never was charged, eventually was promoted.
Machmer, a West Point graduate, was forced to accept an early retirement when she developed post-traumatic stress disorder.
"Every time you turn around, you're re-victimized and re-traumatized," Machmer told the caucus.
Even cases that don't involve physical assault send shudders through female soldiers.
In one such instance, the commander of a National Guard military police company from Contra Costa County, who was stationed outside the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, was accused of snapping pictures of three women in his unit while they showered.
Caught with copies of the photos stored in his laptop computer, the commander was allowed to resign rather than face a court-martial.
Even though no one was assaulted in the shower photo case, word of it spread through the ranks. For many women, the daily hygiene routine became a potential combat patrol.
"It was really dark around the camp," said Elizabeth Vasquez, then serving in Kuwait. "We had to go quite a ways for our showers, and we had to be escorted all the time ... . It was upsetting, because we were supposed to be a family."
Of course not all of the women soldiers involved in sexual activity are blameless victims. Some pursued the affairs as zealously as the men. For some, the distraction and intimacy of sex helped them ward off their fears.
"You got to the point where you didn't know whether you were going to be alive tomorrow," Spc. Alexandra Cerda, 21, said of some female soldiers' rationale for engaging in sex.
A female soldier in Vasquez's unit was known as the "woo hoo girl," because that's what she would yell after having sex.
"She would have sex in the back of a Humvee, have sex standing behind the trailers," Vasquez said. "She had the most pleasant personality, but she loved sex."
One female platoon leader said such encounters sometimes interfered with work. More than once, she said, she had to switch out soldiers who were due to drive in a convoy together because of a lovers' spat.
Grappling with a new reality
While consensual sex may have contributed to problems of fraternization, the problems of assault and harassment are rooted in a military culture still coming to grips with a two-gender fighting force, a culture that until recently lacked even uniform definitions for "assault" and "harassment," and is still struggling to differentiate between predators and prey.
"There were so many men over there and so few women," said Sandy Moreno, a single mother from Sacramento who served in Iraq as a psychiatric technician in one of the Army's "stress units," established as refuges for troubled soldiers.
"A lot of the (harassment complaints) we took with a grain of salt," she said. "We would ask the women, 'What do you think happened? How do you think you could have changed things?' "
Moreno said the women's complaints often concerned things like "slaps on the butt," or unwanted kissing.
"I'd say to them, 'Because of the situation we're in, maybe you shouldn't smile at him, maybe you should just ignore him.' One thing about the military, when you go to war, you really bond. Sometimes you make friends with the opposite sex, and sometimes there are misunderstandings."
But Kate Summers, a sexual trauma expert and director of services at the Miles Foundation - which advocates for women who are sexually assaulted or harassed in the military - said that a female soldier's uncomfortable feelings about a male colleague's comments or actions should not be discounted or chalked up to misunderstandings.
"It's not about whether she wore her camouflage shirt one button or two buttons open too much," Summers said. "What's at issue is the victim may have been describing a pattern of manipulation that is going to lead to assault.
"My reaction would have been entirely different. I'd say, 'Let's talk about the other encounters you've had.' "
Aside from the questionable efficacy of avoid-eye-contact counseling, the military is wrestling with trying to weld a zero-tolerance policy about sexual harassment onto soldiers' traditional code of silence about one another's behavior - particularly while at war.
In a combat zone, said Medina, the National Guard sergeant from Long Beach, "the rules change within the unit." On her first tour in Iraq, Medina herself was offered money for sex by another soldier. She turned him down but never reported it.
"If you do something to discredit your company, it's on your ass," she said.
Medina offered another reason women in the war zone were hesitant to file a harassment complaint against fellow soldiers.
"You don't know if that person will save your life out there," she said.
Fears of coming forward were heightened, other women said, by the possibility that neither they nor their assailants would be removed from the unit.
Standard military policy has been to give commanders wide discretion in separating accused and accuser, or deciding whether charges will be filed, or even investigated.
In testimony at a congressional hearing on sexual assault in the military, Gen. George Casey Jr., the Army's vice chief of staff, acknowledged that when a female soldier files a complaint against someone in her unit, it is strictly up to the unit commander to decide if anyone should be transferred - even if the accused is the alleged victim's commander.
"We don't dictate that," Casey said. "We leave that up to the commander on the scene to make an evaluation."
Critics of the military's attitudes point to problems that range from a shortage of rape examination and HIV testing kits in the war zone to encouraging women to use an injectable contraceptive called Depo-Provera so they won't menstruate during their tour.
"One woman rape victim in Afghanistan was given high doses of antibiotics after a rape and told, 'This will kill anything,' " said Summers, of the Miles Foundation. "It took her two weeks to get to a hospital."
From study to action
The U.S. military's problems with sex certainly didn't start with the war in Iraq.
After the Persian Gulf War, the Army acknowledged that its male personnel had committed at least 34 sex crimes, many of them rapes of female U.S. soldiers.
Graphic testimony by female Gulf War vets before a congressional committee prompted one senator to charge that during the brief conflict, U.S. female troops "were in greater danger of being sexually assaulted by our own troops than by the enemy."
In 1991, Navy and Marine pilots at a convention in Las Vegas molested at least 26 women. In 1996, it was revealed that dozens of female recruits had been sexually assaulted while training at the Army Ordnance Center in Aberdeen, Md. In 2003, an investigation found that 142 female cadets at the Air Force Academy alleged they had been assaulted during the previous nine years.
In each case, Pentagon officials launched task forces and studies, and promised reforms.
"Over the past 15 years ... we have had 18 major studies on sexual assault," said an exasperated Rep. John McHugh, D-N.Y., during a hearing last June on a Pentagon task force report on assault and harassment problems in the Iraq combat zone.
"That's more than one a year. And yet ... to put it kindly, we've got a long way to go before we have in place the kinds of programs, in terms of both prosecution and prevention and response, that are necessary."
Stung by such criticism, the Defense Department has announced a series of initiatives in recent months.
In October, Brig. Gen. K.C. McClain, an experienced Air Force command officer and educator, was appointed to head an eight-person team called the Joint Task Force for Sexual Assault Prevention and Response.
In January, the task force announced new policies for all military branches that include more support for victims and more training for everyone in uniform, along with the Pentagon's first-ever definitions of sexual assault and harassment.
Officials acknowledge that the lack of precise definitions has led to haphazard investigations and prosecutions.
"We're off to a good start," McClain said in announcing the policies, "but I need to be clear ... this is not a silver bullet. There is no overnight solution, and to do this right, it is going to take time."
McClain and other Pentagon officials acknowledge that all the policies in the world won't make much difference if commanders in the field don't implement them.
The sentiment is emphatically emphasized by military women, who say the level of sexual tension and the number of incidents within a unit depend on that unit's commander.
"It starts with the command," said National Guard Sgt. Sharon Stallworth. "He sets the tone."
Capt. Torrey Hubred commands Stallworth's unit, the Sacramento-based 2668th Transportation Company, which is currently in Iraq. According to Hubred - and troops serving under him - the unit has been largely free of sexual harassment problems.
Hubred attributes it to the "three golden rules" he lays down. The first is to treat others the way you would be treated. The second is to make decisions you wouldn't be ashamed to see in the headlines tomorrow.
"And the third," he said, "is ask, 'Would you do this if someone you love is watching?'"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEFINING THE CRIME
The first formal Department of Defense definition of sexual assault, announced Jan. 4:
* Sexual assault is a crime. It is defined as intentional sexual contact, characterized by use of force, physical threat or abuse of authority or when the victim does not or cannot consent.
* Sexual assault includes rape, nonconsensual sodomy (oral or anal sex), indecent assault (unwanted, inappropriate sexual contact or fondling), or attempts to commit these acts.
* Sexual assault can occur without regard to gender or spousal relationship or age of victim.
* "Consent" shall not be deemed or construed to mean the failure by the victim to offer physical resistance. Consent is not given when a person uses force, threat of force, coercion or when the victim is asleep, incapacitated, or unconscious.
TWO VIEWS
"What does it say about us as a people, as a nation, as the foremost military in the world, when our women soldiers sometimes have more to fear at the hands of their own fellow servicemen than from the enemy?"
- Sen. Susan Collins, D-Maine, Feb. 25, 2004, during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel.
"The contemporary culture is more promiscuous in recent years ... and people who come to the academy reflect the contemporary culture ... so it's not a climate at the Air Force Academy or a climate in the Air Force, there's a climate in the nation. You watch halftime shows at the Super Bowl or 'Girls Gone Wild' or whatever the heck is on MTV, you can see what today's youth brings to whatever they do."
- Gen. John Jumper, Air Force chief of staff, talking to reporters on Dec. 15 about the 142 reported sexual assaults at the Air Force Academy between 1993 and 2002.
http://aimpoints.hq.af.mil/display.cfm?id=1679
BY: Pamela Martineau and Steve Wiegand , The Sacramento Bee
03/08/2005
Gina W. went to Iraq, and came back with a different kind of war story. Her battlefields were in the barracks and the mess hall. The weapons were innuendoes and threats. And the enemy? Her own boss.
"When you go there, you have to be prepared for war," she says. "And then you have to be worried about being raped by your own people."
The former Army specialist is one of dozens of military women interviewed by The Bee who say they faced some kind of sexual harassment while in the combat theater in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Though publicity about sexual misconduct in the war zone has focused on rape, female soldiers said unwelcome advances, demeaning comments - and a feeling that being alone around male comrades in arms meant being unsafe - were far greater concerns.
"I think every female (soldier in Iraq) has been sexually harassed," said Sgt. Yolanda Medina of Long Beach, who is doing her second tour there with the California National Guard's 2668th Transportation Company.
The exact number of U.S. military women who have been assaulted or harassed is probably somewhere between Medina's "every female" and the number reported by the Department of Defense.
Defense Department numbers show that from August 2002 through October 2004, 118 cases of sexual assault on military personnel were reported in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. But the Miles Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps victims of military domestic violence and sexual assault, reports that it was contacted by 258 military assault victims in the combat theater during that same time span. That number rose to 307 through mid-February, according to the foundation.
A Pentagon official said the military would release more up-to-date numbers sometime this month. Yet military officials acknowledge their numbers don't reflect the true situation because many women are reluctant to report an assault. One study by the Department of Veterans Affairs found nearly 75 percent of military women who said they had been assaulted did not tell their commanding officer.
No statistics are kept on cases of sexual harassment that fall short of physical assault, and none reflect what many women interviewed by The Bee described as a bawdy combat zone environment that made them feel like second-class soldiers:
Playboy magazines on sale at the Post Exchange. Porno films purchased on the Iraqi black market and pornographic pictures scrawled on the bathroom walls. Platoon leaders handing out condoms even though sex between soldiers is illegal.
And the reality of mostly young women, vastly outnumbered and surrounded by mostly young men, far from home in a highly stressful situation.
One of the standing jokes in Iraq, returning female vets said, was that on the 10-point scale some men use to rate women, female soldiers got two extra points just for being there.
Those bonus points came with bathroom-wall taunts like the one a female soldier remembered from an Iraq camp latrine: "All you queens will turn back into frogs once you leave Iraq."
The sexually charged atmosphere brought continual come-ons from male soldiers, leaving women feeling unsafe even inside the military camps. Virtually every woman interviewed by The Bee said that while she was in the camps in Iraq or Kuwait, she did not walk alone at night.
A common thread in tales female soldiers bring back from Iraq concerns the disregard for military rules against fraternization among officers, noncommissioned officers and enlisted personnel.
"There were affairs going in all directions, up, down and sideways, with command staff and lower ranks," said Elizabeth Vasquez, of Vallejo, who served with a California National Guard unit in Kuwait and Iraq. "It's almost like the Army helped to push the sexually charged scene."
Complaint does no good
Gina pushed back, challenging what seemed to be accepted behavior and filing a complaint against her tormentor.
The result was the end of her four-year Army career and a lingering fear that her accused would pursue her even in civilian life - a fear so intense she asked that her real name not be used.
One of about 100 women in a 500-member battalion, Gina said she began receiving unwanted attention from male colleagues almost as soon as the battalion reached Iraq.
"Most of the men who would hit on me were senior enlisted, warrant officers and officers," she said. "They feel they can do anything to you and nothing will happen.
"They can't go to the bar on weekends to let off steam, so they look to the female soldiers. (But) I wasn't exactly in the mood to be picked up. I was in a war zone."
That didn't matter much to her sergeant, she said, who unleashed a steady sex-tinged bombardment. It began with comments about her appearance, then graduated to questions about which sexual positions she preferred. The comments grew increasingly lewd.
Finally, Gina said, he got physical, grabbing her and trying to kiss her.
Tired of the weeks of harassment, Gina filed her complaint. Another woman in her unit, who said she also had been harassed, joined her. But other female targets stayed quiet.
"Some people either got scared, or they were worried about their own careers," Gina said.
The complaint was passed from the unit's Equal Employment Opportunity Office to the battalion commander - who was a friend of the sergeant's.
"He thought it was minor," Gina said of the commander's reaction. But he did assign an officer from within the battalion to investigate.
The sergeant, meanwhile, threatened to beat up Gina and the other woman for filing the complaint. He began making crude comments about them to other soldiers and spreading gossip about how Gina and the other woman had received "irregular" results from their pre-deployment Pap smear tests for cervical cancer.
If she had threatened the sergeant the way he threatened her, Gina said, "I would have gone to prison."
In the end, no charges were filed. Instead, the sergeant was passed over for promotion and received a letter of reprimand.
When her hitch was up, Gina left the Army in disgust.
"Basically, it's fair game on women soldiers, and nothing's going to happen," she said.
"You're a piece of meat."
No escape from abusers
Echoes of Gina's complaints about a look-the-other-way attitude by military leaders reverberate through the combat theater.
Testifying before a congressional women's caucus last summer, Army Capt. Jennifer Machmer said she was assaulted by her jeep driver in Kuwait, 17 days before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
After reporting it, she told the panel, she was forced to work in the same unit as the man and was threatened with fraternization charges. Her assailant, who never was charged, eventually was promoted.
Machmer, a West Point graduate, was forced to accept an early retirement when she developed post-traumatic stress disorder.
"Every time you turn around, you're re-victimized and re-traumatized," Machmer told the caucus.
Even cases that don't involve physical assault send shudders through female soldiers.
In one such instance, the commander of a National Guard military police company from Contra Costa County, who was stationed outside the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, was accused of snapping pictures of three women in his unit while they showered.
Caught with copies of the photos stored in his laptop computer, the commander was allowed to resign rather than face a court-martial.
Even though no one was assaulted in the shower photo case, word of it spread through the ranks. For many women, the daily hygiene routine became a potential combat patrol.
"It was really dark around the camp," said Elizabeth Vasquez, then serving in Kuwait. "We had to go quite a ways for our showers, and we had to be escorted all the time ... . It was upsetting, because we were supposed to be a family."
Of course not all of the women soldiers involved in sexual activity are blameless victims. Some pursued the affairs as zealously as the men. For some, the distraction and intimacy of sex helped them ward off their fears.
"You got to the point where you didn't know whether you were going to be alive tomorrow," Spc. Alexandra Cerda, 21, said of some female soldiers' rationale for engaging in sex.
A female soldier in Vasquez's unit was known as the "woo hoo girl," because that's what she would yell after having sex.
"She would have sex in the back of a Humvee, have sex standing behind the trailers," Vasquez said. "She had the most pleasant personality, but she loved sex."
One female platoon leader said such encounters sometimes interfered with work. More than once, she said, she had to switch out soldiers who were due to drive in a convoy together because of a lovers' spat.
Grappling with a new reality
While consensual sex may have contributed to problems of fraternization, the problems of assault and harassment are rooted in a military culture still coming to grips with a two-gender fighting force, a culture that until recently lacked even uniform definitions for "assault" and "harassment," and is still struggling to differentiate between predators and prey.
"There were so many men over there and so few women," said Sandy Moreno, a single mother from Sacramento who served in Iraq as a psychiatric technician in one of the Army's "stress units," established as refuges for troubled soldiers.
"A lot of the (harassment complaints) we took with a grain of salt," she said. "We would ask the women, 'What do you think happened? How do you think you could have changed things?' "
Moreno said the women's complaints often concerned things like "slaps on the butt," or unwanted kissing.
"I'd say to them, 'Because of the situation we're in, maybe you shouldn't smile at him, maybe you should just ignore him.' One thing about the military, when you go to war, you really bond. Sometimes you make friends with the opposite sex, and sometimes there are misunderstandings."
