Photo By Kimberly Hackbarth | Brigade and battalion leadership of 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade cut a cake...... read more read more
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FORT HOOD, Texas – In an effort to educate leaders on the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Program while keeping their attention in a creative way, Sgt. 1st Class Ken Cates, the 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade's Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, put together a SHARP Staff Ride, held Oct. 31 on Fort Hood, Texas.
During the SHARP Staff Ride, leaders within the brigade rode buses to different locations on post and watched Soldiers act out scenes described in actual sexual harassment cases that have been reported Army-wide.
Cates said that traveling to the scenes, or vignettes, forces the brigade leadership to put themselves in the actual environment of the event.
"By taking somebody out of their comfort zone and putting them out in the open to experience the vignette, now I'm impacting them just as much as the Soldier who was taken out of his or her comfort zone when they were assaulted or harassed," he said.
The group of senior noncommissioned and commissioned officers witnessed four vignettes that each told a different story and brought different topics to light for discussion.
In one of the scenarios, a Soldier was singled out and punished for filing a sexual harassment report.
During the vignette, the Soldier who filed the report raked leaves while several other Soldiers stood around and listened to an NCO say derogatory things about the singled-out Soldier.
After the skit ended, the brigade commander, Col. Brian Gibson, engaged the crowd of brigade leaders and asked their opinions on what they had just witnessed. The crowd acknowledged that the NCO in the scenario did not handle the situation correctly and said they would have stepped in and corrected her.
In reality, the NCO would have been in serious trouble.
According to an Army Directive titled "Prohibition of Retaliation Against Soldiers for Reporting a Criminal Offense" released in June 2014, the Secretary of the Army John McHugh, stated that "no Soldier may retaliate against a victim, an alleged victim or another member of the Armed Forces based on that individual's report of a criminal offense."
The situations opened up conversations about the different types of reporting, what forms are used, and what the chain of command's position is in the reporting process.
Master Sgt. Seagram Porter, the operations sergeant major for 1st Battalion, 62nd ADA Regiment, 69th ADA Bde., said the live-action vignettes caused leaders to "put their thinking caps on."
"It encourages leaders at every level to educate themselves on the topic [of sexual harassment and assault response and prevention]," Porter said. "Not only that, you learn from the individuals standing to your left and your right because they may have different experiences, or maybe know some things you don’t know."
The vignettes added an emotional aspect that Porter said leaders don't usually get to see unless they're there when the incident occurs.
"As leaders, we're traditionally there after things [have] settled down a little bit," said Porter, adding that being able to witness the emotional aspect of someone's initial reaction involving a sexual assault scenario shed a new light on things.
"I have a little girl, so seeing that made me really think of her and how important it is that we're actively engaged in the SHARP Program," he said.
The SHARP Staff Ride ended with the opening of the brigade's new Lightning Readiness Center, which houses the brigade's SHARP Program, Equal Opportunity Advisors, Unit Ministry Team, Military Family Life Consultant, and the Family Readiness Support Assistant.
"The focus was confidentiality first," said Cates.
The primary goal of the Lightning Readiness Center is to allow Soldiers and their families to get the services that they need or want without having the stigma of a commander or staff duty seeing somebody go into a certain office, Cates said.
Many pairs of boots line the walkway entering the Lightning Readiness Center, which Cates calls the "battered soles" display.
"Every pair of boots that you see in front of the Lightning Readiness Center ... [doesn't] depict 100 percent of sexual assaults on Fort Hood," Cates explained. "They only depict sexual assaults reported to SHARP unrestricted."
Cates added that in between each pair that affects the brigade is a stake with the brigade's patch.
"The reality check behind it is if we’re going to own this and fix it, we need that reality to show what’s really happening across the Army and within our own ranks," he said. "If we can't step out and show that we are noticing … if we’re not going to take ownership and correct it and fix it now, then nobody ever will."
By opening the Lightning Readiness Center, holding the SHARP Staff Ride and placing the boots in plain view, the brigade is showing its commitment to helping the Soldiers in the unit and taking steps toward fixing the Army-wide problem of sexual harassment and assault.
| Date Taken: | 10.31.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 11.03.2014 16:13 |
| Story ID: | 146871 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 122 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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