A recent Department of Defense report estimates that the armed forces had about 29,000 incidents of sexual assault in 2012, an increase from the last year.
Leaders at all levels have been attempting to combat this issue with mandatory training at every level, training that teaches soldiers what to do in case they or a compatriot is assaulted.
I was drunk and about to be sick.
I had a funny taste in my mouth like metal or blood. I pulled against his grip, but he wouldn’t let go. He kept talking to me; reassuring me that he wouldn’t hurt me that everything was going to be okay.
No, I said, trying to talk him out of whatever he had on his mind. He jerked on my shorts, the zipper dropped and my shorts followed. Grabbing my hands, he sat back on the ground pulling me on top of him. I couldn’t roll to the left or right because of the sharp branches and bushes that dug into my knees.
I don’t remember his words anymore but I remember the tone: calm and gentle, like it would be okay. He grabbed my arm with one hand and tried shoving himself inside me with the other hand.
I said no again and again. He kept pushing himself inside me and I tried to pull away and I tried to lean to the side only to have the bushes bite into my knees. He kept shoving and I couldn’t make him stop and I did the last thing I could think to do to get him to let me go - I pretended to pass out.
I let my body go limp and didn’t respond, he shook me and then pushed me off.
Stories like the above, from Michelle Monte, an Army veteran who was sexually assaulted at her advanced individual training site, are becoming more common as the Army increases its sexual assault prevention efforts across the force and more service members are speaking out about their ordeals.
“We all have to sit down and have a very candid discussion about sexual assault,” said Col. Chad B. McRee, commander, 16th Military Police Brigade, Fort Bragg, N.C. “Sexual assault is affecting all of us and if you aren’t taking it serious - you need to take it in your mind to take it serious. If you don’t understand it, you need to understand it.”
A recent Department of Defense report estimates that the armed forces had about 29,000 incidents of sexual assault in 2012, an increase from the last year.
Leaders at all levels have been attempting to combat this issue with mandatory training at every level, training that teaches Soldiers what to do in case they or a compatriot is assaulted.
McRee and other Fort Bragg leaders believe that it’ll take more than mandated PowerPoint briefings to fix the problem.
Leaders at every level need to “change the culture in our own sectors of influence,” said McRee. “We can do this by establishing environments that are intolerant of that we are intolerant of these types of action – whether is be sexual assault, racism or any of these types of things. But more importantly we need to send a message that we will deal with it in the appropriate way and by taking care of our victims – this is the key.”
“There challenges out there and we need to do our part by setting the conditions and providing the education,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas S. Sivak, 16th MP’s senior enlisted adviser. “It’s the negative atmosphere, where trust and leader involvement has been missing.”
Spc. Pariah Jones (not her real name) found it hard to trust her leaders or fellow Soldiers after she had been sexually assaulted at her previous duty station in her barracks room by another soldier, someone she thought of as a friend.
“I’m irritated and confused –we talk about the Army Values, like integrity: doing the right thing,” said Jones, a signaleer currently assigned to Fort Bragg. “How can you expect a change, if you aren’t enforcing a change? You can give classes and say this is bad, but when you give the consequences and say this person will be subject to (the Uniformed Code of Military Justice) and go to jail – but nothing happens – what’s the point?
The numbers of sexual assaults that are actually reported are thought to be in the minority, as many sexual assault victims say they don’t report the crime out of embarrassment or out of fear for reprisal.
“Recently I went up to my youngest daughter’s university and I asked her a sensing of her college campus and asked her why victims feel so uncomfortable with coming forward,” said McRee. “Her response was that they feel ostracized and embarrassed because of the way they’re treated right from the get-go. We can fix that, as leaders we can change the way that victims are perceived – good, bad or indifferent.”
When a sexual assault happens and someone reports it, a chain of events is set off based on the type of report. There are two types of reports: restricted and unrestricted.
Restricted, the most common report filed in 2012, allows the victim to receive medical care and counseling, but doesn’t file an official report with law enforcement or the Department of the Army. Unrestricted reporting however, starts an immediate investigation into the crime.
When a person is ready to make a report, the people on the front lines are the unit’s victim advocates, currently numbering about 800 at Fort Bragg, are assigned to every company and battalion level, with a Sexual Assault Response Coordinator at the brigade level and higher.