But Kate Summers, a sexual trauma expert and director of services at the Miles Foundation - which advocates for women who are sexually assaulted or harassed in the military - said that a female soldier's uncomfortable feelings about a male colleague's comments or actions should not be discounted or chalked up to misunderstandings.
"It's not about whether she wore her camouflage shirt one button or two buttons open too much," Summers said. "What's at issue is the victim may have been describing a pattern of manipulation that is going to lead to assault.
"My reaction would have been entirely different. I'd say, 'Let's talk about the other encounters you've had.' "
Aside from the questionable efficacy of avoid-eye-contact counseling, the military is wrestling with trying to weld a zero-tolerance policy about sexual harassment onto soldiers' traditional code of silence about one another's behavior - particularly while at war.
In a combat zone, said Medina, the National Guard sergeant from Long Beach, "the rules change within the unit." On her first tour in Iraq, Medina herself was offered money for sex by another soldier. She turned him down but never reported it.
"If you do something to discredit your company, it's on your ass," she said.
Medina offered another reason women in the war zone were hesitant to file a harassment complaint against fellow soldiers.
"You don't know if that person will save your life out there," she said.
Fears of coming forward were heightened, other women said, by the possibility that neither they nor their assailants would be removed from the unit.
Standard military policy has been to give commanders wide discretion in separating accused and accuser, or deciding whether charges will be filed, or even investigated.
In testimony at a congressional hearing on sexual assault in the military, Gen. George Casey Jr., the Army's vice chief of staff, acknowledged that when a female soldier files a complaint against someone in her unit, it is strictly up to the unit commander to decide if anyone should be transferred - even if the accused is the alleged victim's commander.
"We don't dictate that," Casey said. "We leave that up to the commander on the scene to make an evaluation."
Critics of the military's attitudes point to problems that range from a shortage of rape examination and HIV testing kits in the war zone to encouraging women to use an injectable contraceptive called Depo-Provera so they won't menstruate during their tour.
"One woman rape victim in Afghanistan was given high doses of antibiotics after a rape and told, 'This will kill anything,' " said Summers, of the Miles Foundation. "It took her two weeks to get to a hospital."
From study to action
The U.S. military's problems with sex certainly didn't start with the war in Iraq.
After the Persian Gulf War, the Army acknowledged that its male personnel had committed at least 34 sex crimes, many of them rapes of female U.S. soldiers.
Graphic testimony by female Gulf War vets before a congressional committee prompted one senator to charge that during the brief conflict, U.S. female troops "were in greater danger of being sexually assaulted by our own troops than by the enemy."
In 1991, Navy and Marine pilots at a convention in Las Vegas molested at least 26 women. In 1996, it was revealed that dozens of female recruits had been sexually assaulted while training at the Army Ordnance Center in Aberdeen, Md. In 2003, an investigation found that 142 female cadets at the Air Force Academy alleged they had been assaulted during the previous nine years.
In each case, Pentagon officials launched task forces and studies, and promised reforms.
"Over the past 15 years ... we have had 18 major studies on sexual assault," said an exasperated Rep. John McHugh, D-N.Y., during a hearing last June on a Pentagon task force report on assault and harassment problems in the Iraq combat zone.
"That's more than one a year. And yet ... to put it kindly, we've got a long way to go before we have in place the kinds of programs, in terms of both prosecution and prevention and response, that are necessary."
Stung by such criticism, the Defense Department has announced a series of initiatives in recent months.
In October, Brig. Gen. K.C. McClain, an experienced Air Force command officer and educator, was appointed to head an eight-person team called the Joint Task Force for Sexual Assault Prevention and Response.
In January, the task force announced new policies for all military branches that include more support for victims and more training for everyone in uniform, along with the Pentagon's first-ever definitions of sexual assault and harassment.
Officials acknowledge that the lack of precise definitions has led to haphazard investigations and prosecutions.
"We're off to a good start," McClain said in announcing the policies, "but I need to be clear ... this is not a silver bullet. There is no overnight solution, and to do this right, it is going to take time."
McClain and other Pentagon officials acknowledge that all the policies in the world won't make much difference if commanders in the field don't implement them.
The sentiment is emphatically emphasized by military women, who say the level of sexual tension and the number of incidents within a unit depend on that unit's commander.
"It starts with the command," said National Guard Sgt. Sharon Stallworth. "He sets the tone."
Capt. Torrey Hubred commands Stallworth's unit, the Sacramento-based 2668th Transportation Company, which is currently in Iraq. According to Hubred - and troops serving under him - the unit has been largely free of sexual harassment problems.
Hubred attributes it to the "three golden rules" he lays down. The first is to treat others the way you would be treated. The second is to make decisions you wouldn't be ashamed to see in the headlines tomorrow.
"And the third," he said, "is ask, 'Would you do this if someone you love is watching?'"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEFINING THE CRIME
The first formal Department of Defense definition of sexual assault, announced Jan. 4:
* Sexual assault is a crime. It is defined as intentional sexual contact, characterized by use of force, physical threat or abuse of authority or when the victim does not or cannot consent.
* Sexual assault includes rape, nonconsensual sodomy (oral or anal sex), indecent assault (unwanted, inappropriate sexual contact or fondling), or attempts to commit these acts.
* Sexual assault can occur without regard to gender or spousal relationship or age of victim.
* "Consent" shall not be deemed or construed to mean the failure by the victim to offer physical resistance. Consent is not given when a person uses force, threat of force, coercion or when the victim is asleep, incapacitated, or unconscious.
TWO VIEWS
"What does it say about us as a people, as a nation, as the foremost military in the world, when our women soldiers sometimes have more to fear at the hands of their own fellow servicemen than from the enemy?"
- Sen. Susan Collins, D-Maine, Feb. 25, 2004, during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel.
"The contemporary culture is more promiscuous in recent years ... and people who come to the academy reflect the contemporary culture ... so it's not a climate at the Air Force Academy or a climate in the Air Force, there's a climate in the nation. You watch halftime shows at the Super Bowl or 'Girls Gone Wild' or whatever the heck is on MTV, you can see what today's youth brings to whatever they do."
- Gen. John Jumper, Air Force chief of staff, talking to reporters on Dec. 15 about the 142 reported sexual assaults at the Air Force Academy between 1993 and 2002.
http://aimpoints.hq.af.mil/display.cfm?id=1679
Reality for Women in the U.S. Military
Rape in Uniform
Only 10 years ago, drill instructors in the Marines led training runs with chants like, "One, two, three four. Every night we pray for war. Five, six, seven, eight. Rape. Kill. Mutilate."
Slogans like this are no longer official policy. But thousands of women in the U.S. military are being sexually harassed, abused and raped.
When people in poor, Black and Latino neighborhoods talk about the police, stories come spilling out--everyone with a tale of brutality and murder. When you ask women in the U.S. military about sexual harassment and rape--they too, all have stories of great pain and injustice.
Recently, more than two dozen women have come forward to say they were harassed or raped at an army training center in Maryland. Several sergeants have been charged with the sexual abuse and rape of young women soldiers. One of them, accused of raping nine women, threatened to kill his victims if they told their superiors. After this story hit the news, 2,000 calls poured into a phone line set up by the Army. Some calls reported sexual abuse during World War 2.
The U.S. military ended separate branches for men and women soldiers in 1973, and the number of women soldiers has increased by 400 percent since then. Today, about 190,000 women are active-duty soldiers--about 13 percent of the total U.S. military force of 1.46 million. But the more women have been integrated into the U.S. military, the more they have been abused and punished for stepping out of traditional women's roles.
Many youth join the U.S. military hoping to get an education. Recruiters tell them it's a way out of the ghetto, a way to "see the world." The latest post-cold war pitch is that the U.S. armed forces are about "liberating" people in war-torn Bosnia or Central Africa. Some women think the army's a place they can prove themselves and be treated equally. But the U.S. military is not about giving people a chance in life. It's about protecting the domination of U.S. imperialism throughout the world.
There is evidence that many thousands of women in the U.S. military have been sexually harassed, assaulted and raped. In a recent Pentagon survey, half of the 47,000 female soldiers, sailors and fliers who responded said they were subjected in the last year to some form of sexual harassment or abuse, including rape.
Remember the infamous Tailhook incident in Las Vegas where civilian and Navy women were assaulted by Navy men? In an ugly display of male power and debauchery, Navy men ripped the women's clothes off and passed them over their heads, hand-to-hand. This was only the tip of the iceberg.
Most of the thousands of incidents of sexual harassment and assault in the military are never reported. And when women do report such crimes, things for them usually only get worse.
Sixty percent of the women who told the Pentagon survey that they had been abused said they did not make a formal complaint--in large part because they feared retaliation. Many of the women who've been harassed and abused in the military talk about how they felt powerless because they were being victimized by commanding officers--who they were supposed to obey and submit to 24 hours a day.
Case in point: Darlene Simmons was a Lieutenant in the Navy. As a legal officer aboard the USS Canopus, her duties included advising the command "on all matters and cases involving sexual harassment." But this didn't prevent her from being sexually harassed! After being persistently harassed by a lieutenant commander for six months, she decided to report his actions. The ship's commanding officer told Simmons not to mention her complaint to anyone else. The harassment resumed and Simmons continued to resist. The commander doing the harassing--who was in charge of approving all Simmons' work--wrote a memo criticizing her performance, and other bad reports started appearing in her records. Simmons decided to call the office of a senator for help. And when her superiors learned of this, they locked her up in a psychiatric unit for four days.
Soldiers found guilty of rape can be sentenced up to life in prison. But most rapists in the U.S. military aren't punished at all. In fact, many women in the military who've been raped--some of them brutally gang-raped for hours--report the despair and humiliation of taking their case to a military hearing where the men in charge are "buddies" of the rapist. Frequently, the rapist gets a slap on the hand, while the woman gets punished.
Dr. Kathie Larsen is a clinical psychologist who counsels female vets who've been sexually abused. Women have told her that deciding to go public would end their career in the military, nothing would be done to the men, and instead they would be blamed. In fact, of the 100 cases Dr. Larsen has worked on, only two were resolved with formal discipline of an assailant or harasser.
And then there is the long history of U.S. soldiers raping civilian women wherever they've been stationed around the world. Take the ugly history of U.S. GIs in Okinawa. In Kin Town alone, where 21,000 Marines are stationed: A 12-year-old schoolgirl was abducted and raped by three U.S. soldiers in September 1995. Four months earlier, a 24-year-old woman was beaten to death with a hammer by a U.S. soldier. In 1993, a soldier raped an Okinawan woman, then escaped while in the custody of U.S. military police. In 1985, a 40-year-old woman was abducted and raped by two soldiers. In 1975, two junior high school students going for a swim at the beach were stoned until they lost consciousness and were then raped by a Marine. The year before, a 17-year-old woman was gang-raped by U.S. soldiers. And during the Vietnam War, 17 women were murdered by military personnel who were on R&R leave in Okinawa.
Sexual harassment, abuse and rape is the violent assertion of male power over women. It is widespread in bourgeois society in general. And in the U.S. military, it is enforced and promoted even more by the gung-ho, rape-and-pillage mentality that is part of every imperialist army.
*****
Bob Avakian, Chairman of the RCP, has pointed out that, "In a fundamental sense, an army is a concentration of the society it is fighting for--of the social and political relations, values, etc., that are dominant and characterize that society."
How does this apply to the U.S. armed forces?
The U.S. military serves U.S. imperialism. It fights to enforce the exploitation of the masses of people by a few. It fights to enforce the subjugation of oppressed nations and oppressed nationalities and the oppression of women. It enforces social inequality, and all the institutions and ideas that are a necessary part of this whole setup.
U.S. imperialism invades and dominates countries, and exploits people all over the world. It needs a powerful army to enforce this oppression and carry out wars to protect U.S. interests. The reactionary goals of the U.S. military are reflected in its whole nature--its fighting strategies, the way it is organized, and the relations between soldiers. It is an army that relies on a dictatorial hierarchy where superior officers have absolute authority and rank and file soldiers are constantly humiliated, intimidated, and kept ignorant of the real purpose of the wars they are sent to fight.
This is a system that can have Colin Powell head the armed forces--while Black men can't drive down the street without being stopped, brutalized and murdered by the police. This is a system where a woman like Madeline Albright can be appointed Secretary of State--while thousands of women in the military are sexually harassed, abused and raped.
But a revolutionary armed force with the goal of doing away with the oppression and exploitation of the capitalist/imperialist system would not tolerate such abuse of women within its ranks. One of its main sources of strength would be unleashing the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution--as military leaders and soldiers. Not only would women never be treated as the property of men--or as a prize of war--but there would be a determined struggle against any manifestation of the oppression of women within the ranks. The abuse of women among the masses or within the ranks of such an army would be punished with extreme severity. And perpetrators at whatever level--whether officers or rank-and-file soldiers--would be made examples of, with the maximum penalty for rape or similar sexual assault.
The recent exposures of sexual abuse and rape in the U.S. military should challenge the illusions people have about "equal opportunity" for women in the U.S. armed forces. It should teach us more about the nature of U.S. imperialism and its military. And it should also help us to dream about a different kind of army--when the time is right--a liberating and revolutionary army that fights for a whole different kind of society.
http://rwor.org/a/firstvol/886/rape.htm
Rape in Uniform
Only 10 years ago, drill instructors in the Marines led training runs with chants like, "One, two, three four. Every night we pray for war. Five, six, seven, eight. Rape. Kill. Mutilate."
Slogans like this are no longer official policy. But thousands of women in the U.S. military are being sexually harassed, abused and raped.
When people in poor, Black and Latino neighborhoods talk about the police, stories come spilling out--everyone with a tale of brutality and murder. When you ask women in the U.S. military about sexual harassment and rape--they too, all have stories of great pain and injustice.
Recently, more than two dozen women have come forward to say they were harassed or raped at an army training center in Maryland. Several sergeants have been charged with the sexual abuse and rape of young women soldiers. One of them, accused of raping nine women, threatened to kill his victims if they told their superiors. After this story hit the news, 2,000 calls poured into a phone line set up by the Army. Some calls reported sexual abuse during World War 2.
The U.S. military ended separate branches for men and women soldiers in 1973, and the number of women soldiers has increased by 400 percent since then. Today, about 190,000 women are active-duty soldiers--about 13 percent of the total U.S. military force of 1.46 million. But the more women have been integrated into the U.S. military, the more they have been abused and punished for stepping out of traditional women's roles.
Many youth join the U.S. military hoping to get an education. Recruiters tell them it's a way out of the ghetto, a way to "see the world." The latest post-cold war pitch is that the U.S. armed forces are about "liberating" people in war-torn Bosnia or Central Africa. Some women think the army's a place they can prove themselves and be treated equally. But the U.S. military is not about giving people a chance in life. It's about protecting the domination of U.S. imperialism throughout the world.
There is evidence that many thousands of women in the U.S. military have been sexually harassed, assaulted and raped. In a recent Pentagon survey, half of the 47,000 female soldiers, sailors and fliers who responded said they were subjected in the last year to some form of sexual harassment or abuse, including rape.
Remember the infamous Tailhook incident in Las Vegas where civilian and Navy women were assaulted by Navy men? In an ugly display of male power and debauchery, Navy men ripped the women's clothes off and passed them over their heads, hand-to-hand. This was only the tip of the iceberg.
Most of the thousands of incidents of sexual harassment and assault in the military are never reported. And when women do report such crimes, things for them usually only get worse.
Sixty percent of the women who told the Pentagon survey that they had been abused said they did not make a formal complaint--in large part because they feared retaliation. Many of the women who've been harassed and abused in the military talk about how they felt powerless because they were being victimized by commanding officers--who they were supposed to obey and submit to 24 hours a day.
Case in point: Darlene Simmons was a Lieutenant in the Navy. As a legal officer aboard the USS Canopus, her duties included advising the command "on all matters and cases involving sexual harassment." But this didn't prevent her from being sexually harassed! After being persistently harassed by a lieutenant commander for six months, she decided to report his actions. The ship's commanding officer told Simmons not to mention her complaint to anyone else. The harassment resumed and Simmons continued to resist. The commander doing the harassing--who was in charge of approving all Simmons' work--wrote a memo criticizing her performance, and other bad reports started appearing in her records. Simmons decided to call the office of a senator for help. And when her superiors learned of this, they locked her up in a psychiatric unit for four days.
