A recent Veterans Administration's National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder study found that one in seven female
veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan seeking medical care from the VA
suffered some form of sexual trauma, ranging from harassment to rape.
The
analysis included the medical records of 125,000 male and female war
veterans. Of that group, 2,600 veterans (15 percent), most of whom were
women, reported experiencing a sexual trauma while deployed.
The
statistic is staggering and suggests that of the true numbers of sexual
assaults in the 870,000 veterans who have fought and returned from war
- more than 59,000 of which are female - could be as high as 8,850.
Wanda Story, who was raped
twice by fellow uniformed soldiers 20 years ago and now heads the
United Female Veterans of America, thinks the rates are even higher.
"I do feel that it is much higher than that, and if they could get the
records of all the women that have returned that had been sexually
assaulted, those afraid to come in, they would find that it's a lot
higher," Story told CBS.
"They're out there, they're away from their families, they're away
from their girlfriends, you know, their wives," she said. "They see an
opportunity."
But
not all soldiers are created equal. In response to a recent GAO report
which found that of just 13 military bases surveyed, 103 servicemembers
said they had been sexually assaulted in the previous 12 months, Army
Secretary Pete Geren
rolled out the Army's "I Am Strong" campaign designed to eliminate
sexual assault in the Army within five years.
Geren understands
the moral challenge ahead and is pushing hard to reinforce the Army's
values. "We're not some fraternity house...we're the US Army and we
live our
values."
Lt. Col. David
Valcourt, Deputy Commander of the Army's Training Command, agrees, succinctly equating sexual assault with cowardice.
"A
soldier who would take advantage of another soldier is exactly the same
soldier who would abandon a comrade in battle," said Valcourt.
Still,
the problems persist, and the studies have prompted Rep. Jane Harman
(D-CA) to point out that "women serving in the military today are more
likely to be raped by a
fellow soldier than to be killed by enemy fire in Iraq."
Shocking
as the statement may be, it pales in comparison to the actual stories
from female military members, a few of which were addressed in a March Huffington Post blog:
"The stories are shocking in their simplicity and brutality: A female
military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in
her own barracks. Her attackers hid their faces but she identified them
by their uniforms; they were her fellow soldiers. During a routine
gynecological exam, a female soldier is attacked and raped by her
military physician. Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life
in a war zone, is raped by her commanding officer. Afraid for her
standing in her unit, she feels she has nowhere to turn.
The scope of the problem was brought into acute focus for me during a
visit to the West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center, where I met with
female veterans and their doctors. My jaw dropped when the doctors told
me that 41% of female veterans seen at the clinic say they were victims
of sexual assault while in the military, and 29% report being raped
during their military service. They spoke of their continued terror,
feelings of helplessness and the downward spirals many of their lives
have since taken."
The article goes on to point out that of the only 181 out of 2,212 subjects investigated for sexual assault in 2007,
including 1,259 reports of rape, were referred to courts-martial. Another 218 were
handled via administrative action or discharge, and 201
subjects were disciplined through "nonjudicial punishment," essentially a slap on the wrist.
"This is in stark contrast to the civilian trend of prosecuting sexual
assault. In California, for example, 44% of reported rapes result in
arrests, and 64% of those who are arrested are prosecuted, according to
the California Department of Justice"
So what can we derive from all this information to combat the problem?
For starters, rape prosecutions must be moved up in priority above the age-old "protecting the reputation of the uniform" mantra that senior officers often pose as a roadblock to criminalizing. But that won't stop rapes or sexual assaults from occurring. Civilians are prosecuted for rapes all the time, but many go unreported and a considerable number of cases fall prey to the lack of evidence problem. She claims rape. He says he didn't or that it was consensual. If the woman doesn't come forward quickly after a rape, no evidence can be found and used in court.
In the military, the situation is much worse, especially if an event occurs while deployed. There are no rape center tents set up next to the mess hall to collect DNA evidence in the field. Perhaps there should be. But even if they were there, the under reporting and too-late reporting problems still occur. Women fear for their lives, their careers, their reputations, and their camaraderie with fellow servicemembers. It's a lot to chance.
To combat such social problems, more needs to be done to chastise those who commit sexual assault and, just as Lt. Col. David
Valcourt is doing, equate them with the lowest levels of cowardice and treason. Is it enough to combat the powerful hormones of young male soldiers in the midst of war taught to be violent? Probably not, but it could help.
Another potential contributor to the military's rape problem stems from the falling recruiting standards of the military. In order to meet recruitment targets, many criminal histories are being overlooked, some having to do with sexual assualt.
As the Washington Times reported in February, "Data released by a congressional committee shows that the number of
people admitted to the Army with felony records jumped from 249 in 2006
to 511 in 2007. And the number of Marines with felonies rose from 208
to 350.
The bulk of the crimes involved burglaries, other thefts, and drug
offenses, but nine involved sex crimes and six involved manslaughter or
vehicular homicide convictions. Several dozen Army and Marine recruits
had aggravated assault or robbery convictions, including incidents
involving weapons."
These recruits might be the right mix for unleashing their rage onto their enemies, but can they be trusted around their own?
Falling education levels among the recruits is also a problem. The latest statistics show that the percentage of new Army recruits with high-school
diplomas has plunged from 94 percent in 2003 to 83.5 percent in 2005 to
70.7 percent in 2007. In addition, DoD used to impose a regulation that no more than two percent of its recruits could score below 30 percent on aptitude tests. In 2005, this number was raised to four percent. In 2006, new Army recruits exceeded the threshold, bringing the highest number of low scoring recruits ever into their ranks.
Low education rates, criminal histories of recruits, horny young soldiers taught to be aggressive, a culture of coverup, failures to prosecute, lack of evidence, fears for life and of alienation, stresses of war - all of these factors are contributing to the current environment that allows sexual assaults to occur consistently in the military. Unfortunately, there is no panacea, no magic wand a senior officer can wave to make the situation better. It is a terrible and embarassing problem plaguing our uniformed services that must be prioritized and dealt with holistically. For if we can't protect our own military from eachother, how can they be expected to protect the rest of us civilians?
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