Rapists In The Ranks

[Wings]

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With the DoD making mandatory the DNA repository of all service members, HOW can the crimes of rape continue to go unpunished due to "insufficient evidence"?! I would NEVER allow my daughter to join the military, I would go to jail before I would let her join!! ~Wings

Rapists in the ranks

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commen...0,5399612.story

By Jane Harman

March 31, 2008

The stories are shocking in their simplicity and brutality: A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in her own barracks. Her attackers hid their faces but she identified them by their uniforms; they were her fellow soldiers. During a routine gynecological exam, a female soldier is attacked and raped by her military physician. Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life in a war zone, is raped by her commanding officer. Afraid for her standing in her unit, she feels she has nowhere to turn.

These are true stories, and, sadly, not isolated incidents. Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.

The scope of the problem was brought into acute focus for me during a visit to the West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center, where I met with female veterans and their doctors. My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41% of female veterans seen at the clinic say they were victims of sexual assault while in the military, and 29% report being raped during their military service. They spoke of their continued terror, feelings of helplessness and the downward spirals many of their lives have since taken.

Numbers reported by the Department of Defense show a sickening pattern. In 2006, 2,947 sexual assaults were reported -- 73% more than in 2004. The DOD's newest report, released this month, indicates that 2,688 reports were made in 2007, but a recent shift from calendar-year reporting to fiscal-year reporting makes comparisons with data from previous years much more difficult.

The Defense Department has made some efforts to manage this epidemic -- most notably in 2005, after the media received anonymous e-mail messages about sexual assaults at the Air Force Academy. The media scrutiny and congressional attention that followed led the DOD to create the Sexual Assault and Response Office. Since its inception, the office has initiated education and training programs, which have improved the reporting of cases of rapes and other sexual assaults. But more must be done to prevent attacks and to increase accountability.

At the heart of this crisis is an apparent inability or unwillingness to prosecute rapists in the ranks.

According to DOD statistics:

only 181 out of 2,212 subjects investigated for sexual assault in 2007, including 1,259 reports of rape, were referred to courts-martial, the equivalent of a criminal prosecution in the military.

Another 218 were handled via nonpunitive administrative action or discharge,

and 201 subjects were disciplined through "nonjudicial punishment," which means they may have been confined to quarters, assigned extra duty or received a similar slap on the wrist. In nearly half of the cases investigated, the chain of command took no action; more than a third of the time, that was because of "insufficient evidence."

This is in stark contrast to the civilian trend of prosecuting sexual assault. In California, for example, 44% of reported rapes result in arrests, and 64% of those who are arrested are prosecuted, according to the California Department of Justice.

The DOD must close this gap and remove the obstacles to effective investigation and prosecution. Failure to do so produces two harmful consequences: It deters victims from reporting, and it fails to deter offenders. The absence of rigorous prosecution perpetuates a culture tolerant of sexual assault -- an attitude that says "boys will be boys."

I have raised the issue with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Although I believe that he is concerned, thus far, the military's response has been underwhelming -- and the apparent lack of urgency is inexcusable.

Congress is not doing much better. Although these sexual assault statistics are readily available, our oversight has failed to come to grips with the magnitude of the crisis. The abhorrent and graphic nature of the reports may make people uncomfortable, but that is no excuse for inaction. Congressional hearings are urgently needed to highlight the failure of existing policies. Most of our servicewomen and men are patriotic, courageous and hardworking people who embody the best of what it means to be an American. The failure to address military sexual assault runs counter to those ideals and shames us all.

Jane Harman (D-Venice) chairs the House Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence.

Army Lawyer > July-August, 2003 > Article

Patricia A. Ham

The Department of Defense (DOD) began to use DNA samples to identify the remains of service members during the first Gulf War in 1991. (2) "Because of problems with obtaining reliable DNA samples during the Gulf War, the DOD began a program to collect and store reference specimens of DNA from members of the active duty and reserve forces." (3) What was then called the "DOD DNA Registry," (4)

a program within the Armed Forces Institute

of pathology, was established pursuant to a

December 16, 1991 memorandum of the

Deputy Secretary of Defense. Under this

program, DNA specimens are collected from

active duty and reserve military personnel

upon their enlistment, reenlistment, or preparation

for operational deployment.

As of December 2002, the Repository, now known as the "Armed Forces Repository of Specimen Samples for the Identification of Remains," contained the DNA of approximately 3.2 million service members. According to a recent DOD directive, the "provision of specimen samples by military members shall be mandatory." The direction to a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine to contribute a DNA sample is a lawful order which, if disobeyed, subjects the service member to prosecution under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). If convicted at court-martial for the offense of violating a lawful general order, the service member carries the lifelong stigma of a federal felony conviction, and faces a maximum punishment of a dishonorable discharge, confinement for two years, total forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and reduction to the lowest enlisted grade.