Soldiers found guilty of rape can be sentenced up to life in prison. But most rapists in the U.S. military aren't punished at all. In fact, many women in the military who've been raped--some of them brutally gang-raped for hours--report the despair and humiliation of taking their case to a military hearing where the men in charge are "buddies" of the rapist. Frequently, the rapist gets a slap on the hand, while the woman gets punished.
Dr. Kathie Larsen is a clinical psychologist who counsels female vets who've been sexually abused. Women have told her that deciding to go public would end their career in the military, nothing would be done to the men, and instead they would be blamed. In fact, of the 100 cases Dr. Larsen has worked on, only two were resolved with formal discipline of an assailant or harasser.
And then there is the long history of U.S. soldiers raping civilian women wherever they've been stationed around the world. Take the ugly history of U.S. GIs in Okinawa. In Kin Town alone, where 21,000 Marines are stationed: A 12-year-old schoolgirl was abducted and raped by three U.S. soldiers in September 1995. Four months earlier, a 24-year-old woman was beaten to death with a hammer by a U.S. soldier. In 1993, a soldier raped an Okinawan woman, then escaped while in the custody of U.S. military police. In 1985, a 40-year-old woman was abducted and raped by two soldiers. In 1975, two junior high school students going for a swim at the beach were stoned until they lost consciousness and were then raped by a Marine. The year before, a 17-year-old woman was gang-raped by U.S. soldiers. And during the Vietnam War, 17 women were murdered by military personnel who were on R&R leave in Okinawa.
Sexual harassment, abuse and rape is the violent assertion of male power over women. It is widespread in bourgeois society in general. And in the U.S. military, it is enforced and promoted even more by the gung-ho, rape-and-pillage mentality that is part of every imperialist army.
*****
Bob Avakian, Chairman of the RCP, has pointed out that, "In a fundamental sense, an army is a concentration of the society it is fighting for--of the social and political relations, values, etc., that are dominant and characterize that society."
How does this apply to the U.S. armed forces?
The U.S. military serves U.S. imperialism. It fights to enforce the exploitation of the masses of people by a few. It fights to enforce the subjugation of oppressed nations and oppressed nationalities and the oppression of women. It enforces social inequality, and all the institutions and ideas that are a necessary part of this whole setup.
U.S. imperialism invades and dominates countries, and exploits people all over the world. It needs a powerful army to enforce this oppression and carry out wars to protect U.S. interests. The reactionary goals of the U.S. military are reflected in its whole nature--its fighting strategies, the way it is organized, and the relations between soldiers. It is an army that relies on a dictatorial hierarchy where superior officers have absolute authority and rank and file soldiers are constantly humiliated, intimidated, and kept ignorant of the real purpose of the wars they are sent to fight.
This is a system that can have Colin Powell head the armed forces--while Black men can't drive down the street without being stopped, brutalized and murdered by the police. This is a system where a woman like Madeline Albright can be appointed Secretary of State--while thousands of women in the military are sexually harassed, abused and raped.
But a revolutionary armed force with the goal of doing away with the oppression and exploitation of the capitalist/imperialist system would not tolerate such abuse of women within its ranks. One of its main sources of strength would be unleashing the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution--as military leaders and soldiers. Not only would women never be treated as the property of men--or as a prize of war--but there would be a determined struggle against any manifestation of the oppression of women within the ranks. The abuse of women among the masses or within the ranks of such an army would be punished with extreme severity. And perpetrators at whatever level--whether officers or rank-and-file soldiers--would be made examples of, with the maximum penalty for rape or similar sexual assault.
The recent exposures of sexual abuse and rape in the U.S. military should challenge the illusions people have about "equal opportunity" for women in the U.S. armed forces. It should teach us more about the nature of U.S. imperialism and its military. And it should also help us to dream about a different kind of army--when the time is right--a liberating and revolutionary army that fights for a whole different kind of society.
http://rwor.org/a/firstvol/886/rape.htm
I'm sure these numbers are low .... as well being over a year ago.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/edito...view-usat_x.htm
Rape in the military: Female troops deserve much better
Posted 2/5/2004 8:58 PM
More than 59,000 female troops have been deployed overseas to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They have flown combat missions, served on ships and, in 12 cases, died in Iraq — stark evidence of the equality women have attained as soldiers.
Yet, when several reported sexual assaults in the combat zone during the past year, equal treatment vanished. They say their complaints were ignored or spurred mistreatment by male superiors.
Thirty-seven women who have served in Iraq and Kuwait in recent months have reported to a civilian group that they were sexually assaulted by fellow troops or superiors during their assignments overseas. They or their families contacted the Miles Foundation, a Connecticut-based organization known for championing the cause of abused military women.
The military's efforts to crack down on sexual assaults are hampered in part by the reluctance of some victims to report their attacks. And a study of veterans released last year found that is a common response. In fact, a majority of the 37 women told Miles counselors they did not file complaints because they feared damage to their careers or retribution from their attackers, who continued to work in the same vicinities.
In spite of victims' reluctance to step forward, enough assault accusations have been lodged to prompt closer scrutiny. That is the best way to determine why women who protect their country get so little protection themselves from the Pentagon.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/edito...view-usat_x.htm
Rape in the military: Female troops deserve much better
Posted 2/5/2004 8:58 PM
More than 59,000 female troops have been deployed overseas to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They have flown combat missions, served on ships and, in 12 cases, died in Iraq — stark evidence of the equality women have attained as soldiers.
Yet, when several reported sexual assaults in the combat zone during the past year, equal treatment vanished. They say their complaints were ignored or spurred mistreatment by male superiors.
Thirty-seven women who have served in Iraq and Kuwait in recent months have reported to a civilian group that they were sexually assaulted by fellow troops or superiors during their assignments overseas. They or their families contacted the Miles Foundation, a Connecticut-based organization known for championing the cause of abused military women.
The military's efforts to crack down on sexual assaults are hampered in part by the reluctance of some victims to report their attacks. And a study of veterans released last year found that is a common response. In fact, a majority of the 37 women told Miles counselors they did not file complaints because they feared damage to their careers or retribution from their attackers, who continued to work in the same vicinities.
In spite of victims' reluctance to step forward, enough assault accusations have been lodged to prompt closer scrutiny. That is the best way to determine why women who protect their country get so little protection themselves from the Pentagon.
Women Soldiers
I haven't heard much in the news about women serving in Iraq. Not only is it mostly uncharted territory for women serving but many of us are also single parents with very difficult situations at home while we are serving.
I found that the Military has a double standard about women serving in combat zones. They allow us to go, expect us to serve and then deny us the right to do our job alongside our fellow soldiers. There definately is a double standard.
After coming home I have had a very difficult time getting any kind of help from the military because I have to work full time and am also a single parent. Many organizations assume you have a spouse who can take care of things for you and there is no help for families who do not have the second person to work full time within the system.
hm1dougherty
03.18.2005
http://www.optruth.org/main.cfm?actionId=g...es&userID=94376
I haven't heard much in the news about women serving in Iraq. Not only is it mostly uncharted territory for women serving but many of us are also single parents with very difficult situations at home while we are serving.
I found that the Military has a double standard about women serving in combat zones. They allow us to go, expect us to serve and then deny us the right to do our job alongside our fellow soldiers. There definately is a double standard.
After coming home I have had a very difficult time getting any kind of help from the military because I have to work full time and am also a single parent. Many organizations assume you have a spouse who can take care of things for you and there is no help for families who do not have the second person to work full time within the system.
hm1dougherty
03.18.2005
http://www.optruth.org/main.cfm?actionId=g...es&userID=94376
http://womensissues.about.com/cs/militaryw...rforcerapes.htm
Rapes/Sexual Assault at the Air Force Academy
Nov 4 2003
History/Facts:
Indications of negative attitudes toward women at the U.S. major military academies came to light in the early 1990s. A January 1994 General Accounting Office report (GAO/NSIAD-94-6) determined that 50 to 75% of women at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., the Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., and the Air Force Academy had experienced various forms of sexual harassment at least twice a month. GAO defined sexual harassment as “words, gestures, or actions with sexual connotations which are unwelcome and tend to intimidate, alarm or abuse another person.” In this survey, 59% of female students at the Air Force Academy reported experiencing one or more forms of sexual harassment, while 50% of female students at the Naval Academy and 76% of female students at West Point reported the same.
Rapes/Sexual Assault at the Air Force Academy
Nov 4 2003
History/Facts:
Indications of negative attitudes toward women at the U.S. major military academies came to light in the early 1990s. A January 1994 General Accounting Office report (GAO/NSIAD-94-6) determined that 50 to 75% of women at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., the Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., and the Air Force Academy had experienced various forms of sexual harassment at least twice a month. GAO defined sexual harassment as “words, gestures, or actions with sexual connotations which are unwelcome and tend to intimidate, alarm or abuse another person.” In this survey, 59% of female students at the Air Force Academy reported experiencing one or more forms of sexual harassment, while 50% of female students at the Naval Academy and 76% of female students at West Point reported the same.
This is absloulely disgusting! Mentality is ate up!
http://www.stopfamilyviolence.org/sfvo/mil_sa_iraq.html
OVER 100 WOMEN SEXUALLY ASSAULTED
IN IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN
MAY 18 | The US serviceman waited outside the latrine and hit the woman on the back of the head as she exited, knocking her unconscious. He tied her hands with cord, blindfolded her, cut her clothes off with a knife, stuffed her underwear in her mouth and then raped her. When she regained consciousness and began to resist, he threatened to rape her with the knife instead. He hit her in the head again, this time forcefully between the eyes, again causing her to lose consciousness. When she came to she was transported to another facility where she was interrogated for three hours. She received no medical treatment for her head injuries. She was left in isolation for an extended period, and her requests for religious counsel were denied.
Sound like the latest exposé from Abu Ghraib? Guess again. It's just one of the more than 100 incidents of rape, sexual assault and other forms of sexual misconduct reported in the past 18 months by U.S. women soldiers currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan who have been sexually assaulted by fellow U.S. soldiers.
The military's response to these victims has been grossly inadequate. Many victims did not receive even the most basic medical care. Emergency contraception, rape evidence kits, testing for sexually transmitted infections, prophylactic treatment or testing for HIV, and rape crisis counseling are not consistently available. Military personnel lack even common-sense sensitivity as to how to respond to rape trauma; one mental health counselor cleared an Army sergeant who had just been raped to go out on missions again, feeling it would be good for her to "keep busy." Prosecution of these crimes is delayed indefinitely, and servicewomen must often continue to serve in the same unit - and sometimes sleep in the same barrack - with their assailant.
In February, after Pentagon officials admitted receiving 112 reports of sexual assault of troops deployed in the Middle East over the previous 18 months, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appointed a task force, headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Ellen Embrey to investigate the problem and make recommendations. Those findings were released May 13th in a 114-page document titled "Task Force Report on Care for Victims of Sexual Assault."
For 20 years women service members have been sexually assaulted in ways every bit as dehumanizing and agonizing as the assaults on prisoners in Abu Ghraib. The behavior of the men who commit these crimes is every bit as appalling, and the failures of leadership equally egregious. Maybe after fifteen years of management apathy and reports that go nowhere, the most important action we could take would be to send our women service members digital cameras.
http://www.stopfamilyviolence.org/sfvo/mil_sa_iraq.html
OVER 100 WOMEN SEXUALLY ASSAULTED
IN IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN
MAY 18 | The US serviceman waited outside the latrine and hit the woman on the back of the head as she exited, knocking her unconscious. He tied her hands with cord, blindfolded her, cut her clothes off with a knife, stuffed her underwear in her mouth and then raped her. When she regained consciousness and began to resist, he threatened to rape her with the knife instead. He hit her in the head again, this time forcefully between the eyes, again causing her to lose consciousness. When she came to she was transported to another facility where she was interrogated for three hours. She received no medical treatment for her head injuries. She was left in isolation for an extended period, and her requests for religious counsel were denied.
Sound like the latest exposé from Abu Ghraib? Guess again. It's just one of the more than 100 incidents of rape, sexual assault and other forms of sexual misconduct reported in the past 18 months by U.S. women soldiers currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan who have been sexually assaulted by fellow U.S. soldiers.
The military's response to these victims has been grossly inadequate. Many victims did not receive even the most basic medical care. Emergency contraception, rape evidence kits, testing for sexually transmitted infections, prophylactic treatment or testing for HIV, and rape crisis counseling are not consistently available. Military personnel lack even common-sense sensitivity as to how to respond to rape trauma; one mental health counselor cleared an Army sergeant who had just been raped to go out on missions again, feeling it would be good for her to "keep busy." Prosecution of these crimes is delayed indefinitely, and servicewomen must often continue to serve in the same unit - and sometimes sleep in the same barrack - with their assailant.
In February, after Pentagon officials admitted receiving 112 reports of sexual assault of troops deployed in the Middle East over the previous 18 months, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appointed a task force, headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Ellen Embrey to investigate the problem and make recommendations. Those findings were released May 13th in a 114-page document titled "Task Force Report on Care for Victims of Sexual Assault."
For 20 years women service members have been sexually assaulted in ways every bit as dehumanizing and agonizing as the assaults on prisoners in Abu Ghraib. The behavior of the men who commit these crimes is every bit as appalling, and the failures of leadership equally egregious. Maybe after fifteen years of management apathy and reports that go nowhere, the most important action we could take would be to send our women service members digital cameras.
Army Officer Acquitted of Raping Soldier
Updated 7:18 AM ET April 28, 2005
By SAMIRA JAFARI
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...89ocd801&src=ap
FORT RUCKER, Ala. (AP) - An Army officer was acquitted of raping a female counterpart in her barracks room when a judge ruled that their night of dancing led to consensual sex.
First Lt. Mike Hall, 35, also faced charges of adultery and having sex without informing his partner that he had genital herpes.
Hall was acquitted of adultery but convicted on the sex transmission charge, which falls under a military law prohibiting acts "unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman."
Defense lawyers argued that 1st Lt. Jennifer Dyer, 26, concocted the allegations to keep from being sent to Iraq.
Hall had testified in his court-martial that a night of dancing, flirting and kissing with Dyer last August led to consensual sex, not rape as she alleged. He said Dyer invited him into her room at Camp Shelby in Mississippi and that, during two short episodes of intercourse, he stopped both times when she said "No."
Prosecutors wanted Hall to be sentenced to a year in prison or dismissed from the military on the sex transmission charge. But the judge, Col. Richard Gordon, ordered Hall to forfeit $1,000 of his monthly pay of some $3,700 for four months. He said Hall would receive a written reprimand.
The judge said Hall's deployment to Iraq to rejoin his unit would be up to his company commander, who has said he is in favor of it.
"I want the opportunity to still go serve with my unit," Hall said. "I want to show what I did was a mistake."
The prosecutor, Capt. Richard Dodson, said the evidence against Hall showed he "has no respect for Army values."
The judge acquitted Hall, who lives in Murfreesboro, Tenn., on the most serious charge of rape after a three-day trial at which Dyer testified that Hall forced her to have sex twice. She said she was too afraid of Hall to call for help in the barracks.
Dyer cried when the verdict was read and was escorted away without making any statement. Dyer, a National Guard soldier from New Jersey at the time, has since been honorably discharged and returned to her law enforcement job with a sheriff's department in New Jersey.
Dyer went public with her story on CBS' "60 Minutes," complaining that Army investigators doubted her claim and put her in a hotel room without access to a phone for two days.
Updated 7:18 AM ET April 28, 2005
By SAMIRA JAFARI
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...89ocd801&src=ap
FORT RUCKER, Ala. (AP) - An Army officer was acquitted of raping a female counterpart in her barracks room when a judge ruled that their night of dancing led to consensual sex.
First Lt. Mike Hall, 35, also faced charges of adultery and having sex without informing his partner that he had genital herpes.
Hall was acquitted of adultery but convicted on the sex transmission charge, which falls under a military law prohibiting acts "unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman."
Defense lawyers argued that 1st Lt. Jennifer Dyer, 26, concocted the allegations to keep from being sent to Iraq.
Hall had testified in his court-martial that a night of dancing, flirting and kissing with Dyer last August led to consensual sex, not rape as she alleged. He said Dyer invited him into her room at Camp Shelby in Mississippi and that, during two short episodes of intercourse, he stopped both times when she said "No."
Prosecutors wanted Hall to be sentenced to a year in prison or dismissed from the military on the sex transmission charge. But the judge, Col. Richard Gordon, ordered Hall to forfeit $1,000 of his monthly pay of some $3,700 for four months. He said Hall would receive a written reprimand.
