Perhaps she ought to read this first and think it over,
A Moment of Silence Is Not Enough By Sara Rich t r u t h o u t | Statement
Monday 20 March 2006
On March 18th Sara Rich, mother of an AWOL US soldier, gave this address at an anti-war rally in Eugene, Oregon. Hello - I came to you in September praying for peace as I was bound by the fear of my daughter's impending redeployment to Iraq.
WHO SAYS LIGHTNING DOESN'T STRIKE TWICE? We got the date for her redeployment 9 months before her entitled 18 months decompression time. Her commanding officer forced her to sign a waiver of her rights to decompression time between deployments and gave her a date 11 months after she returned from Iraq the first time. Then, a few weeks later, she got her readiness papers - that 6 months after she hopefully returned from Iraq the second time, she was scheduled to go over for yet another year. Making it three deployments to Iraq in less that four years.
All of our hearts were heavy. Three days before her actual redeployment, she was packed and ready to go, she had her car keys in her hand, and she turned to me and said, "I don't think I can do this." I was shocked but knew any type of coercion on my part would not help, so I said, "Are you serious?" She replied, "I just can't do it, Mom." She could not go back there to the misery. She told me that being separated from her family and living and breathing Army for a year at a time in a war zone was a constant source of distress for her. Where nobody cares whether you live or die as long as you do what you are told and they look good afterwards. Nor could she handle another deployment, dealing with the daily hour-to-hour sexual harassment that she endured from 99% of her male officers and fellow soldiers. The isolation and fear of being attacked, harassed, molested and raped was a huge part of her life in Iraq. She was always full of anxiety and stress just keeping herself safe when her commanding officers would show up banging on her door in the middle of the night, intoxicated and wanting to have sex with her. The intimidation and sexual harassment that our female soldiers are enduring is leading to massive stress and in some cases even death for our military women in Iraq. They are not supported but shamed when they bring these to the attention of their superiors.
To read the full text of the speech click this. *************************************************************8 03-21-06, 10:16 AM newnickname 'The figures show that the total number of reported cases of sexual assault involving Army personnel increased by 19 percent from 1999 to 2002—from 658 to 783—with annual increases ranging from 2 percent to 13 percent. During the same period, the number of reported rapes increased by 25 percent—from 356 to 445.
“The Army acknowledges that these tallies probably understate the magnitude of the problem. Advocacy groups say that sexual assaults are routinely underreported, and that the military victims are further inhibited by rules that bar confidentiality. A Defense Department report on the problem in May, based on visits to 21 military locations, provided data indicating rising sexual assaults from 2002 to 2003, which a Defense official said probably represented a fraction of the total in those years,” according to the Post.
The Defense Department’s study acknowledged that victims are inadequately supported legally and psychologically and that investigations into the crimes are routinely hampered...
...Another inquiry conducted in 2003 by the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City, Iowa, stated that 28 percent of the 558 female veterans surveyed had been raped or experienced an attempted rape during their military service. The study opined that an atmosphere in which commanders condoned a variety of abusive sexual behavior increased the likelihood of rape against servicewomen.' Reports find pervasive and increasing sexual abuse in the US military I was talking to a guy at the weekend who had been in the Canadian Navy up until a few years ago. He said one of the most eye-opening things that happened to him during his service (and he'd been in Bosnia, seen a stoning in the Middle East and so on) was a trip on a US warship. The officers wouldn't move around the ship without a Marine escort. They were constantly having to scrub "whites/blacks/hispanics only" signs off doors. He said that was his first and last ride with the US Navy - he'd rather swim.
OK, so military forces aren't supposed to be like hippie support-groups, but can an army be a touch too brutish?
03-21-06, 11:17 AM DorianGreyed Does anyone know if other nations who have a 'mixed military' have experienced the same problems, and to what extent have they experienced them?
03-24-06, 03:36 PM Scotty
quote: The officers wouldn't move around the ship without a Marine escort.
This is a lot of BS. The only person aboard ship that has a Marine escort is the Captain of the ship, and this has been tradition for many years.
quote: I was talking to a guy at the weekend who had been in the Canadian Navy up until a few years ago. He said one of the most eye-opening things that happened to him during his service (and he'd been in Bosnia, seen a stoning in the Middle East and so on) was a trip on a US warship.
Do you actually think that anyone is going to believe this nonsense? This story should start out as any fairy tale should............Once upon a time..............
Roll Eyes
03-24-06, 05:53 PM newnickname Hey, I'm just saying what the guy told me. He seemed to be sane and sober, and I don't think he had any particular reason to lie about it.
