​By AG
Recently, a friend and I were contemplating our age and whether we had any regrets in life; specifically, from a woman’s perspective. I scanned my memory banks and couldn’t pull anything up by title, so I decided to scan moments and feelings instead and I kept landing on one moment. It was an instance many years ago when I had questioned a best friend when she told me she had been raped. I asked her questions like “were you flirting with him,” “had you been drinking,” and “did you invite him inside.” I thought at the time I was assuaging her fears by reasoning with her. It wasn’t until later that I learned the far more sinister reason I blamed her for what had happened: it was because I blamed myself for a similar situation. 
I am a survivor of military sexual trauma. It wasn’t until recently I was able to call myself a survivor, as I had been referring to myself as a victim. But acknowledging victim-hood wasn’t even the first stop on my journey of self-image. Prior to that, I had blamed myself for what happened instead of even having the wherewithal to acknowledge that something had happened to me.
I was one of the first women accepted into the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command, and in 1995, I was invited to a party in the barracks by a group of men that I was finally starting to feel I fit in with. That night I met a guy, flirted with him, had some drinks, and eventually I blacked out. When I came to, I was groggy and had a pounding headache. I started looking for my clothes when the guy I was flirting with the night before sat up in the bed and asked what I was doing. “I don’t think I wanted to do that,” I said, and he replied, “Oh, are you gonna cry rape now?”
I grabbed a gray wool navy issue blanket and wrapped it around myself when I noticed I was bleeding, and ran out the door. It was four o’clock in the morning. 
The Master At Arms office – which is the equivalent of a police station – was situated between the party I had just left and my barracks, so as I passed it, I thought that maybe I should stop in and speak to someone there about what happened. 
I walked up to the window after nearly slipping on the freshly waxed floor in my bare feet, wearing only the blanket, and said, “I think I was raped.” The person told me to wait and walked into the back only to reappear a few moments later with two men in uniform who escorted me down a long hall to a small room. They sat me in a cold metal chair on one side of a metal table – fluorescent lights pulsating overhead – and began asking me questions. “Were you flirting with him?” “Have you been drinking?” “What were you wearing?” 
Then another man came in and began telling me the consequences for filing a false rape report. I could be court martialed for lying – I could be removed from school, I could lose my rate and rank, I could be dishonorably discharged, I could lose my benefits and signing bonus, and I could lose my GI Bill. They even threatened me with criminal adultery because HE was married. “So why don’t we chalk this up to what it really is.” they’d said, “Bad judgment on your part.”
Not only did I leave terrified of getting kicked out and vowing never to tell a soul, but I left actually believing in my heart of hearts that the entire incident was my fault. I believed it in my bones and in my soul. I believed it so strongly that a decade later when the same thing happened to my best friend, I found the words of those men in that sparse room with the metal table coming out of my mouth – “Were you flirting with him? Had you been drinking? What were you wearing?” That is the biggest regret of my life.
Since then, I’ve seen amazing therapists, and I’ve told my story in a documentary and to thousands of young women on college campuses across the country. I’ve learned a lot about going from self-blame, to victim-hood, to survivor. I’m learning to view my younger self as an amazing person doing her best to survive trauma. I’ve learned it wasn’t my fault. And now I’m learning to see myself as I see other survivors: strong, brave, and admirable for thriving in the face of adversity, though that is proving to be a tough lesson for me.
So the next time you hear a woman question a survivor, asking if they were drinking or what they were wearing, consider that perhaps she too is a survivor who still blames herself, and handle with kindness. As author Daniel Abraham says, “In an age of performative cruelty, kindness is punk as fuck. Be punk as fuck.