The judge said Hall's deployment to Iraq to rejoin his unit would be up to his company commander, who has said he is in favor of it.
"I want the opportunity to still go serve with my unit," Hall said. "I want to show what I did was a mistake."
The prosecutor, Capt. Richard Dodson, said the evidence against Hall showed he "has no respect for Army values."
The judge acquitted Hall, who lives in Murfreesboro, Tenn., on the most serious charge of rape after a three-day trial at which Dyer testified that Hall forced her to have sex twice. She said she was too afraid of Hall to call for help in the barracks.
Dyer cried when the verdict was read and was escorted away without making any statement. Dyer, a National Guard soldier from New Jersey at the time, has since been honorably discharged and returned to her law enforcement job with a sheriff's department in New Jersey.
Dyer went public with her story on CBS' "60 Minutes," complaining that Army investigators doubted her claim and put her in a hotel room without access to a phone for two days.
QUOTE(heritage @ Apr 28 2005, 04:49 PM)
Army Officer Acquitted of Raping Soldier
Updated 7:18 AM ET April 28, 2005
By SAMIRA JAFARI
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...89ocd801&src=ap
FORT RUCKER, Ala. (AP) - An Army officer was acquitted of raping a female counterpart in her barracks room when a judge ruled that their night of dancing led to consensual sex.
Updated 7:18 AM ET April 28, 2005
By SAMIRA JAFARI
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...89ocd801&src=ap
FORT RUCKER, Ala. (AP) - An Army officer was acquitted of raping a female counterpart in her barracks room when a judge ruled that their night of dancing led to consensual sex.
Thanks for the article heritage....
There is a friend in the females corner with all of this. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a member of the armed services panel. Keep her posted with her efforts to fight sexual abuse in the military.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/n...cs/11444913.htm
Posted on Wed, Apr. 20, 2005
Lawmaker says sexual assault victims in military need more protections
BY KELLY SNOWDEN
The Orange County Register
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Women in the military who are sexually assaulted need greater legal protections than those outlined in a new Defense Department recommendation, says Rep. Loretta Sanchez.
The department sent a report to the Senate and House Armed Services committees on April 7, suggesting modifications to the military's sexual assault laws. They include a section on stalking as well as a broader definition of sexual abuse of prisoners. But the report, which was a month late, does not recommend changing the definition of sexual assault, which is what Sanchez said women in the military need most.
Sanchez, D-Santa Ana, a member of the armed services panel, is seeking better definitions for rape in military law. Instances such as date rape or rape of an intoxicated person, she said, are not clearly defined in current code.
Sanchez added that she would continue to work with her committee and members of the Senate to get stronger definition of sexual assault into the defense authorization bill in June or July.
Feb. 20, 2005
Army Rape Accuser Speaks Out
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/17/...ain674791.shtml
(CBS) Few problems have been more persistent or produced more bad news for the military than the issue of rape within its own ranks.
Allegations that not enough is being done to help victims or prosecute offenders have been raised from the service academies to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan -- where hundreds of cases of sexual assault have been reported by women in uniform.
It was that revelation, plus pressure from Congress, that’s forced the Pentagon to once again examine sexual misconduct in the military – which has been done 18 times in the last 16 years. The result has been more recommendations and sweeping policy changes.
But there are plenty of skeptics, and one of them is Lt. Jennifer Dyer, who talks to Correspondent Steve Kroft in her first interview after accusing a fellow officer of rape.
"They’ve done nothing but lie to me and treat me like a criminal," says Dyer.
Dyer says she reported the rape "within 10 to 15 minutes," and after she was taken to the emergency room to be examined, she was then sequestered for three days without access to a telephone.
She says her story was greeted with disbelief by military investigators and indifference from her command, which gave her only a two-week convalescent leave, then refused to extend it.
"They stated that two weeks was enough time to recover from such an incident," says Dyer. "I was told that if I didn't return on time, they would send MPs to my door and have me arrested."
Army Rape Accuser Speaks Out
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/17/...ain674791.shtml
(CBS) Few problems have been more persistent or produced more bad news for the military than the issue of rape within its own ranks.
Allegations that not enough is being done to help victims or prosecute offenders have been raised from the service academies to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan -- where hundreds of cases of sexual assault have been reported by women in uniform.
It was that revelation, plus pressure from Congress, that’s forced the Pentagon to once again examine sexual misconduct in the military – which has been done 18 times in the last 16 years. The result has been more recommendations and sweeping policy changes.
But there are plenty of skeptics, and one of them is Lt. Jennifer Dyer, who talks to Correspondent Steve Kroft in her first interview after accusing a fellow officer of rape.
"They’ve done nothing but lie to me and treat me like a criminal," says Dyer.
Dyer says she reported the rape "within 10 to 15 minutes," and after she was taken to the emergency room to be examined, she was then sequestered for three days without access to a telephone.
She says her story was greeted with disbelief by military investigators and indifference from her command, which gave her only a two-week convalescent leave, then refused to extend it.
"They stated that two weeks was enough time to recover from such an incident," says Dyer. "I was told that if I didn't return on time, they would send MPs to my door and have me arrested."
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0205/021805p1.htm
DAILY BRIEFING
February 18, 2005
Sexual assaults continue among service members abroad
By Daniel Pulliam
dpulliam@govexec.com
A nonprofit victim's support group reported Thursday that sexual assaults continue to occur among members of the armed services stationed in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Bahrain.
The Miles Foundation said it has received 307 reports of sexual assaults from soldiers deployed overseas since units were deployed in their respective locations. The victims are predominantly female active-duty service members, but also include active-duty National Guard personnel.
In October 2004, the foundation reported 243 assaults. Foundation spokeswoman Anita Sanchez said the 64 additional assaults underscores what is actually going on in the deployed units.
Assailants include service members, guard personnel, coalition partners and other foreign nationals. The reports include assailants with multiple victims, and victims who have been assaulted multiple times.
"The report is an indication that there's an ongoing challenge relative to sexual assault in deployed units," Sanchez said. "What is of concern to us is that we continue to receive reports of alleged offenders with multiple victims."
Sanchez said the foundation does not know the military's count of sexual assaults and how they compare with the number of assaults reported to victim support group.
The report included 39 cases of sexual assault during pre-deployment training periods. Reports of sexual assaults following deployments were also reported.
The Miles report said that 104 of the cases they've been informed of had been reported to military authorities, including chaplains, command criminal investigators and medical personnel. Several victims of sexual assault have returned from deployment without a final disposition of the investigation.
"The availability of supplies, such as rape evidence kits, and trained personnel to provide care and treatment remains a challenge for victims in deployed units," said Kate Summers, the foundation's director of services.
DAILY BRIEFING
February 18, 2005
Sexual assaults continue among service members abroad
By Daniel Pulliam
dpulliam@govexec.com
A nonprofit victim's support group reported Thursday that sexual assaults continue to occur among members of the armed services stationed in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Bahrain.
The Miles Foundation said it has received 307 reports of sexual assaults from soldiers deployed overseas since units were deployed in their respective locations. The victims are predominantly female active-duty service members, but also include active-duty National Guard personnel.
In October 2004, the foundation reported 243 assaults. Foundation spokeswoman Anita Sanchez said the 64 additional assaults underscores what is actually going on in the deployed units.
Assailants include service members, guard personnel, coalition partners and other foreign nationals. The reports include assailants with multiple victims, and victims who have been assaulted multiple times.
"The report is an indication that there's an ongoing challenge relative to sexual assault in deployed units," Sanchez said. "What is of concern to us is that we continue to receive reports of alleged offenders with multiple victims."
Sanchez said the foundation does not know the military's count of sexual assaults and how they compare with the number of assaults reported to victim support group.
The report included 39 cases of sexual assault during pre-deployment training periods. Reports of sexual assaults following deployments were also reported.
The Miles report said that 104 of the cases they've been informed of had been reported to military authorities, including chaplains, command criminal investigators and medical personnel. Several victims of sexual assault have returned from deployment without a final disposition of the investigation.
"The availability of supplies, such as rape evidence kits, and trained personnel to provide care and treatment remains a challenge for victims in deployed units," said Kate Summers, the foundation's director of services.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/edito...-our-view_x.htm
Posted 3/27/2005 8:22 PM
Sexual assaults in military bring shame, not action
Ask a question, and the Pentagon can drown you in numbers.
How many are serving in the armed forces' four branches? In January, 1,409,564. That was 1,723 less than in December. The Pentagon has figures going back to the 1950s.
Now, how many military women reported sexual assaults in the past few years? How many people were arrested or punished?
Despite a succession of embarrassments, the Pentagon lacks answers — at least publicly. It says the numbers are almost ready and will be reported to Congress on May 1. Less clear, though, is whether the problem will finally get the priority that it deserves.
Since the early 1990s, studies, scandals and news accounts have shown that women in uniform are plagued by sexual abuse. The disclosures led to a succession of investigations but only minor policy changes.
Ten days ago came more evidence, when a 2004 Pentagon survey of the three military academies was released. One in 7 female cadets said they'd been victims of sexual abuse — ranging from unwanted advances to rape — during the previous five years. Only a third of the incidents were reported.
The Pentagon seems to take comfort in noting that the academies' experience mirrors the rest of society. David Chu, undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, said that the figures reflect the underreporting of rape at colleges across the nation: The academies "are about where the college campuses are, tragically."
That's true, but it misses the point.
The problem is that the military does not provide women some of the common protections they get in civilian society, even though they have nowhere else to turn.
Outside the military, a woman can report a crime to police without fear that colleagues at work will find out. Independent prosecutors determine whether a suspect will stand trial. In the armed forces, commanders make those decisions by weighing evidence involving personnel under their supervision, including, at times, the rape victim. That makes women wary of filing complaints.
Further, military sexual assault laws are outdated. Since the 1970s, civilian laws on rape have changed to recognize a broader range of conduct as sexual assault, such as date rape. But the half-century-old military rape statute has not kept pace, making it more difficult to prosecute some cases.
Last year, Congress ordered the Pentagon to propose revisions of assault statutes by this month. Military officials say that, too, is in the works. But, like promises to collect basic data, the push came from outside.
For reform to work, the brass will have to take these crimes seriously. The Pentagon's track record suggests that has yet to happen.
Posted 3/27/2005 8:22 PM
Sexual assaults in military bring shame, not action
Ask a question, and the Pentagon can drown you in numbers.
How many are serving in the armed forces' four branches? In January, 1,409,564. That was 1,723 less than in December. The Pentagon has figures going back to the 1950s.
Now, how many military women reported sexual assaults in the past few years? How many people were arrested or punished?
Despite a succession of embarrassments, the Pentagon lacks answers — at least publicly. It says the numbers are almost ready and will be reported to Congress on May 1. Less clear, though, is whether the problem will finally get the priority that it deserves.
Since the early 1990s, studies, scandals and news accounts have shown that women in uniform are plagued by sexual abuse. The disclosures led to a succession of investigations but only minor policy changes.
Ten days ago came more evidence, when a 2004 Pentagon survey of the three military academies was released. One in 7 female cadets said they'd been victims of sexual abuse — ranging from unwanted advances to rape — during the previous five years. Only a third of the incidents were reported.
The Pentagon seems to take comfort in noting that the academies' experience mirrors the rest of society. David Chu, undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, said that the figures reflect the underreporting of rape at colleges across the nation: The academies "are about where the college campuses are, tragically."
That's true, but it misses the point.
The problem is that the military does not provide women some of the common protections they get in civilian society, even though they have nowhere else to turn.
Outside the military, a woman can report a crime to police without fear that colleagues at work will find out. Independent prosecutors determine whether a suspect will stand trial. In the armed forces, commanders make those decisions by weighing evidence involving personnel under their supervision, including, at times, the rape victim. That makes women wary of filing complaints.
Further, military sexual assault laws are outdated. Since the 1970s, civilian laws on rape have changed to recognize a broader range of conduct as sexual assault, such as date rape. But the half-century-old military rape statute has not kept pace, making it more difficult to prosecute some cases.
Last year, Congress ordered the Pentagon to propose revisions of assault statutes by this month. Military officials say that, too, is in the works. But, like promises to collect basic data, the push came from outside.
For reform to work, the brass will have to take these crimes seriously. The Pentagon's track record suggests that has yet to happen.
http://www.refusingtokill.net/rape/IReport...in30Minutes.htm
I reported the rape within 30 minutes - then watched my career implode
by Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian, 25 October 2004
The worst thing for Captain Jennifer Machmer was knowing that the US army had actually promoted her rapist. Four years in the military, from proud passing out at West Point to humiliating discharge, had provided an education into the Pentagon's thinking on sexual assault in the ranks, but Machmer never expected an accused rapist to be rewarded.
Her story, narrated to a hushed Congressional committee chamber in April this year, was a rare first-person account of the dangers faced by women soldiers during the Iraq war from their fellow troops. With thousands of women on the front line of America's war on terror, the Pentagon has been forced to acknowledge that female soldiers are at risk from their comrades in arms, and that, in the US military, rapists often go unpunished.
As Machmer's experiences in uniform reveal, the culture of violence runs deep. In her first command, she was nominally in charge of a soldier who regularly abused and threatened her. Machmer had the soldier transferred, and he was punished with a £475 fine. In her second posting, in 2002, the military chaplain she was seeing for marriage counselling sexually abused her. Machmer opted for discretion, and did not file a complaint.
Later, in Kuwait during the run-up to the American invasion of Iraq in early 2003, she was raped. "There was no way I could file away another violation," she told the congressional committee. After asking herself, "do I stay quiet and just suck up the life that has been ruined, or do I speak out and try to go back to that route I was on," the captain reported the attack within 30 minutes. Then she watched her career implode. Under the narrow definition of military law, the assault was not considered rape - though it would have been under a criminal law in most states.
Machmer was discharged against her wishes, on a partial pension because of post-traumatic stress disorder. Her assailant was transferred to a prized post. "The aftermath of the report has been terrifying," she told the Congressional women's caucus. "Every time you turn around, you are re-victimised, and retraumatised."
As of September this year, the Miles Foundation had received credible reports of rape or sexual assault (in the period August 2002 to August 2003) from 243 women serving in the US military in Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Afghanistan. An additional 431 instances of assault were reported elsewhere. No figures are available for the rape of male soldiers serving in Iraq, although campaigners say there are such cases. Meanwhile, the Miles Foundation says it has charted a sharp increase in reports of domestic violence among military families with soldiers returned from the war.
Hansen believes the reported rapes account for just a fraction of the attacks. Most of the known victims were senior non-commissioned officers or officers - which Hansen says suggests that junior personnel are even more afraid of coming forward.
And who could blame them? A woman who reports a rape often suffers hazing (humiliation) and retaliation. She may be forced to continue serving with her attacker. In extreme cases, she may be thrown in the brig [military jail] and be accused of sexual misconduct. "It's a career ender," says Louise Slaughter, a Democratic congresswoman from New York and leader of the women's caucus. "The sad thing is that, in addition to everything else, we are losing brain power, and people who would be extraordinary soldiers."
That was the experience of Beth Jameson, a major in the US army reserve, who was assigned to a large staging area in Kuwait. She was raped on March 20 2003, the first night of the war, in the shower block during an alert for a feared chemical attack. In May this year she told ABC television: "I donned my mask and my chemical suit, and my gloves, and my boots, everything. So I stayed there and waited for the all-clear sign to come about. Well, then all of a sudden there was a knock on the bathroom door. And the door opened and somebody said, are you OK? And I gave my thumb up, saying, yeah, I'm fine. And the door shut. And then, it seems like a split-second later, the door just flew open and this person jumped in. He turned on me, kneed me in the groin and pushed me in the back of the bathroom. He pushed me to the ground and I fought with him."
She soon became convinced that the authorities were not interested in a prosecution. The investigators asked repeatedly if she had been having an affair with her attacker. She was also told that military regulations did not permit investigators to match the semen sample against the DNA registry of US service personnel, which is maintained to identify remains.
Major Jameson told ABC: "I'm just angry now at the system - the military system that won't protect the victim. I understand now why women don't bring forward the fact that they've been attacked - because they're made to be the victim again."
I reported the rape within 30 minutes - then watched my career implode
by Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian, 25 October 2004
The worst thing for Captain Jennifer Machmer was knowing that the US army had actually promoted her rapist. Four years in the military, from proud passing out at West Point to humiliating discharge, had provided an education into the Pentagon's thinking on sexual assault in the ranks, but Machmer never expected an accused rapist to be rewarded.
