Photo By Spc. Yancy Mendoza | California National Guard's 100th Troop Command Soldiers engage in discussion during a...... read more read more
RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif– Every year, every Soldier is required to have a brief about the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) Program, but at the 100th Troop Command it is taken with a different approach. A SHARP brief was held at the California Military Department Headquarters on June 7th, 2025. But In place of a purely informational brief was a freeform and open discussion townhall, where Soldiers could speak freely about the ways in which we as a force continually address sexual harassment and assault.
The U.S. Army is by far the largest branch of the U.S. Military, with approximately 450,000 active-duty personnel and 500,000 National Guardsmen and Reservists in 2023. In a formation of this size, training and standards to increase the safety and security of every servicemember in its ranks is essential for success and wellbeing across every rank and component. With this in mind, the SHARP Program was created in 2008 with the goal to completely eliminate sexual harassment and assault in the U.S. Army.
The purpose of these regular briefs is to provide awareness and prevention, training, victim advocacy, reporting, and accountability.
“Sexual harassment and assault is a scourge,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Chiddy Adighije, the deputy operations director with the 100th Troop Command. “It completely vaporizes any trust within any organization, and if it's not addressed properly, it becomes a cancer in certain ways. It is absolutely crucial that we get the message out there and just crush it.”
Through these meetings, every Soldier can have interactive and productive conversations about sexual harassment and assault in the Army, and what can be done to continually combat it. Some of the services that can be offered through SHARP are medical treatment, counseling, Chaplain services, legal and victim advocacy, an official investigation, and more.
One of the most vocal Soldiers during this meeting was U.S. Army Cpt. Rasheedah Bilal, a human resources officer with the 100th Troop Command. She believes that a huge factor in combating sexual harassment and assault starts with leadership.
“When you [invest] into your senior leaders, they start to shape the environments in which this is not acceptable,” said Bilal. “If I'm trying to set a standard for an organization, why wouldn't I invest in that organization's leaders.”
According to the Department of Defense, rates of unwanted sexual contact affecting active-component women decreased between 2021 and 2023, and in total, nearly 7,000 fewer service members experienced sexual assault in 2023 than in 2021.
Through integrated and proactive effort, SHARP continues to be the tip of the spear in the U.S. Army’s fight to eliminate sexual harassment and assault by engaging leadership at all levels, and holding the offenders appropriately accountable.
“I love the Army and what it represents,” said Adighije. “Not only is it a microcosm of our country, but it is also a unifier. We have people from all walks of life, and the army provides an environment where everyone can actually strive to be all they can be, not just for themselves individually, but for the greater good. When SHARP related incidents find its way into that environment that is supposed to represent a noble cause, it strikes at the very heart of us as a people.”
| Date Taken: | 06.08.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.08.2025 17:31 |
| Story ID: | 500010 |
| Location: | RANCHO CORDOVA, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 82 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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