Washington (CNN) - The first thing Harmony Allen remembers after her rape is standing in the shower.
"I didn't even remember how I got back to base, everything just seemed like a blur. When I got in the shower, I saw the runs of blood just roll off me," Allen told CNN. "The shower water turned red."
Almost 17 years later, Allen would come face to face with her rapist in a military courtroom. He would be tried, found guilty of rape and jailed. Then, a 2018 decision by a military appeals court in another case would eventually set her attacker free.
It is a decision she and a bipartisan group of lawmakers are fighting to change today.
Allen was 19 years old, just three months into her radiology technician training at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas, when a course instructor raped and beat her on August 25, 2000.
That night, Allen was at a club on the base where Air Force instructors and students ate and drank. After other instructors left, Master Sgt. Richard Collins lingered.
"When he came over to start talking to me, that was weird in itself," Allen said. "Because they're not allowed to talk with students."
Master Sgt. Collins appeared intoxicated. His voice was loud, his movements, clumsy. When Collins said that he was going to drive home, Allen, who doesn't drink, stepped in and offered to call a taxi or a base shuttle.
"In the army, it's our battle buddy. You always look out for your battle buddy," Allen said. "In the Air Force, it's your wingman." Allen later wrote in court documents that she thought she was being a "good wingman."
When Collins declined a taxi and shuttle, Allen offered to drive him home.
He accepted.
Moments after Allen helped Collins through his front door and into the foyer, he pinned her against a wall and pressed his forearm into her chest.
When she yelled and resisted, adding that she was engaged to be married, Collins threw her to the floor.
Allen's head split open.
As she regained consciousness, Allen fought and squirmed beneath him. Collins punched her in the face.
Her eyes fixated on a family photo of Collins with his wife and children.
"I looked at that picture the whole time he was raping me."
When the case went to trial more than a decade later, the nurse who initially examined her in August 2000 still recalled the brutal details of the attack.

After she finished Allen's rape kit, the nurse had her rushed to Sheppard Air Force Base Emergency Room.
The nurse testified that out of 200 examinations, she only had to do that once in her career.
"I was the worst she'd ever seen," Allen said. "She still remembered my case because I was the only case that after she did the rape kit she had to send it on to a trauma center for the beating I took during the rape."
Master Sgt. Richard D. Collins was tried for the rape of Harmony Allen before a military court on Eglin Air Force Base in Florida in late February 2017. He pleaded not guilty.
During the trial, Allen was asked to point out the man who raped her. "As soon as I looked at him, I vomited" on the witness stand, she said.
A jury of his peers found Collins guilty of rape and sentenced him to 16 ½ years in prison, a punishment Allen describes as "very strategic."
"It took me 16 ½ years to get that justice," she told CNN.
But he was released after serving just two years of his sentence due to a decision by the top US military appeals court last year.
When Allen was raped in August 2000, it was believed that there was no statute of limitations for military sexual assaults. If there was enough evidence to convict, the verdict would stick -- years or even decades later.


That changed in February 2018, when the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces found that only a five-year statute of limitations applied to sexual assaults that occurred between 1986 and 2006.
Because Allen was raped in 2000 and Collins was not convicted until 2017, he could appeal his guilty verdict under this new ruling.
On July 23, 2018, Collins' appeal was granted. His conviction of rape was set aside on appeal, and the sentence was overturned.
Though it took nearly 17 years to get a conviction, she reported her rape several times throughout her military career.
Documents provided to CNN show that Allen reported her attack at least five times to Air Force medical and mental health personnel between 2001 and 2011.
In April 2011, after exhibiting signs of PTSD, Allen showed photos of Collins to her clinical psychologist, an Air Force captain.
"I brought in pictures of him, I said this is who raped me. This is Richard Collins, he's a master sergeant. I said Master Sgt. Richard Collins raped me," she told CNN.
Still, an official investigation was not launched until March 11, 2014, after Allen left the military and sought VA benefits for PTSD related to her attack. At that time, she was asked to link her treatment to an event she experienced while on active duty.
It took two years and 11 months, but this investigation eventually led to trial and Collins' conviction.
"This was not a case of he-said, she-said. There was hard evidence. There were witnesses," Allen said.
"I fought so hard to get the justice to have him put away for what he did. To have that ripped away after finally getting it is so hurtful and crushing and it just questions my belief in the justice system."
Collins and his lawyer declined CNN's request for comment. Eglin Air Force Base's Director of Public Affairs Andy Bourland confirmed to CNN that Collins continues to live on the base with his wife and children.
Following the dismissal, Allen received a letter from the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff acknowledging the "damage" that had been done to her and her family. "Please know that I am sincerely sorry for everything that happened to you while you were on active duty," it read.
In a statement to CNN Friday, the Air Force recognized Allen's "overwhelming pain and suffering."
"Ms. Allen will always be part of the Air Force family with continued access to professional helping resources through this difficult time."
Ultimately, the Air Force concluded, it must comply with the order from the appeals court.
Allen's case has sparked action from a bipartisan group of House lawmakers.
Rep. Brian Mast, combat veteran and Harmony Allen's congressman, introduced a bill in her name -- "Harmony's Law" -- to close the statute of limitations loophole for rape and sexual assault in the military prior to 2006.
"Harmony's Law" has 16 co-sponsors, so far -- nine Republicans and seven Democrats.
"This wasn't intended by the military. This wasn't intended by the Congress or anybody else. Those that have committed these crimes are not going to be set free on the technicality of a falsely created statute of limitations by a court that was not meant to create law," Mast said.
But at least two sexual assault convictions have already been overturned as a result.
Last month, the Pentagon released a report that estimated sexual assaults across the US military increased by a rate of nearly 38% from 2016 to 2018.
For Allen, her case is emblematic of the military's sexual assault problem.
"The stats are back up. The conviction rate is back down. And I'm like, yeah, I wonder why," she said.
Nearly two decades after her assault, Allen is now an advocate for military women with head injuries as part of the non-profit Pink Concussions.
In 2006, she sustained a traumatic brain injury during a parachute landing. Dr. Phillip M. Holman wrote after her TBI diagnosis that her experiences in the military -- "the physical injuries and the stress," he wrote -- "severely exacerbated" her brain injury.
Every other week, she is in treatment for the TBI and for PTSD.
"I had a lot of pride for my country. I wanted to serve. I wanted to defend my country, and that became hard when they weren't doing what they should've been doing to help me when I needed help."
Reflecting on her treatment at a military hospital back in 2000, Allen said she was handed passes to get out of class and Motrin for her injuries.
"Motrin is the military's wonder drug," Allen said. "But no, Motrin doesn't fix [this]."

