Some background from aljazeera.com:
Two US air force trainers have been sentenced in connection with a widening sexual abuse scandal at one of the busiest military training centers in the nation.
Investigators say at least 38 female trainees were victimised at the Lackland Air Force Base in the US state of Texas. Fifteen instructors have been implicated.
Last year, nearly 3,200 rapes and sexual assaults were officially reported, but the Pentagon admits that represents just 15 per cent of all incidents.
A military survey revealed that one in five women in the US forces has been sexually assaulted, but most do not report it. Nearly half said that they “did not want to cause trouble in their unit”.
A former army nurse told a member of the US Congress that during her tours in Iraq and Afghanistan she was more afraid of being attacked by her fellow soldiers than she was of the enemy.
But many of those attacked are men. In 2010 nearly 50,000 male veterans screened positive for “military sexual trauma” at the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
Our very own Colonel Morris Davis sat on this panel to discuss this very important topic. The one idea presented that really made me sit up and take note was that some of the problem was how Americans perceive their military. I was instantly reminded of the outrage some on this blog showed over the Napolitano report that some terrorism might be committed by reporting warriors or ex military people. It was like we defiled a holy image. There are bad apples in most groups. The military is no exception.
Moe led the investigation at the Air Force Academy when female cadets were sexually abused in 2003. His findings report that the incident was compounded by the fact that alcohol was involved. Often victims wouldn’t come forward for fear of punishment over that issue. According to Moe who that reported when he joined the military in 1983, there were strippers in the clubs on Friday nights. He summarized:
“The boys club mentality is not as overt as it was 30 years ago …. This only becomes a crisis when it gets out in public …. The whole process of victims feeling like they are victimised again by the system discourages reporting and keeps a lot of this under wrap.”
Aaron Belkin, a professor of political science at San Francisco State University contibuted:
“This is not just a problem of a culture of underreporting and a system that punishes victims for reporting. This is really a rape culture in the military. Even if victims were more able to report the crimes, there is the bigger question of what’s producing the rapes in the first place?
You have a rape culture and you have an organisation that is very masculinist and that places a lot of value on dominance and power and subordination. You also have a system that’s trying to train people to overcome inhibitions against violence. So, to produce a warrior we have to train people how to become violent. In the training scenario you create a master-slave dynamic where commanders have almost unlimited authority over people they are in charge of. When you put these three factors together, you have a recipe for rape.”
Paula Coughlin-Puopolo, a former Lieutenant in the US Navy, was groped by at least 200 men at a convention of navy and marine corps aviators in 1991. She went public and what was known as the Tailhook scandal ensued. But no one was punished. She told the panel that the people who basically told her she was asking for it retired with full honors. She still seems ill at ease discussing her Tailhook involvement. She say that conditions really haven’t improved and if nothing else, they have gotten worse.
This year the military has new policy regarding how it handles sexual assault allegations, introduced by Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense.
- Victims can now seek an immediate transfer if the person accused is in the same unit
- Evidence from rape cases will be kept for 50 years, so that victims have more time to file charges
- Local unit commanders must report allegations to a special court-martial convening authority
- No one below the rank of colonel or navy captain can dismiss assault allegations
Is this too little too late? How do you think the American public plays into this assault phenomena? Do we hold our warriors in such high esteem that it is impossible to consider them being sexual predators? How has this esteem changed since Vietnam when the American public was all too quick to call our troops rapist and baby killers? Has doing away with the peacetime draft made things better or worse?
We have lots of military folks on this blog. I hope that you will be able to take the time to watch this video and respond to the findings.
I know its a little long but even if you could watch a little of it.
I think the issue is critical and far more wide-spread than any of us imagined. I sure would not want my daughter or granddaughters going in the military.
I call the Aaron Belkin comments total BS. That dude is a complete idiot.
Tailhook resulted in MANY punishments. However, its not that cut and dried because it became a witch hunt. Many that did nothing were reprimanded for BEING there, ON ORDERS. Some women were told that they were victims while they DID NOT claim to be victims. There was sexual behavior going on. Some men and women were enjoying it. Others did not. And if Paula Coughlin-Puopolo was attacked, then her attackers needed to be charged.
Tailhook became too political to be treated as a crime.
As for the under reporting… That is a problem. But, if I was raped, charges against me for minor things like drinking go right out the window. I wouldn’t care about them. I like the idea of removing investigation to other chains….. I don’t know how…but.. perhaps by Inspector Generals. If there is a problem, it really does need to be fixed.
Morris is right. Change the culture so that loyalty is it to the unit. To your team. If you team mate attacks a fellow team mate….he’s toast. In olden days…thieves were summarily thrown overboard. They were not tolerated. Rapists are the EXCEPTION.
Congress is “too afraid of the military industrial complex” to fix this? Really? Have you looked at the number of criminals in Congress and she wants CONGRESS involved?
However, many of the new procedures seem workable. I still like the idea of removing it from the chain of command and sending it directly to the NICS to take over.
In my personal experience…. I saw no problems of assault in my commands. I have seen fraternization and prostitution. I have seen drunken idiocy. I’ve seen the women AND the men do really stupid things. Heck, I think I was involved in some of those things.
But a rape culture…..TOTAL BULL CRAP.
I wonder…how does the military compare to the college circuit in sexual assault claims? Both are places where young men and women are being thrown together for the first time.
As for the men…Military sexual trauma, defined as any unwanted sexual activity, including harassment, sodomy, rape, verbal remarks, grabbing and pressure for sexual favors.
http://www.recoveryranch.com/articles/trauma-and-ptsd-articles/sexual-trauma-among-men-in-the-military/
Site states that about 1% report sexual trauma during their careers.