Her story, narrated to a hushed Congressional committee chamber in April this year, was a rare first-person account of the dangers faced by women soldiers during the Iraq war from their fellow troops. With thousands of women on the front line of America's war on terror, the Pentagon has been forced to acknowledge that female soldiers are at risk from their comrades in arms, and that, in the US military, rapists often go unpunished.
As Machmer's experiences in uniform reveal, the culture of violence runs deep. In her first command, she was nominally in charge of a soldier who regularly abused and threatened her. Machmer had the soldier transferred, and he was punished with a £475 fine. In her second posting, in 2002, the military chaplain she was seeing for marriage counselling sexually abused her. Machmer opted for discretion, and did not file a complaint.
Later, in Kuwait during the run-up to the American invasion of Iraq in early 2003, she was raped. "There was no way I could file away another violation," she told the congressional committee. After asking herself, "do I stay quiet and just suck up the life that has been ruined, or do I speak out and try to go back to that route I was on," the captain reported the attack within 30 minutes. Then she watched her career implode. Under the narrow definition of military law, the assault was not considered rape - though it would have been under a criminal law in most states.
Machmer was discharged against her wishes, on a partial pension because of post-traumatic stress disorder. Her assailant was transferred to a prized post. "The aftermath of the report has been terrifying," she told the Congressional women's caucus. "Every time you turn around, you are re-victimised, and retraumatised."
As of September this year, the Miles Foundation had received credible reports of rape or sexual assault (in the period August 2002 to August 2003) from 243 women serving in the US military in Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Afghanistan. An additional 431 instances of assault were reported elsewhere. No figures are available for the rape of male soldiers serving in Iraq, although campaigners say there are such cases. Meanwhile, the Miles Foundation says it has charted a sharp increase in reports of domestic violence among military families with soldiers returned from the war.
Hansen believes the reported rapes account for just a fraction of the attacks. Most of the known victims were senior non-commissioned officers or officers - which Hansen says suggests that junior personnel are even more afraid of coming forward.
And who could blame them? A woman who reports a rape often suffers hazing (humiliation) and retaliation. She may be forced to continue serving with her attacker. In extreme cases, she may be thrown in the brig [military jail] and be accused of sexual misconduct. "It's a career ender," says Louise Slaughter, a Democratic congresswoman from New York and leader of the women's caucus. "The sad thing is that, in addition to everything else, we are losing brain power, and people who would be extraordinary soldiers."
That was the experience of Beth Jameson, a major in the US army reserve, who was assigned to a large staging area in Kuwait. She was raped on March 20 2003, the first night of the war, in the shower block during an alert for a feared chemical attack. In May this year she told ABC television: "I donned my mask and my chemical suit, and my gloves, and my boots, everything. So I stayed there and waited for the all-clear sign to come about. Well, then all of a sudden there was a knock on the bathroom door. And the door opened and somebody said, are you OK? And I gave my thumb up, saying, yeah, I'm fine. And the door shut. And then, it seems like a split-second later, the door just flew open and this person jumped in. He turned on me, kneed me in the groin and pushed me in the back of the bathroom. He pushed me to the ground and I fought with him."
She soon became convinced that the authorities were not interested in a prosecution. The investigators asked repeatedly if she had been having an affair with her attacker. She was also told that military regulations did not permit investigators to match the semen sample against the DNA registry of US service personnel, which is maintained to identify remains.
Major Jameson told ABC: "I'm just angry now at the system - the military system that won't protect the victim. I understand now why women don't bring forward the fact that they've been attacked - because they're made to be the victim again."
http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/june94pohl.htm
Gender Politics
Tailhook '91: Women, Violence, and the U.S. Navy
By Frances K. Pohl
It is in this light that the 1991 Tailhook Association convention in Las Vegas must be understood. The multiple attacks on women documented in the investigative report of Derek J. Vander Schaaf, the Deputy Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defense, were part of a well-orchestrated series of rituals, ones not new to the 1991 convention. These rituals were intended to put women "in their place," particularly those women who had become a part of this elite military order. Vander Schaaf notes in the foreword to his report that it was "important to understand that the events at Tailhook 91 did not occur in a historical vacuum. Similar behavior had occurred at previous conventions. The emerging pattern of some of the activities, such as the gauntlet, began to assume the aura of `tradition'."
For those women who suffered through Tailhook '91, and particularly for Lt. Paula Coughlin, the woman who broke the story to the press, the rituals have been twofold: first, those involving the convention itself; second, those involving the investigations into Tailhook '91. These latter rituals have only recently come to an end, with the dismissal of the cases against the three officers charged with indecent assault in connection with the investigation. While a number of junior and senior officers have received various forms of reprimands and Adm. Frank B. Kelso has succumbed to pressures to resign a few months before his planned retirement, not one person has been court-martialed or found guilty of a criminal act. And Coughlin, having suffered not only the initial assault, but over two years of what she terms "covert and overt attacks," has resigned from what promised to be a successful career as a Naval aviator.
Vander Schaaf warned that the Navy would face many difficulties in dealing with the issues raised in his report. "Personal friendship, knowledge of past service and sacrifice by the officers involved, and a general reluctance to end or adversely impact otherwise promising military careers will further complicate the matter." Yet he had "every expectation that the Navy [would] address the causes and conduct that combined to produce the disgrace of Tailhook 91," and therefore offered no specific recommendations. The Navy did not live up to Vander Schaaf's expectations. The military's lengthy investigation and final closing of the books on Tailhook '91 does not mean the end of assaults against women within the U.S. military.
Gender Politics
Tailhook '91: Women, Violence, and the U.S. Navy
By Frances K. Pohl
It is in this light that the 1991 Tailhook Association convention in Las Vegas must be understood. The multiple attacks on women documented in the investigative report of Derek J. Vander Schaaf, the Deputy Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defense, were part of a well-orchestrated series of rituals, ones not new to the 1991 convention. These rituals were intended to put women "in their place," particularly those women who had become a part of this elite military order. Vander Schaaf notes in the foreword to his report that it was "important to understand that the events at Tailhook 91 did not occur in a historical vacuum. Similar behavior had occurred at previous conventions. The emerging pattern of some of the activities, such as the gauntlet, began to assume the aura of `tradition'."
For those women who suffered through Tailhook '91, and particularly for Lt. Paula Coughlin, the woman who broke the story to the press, the rituals have been twofold: first, those involving the convention itself; second, those involving the investigations into Tailhook '91. These latter rituals have only recently come to an end, with the dismissal of the cases against the three officers charged with indecent assault in connection with the investigation. While a number of junior and senior officers have received various forms of reprimands and Adm. Frank B. Kelso has succumbed to pressures to resign a few months before his planned retirement, not one person has been court-martialed or found guilty of a criminal act. And Coughlin, having suffered not only the initial assault, but over two years of what she terms "covert and overt attacks," has resigned from what promised to be a successful career as a Naval aviator.
Vander Schaaf warned that the Navy would face many difficulties in dealing with the issues raised in his report. "Personal friendship, knowledge of past service and sacrifice by the officers involved, and a general reluctance to end or adversely impact otherwise promising military careers will further complicate the matter." Yet he had "every expectation that the Navy [would] address the causes and conduct that combined to produce the disgrace of Tailhook 91," and therefore offered no specific recommendations. The Navy did not live up to Vander Schaaf's expectations. The military's lengthy investigation and final closing of the books on Tailhook '91 does not mean the end of assaults against women within the U.S. military.
An expert point of view by the DoD concerning the effects of sexual assaults and abuse in the military.
http://www.dod.gov/news/May2003/n05152003_200305154.html
Psychiatrist Discusses Abuse, Harassment, Violence Against Military Women
By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 15, 2003 – In the past dozen years, sex scandals have rocked the military services, going back to the Navy's Tailhook and the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in the 1990's, and most recently, the Air Force Academy.
But DoD psychiatrist Army Dr. (Lt. Col.) Elspeth Cameron Ritchie emphasizes that sexual trauma and domestic violence aren't common experiences among women in the military.
"However," she said, "it does occur," adding that any such situation "is a problem and something we should try to eliminate." She also stresses that there are different dynamics and different statistics on sexual harassment, sexual trauma or assault, and domestic violence.
When it does surface, some civilian "experts" try to make it sound like there's an epidemic in the military. But Ritchie pointed out that it's an unfair comparison between the incidence of cases in the military and those in the civilian sector. The military is mainly young men, and domestic violence is higher in that age group.
In addition, she said, the military does more surveys on the prevalence on sexual trauma and abuse. It is also better at the detection of domestic violence, and getting the perpetrators either into treatment, or getting punished, whichever is appropriate." In the civilian world, data collection on domestic violence may not be centralized or shared across states to the extent it is in the military environment, which makes it harder to compare the two rates.
Women in both the civilian and military worlds may be reluctant to report domestic violence, either because of fear of the batterer or concerns about the impact of reporting on his career.
On the other hand, military women have other concerns. For example, many don't report being raped, because there are so many barriers to disclosure in the military," said Ritchie, program director for DoD's mental health policy and women's issues.
"Often women – this is true for military and civilian – may feel embarrassed or ashamed," she noted. "She may think nobody would believe her. She may worry that she will be further hurt if she reports somebody that will retaliate on her."
Military women also worry about being ostracized by other unit members, Ritchie said. "Often if there is some allegations of rape, it really pulls the unit apart with people falling into two camps as to what they think really happened.
"Some alleged victims may worry about the effects on their military career," the psychiatrist said. "A common scenario is people going out drinking together coming back to the barracks room and something happens where she says, 'He forced me.' He says, 'No, it was consensual.'
"In those situations, she may think, 'Well, I'll never have any way to prove it, so why should I say what happened,'" Ritchie said. "In sexual cases there is very often no physical evidence. If there is physical evidence of intercourse, there might not be evidence of rape."
http://www.dod.gov/news/May2003/n05152003_200305154.html
Psychiatrist Discusses Abuse, Harassment, Violence Against Military Women
By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 15, 2003 – In the past dozen years, sex scandals have rocked the military services, going back to the Navy's Tailhook and the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in the 1990's, and most recently, the Air Force Academy.
But DoD psychiatrist Army Dr. (Lt. Col.) Elspeth Cameron Ritchie emphasizes that sexual trauma and domestic violence aren't common experiences among women in the military.
"However," she said, "it does occur," adding that any such situation "is a problem and something we should try to eliminate." She also stresses that there are different dynamics and different statistics on sexual harassment, sexual trauma or assault, and domestic violence.
When it does surface, some civilian "experts" try to make it sound like there's an epidemic in the military. But Ritchie pointed out that it's an unfair comparison between the incidence of cases in the military and those in the civilian sector. The military is mainly young men, and domestic violence is higher in that age group.
In addition, she said, the military does more surveys on the prevalence on sexual trauma and abuse. It is also better at the detection of domestic violence, and getting the perpetrators either into treatment, or getting punished, whichever is appropriate." In the civilian world, data collection on domestic violence may not be centralized or shared across states to the extent it is in the military environment, which makes it harder to compare the two rates.
Women in both the civilian and military worlds may be reluctant to report domestic violence, either because of fear of the batterer or concerns about the impact of reporting on his career.
On the other hand, military women have other concerns. For example, many don't report being raped, because there are so many barriers to disclosure in the military," said Ritchie, program director for DoD's mental health policy and women's issues.
"Often women – this is true for military and civilian – may feel embarrassed or ashamed," she noted. "She may think nobody would believe her. She may worry that she will be further hurt if she reports somebody that will retaliate on her."
Military women also worry about being ostracized by other unit members, Ritchie said. "Often if there is some allegations of rape, it really pulls the unit apart with people falling into two camps as to what they think really happened.
"Some alleged victims may worry about the effects on their military career," the psychiatrist said. "A common scenario is people going out drinking together coming back to the barracks room and something happens where she says, 'He forced me.' He says, 'No, it was consensual.'
"In those situations, she may think, 'Well, I'll never have any way to prove it, so why should I say what happened,'" Ritchie said. "In sexual cases there is very often no physical evidence. If there is physical evidence of intercourse, there might not be evidence of rape."
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0305/214423.html
Military Sex Assaults Top 300 Incidents
RSS Feeds From ABC 7 UPDATED - Friday March 18, 2005 1:39pm
Washington (AP) - Women at U.S. military academies say they have faced 302 incidents of sexual assault since they enrolled, a figure the military says is comparable to civilian schools.
"We are about where college campuses are, tragically. That's not, frankly, terribly surprising," said David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. "These young men and women come from civil society."
On Friday, he announced the results of the Pentagon's first comprehensive study of assaults at the academies along with a new military-wide policy aimed at protecting the confidentiality of people who report being sexually assaulted.
A summary of the inspector general's survey said that of the incidents, about a third - or 96 - were reported to authorities. But Pentagon officials who told Congress of the survey results Friday provided documents during a briefing that indicated the women said they reported only 22 of the incidents.
Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., called the survey results disturbing and disappointing. "Unfortunately, we have a serious problem at all the service academies that is going to require a concerted effort of the services, Congress and the alumni to address," he said.
Military Sex Assaults Top 300 Incidents
RSS Feeds From ABC 7 UPDATED - Friday March 18, 2005 1:39pm
Washington (AP) - Women at U.S. military academies say they have faced 302 incidents of sexual assault since they enrolled, a figure the military says is comparable to civilian schools.
"We are about where college campuses are, tragically. That's not, frankly, terribly surprising," said David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. "These young men and women come from civil society."
On Friday, he announced the results of the Pentagon's first comprehensive study of assaults at the academies along with a new military-wide policy aimed at protecting the confidentiality of people who report being sexually assaulted.
A summary of the inspector general's survey said that of the incidents, about a third - or 96 - were reported to authorities. But Pentagon officials who told Congress of the survey results Friday provided documents during a briefing that indicated the women said they reported only 22 of the incidents.
Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., called the survey results disturbing and disappointing. "Unfortunately, we have a serious problem at all the service academies that is going to require a concerted effort of the services, Congress and the alumni to address," he said.
It seems like the military establishment is part of the problem.
They need to address it through emphasizing respect for fellow soldiers......the women...instead of perpetuating the problem.
They need to prosecute and kick rapists out of the military.
They need to address it through emphasizing respect for fellow soldiers......the women...instead of perpetuating the problem.
They need to prosecute and kick rapists out of the military.
QUOTE(Cloudy @ May 3 2005, 11:57 AM)
It seems like the military establishment is part of the problem.
They need to address it through emphasizing respect for fellow soldiers......the women...instead of perpetuating the problem.
They need to prosecute and kick rapists out of the military.
They need to address it through emphasizing respect for fellow soldiers......the women...instead of perpetuating the problem.
They need to prosecute and kick rapists out of the military.
That is a correct observation cloudy, and I agree with your conclusion. Below is a very good read for those who are either considering the military or dealing with sexual issues about the military.
http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/war/military_sexu...ml?printable=no
Military Sexual Trauma: Issues in Caring for Veterans
A National Center for PTSD Fact Sheet
Amy Street, Ph.D. and Jane Stafford, Ph.D.
Does Military Sexual Trauma Occur during Wartime?
Sexual trauma in the military does not occur only during training or peacetime and in fact, the stress of war may be associated with increases in rates of sexual harassment and assault.Research with Persian Gulf War military personnel conducted by Jessica Wolfe and her colleagues found that rates of sexual assault (7%), physical sexual harassment (33%) and verbal sexual harassment (66%) were higher than those typically found in peacetime military samples.
http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/c...stract/66/5/749
Sexual Assault in Women Veterans: An Examination of PTSD Risk, Health Care Utilization, and Cost of Care
Alina Surís, PhD, Lisa Lind, PhD, T. Michael Kashner, JD PhD, MPH, Patricia D. Borman, PhD and Frederick Petty, PhD MD
From the Department of Veterans Affairs (A.S., L.L., T.M.K.), Research Service, North Texas Health Care System, Dallas, Texas; the Department of Psychiatry (A.S., T.M.K., P.D.B.), University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas; the Department of Psychiatry (F.P.), Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska; and the Nebraska/Western Iowa Health Care System (F.P.), Omaha, Nebraska.
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Alina M. Suris, PhD, Veterans Affairs North Texas Healthcare System, Mental Health, 4500 South Lancaster Road (151), Dallas, TX 75216. E-mail: alina.suris@med.va.gov
OBJECTIVE: This study examines the differential impact of military, civilian adult, and childhood sexual assault on the likelihood of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It also examines the relationship of military sexual assault (MSA) to service utilization and health care costs among women who access services through Veterans Affairs (VA).