03-24-06, 06:24 PM frankvan
quote: Originally posted by DorianGreyed: Does anyone know if other nations who have a 'mixed military' have experienced the same problems, and to what extent have they experienced them?
Scotty reassures us: this is all BS! Roll Eyes
03-24-06, 06:50 PM Scotty
quote: quote: Originally posted by DorianGreyed: Does anyone know if other nations who have a 'mixed military' have experienced the same problems, and to what extent have they experienced them?
Scotty reassures us: this is all BS!
Read the post again Frank. I wasn't responding to the one you listed. Roll Eyes
03-24-06, 06:53 PM Scotty
quote: Hey, I'm just saying what the guy told me. He seemed to be sane and sober, and I don't think he had any particular reason to lie about it.
I told them about this post on the Military board, and the wanted to know what this guy 'was smoking". Smile
03-25-06, 01:34 AM newnickname Oh, well - maybe I picked him up wrong, and he was talking about the CO, only.
Apparently, Marines are no longer responsible for ship's security;
'We have Marines on this big ship, but they're just one of four Hornet squadrons. Ship's security has become a Navy responsibility.
I miss seeing the Skipper's personal Marine escort with him as the CO toured the ship. Usually a super-squared away guy with a scowl on his face, causing all squids to jump out of the way if the CO was in a rush.'www.freerepublic.com[
Still seems a bit odd, though. Shouldn't they be jumping out of the way in any case, if the boss comes through in a hurry - scary Marine escort or not? In the Royal Navy, at least, they seem to do things the traditional way, in which the Captain bullies the underlings without need of a bodyguard.
Which maybe brings us back to the original topic of sexual harrassment, and DG's question about how other military forces compare...
03-25-06, 03:30 AM newnickname Or maybe not. I came across this, talking about the seventies:
'...racism, as the Late Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, US Navy, posited, was an “integral part of the Navy tradition” until the early 1970s, and perhaps even later. In 1972, Lehman noted that on the USS Saratoga, “no white officer would walk unescorted on the second deck, where the enlisted mess was. There were many incidents of racially inspired muggings and beating by both blacks and whites and including some officers.” Certainly the institutionalized racism that rocked the fleet in the early 1970s is thankfully no longer so common, blatant or obvious...'www.g2mil.com
It might not be such a ridiculous claim, then, that officers other than the Captain needed an escort. It has happened in the past.
The author describes a modern US military, particularly the navy, that reflects several problems current in US society. 'To put it as delicately as possible, and with all due respect, there is nothing in the US Navy that does not exist in American society, and that includes a substantial and lingering historical legacy of racism, substandard public education, widespread obesity and drug abuse.'
Would sexual harassment and worse be more likely in a poorly educated military? Poor education is a factor in crime - I'm told (but it may also be 'BS') that the eighth-grade drop-out rate is used in Texas to predict how many jail cells will be needed further down the line.
Do the relatively highly-educated Scandinavian armed forces have less problems in this area? Or is it all just that the US military is so huge that there is bound to be more of everything - includig rape - in it?
03-25-06, 09:48 AM Scotty You are absolutely correct about racial tensions erupting aboard a few US Naval vessels in the early seventies. I am told that there was no fear among the Officers aboard ships for their safety, and that no one had Marine escorts. Thing tend to be blown a little out of proportion when reported by the press.
03-25-06, 10:36 AM newnickname The 'Lehman' quoted in that excerpt doesn't seem to be the press, but a former Navy Secretary. I do wonder now, however, if my original informant was accurate, or recycling old information.
03-25-06, 10:41 AM DorianGreyed "In 1972, Lehman noted that on the USS Saratoga, “no white officer would walk unescorted on the second deck, where the enlisted mess was. There were many incidents of racially inspired muggings and beating by both blacks and whites and including some officers.” "
The Lehman who is quoted in the passage above is John F. Lehman. Below is from his bio on the 9/11 Commission web site. He was a member of that commission.
He served 25 years in the naval reserve. Lehman was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Reagan in 1981 and served until 1987
If Lehman said that "“no white officer would walk unescorted on the second deck", then I think his word is to be accepted before some nameless third parties.
High ranking women officers testified to the House Armed Services Committee that military women were subjected to sexual harassment "probably at every military installation."