You know…when I first read “trauma,” I was thinking about actual physical damage. If you go by this definition, EVERY man in the military has been exposed to military sexual trauma. Military humor tends towards crudity.
How many men have actually been ATTACKED?
@Cargo, thank you for taking your time to respond to this. It is something I consider very important.
I don’t think we can compare the military to college unless, of course, you are speaking of a military college. Then you have the good old boys club even more built in. For the life of me, I never could understand why a woman would want to go to one of the service academies OR VMI or the Citadel. But they do and I support their right to do so. Had the last two schools gone private, well then that is their right.
Colleges don’t have the discipline structure that the military does. Perhaps that is another talk for another day.
I think Paula is still traumatized. She had a difficult time conveying her message. The younger woman whose name I have forgotten seemed a lot more comfortable.
I see that I did not finish an important statement.
Rapists are the EXCEPTION. They are the same as in civilian society. They are aberrations to the military culture. They should be tried in a court of law.
Apparently no one else wants to touch this subject.
And I still think that Belkin was a waste of time. Why was he included in an otherwise good interview? Only Aljazeera’s producers can tell…….I can surmise though.
I think you are right about no one else wanting to touch it. I am not sure why? what makes them so uncomfortable with it?
Because the topic is cloudy.
We all agree that rape, assault, etc is wrong. But other than Morris, no one probably has experience with that system. What is there to say? I was paying attention to TailHook as my nephew is a naval aviator and I’m a political junky. Other than that, 99% of military members, especially men have no knowledge about it.
@Cargo
Yet 100% of current military serve in a military that struts those statistics regarding abuse.
This does not fit with what I observed during my time in the military. Females were generally treated with respect by units that I was around (although there were sometimes other issues). The AF also seems to take seriously that it has the responsibility to do more. Civilians and military personnel were recently required to take Bystander Training which discusses the responsibility of every individual to step in if someone is being assaulted (http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123116806).
Finally, the Washington Post reported this morning that the commander of the training group at Lackland where the sexual assaults took place has been relieved of command.
Kelly, thanks for responding. Will you leave the lackland link?
Also, do you think location has something to do with what we witness? I would think that those around this area would be less likely to do the sexual abuse thing because of the DC area. Its more visible.
Here is the link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ap-sources-air-force-relieves-commander-at-lackland-air-force-base-over-widening-sex-scandal/2012/08/10/2fb434f8-e319-11e1-89f7-76e23a982d06_story.html
Thank you, Kelly.
@Moon-howler
Maybe. But I was assigned or deployed to Asia, Europe, and several different locations in the U.S. when I was active duty. So location is not immediately obvious factor.
I think it is more likely to do with means and opportunity. Lackland is the training base for recruits of the AF. The young recruits are vulnerable and impressionable with powerful, god-like training instructors who could easily use their power and position to take advantage. I think the real answer is to screen TIs more carefully and impose stricter rules and penalties due to the vulnerability of the recruits and the special trust held by TIs.
@Kelly
It sounds like Palmer was just the fall guy. If it happens on your watch, regardless of whether you knew anything about it or not….you are screwed. If he just arrived last year, I would be willing to bet he would be the last person to know anything and that a culture of sexual abuse existed there for a long time.
Then there is the Virginia State Police that allowed Trooper Buck Carter to use his sphere of influence as a trooper to pretty much do whatever he wanted to do, especially with womnen. He was never really punished. He was fired and spent something like 8 days in jail. BFD.
What a pig. I refuse to contribute anything to the State Cops now because they knew what was going on. Its all part of the same problem…code of silence.
@Kelly, that makes sense. I think Moe also has a point about for years the military has been the boys club and it can no longer be. Also the idea of training a warrior shouldn’t create a rapist but being a rapist isn’t normal. This also isn’t just about rapists. there are other forms of pig-dom. Just remarks can make people not want to get up in the morning.
I was hoping that Moe would weigh in on this. Last I heard he had to mow the grass. How long can that take. GEEZ. I expect he had to hydrate afterwards…
When I joined the Air Force in 1983 there were still a few bases that had strippers at their Officers’ Clubs on Friday nights and in some of the squadrons you’d see centerfolds taped to the walls. It was much more of a boys’ club environment. By the time I retired 25 years later, a commander who allowed strippers on his or her base or condoned nude pictures displayed in open areas wouldn’t make it to dark before getting fired. There is a sexual assault problem. The Lackland problem is getting a lot of attention now, but there are also too many incidents taking place in the deployed environment. I hope someday we’ll look at this kind of behavior similar to the way we did the Sandusky case … an aberration that causes disgust. There is no one thing that will suddenly make this alright, but we need to work on changing the culture to one where all service members are considered full partners on the team and teammates don’t take advantage of teammates.
@Moe
I find it ironic and hypocritical that people are aghast over Penn State and yet no one is demanding that the military DO something.
Those statistics are incredibly damning! I expect sexual assault is covered up every day in the military.
@Moon-howler
Because the military IS doing something…in the same way all bureaucracies do….SLOWLY. I remember the adult mags being sold in the PX in the 80’s. They were gone by…1986. I remember only one club with strippers….can’t remember where. I don’t think I made it to that one but was told about it. My first command was one of the first P-3 squadrons to get female enlisted, in 1983. The Navy first put women officers and Chiefs in place before admitting junior enlisted to the squadrons.
When I was deployed, we always segregated the women even if it meant overcrowding in other tents. The Army, on the other hand, mixed everyone. We shared a tent with some soldiers…they had a few females. One female soldier, realizing that we were at the other end of the tent, merely turned her back, sat on the cot, and was able to change from sweats to her uniform without actually removing any clothing. I like the fact that our command segregated the women. But then, sailors don’t go to the field.