METHODS: A convenience sample of 270 veteran women receiving medical and/or mental health treatment at the VA North Texas Healthcare System participated in the study. Participants were interviewed using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) and categorized into a sexual assault group using the Interview of Sexual Experiences (ISE). A chart review was also conducted to determine the frequency of diagnoses among the women. Data regarding health care utilization was obtained from self-report using the Utilization and Cost Patient Questionnaire (UAC-PQ) and VA administrative records.
RESULTS: Compared with those without a history of sexual assault, women veterans were 9 times more likely to have PTSD if they had a history of MSA, 7 times more likely if they had childhood sexual assault (CSA) histories, and 5 times more likely if they had civilian sexual assault histories. An investigation of medical charts revealed that PTSD is diagnosed more often for women with a history of MSA than CSA. CSA was associated with a significant increase in health care utilization and cost for services, but there was no related increase in use or cost associated with MSA.
CONCLUSION: Women veterans have differential rates of PTSD due to sexual assault, with higher rates found among those assaulted while on active duty. Although women with MSA are more likely to have PTSD, results suggest that they are receiving fewer health care services.
Sexual Assault in Women Veterans: An Examination of PTSD Risk, Health Care Utilization, and Cost of Care
Alina Surís, PhD, Lisa Lind, PhD, T. Michael Kashner, JD PhD, MPH, Patricia D. Borman, PhD and Frederick Petty, PhD MD
From the Department of Veterans Affairs (A.S., L.L., T.M.K.), Research Service, North Texas Health Care System, Dallas, Texas; the Department of Psychiatry (A.S., T.M.K., P.D.B.), University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas; the Department of Psychiatry (F.P.), Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska; and the Nebraska/Western Iowa Health Care System (F.P.), Omaha, Nebraska.
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Alina M. Suris, PhD, Veterans Affairs North Texas Healthcare System, Mental Health, 4500 South Lancaster Road (151), Dallas, TX 75216. E-mail: alina.suris@med.va.gov
OBJECTIVE: This study examines the differential impact of military, civilian adult, and childhood sexual assault on the likelihood of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It also examines the relationship of military sexual assault (MSA) to service utilization and health care costs among women who access services through Veterans Affairs (VA).
METHODS: A convenience sample of 270 veteran women receiving medical and/or mental health treatment at the VA North Texas Healthcare System participated in the study. Participants were interviewed using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) and categorized into a sexual assault group using the Interview of Sexual Experiences (ISE). A chart review was also conducted to determine the frequency of diagnoses among the women. Data regarding health care utilization was obtained from self-report using the Utilization and Cost Patient Questionnaire (UAC-PQ) and VA administrative records.
RESULTS: Compared with those without a history of sexual assault, women veterans were 9 times more likely to have PTSD if they had a history of MSA, 7 times more likely if they had childhood sexual assault (CSA) histories, and 5 times more likely if they had civilian sexual assault histories. An investigation of medical charts revealed that PTSD is diagnosed more often for women with a history of MSA than CSA. CSA was associated with a significant increase in health care utilization and cost for services, but there was no related increase in use or cost associated with MSA.
CONCLUSION: Women veterans have differential rates of PTSD due to sexual assault, with higher rates found among those assaulted while on active duty. Although women with MSA are more likely to have PTSD, results suggest that they are receiving fewer health care services.
GOP/Bush dark secrets and Naval child pornn ring being uncovered. This article contains Naval documents that adresses the author's investigations.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Repor...0305madsen.html
Special Report
GOP pedophilia and S&M trysts: A long history going back to Bush 41 and Reagan
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
March 3, 2005—The recent scandal involving gay male escort and right-wing faux journalist Jeff Gannon (a.k.a. James Dale Guckert and possibly a few other aliases) is not welcome news for the purported sadomasochistic hedonists in the White House administrations of both George W. and George H. W. Bush.
As this writer has previously reported, during the early 1980s, a number of naval officers were implicated in a child pornography ring that extended from Oregon to the San Francisco Bay area and to Chicago and Washington, DC. The story about that ring was covered up by then-Secretary of the Navy John Lehman who engaged in similar cover-ups of the Navy's "Tailhook" scandal involving the sexual assault by naval aviators of women, including at least one underage teen, and the gun turret explosion on the USS Iowa, originally and erroneously blamed by Navy investigators on a despondent gay sailor. The GOP appointed Lehman to the 9-11 Commission, which issued a final report that many victims' families and investigators determined was a whitewash.
The fact that Gannon/Guckert, a male escort who adopted a military theme for his clientele, was made privy to classified information involving CIA covert agent Valerie Plame and her husband's (former Ambassador Joseph Wilson) trip to Niger to investigate possible uranium shipments, has a precedent with prior GOP illegal sexcapades involving national security breaches. The Franklin pedophile cover-up was mirrored by the Navy pedophile affair that also breached national security during the height of the Cold War. The cover-up of the pedophile ring involving senior naval personnel ran right up the chain-of-command to the Pentagon offices of then-Secretary of the Navy Lehman, Assistant Defense Secretary Richard Perle, and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and the White House offices of Vice President George H. W. Bush, and Reagan Chief of Staff and close Bush confidant James Baker III.
As someone intimately involved in the investigation of the Navy case and as a victim of the cover-up, this reporter is publishing for the first time correspondence and documents on the Navy affair so that the current Bush sex scandal, "Gannongate," does not go the way of the Nebraska/Washington, DC, Navy, and Abu Ghraib/Guantanamo scandals. (One note of interest: the "X" in the Case Control Number 718XNA refers to the FBI's cross referencing file numbering system. The "X" means that the case is a "X" case–meaning that the case is of extreme sensitivity, the "NA" following the "X" refers to the Navy. There are, in fact, "X Files," but they have nothing to do with aliens but very much to do with high-level government officials engaged in off-the-wall activities, like pedophilia and prostitution).
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Repor...0305madsen.html
Special Report
GOP pedophilia and S&M trysts: A long history going back to Bush 41 and Reagan
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
March 3, 2005—The recent scandal involving gay male escort and right-wing faux journalist Jeff Gannon (a.k.a. James Dale Guckert and possibly a few other aliases) is not welcome news for the purported sadomasochistic hedonists in the White House administrations of both George W. and George H. W. Bush.
As this writer has previously reported, during the early 1980s, a number of naval officers were implicated in a child pornography ring that extended from Oregon to the San Francisco Bay area and to Chicago and Washington, DC. The story about that ring was covered up by then-Secretary of the Navy John Lehman who engaged in similar cover-ups of the Navy's "Tailhook" scandal involving the sexual assault by naval aviators of women, including at least one underage teen, and the gun turret explosion on the USS Iowa, originally and erroneously blamed by Navy investigators on a despondent gay sailor. The GOP appointed Lehman to the 9-11 Commission, which issued a final report that many victims' families and investigators determined was a whitewash.
The fact that Gannon/Guckert, a male escort who adopted a military theme for his clientele, was made privy to classified information involving CIA covert agent Valerie Plame and her husband's (former Ambassador Joseph Wilson) trip to Niger to investigate possible uranium shipments, has a precedent with prior GOP illegal sexcapades involving national security breaches. The Franklin pedophile cover-up was mirrored by the Navy pedophile affair that also breached national security during the height of the Cold War. The cover-up of the pedophile ring involving senior naval personnel ran right up the chain-of-command to the Pentagon offices of then-Secretary of the Navy Lehman, Assistant Defense Secretary Richard Perle, and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and the White House offices of Vice President George H. W. Bush, and Reagan Chief of Staff and close Bush confidant James Baker III.
As someone intimately involved in the investigation of the Navy case and as a victim of the cover-up, this reporter is publishing for the first time correspondence and documents on the Navy affair so that the current Bush sex scandal, "Gannongate," does not go the way of the Nebraska/Washington, DC, Navy, and Abu Ghraib/Guantanamo scandals. (One note of interest: the "X" in the Case Control Number 718XNA refers to the FBI's cross referencing file numbering system. The "X" means that the case is a "X" case–meaning that the case is of extreme sensitivity, the "NA" following the "X" refers to the Navy. There are, in fact, "X Files," but they have nothing to do with aliens but very much to do with high-level government officials engaged in off-the-wall activities, like pedophilia and prostitution).
http://www.khilafah.com/home/lographics/ca...D=11221&TagID=2
Pentagon: 1,700 Sex Assaults Reported
uploaded 08 May2005
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Military criminal investigators received 1,700 reports of sexual assault in 2004 involving at least one member of the military, the Pentagon said Friday.
This includes cases in which a service member was either an alleged assailant or a victim. It is the first year the military has tracked this particular statistic, a move resulting from sexual assault scandals at the Air Force Academy and among deployed troops overseas.
But one part of this number that has been tracked in the past - the number of military members claiming they were victims of assault - showed a marked increase over previous years.
In 2004, 1,275 cases involved at least one member of the military saying he or she was a victim of sexual assault. That's up from 1,012 in 2003 and 901 in 2002 .
This would suggest acts of sexual assault against military personnel are on the rise. But a military spokesman instead attributed the increase to increased awareness in the military about sexual assault issues, so service members feel more comfortable coming forward to report the crime.
``We have focused our efforts trying to encourage service members to come forward,'' Lt. Col. Joe Richard said. ``The environment has changed.''
Still, Richard noted that many sexual assaults go unreported in both the military and civilian world. This suggests the actual number of assaults is higher. These assaults took place in a population of1 . 5million active-duty and mobilized National Guard and reserve personnel.
The report shows ``that there is an ongoing problem of sexual assault within the military,'' said Anita Sanchez, spokeswoman for the Miles Foundation advocacy group for victims of military violence.
Some of the 1,700 cases involve more than one assailant or more than one victim. Of those cases:
-880 , slightly more than half, involved an alleged assault by at least one military person against another.
- 425 involved an alleged assault by at least one member of the military against a non-service member.
- 99 involved an alleged assault by at least one non-service member against a member of the military.
- 296 involved an unidentified assailant against a member of the military.
The military defines sexual assault in this context as attempted or actual rape, nonconsensual sodomy and indecent assault, a category which includes unwanted sexual touching.
Investigations and adjudication of the cases of 1,022 alleged assailants were completed. Other cases were still open at the end of 2004 , the end of the period that the report covers.
Of those:
- 351 were not substantiated by investigation or closed due to insufficient evidence.
- 342 led to punitive action in the military justice system, including 113 court-martials. The remaining cases involved less serious adjudication.
- 51 were in civilian or foreign courts.
In the rest, the assailant was not identified and the case was closed. The vast majority of cases involved a man allegedly assaulting a woman.
Sanchez said the Miles Foundation is concerned that ``the adjudication ... continues to be predominantly nonjudicial punishment'' even though sexual assault is a crime. She said this leads to a lack of responsibility for notifying either the military or civilian community of the presence of sex offenders.
This year, the military has pledged greater confidentiality to victims of sexual assault who come forward. It has also expanded training and standardized policies in dealing with an alleged assault.
Source: AP
Pentagon: 1,700 Sex Assaults Reported
uploaded 08 May2005
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Military criminal investigators received 1,700 reports of sexual assault in 2004 involving at least one member of the military, the Pentagon said Friday.
This includes cases in which a service member was either an alleged assailant or a victim. It is the first year the military has tracked this particular statistic, a move resulting from sexual assault scandals at the Air Force Academy and among deployed troops overseas.
But one part of this number that has been tracked in the past - the number of military members claiming they were victims of assault - showed a marked increase over previous years.
In 2004, 1,275 cases involved at least one member of the military saying he or she was a victim of sexual assault. That's up from 1,012 in 2003 and 901 in 2002 .
This would suggest acts of sexual assault against military personnel are on the rise. But a military spokesman instead attributed the increase to increased awareness in the military about sexual assault issues, so service members feel more comfortable coming forward to report the crime.
``We have focused our efforts trying to encourage service members to come forward,'' Lt. Col. Joe Richard said. ``The environment has changed.''
Still, Richard noted that many sexual assaults go unreported in both the military and civilian world. This suggests the actual number of assaults is higher. These assaults took place in a population of1 . 5million active-duty and mobilized National Guard and reserve personnel.
The report shows ``that there is an ongoing problem of sexual assault within the military,'' said Anita Sanchez, spokeswoman for the Miles Foundation advocacy group for victims of military violence.
Some of the 1,700 cases involve more than one assailant or more than one victim. Of those cases:
-880 , slightly more than half, involved an alleged assault by at least one military person against another.
- 425 involved an alleged assault by at least one member of the military against a non-service member.
- 99 involved an alleged assault by at least one non-service member against a member of the military.
- 296 involved an unidentified assailant against a member of the military.
The military defines sexual assault in this context as attempted or actual rape, nonconsensual sodomy and indecent assault, a category which includes unwanted sexual touching.
Investigations and adjudication of the cases of 1,022 alleged assailants were completed. Other cases were still open at the end of 2004 , the end of the period that the report covers.
Of those:
- 351 were not substantiated by investigation or closed due to insufficient evidence.
- 342 led to punitive action in the military justice system, including 113 court-martials. The remaining cases involved less serious adjudication.
- 51 were in civilian or foreign courts.
In the rest, the assailant was not identified and the case was closed. The vast majority of cases involved a man allegedly assaulting a woman.
Sanchez said the Miles Foundation is concerned that ``the adjudication ... continues to be predominantly nonjudicial punishment'' even though sexual assault is a crime. She said this leads to a lack of responsibility for notifying either the military or civilian community of the presence of sex offenders.
This year, the military has pledged greater confidentiality to victims of sexual assault who come forward. It has also expanded training and standardized policies in dealing with an alleged assault.
Source: AP
http://www.gaymilitary.ucsb.edu/ResearchRe...ews10_31_99.htm
Female Vets Reveal Sexual Assault
One in four say they were attacked while on duty
By Neil Sherman
HealthSCOUT Reporter
SUNDAY, Oct. 31 (HealthSCOUT) -- A new study suggests that sexual assault on
women in the military may be common, and that those attacks leave physical
and emotional scars on the female veterans long after they've left the
service.
Nearly one in four female outpatients using Veterans Affairs medical centers
reports being sexually assaulted during a tour of duty, says the study in
the October issue of the Journal of Traumatic Stress. The study also shows
that these female soldiers may be more prone to depression and alcohol
problems.
"These statistics are compelling," says Cheryl Hankin, a research health
scientist with the Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development
Service in Palo Alto, Calif. "One of the things we don't know is whether
this sexual assault history is actually underestimated. Certainly only
patients who were willing to disclose that they were sexually assaulted were
identified."
The amount of sexual assault in the military was discovered during a
national survey of 3,632 women using outpatient services from 172 VA
hospitals. "We were trying to ascertain the overall health status of women
who use VA services to help the government in planning and policy
formation," Hankin says.
Twenty-three percent of the female veterans answered "yes" to this question:
"Did you ever have an experience where someone used force or the threat of
force to have sexual relations with you against your will while you were in
the military?"
"The question itself is used by the federal government as a legal definition
of sexual assault," Hankin explains "We don't know if it was a military
person and we don't know the rank of the person committing the assault."
Those who said they had been assaulted tended to be younger (42.6 years
versus 48.8 years), had a longer tour of duty, and were more likely to have
enlisted than those who said they hadn't been assaulted.
The results of the survey are alarming," says Karen Johnson, vice president
for membership for the National Organization for Women in Washington.
Johnson is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel. "But it is not
surprising. Sexual harassment is pervasive in the military."
According to the Statistical Handbook on Violence in America, nearly 17
percent women under the age of 20 have been compelled to have sexual
intercourse. Approximately 15 percent of women are sexually assaulted
annually. Nearly 100,000 rapes and sexual assaults are reported each year
and hundreds of thousands are left unreported, according to NOW.
Female Vets Reveal Sexual Assault
One in four say they were attacked while on duty
By Neil Sherman
HealthSCOUT Reporter
SUNDAY, Oct. 31 (HealthSCOUT) -- A new study suggests that sexual assault on
women in the military may be common, and that those attacks leave physical
and emotional scars on the female veterans long after they've left the
service.
Nearly one in four female outpatients using Veterans Affairs medical centers
reports being sexually assaulted during a tour of duty, says the study in
the October issue of the Journal of Traumatic Stress. The study also shows
that these female soldiers may be more prone to depression and alcohol
problems.
"These statistics are compelling," says Cheryl Hankin, a research health
scientist with the Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development
Service in Palo Alto, Calif. "One of the things we don't know is whether
this sexual assault history is actually underestimated. Certainly only
patients who were willing to disclose that they were sexually assaulted were
identified."
