“Tell me again about basic training mommy.”
“Well, I was stationed in Texas, and everyday it was about 110 degrees because it was the middle of summer. They would make us run for miles in the desert, up and down these hills of sand, with huge, fifty pound backpacks on our backs. Stopping or giving up wasn’t an option. That’s when I learned how strong I really was. You have to be strong, or else you don’t make it.”
My mom became more of a hero to me with every new detail she recalled. I would beg her to tell me about how they had to get their salute perfect every time they entered the dining hall for a meal, or else they would have to go to the end of the line. I laughed when she told me about how she fell asleep with her eyes open one night because she was so tired and almost got in trouble by the guard on duty for not “being asleep.” She told me about their practice night raids where they used laser guns and camped out in tents and how it was basically glorified laser tag. I painted my nails pink after my mom told me that she painted her nails pink while she was in the military so that she could feel more like an individual. When I was older, my mom even told me that she knew about Iran Contra Affair before it was public knowledge. Unbeknownst to the masses, the base in Florida where my mom was stationed was secretly bringing in Nicaraguan Contra Rebels to train them to fight.
My favorite story was the story of how my parents met. My mom was a dental assistant in the military and my dad, a surgeon, had come in one day to get his teeth cleaned. My mom got so nervous because she thought he was attractive that she tried to get another assistant to switch appointments with her, but nobody could. As she was cleaning his teeth, he asked her out. Three months later, they got married in a courthouse on their break time from training.
Growing up, the military was idyllic to me. Heroes joined the military. Brave men and women who were willing to sacrifice everything for their country were in the armed forces. The military was a magical far off castle where princesses like my mom met princes like my dad and lived happily ever after.
So just how bad is the rape situation in our military? 20% of service women have been sexually assaulted while serving. Women who have suffered what they call ‘Military Sexual Trauma’ have a higher rate of PTSD than men who’ve served in combat.
Once I had learned all of this, I asked my mom if she felt that sexual assault was a problem at her base in the Air Force.
“I never had a major problem with sexual harassment, but it was a huge problem for a lot of women on the base,” she said. “I would say for every female military member there were around five male military members and the median age on the base was around 22 year old. It was not unusual to get asked out by more than one person in a single day and when you went into town at night or on the weekends you definitely had to be very careful.”
When I asked her if she ever encountered incidents of rape she replied, “Yes, my best friend was raped by a man who also tried to strangle her and beat her severely. She barely made it out of the house to her car and drove to the base and asked the military police to help her get to the emergency room. We had gone to our First Sergeant before this and talked to him about the situation and he felt we were exaggerating the problem.”
The worst part about the sexual assault in the military is quite possibly the fact that almost nothing is done to help victims. The reality is that there’s a 4% conviction rate of the reported assaults. According to Feministe, “The procedure for reporting a rape or sexual assault in the military is to report to your commanding officer. Each survivor detailed how their commander did not treat the reports seriously, sided with the perpetrator, or retaliated against them for reporting. With policies like “zero tolerance” coming from senior military officials there’s an incentive at every level to not report that rape is a problem in your unit. It makes sense that this then translates to pressure on the victim to drop the report. One soldier was told by their commanding officer while reporting an assault to ‘stop crying over spilt milk.’ Victims who report are told over and over the consequences of lying, they’re simply ignored, rape kits and evidence go ‘missing,’ or they’re told they were asking for it. It looks bad for a unit to have convicted felons, which means they reduce the cases to these lesser offenses (if any charges are brought at all), and as a result these perpetrators are not registered on any sex offender registry.”
The unfortunate truth is that while the American military is made up of brave men and women, it is also made up (partially) of rapists and assaulters. Like many great things, our military is corrupted with evil parts as well as good. The propaganda-like ideas that our government project about our military simply cannot be taken as a complete truth. It is time for us all to accept the fact that rape and sexual assault are rampant within the ranks of one of our highest government institutions.
When I asked my mom what she thought should be done, she said, “Speaking out, continuing to bring this issue to the forefront is the main way to correct this situation. Movies like The Invisible War force people to face what they have previously been able to pretend didn't happen. Having excellent programs that are mandatory for all service personnel starting in Basic Training and continuing throughout their military career focusing on the topic would also be helpful. Making the military justice code very strict for these types of offenses would help curtail instances of sexual assault.”
While most of us do not have the power to change military law, we do have something quite possibly stronger: our voices. It is time to fight for change within our military and publicly proclaim an intolerance for mass rape against a sector of women who are trying to fight for their country, a country that seemingly does not care what happens to them or their bodies. Like most things, rape and sexual assault in our military will not decrease unless the public calls for change.
Megan Kay is a sophomore WLP major with a minor in Women's and Gender Studies. She is currently the media and communications intern for the Massachusetts branch of the National Organization for Women, which she is wicked ecstatic about. Her life goals include being half as cool as Leslie Knope and kicking half the ass that Buffy Summers did. You can find her onTwitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Image: nydailynews, truthdig.com, taylormarsh.com