The same year, Navy declares a formal policy against sexual harassment, though it is not formalized as an offense until 1990 in article 1166 of Navy Regulations:
1987
Prompted by harassment complaints against the commander of the USS Safeguard, DACOWITS tours Navy bases in the Philippines finding sexually oriented entertainment prevalent throughout service clubs condoned and supported by the Navy. A report is released on women in the Navy which concluded that sexual harassment ranging from
verbal abuse to molestation pervaded the Navy and many commanding officers were unaware of the extent to which these problems existed in their own commands. The report recommends that the Navy, from the CNO down, must commit itself to rooting out harassment. It calls for better training, more effective reporting of violations, and formal inquiries by the Navy IG.
Fall 1990
After another public sex harassment incident, Sam Nunn calls again for an investigation: " That such behavior is not dealt with more seriously than documented in the IG report suggests that there may be institutional problems in the Navy and its treatment of women." As a result of the uproar the Navy accelerates its planned update of the 1987 report, bringing it out in 1990 instead of - as planned- 1991. Boorda announces that training policies instituted in 1987 were beginning to show results. Of the women surveyed for the 1990 report, 76% believed the Navy was taking steps to address the problem.
September 1991
Tailhook '91 Convention in Las Vegas takes place.* ---- New York Times: Book Reviews June 14, 1992, Female Sailors Talk of Slow but Certain Change
The Navy's new get-tough policy has been spurred by several highly publicized incidents. Among the recent cases, a female midshipman at the United States Naval Academy was chained to a urinal by male classmates; five Naval fliers were accused of raping a woman at a bachelor party in Virginia, and 25 women said they were sexually assaulted by Navy aviators and their supporters at a convention in Las Vegas last September.
A 1990 study by the Pentagon found that 62 percent of uniformed women in all branches of the service had experienced some form of sexual harassment. A 1989 study by the Navy found that 42 percent of enlisted personnel and 26 percent of officers had reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment. The most common form reported was "sexual teasing and jokes," but 15 percent reported "pressure for sexual favors." ---- from Wikipedia's entry on the United States Naval Academy
Following the 2003 US Air Force Academy sexual assault scandal and due to concern with sexual assault in the U.S. military the Department of Defense was required to establish a task force to investigate sexual harassment and assault at the United States military academies in the law funding the military for fiscal 2004. The report, issued August 25, 2005 showed that during 2004 50% of the women at Annapolis reported instances of sexual harassment while 99 incidents of sexual assault were reported [4].
*from Wikipedia The Tailhook scandal
In September 1991 the 35th annual symposium in Las Vegas featured a two-day debrief on Navy and Marine Corps aviation in Operation Desert Storm. It was the largest such meeting yet held, with some 4,000 attendees: active, reserve, and retired personnel.
According to a Department of Defense report, 83 women and 7 men stated that they had been victims of assault and sexual harassment during the meeting.
03-25-06, 02:06 PM Scotty
quote: If Lehman said that "“no white officer would walk unescorted on the second deck", then I think his word is to be accepted before some nameless third parties.
Of course, what else would be expected here?
03-25-06, 03:21 PM DorianGreyed Yes, we here at AP are so biased that we accept the word of a Secretary of the Navy under a Republican president rather than some nameless, faceless people that you say told you something. Roll Eyes
03-26-06, 09:31 AM Scotty
quote: Yes, we here at AP are so biased that we accept the word of a Secretary of the Navy under a Republican president rather than some nameless, faceless people that you say told you something.
G.W. in his earlier days was responsible.
05-12-06, 10:15 AM newnickname Yesterday, the ACLU, joined a broad coalition of women in the military, medical professionals, and advocates for women’s health and rights, and sent a joint letter urging members of Congress to support an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2007 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 5122) sponsored by Representatives Michael Michaud (D-ME) and Tim Ryan (D-OH). The Michaud-Ryan Amendment would have ensured that emergency contraception was again available by prescription at all military health facilities. Yesterday, the amendment was blocked in a House committee.
The letter pointed out that “increased access to emergency contraception will help meet the needs of those military women who are victims of sexual assault. A 2003 study found that 30 percent of female U.S. military veterans report having been raped or suffered a rape attempt during their military service, and military officials report that there were 2,374 reported cases of sexual assault among service members reported to military criminal investigators last year – a 40 percent increase from 2004.”
In addition to the ACLU, signatories to the letter include: The Miles Foundation, an organization that provides comprehensive services to victims of violence associated with the military, the American Jewish Committee, the National Association for Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health, and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.
05-12-06, 10:45 AM aminator2002 Was this packaged with other items on a bill?
How can women in the military have their prescription rights violated? If a doctor prescribes this then women in the military should be able to have the prescription filled.
ugh.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,
