Sex assault rarely punished in military, victims say

Victims come forward in hopes of turning trauma into hope.

 

MELBOURNE, Fla. -- A phone call about a year ago rocked Gwen Arnold's world.
A baby girl she gave up at birth, more than 30 years ago, called her out of the blue, a shocking reminder of the trauma she says she suffered when she was raped as a 19-year-old soldier.
"I lived in fear for thirty-some years," said Arnold, now 53. "When I say these things, they don't even sound real."
The Cocoa Beach woman is one of several thousand each year who report sexual assaults in the military. The Defense Department's own numbers -- 3,000-plus reported attacks and as many as 16,000 more unreported a year -- are getting intense attention from Congress, the Pentagon and military commanders across the country. The military is demanding top officers be accountable. Congress is investigating and proposing legislation, including maybe taking handling of sexual assault cases out of the normal military chain of command. Advocates say more is needed.
Part of the effort is women telling their stories, to raise awareness of what happened to them and how they felt treated afterward. They're hoping Congress, military leaders and the public insist on reforms. Arnold is one of three local veterans who spoke with Florida Today about attacks they say went unpunished, though they were reported to military authorities.
They say their cases are not unlike thousands of others, acknowledged in the Defense Department's own reports, where victims either choose not to report the attacks for fear of retribution or report them but feel military unit commanders -- who currently have the authority to move forward with cases or not -- did not do enough about their case.
"We've got to eradicate this problem," said U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif. "When we have a military system where a service member is more likely to face violence from someone in the military than from the enemy, we have a problem. The issue has been under the radar for so long. When I talk about this issue, people are shocked."
Speier proposes an independent body of civilians and military personnel to oversee each report of sexual assault, taking it out of the military chain of command. A bill she supported to do that didn't come up for a vote last year.
The Defense Department has taken steps to deal with the issue, including making make it easier to report sexual assault, creating a coordinator position at all major bases, and increasing the minimum rank of the person responsible for deciding how to proceed with a case. Despite those measures, reported cases were up 1 percent from 2010 to 2011.
'Goal is zero'
"The Air Force goal for sexual assault is not simply to lower the number," said Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff, during testimony about a recent scandal involving 32 instructors at a base in Texas. "The goal is zero. It's the only acceptable objective."