Also on Demcracy Now! Specialist Mickiela Montoya described how women would cut of the tops of water bottles in pee in them at night. She also described how she would carry a knife with her “to feel safe,” she explained “from the other soldiers.” She said when there was “any type of strong sexual harassment words spoken, I just mainly felt a little bit more secure, and [the knife] was visible, too, to the other soldiers.”

While confidential reports are now allowed most assaults go unreported. Sarah Corbett reported in The New York Times that women told her “You just don't expect anything to be done about it anyway, so why even try?”  DoD statistics demonstrate the validity of those feelings: of the 3,038 investigations of military sexual assault charges completed in 2004 and 2005, only 329 - about one-tenth - of them resulted in a court-martial of the perpetrator. More than half were dismissed for lack of evidence or because an offender could not be identified, and another 617 were resolved through milder administrative punishments, like demotions, transfers and letters of admonishment.

Sarah Corbett reports in “The Women’s War” published in the New York Times Magazine that: “More than one-quarter of female veterans of Vietnam developed PTSD at some point in their lives, according to the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Survey conducted in the mid-'80s, which included 432 women, most of whom were nurses. (The PTSD rate for women was 4 percent below that of the men.) Two years after deployment to the gulf war, where combat exposure was relatively low, Army data showed that 16 percent of a sample of female soldiers studied met diagnostic criteria for PTSD, as opposed to 8 percent of their male counterparts.” The problems with sexual harassment, assault and rape are systemic in the military beginning with recruiters, military academies, carrying on through service and at the Veterans Administrations. 

In 2006 Associated Press reported that “more than 100 young women who expressed interest in joining the military in the past year were preyed upon sexually by their recruiters. Women were raped on recruiting office couches, assaulted in government cars and groped en route to entrance exams.” According to the report more than 80 military recruiters were disciplined last year for sexual misconduct with potential enlistees. This included at least 35 Army recruiters, 18 Marine Corps recruiters, 18 Navy recruiters and 12 Air Force recruiters who were disciplined for sexual misconduct or other inappropriate behavior with potential enlistees in 2005.  AP put together the report based on dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests.

The AP also found that this is not a new problem.  For example, the Army, which accounts for almost half of the military, has had 722 recruiters accused of rape and sexual misconduct since 1996.  And, one out of 200 frontline recruiters across all services was disciplined for sexual misconduct last year.  As to punishment, most recruiters found guilty of sexual misconduct are disciplined administratively, facing a reduction in rank or forfeiture of pay. AP found that military and civilian prosecutions are rare.

At military academies, USA Today reports a 2004 Pentagon survey of the three military academies found 1 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.

Benedict explains on DemcoracyNow! that “almost everybody is being harassed, but not every woman is being assaulted. The majority aren’t. And there are a lot of soldiers out there who -- male soldiers -- who treat the women as their sisters, just as they treat the other men as their brothers, and who are wonderful and reliable people. And the majority of them are like that.”  She says one key to whether there is harassment is the attitude of the commander.

Thomas Berger, national chairman of Vietnam Veterans of America's PTSD-and-substance-abuse committee, told Sarah Corbett: “The fact is, if a woman veteran comes in from Iraq who's been in a combat situation and has also been raped, there are very few clinicians in the V.A. who have been trained to treat her specific needs.”  Only 2 of the V.A.’s 1,400 hospitals and clinics have PTSD programs exclusively for women.  The Bush administration recently announced that while it will increase V.A. health-care financing by 9 percent for 2008, it has proposed consecutive cuts of about $1.8 billion for 2009 and 2010.  

There is not much action on this issue in the Congress. Senator Barak Obama has introduced a bill to put more resources into treatment of women.  He described a woman he met at Walter Reed not that “many of the women in theater face first hand dangers in their combat support roles. Driving a truck in Baghdad is one of the  most dangerous missions around and that is a support role. Women are witnessing the horrors of improvised explosive devices and the horrors of losing fellow service members. And too many experience the trauma of sexual abuse.” He noted how the woman trembled when he spoke to her and explained how she could not handle group counseling sessions, but needed one-on-one support. He concluded “Treatment for women with PTSD, especially sexual abuse victims, is very different from treatment for men.” He proposed adding $15 million to address the unique mental health needs of women.  

One case that received lots of attention was the case of Specialist Suzanne Swift. Swift, faced redeployment to Iraq while serving under the command of the same individuals that allowed her to be raped and sexual harassed. She suffered a breakdown due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and went absent without leave rather than subject herself to the horrors she experienced during her first tour of duty. Her violators warned her that no one would believe her saying: “Swift, you look like you are going to tell someone about what happened between us. Nobody will believe you.” They were right. In January, she faced a court martial and was stripped of her rank and sentenced to jail for 30 days. No action was taken against her commander in Iraq, and another harrasser man was given a letter of admonishment – a slap on the wrist. Suzanne Swift has advice for women being recruited by the military, “for the women who are considering going into it, don’t.”

Another case that has received less attention, but may have ended in murder is the case of Private LaVena Johnson.  Johnson died in 2005 and the military claims it was a suicide.  Her father believes that the death began with a sexual assault, LaVena then went for health care to make sure she had not caught any sexually transmitted disease and LaVena shared the name of her attacker.  He believes that led to her murder.  Indications that it was not a suicide include:

• Evidence of physical abuse that went unremarked by the autopsy
• The absence of psychological indicators of suicidal thoughts; indeed, testimony that LaVena was happy and healthy prior to her death
• Indications, via residue tests, that LaVena may not even have handled the weapon that killed her
• A blood trail outside the tent where Lavena's body was found
• Indications that someone attenpted to set LaVena's body on fire as well as the crime scene on fire.

The military is refusing to re-open the investigation.

Women are playing important roles in the U.S. armed services but are facing abuse they should not have to endure.  More than 160,500 U.S. women have served in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East since the war began in 2003, which means one in seven soldiers is a woman. Women now make up 15% of active duty forces, four times more than in the 1991 Gulf War. At least 450 women have been wounded in Iraq, and 71 have died -- more female casualties and deaths than in the Korean, Vietnam and first Gulf Wars combined. And women are fighting in combat.  But, if the problems of harassment, assault and rape are not dealt with the future of women in the military is uncertain and problematic.

For more information:

Sarah Corbett, The Women’s War, New York Times, March 3, 2007,http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/19/america/web.0319-women.php?page=1

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