​By Catherine Valentine, Zachary Cohen and Brianna Keilar, CNN | 
Posted: Tue 9:37 PM, May 14, 2019  | 
Updated: Tue 9:37 PM, May 14, 2019

​If you're sending your son or daughter to the military, Sen. Martha McSally wants to make sure the academies and bases do a better job of protecting ...

A startling trend among the ranks of the U.S. military continues to rise with the most recent results from the Department of Defense’s Annual Report on Sexual Assault released last week. The report indicated a 50 percent increase in sexual assaults experienced by women in the military since 2016.
Despite women composing just below 20 percent of the armed forces, they account for 63 percent of military sexual assault victims with young and low-rank women most at risk, according to the survey.  
“What [this increase] reflects is the stubbornness, the selfishness of the DoD leadership to seriously address this issue,” said Col. Don Christensen, a retired Air Force JAG and the president of Protect Our Defenders, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending military sexual assault. “They’re refusing to consider any bold reforms and after 30 years of failure, this is on them. They are the ones that are failing and obstructing change and it’s time that they’re held accountable.”
This year, the military also saw 1 in 3 service members report a sexual assault, a 10 percent increase in reporting overall from two years ago.
Additionally, 21 percent of women experienced what would legally be considered retaliation while even more allege to have endured other forms of backlash. Reported instances range anywhere from extreme social ostracism to the lowering of rank and even a mandatory dishonorable discharge from the service.
Historically, sexual assault within the military has been highly under-reported, drastically skewing statistics.  
As a measure to bridge that data gap in 2005, the DoD enacted a biannual anonymous survey to get more accurate results.
Nearly 15 years later, the report appears to indicate the crisis is worsening.
Many survivors indicate that a major hurdle to reporting incidents of sexual assault is that the cases remain within the chain of command, meaning it’s often a survivor’s direct commander who is in charge of following through with the report. Importantly, this often means that those handling the cases are unqualified for the job.
“I guarantee you the vast majority of the commanders who have this authority have never sat down and talked to a victim,” Christensen said. “They don’t know what they go through. They don’t understand the complexity of trauma and they’re not lawyers.”
The military has put in place training sessions to educate all service members on sexual assault prevention and response. According to Christensen, these sessions often amount to little more than a PowerPoint presentation taught by equally inexperienced instructors.
“It’s amateurs leading other amateurs,” he said. “You do not become good at understanding and prosecuting sexual assault from a slideshow.”
Despite this, some argue the response to reported incidents of sexual assault should come from within the military hierarchy to maintain order and disciplinary control.  Another argument is that removing chain of command would lessen a unit’s ability to function as a whole.
Ellen Haring, a retired Army colonel and the CEO of the Service Women’s Action Network, disagrees.
“Yes, commanders need to be able to discipline their troops, but there are some behaviors that are bubbling beyond their ability or their qualifications to discipline,” Haring said.
Removing sexual assault cases from the chain of command, Haring said, would send a message that there are things that commanders do not have the capacity to decide.
“And this is one of them, and it’s a serious crime,” Haring said. “That’s why they’re not able to make these decisions.”
At the same time, it may also be hurting the military’s ability to attract new members.
“We do know that services are struggling now to meet their recruiting goals,” Christensen said. “When they rely on women, and in fact could not perform the mission without women, you would think that they would be more attuned to the impact this could have.”
The continued ineffectiveness of the current process also contributes to a deep distrust of the system amongst victims. Haring attributes much of this crisis to the current cultural trends both in the military and in America at large.
Specifically she pointed to the Marine Corps, the service branch that saw the highest increase in sexual assaults — a jump of nearly 25 percent. Directly related to that, Haring said, is the fact that the Marines are the only branch that still separates men and women when recruits arrive at boot camp for training.
“There is no industry where you’re completely safe,” she said. “Especially if it’s one of these industries or professions that have been and continue to be masculine and male dominate. I don’t know where women can go to work to be completely safe.”

