Men & Women vs The Armed Forces

Photo by Filip Andrejevic

There is a great podcast called “My Favorite Murder” hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Gardestark. When I began listening to it, I was amazed when they spoke about how the laws of this country have so poorly protected women, particularly against rape. Historically, these laws, have been biased against women for centuries. And I was further shocked to learn how slow our laws have evolved regarding rape. In the Seventies it was hardly even considered a crime. Earlier, the punishment was probably less than a slap on the wrist. Today we still take the rights that inherently belong to woman away from them such as a woman’s right to choose whether to have a child or not. Decisions made by mostly men on behalf of half of our society. Do we not consider women our equals?

When my daughter was beginning the process of applying to college, we had a conversation about the Service Academies. And I remember telling her that in my opinion there was no place for a woman in the Armed Forces. I said that until the Services view rape as a crime then I was never going to allow her to even consider applying to them. That was over seven years ago. It seems that maybe the Pentagon has finally begun to realize that women are people and that they should be treated as such. Fantastic. It is the year 2023 so it sure took long enough. And still, we have to ask ourselves…is it just lip service or are they really taking steps to correct a horrible wrong?

The Pentagon plans to send out newly created teams to help lower and even prevent sexual assault in the armed services. They have deployed these special teams to what they have determined as high-risk bases in the US, Europe and Asia. Specially trained, these teams will be sent to bases with the worst records for sexual assault This struggle has gone on for a long time. It is about time that the Department of Defense has done something to fix a major problem. But maybe, they are not trying as hard as they could?

Andara Tharp, Senior Prevention Advisor for the Pentagon’s Office for Force Resiliency, said “The conditions promoting sexual assault may vary from base to base or from ship to ship, but they often involve alcohol abuse and toxic leadership”.

The Army has designated the following bases as their first test cases, Fort Cavazos in Texas, Fort Riley in Kansas, Fort Sill in Oklahoma and other bases in Hawaii, South Naples, Italy and Rota, Spain. Women who serve must be aware wherever they are stationed but particularly in these places. In 2020, independent investigators found that leaders at Ft Hood had allowed sexual assault to run rampant. Soldiers compared it to being in a war zone. This is one of the problems that the Pentagon has discovered in their research. Large numbers of young, unmarried, and low-ranking personnel assigned to big training bases creates serious trouble. Is this surprising to anyone?

Last year an astounding 35,900 troops were victims of sexual assault. This accounts for everything from groping to rape. The Pentagon refers to these numbers as tragic. It seems that the Department of Defense is late in reacting but maybe late and not enough.

One report in 2021 states 40% of women in the armed forces trusted the services to protect them from sexual assault. This is down from 69% in 2018. This is an astonishing fall in just three years.

Erin Kirk a former Marine and assault survivor calls the Pentagon’ efforts too little too late. She states that survivors fear retaliation. Victims can be charged with adultery or making false reports. Until that changes no one is going to report crimes made against them. “And that’s exactly what they (the Pentagon) want, to lower the reporting numbers. Survivors are watching, and the services are failing.”

So now the 425-person Sexual Assault Prevention Force, whose numbers will grow to 2000 by 2028, will be deployed across the Services in hopes of combating these horrible crimes. The Teams will also be helping to prevent substance abuse and they feel this should help with sexual assault, domestic abuse, child abuse and suicide. Finding good leaders is also the key.

Josh Connolly Senior VP of Protect Our Defenders, a non-profit that advocates for troops who have been sexually assaulted, criticized Pentagon leaders for failing to move faster to discipline bad leaders, “The pentagon needs to deal with toxic leaders immediately and get people comfortable with reporting. They need to know that their case will be taken seriously…Our military can do amazing things when it allocates the resources and dedication to an issue. This timeline doesn’t convey the sense of urgency that this demands.”