Sexual Abuse in U.S. Military

SAPRO recommendations’ for the following year included, development of a Defense Case Record Management System to synchronize support services requested by and referred for victims.  Sexual Assault Response Coordinators were also suggested to discuss issues, figure out what has been learned and oversee whether the best practices are being used.

        In an interview with ABC Nightline anchor Cynthia McFadden, Suzanne Swift a U.S. Army specialist, discussed her ordeal with sexual assault.  Swift, faced possible court martial for refusing to return to her base, after alleged assault from her fellow soldiers and superiors.  A squad leader said to her, “ Well, you know, what if I did this?” while grabbing intimate areas and kissing her.  As her squad leader he had control over her, so she kissed him back and they began what Swift describes as a “Nasty” sexual relationship.  When asked if she felt she had to sleep with him Swift responded, “I didn’t know what he would do if I said no.”  When asked why she didn’t report it to a commander or the officials she responded,” I didn’t know what would happen.”  Swift places blame on the chain of command, asking “What happens if, I make this complaint to the sergeant and he calls me in his office and says ‘Swift, why are you looking at me like you wanna have …”

Specialist Swift adds that she had, in the past, gone to her unit’s equal opportunity representative about a sexual comment her platoon sergeant had made while deployed in Kuwait.  Swift said there was no follow up. The Army says she never filed a formal complaint.  After being harassed by another Superior, Suzanne filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Office, with a suitable outcome 

        Swift planned to re-deploy with the rest of her unit to Iraq, but when the time came, she couldn’t force herself to leave.  Swift was arrested because she had gone AWOL.  Suzanne  is awaiting trail and continues to work on her base. In a startling revelation, the former commander of Abu Ghraib prison testified that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former senior US military commander in Iraq, gave orders to cover up the cause of death for some female American soldiers serving in Iraq.
        In January of this year, Col. Janis Karpinski told a panel of judges at the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration,  that several women had died of dehydration because they refused to drink liquids late in the day for fear of being assaulted or even raped by male soldiers if they had to use the women's latrine after dark.  The women we stationed at Camp Victory, where the latrines were not located near their barracks, and  had no lights to illuminate them.  These factors left the women exposed to become easy targets for sexual abuse.  So the women took matters into their own hands. They didn't drink in the late afternoon so they wouldn't have to urinate at night. They didn't get raped. But some died of dehydration in the desert heat, Karpinski said.
        Karpinski testified that a surgeon for the coalition's joint task force said in a briefing that "women in fear of getting up in the hours of darkness to go out to the port-a-lets or the latrines were not drinking liquids after 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and in 120 degree heat or warmer, because there was no air-conditioning at most of the facilities, they were dying from dehydration in their sleep." This is an example of unnecessary death or injury, because the branches of service themselves are not doing enough to protect soldiers from sexual assault.

Comparatively, the data of reports of sexual abuse on male victims is obscure.  The Department of Defense survey discovered that sexual abuse among male service members, was not reported at a level high enough to include.  Less than .5 % of male respondents reported sexual assault.  Exclusion of policy geared towards identifying, and resolving sexual assaults on men further substantiates the claim that sexual assault in the military goes undetected.  According to Terri Spahr-Nelson who, wrote an essay entitled The Enemy Within, there are two major reasons why sexual abuse is immensely underreported; “reporting undermines the victims’ heterosexuality and the abuse adds layers of shame because the victim should have been able to fend off their attacker.”

In a study done by the Pentagon , released in May 2004, there were 2, 014 reported cases of sexual assault within the military ranks.  Nine percent of those reports were made by males, most being assaulted by fellow servicemen.     In addition to the Pentagon study, the Department of Veteran’s affairs found more men than women were reporting sexual abuse at some point in their military careers, ranging form harassment to rape. 

United States House Representative, Louise M. Slaughter, of New York, made a poignant remark; “I don’t think any of us think of men as being rape victims, and certainly the military does not.  I suspect men are quiet about it, because they want to preserve their career in the military.”   Principal Deputy under the Secretary of Defense, Charles S. Abell was quoted saying; “We recognize that sexual assaults are seriously underreported, and we have no reason to doubt that it is more so in the case of male victims.”  Having this being said by high ranking officials in Washington, what is being done to ratify the situation?

In September 2004, the Boston Globe,  interviewed five former servicemen from different branches of service, her are their accounts;  

Brian Partridge,  20-year-old naval man on the USS Ardent, called his father in hysterics crying that he had been raped; “there’s blood all aver the place.”  Partridge’s father advised him to report it to base security.  Not long after he did he found himself tangled legal web.   After hanging up the phone with his father Partridge contacted the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and waited for officers to arrive.  He told them; “after a night of drinking with other sailors at the local bars, I returned back to the apartments because curfew had passed.”  He fell asleep in the guest bed, only to be awakened by a friend sexually assaulting him.  Partridge became enraged and beat  him up until he fled.  Skepticism by his superiors mounted, questioning him whether he war gay.  Partridge soon faced charges of his own, as the charges were turned around   Partridge was faced with two options, admit to participating in consensual sodomy and beating up the other man or face court-martial on both counts.  Terrified what repercussions, including jail time he would face from Partridge agreed to an other-than-honorable discharge.  The other sailor was charged with an undisclosed offense and discharged.  It is unknown whether the discharge was honorable or not.  

A former Marine said he was beaten and sexually assaulted in training camp in 1975 was dubbed a “training failure” and forced to leave the service.   In 1978, another man who had said he was raped in Army basic training camp.  He was fined by his commander for an unspecified offense.

Carlos Guice, was raped by a superior while in basic training in 1983 at Dover Air Force Base.  Blaming himself, he never reported the rape to the authorities.  He said,  I was afraid people would think I was gay.  I would be ostracized.” Guice was sexually abuse as a child, he was well aware of the consequences of speaking out.  His assailant, an officer told him, “No one would take the word of an enlisted man.” According to psychiatrists from the division of Veteran’s affairs, “The culture of the military itself contributes to all forms of aggression, and that includes rape.” 

When acting director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, Dr. Kaye Whitley, addressed the Committee on House Government Reform Subcommittee on violence against women in the military, he said “We’re off to a good start, but let me be clear-to prevail over sexual assault will take time.”  Is this just an excuse on the debilitated response from the Department of Defense?  Women as well as men  who serve their country, deserve environment without the clutter of sexual predators and unwanted sexual advancements.  The effects of the implementation of Sexual Assault Policies in the military have failed to provide this to female officers, and left male officers harboring treacherous images of sexual abuse they have endured without recognizing assaults upon males exist.  

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Bibliography

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Yardley, William, “Cadet Facing Court Martial at Coast Guard,” The New York Times April 13, 2006 sec B.

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