Sexual Assault and the U.S. Military
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-02-17/sexual-assault-and-us-military
Seventeen veterans and active-duty service members filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon. They accuse the U.S. military of permitting a culture that tolerates rape and sexual assault. Seeking accountability in the armed forces.
Guests
Susan Burke
the plaintiffs’ lead lawyer in the lawsuit against the Pentagon.
Rebekah Havrilla
Sergeant served in the Army from January 2004 until September of 2009, plaintiff in lawsuit against the Pentagon.
Mary Gallagher
Technical Sergeant in the Air National Guard, plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Pentagon.
Kaye Whitley
director of the Defense Department's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office
Anu Bhagwati
the executive director of Service Women's Action Network and a Marine Corp veteran.
Comments
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Until this predatory culture changes this failure of command and oversight would constitute good and sufficient reason for all prudent women, and men of conscience, to avoid, refuse and delay military service. A woman is not a lesser service member, nor a convenient fixture of sexual release. If fellow soldiers are fair game imagine the attitude toward foreign civilians. Citizens should not tolerate rape in their name. Sexual assault toleration makes me trust our defense missions even less, if that is possible.
As a student nurse I would like to suggest that those who have endured sexual abuse be referred to as survivors instead of victims. It may be the first step in a long journey to restore dignity.
Not to discredit the young lady representing the military program in these cases, but these victims certainly qualify as whistleblowers and we've all seen how the military responds to whistleblowers.
Sexual assault has been used as a tool of degradation and humiliation by warriors on the conquered for thousands of years, but it cannot be tolerated in our modern society. Were American soldiers raping Afghan and Iraqi women, discipline would be swift and severe in response to the international outcry. Yet, senior officers do not ensure the good order and basic respect to prevent American women and men from being sexual assaulted by their comrades in the Armed Forces. Change is long overdue, and the penalties for this vast cover-up must be severe and wide-reaching.
In all the discussion about what the military was doing for sexual assault victims no where was mentioned the medical system. In the Iraq theater medical personnel were given training in conducting rape kits and counseling victims. All the rape kits I processed during my deployment were given to the military police. However, the victims, for personal reasons, chose to not pursue prosecution.
If victims chose not to prosecute then the military authorities only receive statistcs. Nor have any of the disccussions mention the Inspector General or judge advocate gnerals office.
To state uncategorically the sexual harassment training is not taken seriously is a blanket cop out. Every unit I served in any hint of sexual harrassment was immediately addressed and dealt with.
Please be more specific in mentioning that your guests are not the only examples of what occurs in the Army.
I believe sexualized attacks should be put into the legal category of a hate crime. What do you think? from a sister survivor, Ellen, Ann Arbor.
I am a clinical social worker in the department of defense and us army. I worked with one female soldier that had been victimized by a superior non commissioned officer. She eventually went to he superiors for help and they immediately commenced to protect the perpetrator and did all they could to do to destroy her career and anyone that advocated on her behalf including myself. It is clear that the us army only cares about protecting the upper ranks and really care nothing about the victims of assault.
Each of the 5 branches of the Armed Forces of the United States has its Core Values. Each of the 5 sets of Core Values includes one of the following: Honor or Integrity. Those who rape, coverup rape, or transfer suspects out of a unit (pass them off) are acting counter to their core values. Those who do so are not worthy of the uniform they wear. I am a 30 year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard and served as both an enlisted person and officer.
Back in the late 1980's I served in Germany. There were some commanders who were transferred because of sexual harassment complaints. But even though we were a peacetime force, I was usually armed which prevented being assaulted.
I can't believe that there is still the Bevis and Butthead attitude.
That maybe an answer. If all the women were armed and dangerous those guys will stop being jerks.
Sexual abuse in the military has been going on for years. One of my clients was a whistleblowers who was the auditor at Yuma Provong Grounds. He reported widespread sexual abuse at the Proving Grounds. His records were shredded by his boss but he kept copies of the records and got them to the commanding officer who ignored the reports. They eventually fired the auditor.
I have copies of his records and have permission to share them.
I agree completely with this social worker. As a social worker myself I have worked with whistleblowers who attempted to report sexual abuse and other fraud and abuse of power in the military. One of my clients was fired and spent the rest of his life trying to get back his career in the military. After attempting to get congressional help and reporting his findings in various news outlets he never did get his day in court and eventually died of a heart attack fighting his case.
IIrc, it was online that I read that the atmosphere in the military is that of a high-school boys' locker room. I served aboard a destroyer from 1955 to 1958, which of course had an all-male crew; the "locker room" comment does not seem out of line.
A related news report of a few years ago told of U.S. Army women who, in summer in Iraq, were found dead in their bunks at reveille. What was found was that the latrines for such locations were outdoors, and rapists were likely to be waiting for women to use the latrines.
The women decided to drink no liquids after noon, so they wouldn't need to make risky trips. They died of dehydration.
Calling ourselves a civilized society,
in this regard, is worse than a sick joke.
I would hope for an independent and secure communications channel that bypasses the chain of command to reach a rape reporting center that would take action. Perhaps cell phone access would work.
I used to work as sexual assault victim advocate. Part of my job was train law enforcement, medical personnel, and others in victim sensitivity to reduce re-victimization. Certainly the military can make this minimal effort to help victims. I am appalled at what I am hearing.
I was pretty annoyed by your guests' immediate rejection of one of the caller's suggestion that men on the whole are sexually aggressive. I encourage the guests to read the book featured in the following book lecture:
http://fora.tv/2009/03/24/Ask_a_Scientist_Sex_and_War
Keep in mind that this isn't a point of biological determinism, but a fact of biological predisposition.