As its name suggests, the DNA Repository was initially conceived solely to identify the remains of service members. However, a small entry in the huge 2003 National Defense Authorization Act, "signed by President Bush on December 2, 2002, overrides Pentagon policy that the DNA samples be used almost solely to identity troops killed in combat," and allows access to the Repository for law enforcement purposes. (12) The provision reads:

[subsection] 1565a. DNA samples maintained for identification

of human remains: use for law

enforcement purposes

(a) Compliance with a court order.

(1) Subject to paragraph (2), if a valid

order of a Federal court (or military judge) so

requires, an element of the Department of

Defense that maintains a repository of DNA

samples for the purpose of identification of

human remains shall make available, for the

purpose specified in subsection (b), such

DNA samples on such terms and conditions

as such court (or military judge) directs.

[Wings]

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I have to ask myself: who and what is the real enemy???

In my life experience, I would say the enemy is fear.

Fear: of not having enough, not being enough; of having control and losing control; of separation and intimacy.

Humans that seek to have power and control over others are deperately fearful, cowardly, insane. Rape and sexual assault are desperate actions that seek, in a grossly disconnected way, to connect with the source of life or else to kill it and seek dominion over the common fears that haunt all mortal men and women . . . It is cowardly and small and violently sad.

I am afraid that I will always feel, in the depths of my being, a basic, deep mistrust of other human beings. At this point in human history, I think we are all psychologically wounded to some degree. And we should admit it - admit that we are all fragile, vulnerable and interdependent (we need each other). Absent the admission of transgender vulnerability, we perpetuate the myth of inequality and fear . . .

We are a nation of laws, not of men (who said that?) . . . We have created good laws (divinely inspired) to equalize - - and we futher our human evolution to keep our justice systems just - - all should be equal under the law.

Rambling thoughts, wanting to overcome my own feelings of helplessness and horror. I want to change the world! want to help the world be sane and beautiful for my children, and theirs. ~Wings

Edited April 2, 2008 by Wings

[carlie]

Just some of my thoughts, reactions and feelings on these issues:

Most rapes go unreported, whether it is a female or a male that gets raped.

In the military, female service members are also taught to kill, and blow things up, they even taught us how to start and finish a five mile forced road march with our 60 lbs of gear, cop a squat in the muddy ditch filled with God knows what, OH CRAP --- they're lighting up the sky, where the hell's Oscar ?

Great, we get a can of hot pears for dinner tonight and I'm actually looking forward to it, my mouth is watering.

Castration does not necessarily end rape, other objects besides a penis are often used,

rapist mentally need that power and control, to view the fear, that's what gets them off.

A fellow servicemember, (that hasn't raped me), can bet their sweet azz -- I WILL

FIND A WAY to get their 210 lbs moved to a safer location, provide protection,

or give my life (perhaps even more freely) as would a 130 lb fellow servicemember

that is a male. If you look around you will find something to use for leverage, a tool,piece of rope

or material perhaps a parachute to roll the 210 lbs onto and drag you out with me.

I have been trained to do this - to never give up, my piss and vinegar won't let me.

Many times the "leaders" are the first and the best at covering up and transferring the rape victim,

re-enforcing to them just how hard life can get if they come forward, and do you really want to ruin his life, you know he has three kids, just think what that would do to his wife !!

Hopefully the rape victim has never had a consenting sexual encounter with a service member, because in that case then certainly the victim is just a loose whore asking for it.

I still feel betrayed that people I served with, that we felt like brother and sister's, some of my brother's I served with knew what had been done to me - but they weren't strong enough to break that code of silence - and with their silence they became so filled with guilt ---- guilt that turned to shame --- so much shame they could not look me in the eye's any longer, so full of shame they could no longer be my brother.

These are just a few feelings I'm having for now. So to those that question, is PTSD real for this type of stress - I have to say yes, as I have faced the enemy - and now spend much of my time wondering where and when, will they strike again.

carlie

[carlie]

I just bumped this thread back up, to get my feelings out.

carlie

[Pete53]

At first I worried about this thread but I think now that it is helpful and I do appreciate the respect and empathy shown by my gender so far.

[Wings]

I just bumped this thread back up, to get my feelings out.

carlie

Carlie, It feels like they stole my side-arm and doubt I'll ever be able to fight/love again. I used to be such a whole-hearted person; now I'm old and bitter. I appreciate your "piss and vinegar" ;-) ;-) Never give up Sis. ~Wings

[Guest Vietnam Tanker]

Wings, I appreciate your input and feelings on this subject, based on many telephone conversations with you, You maybe a little older but I still found you a loving and caring person, if not for yourself and Momma Meg I would not be here today, so it is very hard for me to find you a bitter person, just hang in there and keep helping others and The Great Spirit will watch over you and yours.