DAVID: And she's been to Iraq for one tour, right?
SARA: One tour, exactly.
DAVID: When did she go and when did she come back?
SARA: She went February of '04 to February of '05.
DAVID: And she is now refusing to return; why is that?
SARA: Well, there's a lot of reasons why. When it came down to her redeployment, about 2 weeks before she was due...well first of all, she only got 11 months of stabilization time. You're mandated to have 18 months of stabilization time between deployments in a combat zone, so she was only being given 11 months of stabilization time, and was forced to sign a waiver waiving her rights to that 18 months. This was really hard for her. Then about 2 weeks before they were to be redeployed, she was out on a training mission, and a male sergeant raped a male specialist out on a training expedition, a training that they were doing in Yakima, which kind of triggered all of the sexual abuse and assault and harassment that Suzanne experienced when she was in Iraq the first time.
DAVID: A sergeant raped a specialist?
SARA: Yeah, a male sergeant raped a male specialist on a training expedition a couple weeks before they were to be redeployed to Iraq.
DAVID: And were there repercussions and accountability for this?
SARA: Oh yeah, oh yeah, because the specialist said something and then so what they did immediately was they had everybody go and do sexual assault training classes, and Suzanne said she was sitting in these classes or these work groups where they were telling them what to do in case of sexual assault, and that other soldiers were crying, and she said she was so, it just really scared her, and it also triggered what she went through when she was in Iraq the first time. When it came down to it, three days before she was going to leave, she had her keys in her hand and she turned to me and she said "Mom, I can't go back. I just can't go back."
DAVID: But what was done specifically to her that led her to refuse to go back?
SARA: Well, there were two sergeants that harassed her and one that sexually assaulted her in something called command rape while she was in Iraq; then a third harassed her when they returned from Iraq, so three sergeants that we are pressing criminal charges against.
DAVID: Can you define "command rape" for people who are not in the service or familiar with the term?
SARA: Sure, this is something I have learned, and the Army family therapist...I've heard of a lot of stupid things. I have never heard of command rape. It's when your superior has life-or-death decisions over you, so they can tell you to run across a minefield, and you have to comply. Basically they have all the life-or-death decisions over you. They coerce you or do something with you that's sexual it's called command rape.
DAVID: So, at this time, what is Suzanne's status, legally and otherwise? Is she free to move about the country? What's happening?
SARA: Well, up until a couple of days ago, she was confined to base, but they just gave her a pass to come home, which was really awesome, because this is kind of like a family reunion weekend for us. We do the Oregon Country Fair, and it's like our family reunion, so she is able to come down for the Oregon Country Fair, but her status, she hasn't been charged with anything as of yet. They haven't charged her with AWOL or any of that, so that still is up in the air, and they have started a criminal investigation into the three sergeants.
DAVID SWANSON is a co-founder of After Downing Street, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com. He is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, and serves on the Executive Council of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997.
This tactic has been well doctumented. We need to put an end to it. We need to help this young women who was lied to from the start. The Recrutier should also be held accoutable for what has happened.
by
Gregory A Reece (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 55 comments)
on Saturday, July 8, 2006 at 11:17:21 AM
