Surviving Military Sexual Trauma
The number of sexual assault cases reported in the military for 2014 are so far a staggering 26,000 cases. I had the honor of interviewing a woman who is not only one of my friends, but also experienced sexual assault during her time in the military. For privacy reasons, she’ll be referred to as Jenny.
When I was working as a Security Policeman LE in the United States Air Force, Jenny came to me one day. Our dorm rooms were right next to each other. She asked me if I had heard her the night before.
I said, “No. Why?”
She said that another male Security Policeman from our squadron was in her room. He was intoxicated and forced himself on her. She said she banged on the walls the night before, attempting to get my attention, but I was sound asleep and didn’t hear her.
As she proceeded to tell me the details of her rape, I advised her that I could not keep this information to myself and that it needed to be reported to my Flight Chief. She agreed.
After I reported it, I approached the man responsible. When I told him he was being accused of sexual assault, he didn’t deny that the incident happened. Instead, he told me to tell her that he was sorry. Saying that he was too drunk and didn’t realize what he was doing. I proceeded to tell him exactly what I thought of him.
For a moment, the day room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop then he turned to me and told me to get out of the day room. I told him since he was such a big man that he had to force himself on women, he should try to just remove me from the dayroom himself.
In this moment he was no longer a Security Policeman—he was a rapist.
I wish I could tell you that this man paid a price for this incident, but the only punishment he received was an Article 15, temporarily losing a stripe and paying a fine. He went on to have a rather glorious career in the Air Force—while Jenny, on the other hand, had to fight from being kicked out of the Air Force for a “personality disorder”.
The longer I run my Post Traumatic Stress Support Groups, the more stories I hear just like Jenny’s—yet we wonder why rape isn’t being reported like it should be.