The amount of sexual assault in the military was discovered during a
national survey of 3,632 women using outpatient services from 172 VA
hospitals. "We were trying to ascertain the overall health status of women
who use VA services to help the government in planning and policy
formation," Hankin says.
Twenty-three percent of the female veterans answered "yes" to this question:
"Did you ever have an experience where someone used force or the threat of
force to have sexual relations with you against your will while you were in
the military?"
"The question itself is used by the federal government as a legal definition
of sexual assault," Hankin explains "We don't know if it was a military
person and we don't know the rank of the person committing the assault."
Those who said they had been assaulted tended to be younger (42.6 years
versus 48.8 years), had a longer tour of duty, and were more likely to have
enlisted than those who said they hadn't been assaulted.
The results of the survey are alarming," says Karen Johnson, vice president
for membership for the National Organization for Women in Washington.
Johnson is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel. "But it is not
surprising. Sexual harassment is pervasive in the military."
According to the Statistical Handbook on Violence in America, nearly 17
percent women under the age of 20 have been compelled to have sexual
intercourse. Approximately 15 percent of women are sexually assaulted
annually. Nearly 100,000 rapes and sexual assaults are reported each year
and hundreds of thousands are left unreported, according to NOW.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0305/033005p1.htm
March 30, 2005
Cadet: Sexual assault scandal at academy is leadership's fault
By Daniel Pulliam
dpulliam@govexec.com
Former Air Force cadet Beth Davis - who was the first to claim sexual assault was a "dirty secret" at the U.S. Air Force Academy - told officials Wednesday that the underlying problem in the academies is a failure of leadership.
Davis told members of the Defense Task Force on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military Service Academies that academy leaders are inconsistent in responding to assault claims and create a culture of cynicism toward victims.
"The leaders don't live up to the standards that they preach," Davis said. "It is the leadership that came down on me."
Davis, who says she was raped multiple times while attending the Air Force Academy and was retaliated against when she tried to report the incidents, encouraged the task force to gather information from victims in preparing their recommendations on preventing and responding to sexual harassment and sexual violence at the military schools. Davis said that the military's new limited confidentiality policy is a good start in encouraging victims to come forward.
Delilah Rumburg, the task force's co-chair and executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, told Davis that she is glad Davis came forward and encouraged all victim of sexual assault to tell the panel their stories.
Davis's lawyer, Joseph Madonia, said he hopes the academies take this task force's recommendations more seriously than they did the panel headed by former Rep. Tillie Fowler, R-Fla.
"The military has tried to sweep this under the rug," Madonia told the panel. "We hope the military gives more credence to your recommendations."
Members of the task force have visited both academies to talk to cadets and midshipmen. A survey released earlier this month revealed that 50 percent of women at the academies said they had experienced some type of harassment, and 13 percent reported they were sexually assaulted while at the academies.
Recommendations from the task force will include how to implement the Pentagon's confidentiality policy, establish victim witness coordinator and a victim advocate positions, create a policy on offender accountability and victim and witness misconduct, improve training and prevention programs, and modify what some experts in the field of sexual assault trauma have called a "culture of rape" at the academies.
"You're really going to have to change the culture if you're going to have leaders on board with this," said panel member and RAND social scientist Laura Miller.
The recommendations will be another in a long series of panels, papers and reports on how to correct a military culture that lawmakers say does not do enough to prevent and respond to sexual violence.
The panel's other co-chair, Navy personnel chief Vice Adm. Gerald Hoewing, said the panel has found little difference between the military academies and that little has surprised him so far.
March 30, 2005
Cadet: Sexual assault scandal at academy is leadership's fault
By Daniel Pulliam
dpulliam@govexec.com
Former Air Force cadet Beth Davis - who was the first to claim sexual assault was a "dirty secret" at the U.S. Air Force Academy - told officials Wednesday that the underlying problem in the academies is a failure of leadership.
Davis told members of the Defense Task Force on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military Service Academies that academy leaders are inconsistent in responding to assault claims and create a culture of cynicism toward victims.
"The leaders don't live up to the standards that they preach," Davis said. "It is the leadership that came down on me."
Davis, who says she was raped multiple times while attending the Air Force Academy and was retaliated against when she tried to report the incidents, encouraged the task force to gather information from victims in preparing their recommendations on preventing and responding to sexual harassment and sexual violence at the military schools. Davis said that the military's new limited confidentiality policy is a good start in encouraging victims to come forward.
Delilah Rumburg, the task force's co-chair and executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, told Davis that she is glad Davis came forward and encouraged all victim of sexual assault to tell the panel their stories.
Davis's lawyer, Joseph Madonia, said he hopes the academies take this task force's recommendations more seriously than they did the panel headed by former Rep. Tillie Fowler, R-Fla.
"The military has tried to sweep this under the rug," Madonia told the panel. "We hope the military gives more credence to your recommendations."
Members of the task force have visited both academies to talk to cadets and midshipmen. A survey released earlier this month revealed that 50 percent of women at the academies said they had experienced some type of harassment, and 13 percent reported they were sexually assaulted while at the academies.
Recommendations from the task force will include how to implement the Pentagon's confidentiality policy, establish victim witness coordinator and a victim advocate positions, create a policy on offender accountability and victim and witness misconduct, improve training and prevention programs, and modify what some experts in the field of sexual assault trauma have called a "culture of rape" at the academies.
"You're really going to have to change the culture if you're going to have leaders on board with this," said panel member and RAND social scientist Laura Miller.
The recommendations will be another in a long series of panels, papers and reports on how to correct a military culture that lawmakers say does not do enough to prevent and respond to sexual violence.
The panel's other co-chair, Navy personnel chief Vice Adm. Gerald Hoewing, said the panel has found little difference between the military academies and that little has surprised him so far.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/19134/
Rape Nation
By Kari Lydersen, AlterNet. Posted July 2, 2004.
From prisons to barracks and from Iraq to Tennessee, military sexual abuse is running rampant.
As a new officer in the Air Force who trusted the institution and the men she worked with, Dorothy Mackey didn't think she would ever be sexually assaulted by her fellow servicemen. She was wrong.
When a military ob-gyn did things during an examination that didn't seem right, soon after she joined the service in 1983, she tried to rationalize her disturbing thoughts away. When she had another bad experience with a military ob-gyn in 1986, at the Spangcahlem Air Force base in Germany where she was stationed, it was harder to look the other way.
"He sodomized me," she said. "I started looking into what happens in a normal ob-gyn examination, and that is definitely not supposed to be part of it."
But when she was violated again about a year later, it was clear. Her group was on a training mission in Spain, passing some downtime by playing volleyball. By this time she was a sergeant, in charge of many of the enlisted men there.
"I had had a few drinks, but I know my body really well and I was not drunk," she said. She asked a male friend who was a first sergeant for a drink of water, but after two gulps of it, she realized something was very strange. She demanded to know what was in the drink, but soon she was staggering and losing her balance.
"In college everyone has had their moments, but I never experienced anything like that," she said. "I knew I had been poisoned."
She staggered inside and began violently vomiting.
"He was standing at the door laughing," she said of the supposed friend who gave her the drink.
"When I had nothing left to throw up I passed out and he took me to his room. I woke up and there were four men in the room playing cards, I remember them laughing and saying, 'Sergeant I've never seen you like this,' like they were glad I had loosened up and was enjoying myself. I passed out again and the next time I came to, he was on top of me, penetrating me. I remember telling him no and then passing out again. I woke up again to a loud knock on the door, someone who was concerned about me asking how I was doing. He was hiding behind the door naked with a full erection. I knew if I didn't do something I would be raped again."
Despite feeling like she didn't have the energy to move she pulled herself out of the room and down the hall, she said. Later when she tried to complain to her superiors about the rape, no one wanted to hear it.
Dorothy Mackey is not alone. She and other women veterans recounted their experiences at the National Summit of Women Veterans Issues in Washington, DC June 19th and 20th. As an officer, scores of women had come to Mackey and told her about abuse and rapes they had suffered, by officers, fellow enlisted men and doctors. Many of the attacks involved servicemen intentionally getting women drunk or drugging them and taking them off base.
"When you are a new woman walking onto a military base, you are like a deer and it's deer hunting season, but you don't know it," she said. "You think you can trust these people, you believe in the mission you are on together."
In 1992, Mackey quit the service, mainly because of the repeated incidences of sexual assault and domestic violence and other wrong-doing that she had seen go unpunished on the base. In 1994 she filed a civil lawsuit in a district court in Dayton, Ohio against the specific men who had assaulted her, including the superiors who abused her when she tried to report the previous assaults. The Justice Department decided to represent the defendants, so the case was moved to federal court. The Department of Justice attorney said the case should not be brought to trial on the grounds that it constituted a threat to national security, representing a "disruption of good order, morale and discipline." After making its way through the appeals courts, it ended up in front of the Supreme Court which refused to hear the case in 1998 and again in 2000.
Meanwhile Mackey founded a group called Survivors Take Action Against Abuse by Military Personnel (STAAMP) to fight the rampant rape and sexual abuse in the military and demand justice and reform. She says over 4,300 women have contacted her about being raped or assaulted while in the service, and in the vast majority of cases watching their attackers go scot-free while they are humiliated and threatened for speaking out about the attacks.
At a press conference during the National Summit of Women Veterans Issues, women cited surveys indicating that up to 50 percent of military women have experienced sexual assaults, and 78 percent have experienced sexual harassment. Because of the intimidation and harassment that women face for reporting assaults, the military's own numbers are much lower. But even so, they show a rise in assaults over the past few years. An analysis of Army records and reports published by The Washington Post on June 3 showed that reported sexual assaults increased 19 percent from 1999 to 2002, from 658 to 753, and rapes increased 25 percent, from 356 to 445.
A May 27 report from an Army task force stated that the Army "does not have a clear picture of the sexual assault issue" and lacks an "overarching policy" to deal with the problem. The report was prepared because of complaints by women's groups and lawmakers about apparently increased assaults against servicewomen in Iraq and Afghanistan.
During the National Summit, women pointed out that far from being an isolated problem, the military nurtures a culture of sexual violence and contempt for women that is linked to the rape and sexual abuse of women in occupied countries or countries where the U.S. has military bases, as well as rapes and assaults of women in U.S. prisons and jails. Rapes and sexual assaults are also often known to be high in U.S. cities and towns with military bases. On June 28, a Nashville T.V. station reported that Fort Campbell soldier Johnathan David Loynes was arrested for violently kidnapping 10- and 13-year-old girls who lived nearby and trying to force them to perform oral sex on him.
"It's all connected," said Phoebe Jones, a member of the group Global Women's Strike, which is joining STAAMP and other women's groups in a campaign to "STAAMP Out Rape by the Military."
"You have prison guards here, like Charles Grainer [implicated in the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal], who go to Iraq and abuse people there. Then you have soldiers come back from Iraq or Afghanistan getting jobs as prison guards, and they rape and abuse people. The military could stop it if they want to, but they don't want to. They're socializing men into doing this."
Global Women's Strike has been in contact with women's and human rights advocates in Iraq who say women detainees and civilians are regularly raped and abused there. A press release they put out alleges that as part of the inquiry into abuses in Iraqi prisons, Congressmen have been shown photos of gang rapes and other abuses of women.
"They're suppressing the photos of women being raped because the public would just be outraged," said Jones.
The STAAMP Out Rape campaign is demanding that:
1) an oversight body independent of the Department of Defense investigate all rapes and assaults by military members;
2) that the Veterans Administration (VA) must provide benefits and care to rape and assault survivors;
3) that women be allowed to choose a female health care provider; that reports of rape be treated seriously; and
4) other measures ensuring that there is accountability and that the problem is taken seriously.
A male veteran who was sexually abused in the military said that "soldiers are trained to take whatever they want, whether from fellow servicemen or Iraqi detainees, and they know they will be protected."
Mackey sees this culture of arrogance paired with misogyny and resentment toward women in the military.
"There are multiple agendas to the attacks," she said. "There are those who don't want women in the military, and who want to rape them out. And there are those who see civilians [in foreign countries] as 'practice' and don't care what happens to them. Rape is one of the greatest tools of war, and our government is essentially saying that rape of human beings is acceptable. We are a rape nation and this is all being done in our name."
Rape Nation
By Kari Lydersen, AlterNet. Posted July 2, 2004.
From prisons to barracks and from Iraq to Tennessee, military sexual abuse is running rampant.
As a new officer in the Air Force who trusted the institution and the men she worked with, Dorothy Mackey didn't think she would ever be sexually assaulted by her fellow servicemen. She was wrong.
When a military ob-gyn did things during an examination that didn't seem right, soon after she joined the service in 1983, she tried to rationalize her disturbing thoughts away. When she had another bad experience with a military ob-gyn in 1986, at the Spangcahlem Air Force base in Germany where she was stationed, it was harder to look the other way.
"He sodomized me," she said. "I started looking into what happens in a normal ob-gyn examination, and that is definitely not supposed to be part of it."
But when she was violated again about a year later, it was clear. Her group was on a training mission in Spain, passing some downtime by playing volleyball. By this time she was a sergeant, in charge of many of the enlisted men there.
"I had had a few drinks, but I know my body really well and I was not drunk," she said. She asked a male friend who was a first sergeant for a drink of water, but after two gulps of it, she realized something was very strange. She demanded to know what was in the drink, but soon she was staggering and losing her balance.
"In college everyone has had their moments, but I never experienced anything like that," she said. "I knew I had been poisoned."
She staggered inside and began violently vomiting.
"He was standing at the door laughing," she said of the supposed friend who gave her the drink.
"When I had nothing left to throw up I passed out and he took me to his room. I woke up and there were four men in the room playing cards, I remember them laughing and saying, 'Sergeant I've never seen you like this,' like they were glad I had loosened up and was enjoying myself. I passed out again and the next time I came to, he was on top of me, penetrating me. I remember telling him no and then passing out again. I woke up again to a loud knock on the door, someone who was concerned about me asking how I was doing. He was hiding behind the door naked with a full erection. I knew if I didn't do something I would be raped again."
Despite feeling like she didn't have the energy to move she pulled herself out of the room and down the hall, she said. Later when she tried to complain to her superiors about the rape, no one wanted to hear it.
Dorothy Mackey is not alone. She and other women veterans recounted their experiences at the National Summit of Women Veterans Issues in Washington, DC June 19th and 20th. As an officer, scores of women had come to Mackey and told her about abuse and rapes they had suffered, by officers, fellow enlisted men and doctors. Many of the attacks involved servicemen intentionally getting women drunk or drugging them and taking them off base.
"When you are a new woman walking onto a military base, you are like a deer and it's deer hunting season, but you don't know it," she said. "You think you can trust these people, you believe in the mission you are on together."
In 1992, Mackey quit the service, mainly because of the repeated incidences of sexual assault and domestic violence and other wrong-doing that she had seen go unpunished on the base. In 1994 she filed a civil lawsuit in a district court in Dayton, Ohio against the specific men who had assaulted her, including the superiors who abused her when she tried to report the previous assaults. The Justice Department decided to represent the defendants, so the case was moved to federal court. The Department of Justice attorney said the case should not be brought to trial on the grounds that it constituted a threat to national security, representing a "disruption of good order, morale and discipline." After making its way through the appeals courts, it ended up in front of the Supreme Court which refused to hear the case in 1998 and again in 2000.
Meanwhile Mackey founded a group called Survivors Take Action Against Abuse by Military Personnel (STAAMP) to fight the rampant rape and sexual abuse in the military and demand justice and reform. She says over 4,300 women have contacted her about being raped or assaulted while in the service, and in the vast majority of cases watching their attackers go scot-free while they are humiliated and threatened for speaking out about the attacks.
At a press conference during the National Summit of Women Veterans Issues, women cited surveys indicating that up to 50 percent of military women have experienced sexual assaults, and 78 percent have experienced sexual harassment. Because of the intimidation and harassment that women face for reporting assaults, the military's own numbers are much lower. But even so, they show a rise in assaults over the past few years. An analysis of Army records and reports published by The Washington Post on June 3 showed that reported sexual assaults increased 19 percent from 1999 to 2002, from 658 to 753, and rapes increased 25 percent, from 356 to 445.
A May 27 report from an Army task force stated that the Army "does not have a clear picture of the sexual assault issue" and lacks an "overarching policy" to deal with the problem. The report was prepared because of complaints by women's groups and lawmakers about apparently increased assaults against servicewomen in Iraq and Afghanistan.