Sexual assault is a problem everywhere in society, not just in the military. However, the military rightfully lives in a fishbowl because of our unique role and responsibility to the American people. The consequence of this scrutiny is problems tend to get magnified and politicized. The theme of these comments indicates a perception that the military tolerates or even condones sexual assault. If you spoke with military lawyers you might get a more nuanced assessment of the situation. In my experience, commanders are so hyper-vigilant about sexual assault that they take service members to trial on facts that a civilian DA would not touch. I have seen a few cut and dry rape cases supported by forensic evidence and injury where the offender received significant punishment at court-martial - but most allegations are of the "he said, she said" date-rape variety and are much more difficult to prove. A not atypical case that you will hear in one variation or another from most military justice practitioners involves the accused (military term for a defendant) and the complainant get drunk together. Witnesses observe amorous behavior during the course of the evening. Sexual activity occurs. Complainant delays reporting until after (1) he or she finds out that the sexual activity became public knowledge; or, (2) a boyfriend/girlfriend finds out and becomes upset. The complainant then alleges that he or she was too intoxicated to consent to sexual activity. It is difficult to prove a crime took place beyond a reasonable doubt with these facts. My civilian prosecutor colleagues are incredulous at the kinds of sexual assault cases we prosecute, but no commander that I have ever observed wants to appear as if he or she turns a blind eye to sexual assault. In short, my experience is the military aggressively prosecutes a wider net of alleged offenders with the end result that many cases wind up in acquittals or with convictions on lesser charges.
Convicting sex offenders does not appear to serve leadership interests. I doubt training will reduce sexual assaults. But administrative fines imposed on officers at fault may. Officers who fail to properly act on reports of sex crime, or who commit it, have betrayed taxpayer trust. Therefore, I believe the U.S. Treasury needs to recover from them their full officer's salaries retroactive through the date of their wrongdoing. The Treasury should continue to collect until the officer rights the wrong or is convicted with forfeiture of pay. Multiple instances of wrongdoing by the same officer should be fined the corresponding number of times. With such a system, many Military Sexual Trauma (MST) victims' taxes would at least not be funding their abuser's pay.
On today's show, a prosecutor's "loss" of physical evidence was mentioned. The USS Enterprise Executive Officer's (XO) 2006-2007 videos were also mentioned. In addition to being raunchy, these videos raise questions about liberties the XO could take with evidence. In the Navy, an XO Inquiry reviews evidence and investigates reports of offenses. In his movie for the crew, the XO apparently spliced three images of himself into the same scene. To spare the command from action on reports of assault, could he also edit a perpetrator out of security camera video? Or worse, could he replace the image of an actual perpetrator with that of an innocent person, perhaps as an example of devastating Whistle-blower Reprisal (WBR)?
I am the spouse of a soldier whose career was ruined by false accusation of rape.
My situation was one of too much drink and feeling bad about what she did. I do not condone my husbands adultery - it was a bad call to say the least. My husband endured an Article 32 AND full trial. The LTC overseeing the article 32 sent it on -lacking the guts to see the facts:- the accusation against my husband was made to CID 24 hours later and recanted, but - once a claim of rape is made - wheels are in motion and you are at the mercy of the military justice system; 5 story changes; having CID at two different bases investigating each other because she stated she was coerced to make statements; failing two polygraph tests. While she played the system - my husband endured trials being found guilty of conduct unbecoming and adultery. He was punished more severely (money taken away - a letter in his permanent fine) than others of lesser or greater rank according to the overseeing judge. What has this lady gotten for makling this false statement? She needs help. If a woman is assaulted she should not go to her commander - that is like going to your boss in the civilian world - he wants to keep the peace and to keep productivity up. The proper authorities need to be gone to - CID. Once they get a complaint they must follow up with it - even if the statment is recanted. That is what happened to us. The lady who made this false accusation got a victims assistance person assigned to her - my husband and I did not. Thank goodness for Tricare and good mental health coverage for therapy. While my spouse may suffer ill effects from deployments that he goes on - I suffer ill effects (PTSD like symptoms) from the hell I was put through due to a false accusation of rape against my husband because someone/two people did something stupid.
I'm so happy to hear this issue is finally coming out! Thank you SWAN and thank you Diane Rehm!!! I served four years in the Navy and I didn't reenlist because I knew as an enlisted member there's nothing I could do to protect women's rights. These men do disgusting things to us. They rub up against our breasts on purpose, They touch us inappropriately and say suck it up because you wanted equal rights, They attack us! My command almost sent me to captains mast when a man attacked me and i thought since they were telling me i was the one in the wrong i believed them and didnt pursue it, THATS why women dont pursue these harassments. It's scary to work along side a man who attacked you and now is even more mad that you actually did something about it. Your command discourages it. On top of that our SAPR Representatives in the command were women who gossiped, they were vultures and not the women you would confide anything in. Was is that way on purpose? Did my command specifically choose women we couldn't confide in?! This needs to stop, and i really hope SAPR takes this more seriously and realizes there's some major problems in their system. God bless you all taking a stand!
In response to criticism, all branches of the military hired sexual assault program planners and counselors. It looked good on paper. But they gave special points in hiring to spouses and relatives of war fighters. The women who do rape advocacy in the civilian world were not hired. They would have been in trouble and disrupted the military system if they had been hired.
Not only did these "special deference in hiring" spouses have a conflict of interest but they were easily controlled by the brass fearing for their husband's career if they made waves. They are part of the military culture.
This is a totally unexplored area of the problem. The complaint process for rape and harassment, the programs, counseling and legal actions should be civilian controlled and staffed. In allegations of rape, the legal jurisdiction should be transferred to civilian authorities immediately. Both parties should be returned to the states for trial.
This is a root cause. The fox is guarding the chicken coop. This structure is perpetuating the problem. Institutional change is needed.
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