By:

Lacey Latch, Arts & Life Editor|May 13, 2019

​As more women serve, more need care post-service
Beltran Steele joined the U.S. Marine Corps at a time when women were just starting to be recognized as a permanent part of the military service.
It was 1950, only two years after Congress passed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act. The law permitted women to serve as full members of the U.S. armed forces. The positions open to them, however, were severely limited.
“I went in hoping I would get combat training, but in those days it was clerk typist or mechanic,” Steele said. “So while my brothers were in Korea, I was at a supply depot in San Francisco.”
Additionally, as part of the legislation, women could only make up 2 percent of the enlisted force and 10 percent of officers. This limit wasn’t repealed until 1967; and it wasn’t until the military transitioned to an all-volunteer force in 1973 that woman began to see a dramatic increase in the number of military roles they could take on. Even today, women are still striving to fill positions within the military never before held by them.
As it does annually, the Northern Arizona VA Health Care System (NAVAHCS) took the time on Tuesday, March 20, to review this history during an event designed to honor female veterans and those currently serving.
Steele, 86, was one of the attendees of the event. She – as well as every other female veteran in the room – was allotted time to share some of her experience serving in the armed forces.
A key point brought up during the event was that the proportion of women veterans is steadily increasing, and will continue to increase for decades to come.
“Even though there are more males than females in the military, the female curve is going up, whereas the male curve is declining, because a lot of our male veterans are older, and a lot of our female veterans are younger,” said Susan Johnson-Molina, the women veterans program manager at NAVAHCS, at the event.
According to a 2017 Women Veterans Report released by the Department of Veterans Affairs, woman made up 9.4 percent of the Veteran population in 2015. By 2042, that percentage is expected to be at about 16.3.
As this trend plays out, the VA is hoping to meet the needs of those female veterans.
“It’s such an exciting time for the female veteran,” Johnson-Molina said. “But, we also have to be there for female veterans as they come back out. Since they’re going to be experiencing more; it’s going to have more effects on them. We need to be aware of that.”
To help transition this new generation of warriors into the care they need, Johnson-Molina encourages today’s experienced veterans to serve as guides.
“As female veterans, you need to reach out to the younger ones,” Johnson-Molina said. “You don’t have to pitch the VA, but at least make them aware of our services.”
While veterans aren’t the only ones who suffer from ailments related to mental illness, physical debilitation or trauma, their population is highly prone to these issues, Johnson-Molina said.
“Military sexual trauma; big one,” she said. “One out of every four females suffer from military sexual trauma; and we know the number’s a lot higher. That’s just the ones that have come forward to say that. Woman are just starting to find the voice to speak about it.”

By Max Efrein
Originally Published: March 23, 2018 5:55 a.m.