During the National Summit, women pointed out that far from being an isolated problem, the military nurtures a culture of sexual violence and contempt for women that is linked to the rape and sexual abuse of women in occupied countries or countries where the U.S. has military bases, as well as rapes and assaults of women in U.S. prisons and jails. Rapes and sexual assaults are also often known to be high in U.S. cities and towns with military bases. On June 28, a Nashville T.V. station reported that Fort Campbell soldier Johnathan David Loynes was arrested for violently kidnapping 10- and 13-year-old girls who lived nearby and trying to force them to perform oral sex on him.
"It's all connected," said Phoebe Jones, a member of the group Global Women's Strike, which is joining STAAMP and other women's groups in a campaign to "STAAMP Out Rape by the Military."
"You have prison guards here, like Charles Grainer [implicated in the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal], who go to Iraq and abuse people there. Then you have soldiers come back from Iraq or Afghanistan getting jobs as prison guards, and they rape and abuse people. The military could stop it if they want to, but they don't want to. They're socializing men into doing this."
Global Women's Strike has been in contact with women's and human rights advocates in Iraq who say women detainees and civilians are regularly raped and abused there. A press release they put out alleges that as part of the inquiry into abuses in Iraqi prisons, Congressmen have been shown photos of gang rapes and other abuses of women.
"They're suppressing the photos of women being raped because the public would just be outraged," said Jones.
The STAAMP Out Rape campaign is demanding that:
1) an oversight body independent of the Department of Defense investigate all rapes and assaults by military members;
2) that the Veterans Administration (VA) must provide benefits and care to rape and assault survivors;
3) that women be allowed to choose a female health care provider; that reports of rape be treated seriously; and
4) other measures ensuring that there is accountability and that the problem is taken seriously.
A male veteran who was sexually abused in the military said that "soldiers are trained to take whatever they want, whether from fellow servicemen or Iraqi detainees, and they know they will be protected."
Mackey sees this culture of arrogance paired with misogyny and resentment toward women in the military.
"There are multiple agendas to the attacks," she said. "There are those who don't want women in the military, and who want to rape them out. And there are those who see civilians [in foreign countries] as 'practice' and don't care what happens to them. Rape is one of the greatest tools of war, and our government is essentially saying that rape of human beings is acceptable. We are a rape nation and this is all being done in our name."
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0405/040405p1.htm
Military's sexual assault policies found wanting
April 4, 2005
By Daniel Pulliam
dpulliam@govexec.com
A civilian panel that advises top Pentagon officials on matters relating to women in the armed forces found that sexual assault victims fear embarrassment, retaliation and career penalties as the result of reporting incidents.
To restore trust in the system, the Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services recommended in its latest annual report that military commanders do a better job of enforcing zero tolerance policies and prosecuting offenses while giving the victim as much confidentiality as possible.
The findings and recommendations are consistent with the 2004 Task Force on Care for Victims of Sexual Assault report which is the basis for policies being implemented by the Pentagon's Joint Task Force on Sexual Assault Prevention and Response.
This is the first time under the advisory panel's current two-year charter that it has examined sexual assault issues. The panel, first established in 1951, stopped studying sexual assault in 2002 after conservatives criticized the panel for having a feminist agenda. The 2003 report focused on personnel retention, support during deployment and women's health care issues.
After a series of reports criticizing military leaders for failing to prevent sexual assaults, David Chu, undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, asked the advisory committee to study sexual assault again.
The report is based on information gathered from 70 focus groups convened at 14 military bases in the United States and abroad, policy and program briefs from Defense Department officials and current research on the issues. According to the report, women comprise 16 percent of enlisted members of the military and 19 percent of all officers.
Other recommendations on preventing and responding to sexual assault included:
* Codifying the sexual assault zero tolerance policy in a Pentagon directive.
* Incorporating a new definition of sexual assault into the Uniform Code of Military Justice as soon as possible.
* Creating a data reporting system for sexual assaults that protects victims' confidentiality.
* Allow for confidential reporting and victim advocates.
The report also includes recommendations on how the military's policies could affect deployment and retention.
Recommendations on deployment include allowing more time during pre-deployment training for attending to personal affairs, and end the simultaneous deployment of parents with minor children because of the adverse effects on those children.
The panel recommended that new employer tax benefits be implemented to help National Guard and Reserve members find jobs after deployment.
Retention recommendations included finding ways to allow service members to better balance family life with their work and developing programs to help female officers deal with childbirth and child rearing. The establishment of leave sabbatical programs was also recommended as a way to encourage service members with families to remain in the military.
Military's sexual assault policies found wanting
April 4, 2005
By Daniel Pulliam
dpulliam@govexec.com
A civilian panel that advises top Pentagon officials on matters relating to women in the armed forces found that sexual assault victims fear embarrassment, retaliation and career penalties as the result of reporting incidents.
To restore trust in the system, the Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services recommended in its latest annual report that military commanders do a better job of enforcing zero tolerance policies and prosecuting offenses while giving the victim as much confidentiality as possible.
The findings and recommendations are consistent with the 2004 Task Force on Care for Victims of Sexual Assault report which is the basis for policies being implemented by the Pentagon's Joint Task Force on Sexual Assault Prevention and Response.
This is the first time under the advisory panel's current two-year charter that it has examined sexual assault issues. The panel, first established in 1951, stopped studying sexual assault in 2002 after conservatives criticized the panel for having a feminist agenda. The 2003 report focused on personnel retention, support during deployment and women's health care issues.
After a series of reports criticizing military leaders for failing to prevent sexual assaults, David Chu, undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, asked the advisory committee to study sexual assault again.
The report is based on information gathered from 70 focus groups convened at 14 military bases in the United States and abroad, policy and program briefs from Defense Department officials and current research on the issues. According to the report, women comprise 16 percent of enlisted members of the military and 19 percent of all officers.
Other recommendations on preventing and responding to sexual assault included:
* Codifying the sexual assault zero tolerance policy in a Pentagon directive.
* Incorporating a new definition of sexual assault into the Uniform Code of Military Justice as soon as possible.
* Creating a data reporting system for sexual assaults that protects victims' confidentiality.
* Allow for confidential reporting and victim advocates.
The report also includes recommendations on how the military's policies could affect deployment and retention.
Recommendations on deployment include allowing more time during pre-deployment training for attending to personal affairs, and end the simultaneous deployment of parents with minor children because of the adverse effects on those children.
The panel recommended that new employer tax benefits be implemented to help National Guard and Reserve members find jobs after deployment.
Retention recommendations included finding ways to allow service members to better balance family life with their work and developing programs to help female officers deal with childbirth and child rearing. The establishment of leave sabbatical programs was also recommended as a way to encourage service members with families to remain in the military.
http://www.aztlan.net/latinas_us_military_raped.htm
The Rape of Latinas in the US Military
by
Miroslava Flores
La Voz de Aztlan
Los Angeles, Alta California - May 10, 2004 - (ACN) Today, I heard and viewed the "goody two-shoes" First Lady on ABC's "Good Morning America" and almost vomited when I heard her say that the sexual torture of Iraqi POW's and female detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison was not what the USA stands for. I ask, where did she study US history? I would like to invite her to "obtain some culture" and view the play "Ramona" that has been playing continuously for 81 years in Hemet, Alta California (http://www.ramonabowl.com/home.shtml). The rape of American Indians, Mexicans and African slaves has been an ongoing enterprise by barbaric whites ever since European savages set foot on the Western Hemisphere. Perhaps, the "First Lady" can be excused for her ignorance. White Texians are not known to be particularly "educated" nor "cultured"!
The USA military has pillaged and raped the American Indians and the Mexicans in the southwest in the same way they are now doing to the Iraqis. Even today, naive Latinas who join the US Armed Forces are being brutalized and raped by racist Jews and white military personnel. They are being recruited for the exclusive enjoyment of depraved US Jewish and white military personnel. If they are doing this within the US military ranks, what can Iraqi men and women expect in their own occupied land? The brutalization of people of color by white military armed forces is a historical fact.
Another "dirty secret" of the Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz run Pentagon is the shameful "raping" of women of color in the US military that has reached "epidemic proportions". There are hundreds of Mexican-American and other enlisted women in the US military whose lives have been totally shattered by a military they thought would never betray them. Their lives are now in total shambles after the Pentagon threw them out and blame them for the brutal rapes that took place while they were in uniform.
There are hundreds of documented rapes of Latinas in the US military and thousands more that were never reported because of fear and shame of the victims. This is also true of the hundreds of rapes of Iraqi women and young girls that took place in Baghdad during the early days of the US occupation. The following five cases are just examples of the hundreds that have occurred during recent years.
The Rape of Latinas in the US Military
by
Miroslava Flores
La Voz de Aztlan
Los Angeles, Alta California - May 10, 2004 - (ACN) Today, I heard and viewed the "goody two-shoes" First Lady on ABC's "Good Morning America" and almost vomited when I heard her say that the sexual torture of Iraqi POW's and female detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison was not what the USA stands for. I ask, where did she study US history? I would like to invite her to "obtain some culture" and view the play "Ramona" that has been playing continuously for 81 years in Hemet, Alta California (http://www.ramonabowl.com/home.shtml). The rape of American Indians, Mexicans and African slaves has been an ongoing enterprise by barbaric whites ever since European savages set foot on the Western Hemisphere. Perhaps, the "First Lady" can be excused for her ignorance. White Texians are not known to be particularly "educated" nor "cultured"!
The USA military has pillaged and raped the American Indians and the Mexicans in the southwest in the same way they are now doing to the Iraqis. Even today, naive Latinas who join the US Armed Forces are being brutalized and raped by racist Jews and white military personnel. They are being recruited for the exclusive enjoyment of depraved US Jewish and white military personnel. If they are doing this within the US military ranks, what can Iraqi men and women expect in their own occupied land? The brutalization of people of color by white military armed forces is a historical fact.
Another "dirty secret" of the Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz run Pentagon is the shameful "raping" of women of color in the US military that has reached "epidemic proportions". There are hundreds of Mexican-American and other enlisted women in the US military whose lives have been totally shattered by a military they thought would never betray them. Their lives are now in total shambles after the Pentagon threw them out and blame them for the brutal rapes that took place while they were in uniform.
There are hundreds of documented rapes of Latinas in the US military and thousands more that were never reported because of fear and shame of the victims. This is also true of the hundreds of rapes of Iraqi women and young girls that took place in Baghdad during the early days of the US occupation. The following five cases are just examples of the hundreds that have occurred during recent years.
Unfortunately as well, it's not just a woman's problem with this situation in the military.
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/showArticl...cleId=162100179
Sexual Assault Among Male Veterans
By Melissa A. Polusny, Ph.D., and Maureen Murdoch, M.D., M.P.H.
Psychiatric Times April 2005 Vol. XXII Issue 4
Sexual assault is a serious problem associated with significant human suffering and long-term health costs. Since the widely publicized incident at the Tailhook Symposium in 1991, which included Navy personnel, disturbingly high rates of adult sexual assault have been documented among women serving in the military (Table).
The prevalence of adult sexual assault among female veterans, for example, has been estimated as high as 41% (Coyle et al., 1996; Sadler et al., 2000; Skinner et al., 2000) and is considerably higher than rates of lifetime sexual assault among civilian women (Resnick et al., 1993). Among women, sexual assault is a significant risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation, and alcohol and drug abuse (Koss et al., 1994). Other long-term sequelae identified among female adult sexual assault survivors include sexual dysfunction (van Berlo and Ensink, 2000), impaired social functioning and employment difficulties (Sadler et al., 2000; Schwartz, 1991), and physical health complaints, as well as increased health care utilization (Frayne et al., 2003; Ullman and Brecklin, 2003).
In comparison to the burgeoning literature on the prevalence and impact of adult sexual assault on women, there is a dearth of published literature on male adult sexual assault victims. In this article, we provide an overview of the existent literature on male sexual assault and highlight recent findings on the prevalence of adult sexual assault in a large sample of male veterans applying for PTSD disability benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The treatment implications of these recent data for psychiatrists and other mental health care professionals are discussed.
Psychiatric Sequelae of Adult Sexual Assault in Men
While previous data on male adult sexual assault were largely limited to anecdotal clinical case reports and small samples, researchers have recently begun to give more serious empirical attention to questions regarding sexual assault among men in the general population (Elliot et al., 2004). Preliminary data suggest that sexually victimized men experience similar adverse outcomes to those widely documented for women. For example, in the Los Angeles Epidemiological Catchment Area Study, the impact of sexual assault on men's and women's mental health status was similar, except that sexually assaulted men were more likely than assaulted women to report subsequent alcohol abuse or dependence (Burnam et al., 1988). Similarly, Ratner and colleagues (2003) found that sexually assaulted men were 2.9 times more likely than nonvictimized men to abuse alcohol. Coxell and colleagues (1999) found that nonconsensual sexual experiences among men were associated with increased self-harm, alcohol abuse and general psychological problems.
Adult Sexual Assault in the Military
The existing empirical literature on male adult sexual assault has focused predominantly on community samples, and understanding the scope and nature of sexual assault among male active duty soldiers or combat veterans remains in its infancy. Recent research in this area has investigated the prevalence and incidence of male adult sexual assault (Table). For example, Martin and colleagues (1998) reported that 6.7% of male Army soldiers had experienced sexual assault during their lifetimes and 3% since entering the military. Smith and colleagues (1999) reported a lifetime prevalence of sexual assault of 12% among 129 combat veterans consecutively referred for PTSD. However, 92% of these assaults occurred prior to combat exposu
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/showArticl...cleId=162100179
Sexual Assault Among Male Veterans
By Melissa A. Polusny, Ph.D., and Maureen Murdoch, M.D., M.P.H.
Psychiatric Times April 2005 Vol. XXII Issue 4
Sexual assault is a serious problem associated with significant human suffering and long-term health costs. Since the widely publicized incident at the Tailhook Symposium in 1991, which included Navy personnel, disturbingly high rates of adult sexual assault have been documented among women serving in the military (Table).
The prevalence of adult sexual assault among female veterans, for example, has been estimated as high as 41% (Coyle et al., 1996; Sadler et al., 2000; Skinner et al., 2000) and is considerably higher than rates of lifetime sexual assault among civilian women (Resnick et al., 1993). Among women, sexual assault is a significant risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation, and alcohol and drug abuse (Koss et al., 1994). Other long-term sequelae identified among female adult sexual assault survivors include sexual dysfunction (van Berlo and Ensink, 2000), impaired social functioning and employment difficulties (Sadler et al., 2000; Schwartz, 1991), and physical health complaints, as well as increased health care utilization (Frayne et al., 2003; Ullman and Brecklin, 2003).
In comparison to the burgeoning literature on the prevalence and impact of adult sexual assault on women, there is a dearth of published literature on male adult sexual assault victims. In this article, we provide an overview of the existent literature on male sexual assault and highlight recent findings on the prevalence of adult sexual assault in a large sample of male veterans applying for PTSD disability benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The treatment implications of these recent data for psychiatrists and other mental health care professionals are discussed.
Psychiatric Sequelae of Adult Sexual Assault in Men
While previous data on male adult sexual assault were largely limited to anecdotal clinical case reports and small samples, researchers have recently begun to give more serious empirical attention to questions regarding sexual assault among men in the general population (Elliot et al., 2004). Preliminary data suggest that sexually victimized men experience similar adverse outcomes to those widely documented for women. For example, in the Los Angeles Epidemiological Catchment Area Study, the impact of sexual assault on men's and women's mental health status was similar, except that sexually assaulted men were more likely than assaulted women to report subsequent alcohol abuse or dependence (Burnam et al., 1988). Similarly, Ratner and colleagues (2003) found that sexually assaulted men were 2.9 times more likely than nonvictimized men to abuse alcohol. Coxell and colleagues (1999) found that nonconsensual sexual experiences among men were associated with increased self-harm, alcohol abuse and general psychological problems.
Adult Sexual Assault in the Military
The existing empirical literature on male adult sexual assault has focused predominantly on community samples, and understanding the scope and nature of sexual assault among male active duty soldiers or combat veterans remains in its infancy. Recent research in this area has investigated the prevalence and incidence of male adult sexual assault (Table). For example, Martin and colleagues (1998) reported that 6.7% of male Army soldiers had experienced sexual assault during their lifetimes and 3% since entering the military. Smith and colleagues (1999) reported a lifetime prevalence of sexual assault of 12% among 129 combat veterans consecutively referred for PTSD. However, 92% of these assaults occurred prior to combat exposu