“I wait for them to say something and let them tell me whatever they’d like to tell me,” said Sgt. 1st Class Laanna B. Moir, the SARC for the 16th MP Brigade, Criminal Investigation Division’s10th MP Battalion, and Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, XVIII Airborne Corps. “Then I brief them on reporting options and find out if they’ve spoke with anyone else in order to determine if it will be a restricted or unrestricted report.”
The only people that a victim can speak to in order for a report to stay restricted is: a sexual assault response coordinator, a unit victim advocate, chaplain, mental health professional, or medical personnel. If the victim mentions it (or has mentioned it) to a member of their chain of command, law enforcement personnel or anyone else, the ability to make a restricted report is lost and it automatically must become an unrestricted report.
“Then I’d ask them if they’d like to receive a forensic exam,” said Moir. “Even if they didn’t, I’d suggests they go and get tested for (sexually transmitted infections) or pregnancy.”
The next stop for the victim is at a medical facility, where if not already accompanied by a VA/SARC, one is called.
At Fort Bragg’s Womack Army Medical Center the process begins at the emergency department. The first part of victim care is to find out if that person is OK. Then one of the department’s sexual assault nurse examiners would conduct a sexual assault medical forensic exam in order to collect and document physical evidence of the trauma.
The department’s social worker is notified and provides the patient with necessary information including mind and body care follow-ups from Womack’s sexual assault care professionals.
“I offer them access to counseling, even to set it up for them,” said Moir, but victims aren’t required or forced to take part in any counseling.
“I chose not to receive any counseling or anything because I was in such strong denial,” said Jones. “It took a major breakdown, having my world came crashing down around me before it really started to affect me. I just started counseling here at Bragg. It’s helpful and I feel understood. If I would have spoken to someone sooner, I feel like I would be in a much better state now that I am.”
“Sometimes when a person has experienced trauma – and we’ll call a sexual assault a traumatic experience, it impacts each person differently,” said Sarah H. Naradzay, a licensed clinical social worker and Fort Bragg’s sexual assault care coordinator.
“As a clinical therapist, I perform assessments, identify symptoms that clients report, and provide a diagnoses linked with symptoms reported,” said Naradzay. “Then I’d provide various kinds of therapy to help clients regain comfortable functionality - sexual assault is a crime against a person that often can leave them feeling some degree of vulnerability and a very acute sense of loss of control.”
There are different types of people who require different sorts of treatments from one session to the average of ten – whatever is needed by the client, said Naradzay, who sees only active-duty Soldiers and their adult dependents.
“Some folks are more resilient and can order that event in the mind, they’re clear about the fact that they aren’t responsible and they don’t struggle with issues that may prompt guilt or shame and they recover very quickly,” said Naradzay. “Other people have physiological and emotional symptoms that linger and it’s helpful for them to have some treatment therapy…(to) help a person regain their footing and feel more in charge of their lives.”
The other half of the Womack sexual assault care duo is the sexual assault care physician who is a physician from the obstetric and gynecology department (female victims) or from the family medicine department (male victims) who follow up with patients with medical issues from the assault like sexual health and other types of physical well-being.
Once the victim has been cared for medically, the next stop for the unrestricted reporter is the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, who has been charged with investigating sexual assault, a felony, within the Army.
Once the complaint is received, an investigation is launched with CID working hand-in-hand with the chain-of-command, the SARC and the staff judge advocate. CID agents, trained in victim care, are taught not to barrage victims with questions immediately and to ease into it, letting the victim continue as their own comfortable pace. As the investigation continues, the investigating agents keep the victim appraised of the process, providing updates as needed. CID also plays a part in providing adjunct training for the different types of victim advocates on post.
As seen above, the Army has a definite way of helping victims and prosecuting crimes against them, teamed together with a strong prevention message – so why is sexual assault still prevalent in the force? Many say it stems from systemic poor leadership.
“Bottom line it comes down to a chain of command that (cares) and setting a condition of intolerance of this kind of behavior,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Billy R. Counts, senior enlisted adviser, 503d MP Battalion, 16th MP Brigade. It comes down to leadership – are you enabling this behavior? Are you establishing trust at every level? Are we setting the example of behavior that we are expecting from people? We can talk all day about how (sexual assault prevention) is important, but if we never talk to our Soldiers about it and engage them in conversation or if we’re never at training to spur discussion, then the Soldiers will see right through it.”
“There needs to be more involvement,” said Jones. “Most leaders aren’t present for the SHARP training, so many people don’t take it seriously, signing the roster and then leaving.”
It was from witnessing such training in her new unit that Jones decided that she wanted to share her experience, providing training for her peers in ways that perhaps other prevention educators couldn’t – as a victim herself.
“I went to a briefing recently, where it was evident other things were on the instructor’s mind – both he and the class they didn’t want to be there,” said Jones. “As a victim, if I don’t think you care about it, why would I go to you for help? I wouldn’t.”
So Jones is sharing her experiences with others across the installation, speaking at various leadership professional development sessions.
“I wanted our leaders to not feel that we’re the only (unit) with this problem,” said Moir. “I wanted them to see it from her point of view. Sometimes as a leader, it’s hard to put the person’s past behind them when they’re having an issues, so I thought having an outsider come tell her story would be a good idea.”
Having the right person teaching the prevention message can make all the difference.
“The commander has to look through the ranks to find the best person for the job, because if you don’t have the right person doing the job, the program will fail,” said Moir. It must be “someone who the soldiers feel like they can talk to, that they can trust, somebody who is not afraid to advocate for a soldier or victim … no matter what.”
Sometimes the person presenting the training isn’t the best person, as evident from recent news stories from Washington, D.C. and Fort Hood, Texas.
“The wrong person would be someone who just doesn’t care,” said Moir. “You know, that person in the formation who is making those jokes and always talking down to other soldiers, is generally disrespectful in nature towards one gender or another, and who outwardly shows disrespect for everything that the program stands for.”
It is not only the commander or SHARP’s duty to educate the force and enforce the policy.
“It’s important that we get the word down to the junior level, because that is where a whole lot of things happen that [senior leaders] don’t hear about,” said McRee. “We as a group need to be intolerant of that type of behavior - we cant chalk it up to ‘boys will be boys’ and ‘girls will be girls.’”
“This is an important for everyone,” said Jones. “Even if you think that you’ll never assault someone – you might be able to help someone else out who does get victimized. Or you could be victimized or it could be your Soldier, friend, family or random person.”
Over the years, the American military has been a place where cultural change has happened more quickly than civilian sentiment, like racial integration, but also has lagged behind popular thought in such instances like homosexuality.
“Our troops take care of each other on the battlefield better than any military unit in the world,” said Maj. Gen. Gary S. Patton, director, DOD Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, in a DOD May press related, “Now we must extend that same ethos of care to combating sexual assault. Based on long-standing traditions of excellence and leadership, I am confident in our ability to eliminate sexual assault from our military environment.”
Fort Bragg needs to get at this from the front, providing positive examples and zero tolerance towards sexual violence said McRee. “And eventually these (perpetrators) will remove themselves from our ranks, because they will find that they have no home here and there is no room for that kind of behavior. We [are building] a culture that works that way, and when we have a punishment or an investigation – we won’t question what has to be done and that’s really (the place that we as an organization) need to get to.”
Until that cultural change really sinks in, people like Ms. Naradzay and Sgt. 1st Class Moir will remain busy, working dedicatedly with Soldiers who have both current and past events of sexual assault.
“In terms of coordination and communication here at Fort Bragg, I think we are a flagship of pushing forward,” said Naradzay. “We are all very committed and passionate about this new stance on sexual assault prevention and the promotion of a shift in culture.”
“We have a way to go in order to create a perfect culture here – that is a goal to keep moving in that direction in terms of people knowing and understanding what happens to someone who’s experienced an abuse event,” said Naradzay.
It’s important that people really become more highly respectful of the boundaries and importance of protection of their fellow soldier and fellow man, rather than the victimization of the same.
“We’ve got to build trust back into our institution or we wont be able to sustain an all-volunteer force if mothers and fathers are afraid to send their sons and daughters to us,” said Counts.