The Military Cover Up Essays

In the past, military news typically evolved tragic training incidents or deaths during overseas combat. However, over the last several years many incidents involving military personnel and sexual assault have made headlines across the United States. Military women and men have brought to light the lack of justice for victims of sexual assault, and the prevalence of such attacks. Questions arise as to why victims do not report incidents or seek assistance when they are physically or sexually assaulted. Many reasons are due to how the system of reporting is established within the military, retaliation and further re-victimization within the chain of command. Modifications to the current system have begun within the Department of Defense and

Major General Dennis Laich went on camera revealing why senior officers do not report the abuse. Partly because they do not want higher command to view them incapable of supervising their platoons. Filmmakers reached out to different Marine Veterans who stated they were punished for disclosing the assaults. Ziering and Dick want the audience to see the inconsistency the military is displaying. Building on the emphasis that factual proof is the basis for the argument. Staff Sergeant Stace Nelson recalled an incident in which he witnessed a fellow officer belittle a rape victim while subsequently dismissing her case. Department of Defense records show that out of every 3000 people guilty of rape, only 175 of them will do jail time. On a more alarming note, many of the 175 sent to jail will serve less than 30 days. 800 of those cases will never be investigated(Ziering and Dick The Invisible War). In most cases the offenders often maintain their rank while others are even promoted. This can lead an audience to believe the military has been covering up for the issues at hand. Due to the increase of incidents over the years it can be implied that future offenders will not face punishment either. With numbers has high as 300 victims per offender the need to tackle the issue is greater than ever(Ziering and Dick The Invisible War).

Sixty-five years after President Truman signs the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act more than 200,000 women are serving in the military. These women are engaged in real combat and experience the physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion like every soldier out there. But what’s more is that in the first three quarters of the fiscal year of 2013 3,553 sexual assault complaints were reported to the Defense Department. Of these, only one hundred and seventy-five of the alleged attackers were criminally charged. All of these numbers have been complied and given meaning through Kirby Dicks’ film The Invisible War. As a director Dick has been nominated for both the Academy and Emmy Awards for best documentary director. Like most of his

While watching The Invisible War, many of the service members were treated as though their attire (short skirts, running shorts, etc.), behavior, and alcohol consumption encouraged the sexual assault attacks and sexual harassment they endured during their service in the military. Also known as “victim blaming”, this form of blaming often occurs because perpetrators do not want to be held culpable for their wrongdoing. It also may be used as a way to take the blame off the wrongdoer and displace it onto the victim. In addition, the perpetrators often believe that the victim so called “deserved” the violence and mistreating that they suffered because of their vulnerability (behavior, dress, etc.).

a 1988 DOD Survey of men and women in the military and found that 51.8 % of men

I recently saw the documentary, The Invisible War (Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering). The Invisible War exposes the epidemic of rape and sexual assault in the U.S. military, and by using personal stories and the government’s own figures and statistics from Department of Defense reports over the years, the film demonstrates what it means to serve in the military if you’re a woman. I had no idea what I was about to witness while watching this documentary about rape in the military, but I was not prepared for

Sexual assault among our service women is an increasing issue in the United States today. The female soldiers who are being forced to endure such an excruciating and demeaning crime are afraid, like other victims of assault, to speak out against their perpetrators. In a field led by mainly men who are supposed to be protecting the citizens of this country, they are tearing down the ones around them. The term for sexual assault among service members is Military Sexual Trauma. “Any attempt of sexual activity against one’s will, whether on/off the military base, or while on/off duty, is considered MST (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2012)”.

These articles could be applied to gender issues in the context of clinical practice because it elaborates on the awareness of men being victims of military sexual assault, not just women. Civilian health care providers should be trained in providing resources and assessments to both genders of sexual assault. In addition, depending on the gender of the victim, sexual assault psychologically affects everyone differently. There are those who are resilient and some who cannot live with the burden. The articles also talks about myths that exist regarding sexual assault only happening to service women and not service men. This is obviously not true, however the insight the articles gave regarding eradicating myths of sexual assault that are based

Linnea, I completely agree with your view on this matter. ZERO tolerance should be how sexual assault is viewed regardless if it’s civilian or military personnel. Furthermore, does it make a difference if it is a male or female making an accusation? Many do not realize how many

This study serves to present hard evidence of sexual assaults that may not have been reported by the military in an effort to hide the problem. This study compiles the accounts of members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. It contains estimates of the number of servicemembers who experienced sexual assault, sexual harassment, or gender discrimination in the past year, as well as information about those who did and did not decide to report, and experiences with the legal system for both male and female military members. It refines the statistics and reveals different prevalences of sexual assault in different branches as well as revealing any correlation to other factors such as military status or

military. Nevertheless, one woman soldier observed “ There are only three things the guys let you be if you’re a girl in the military a bitch, a ho, or a dyke.” Not all military men see women soldiers this way, but many do. The hostility is shown by undermining women’s authority, denying promotions, denigrating their work, sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape.”(4) Many women take these words and actions to heart, leaving a mark on them forever, even causing post traumatic stress disorder from events like this in the work place on top of the post tarmac stress from war. “ A 2004 study of women veterans from Vietnam and all wars since, who were seeking help for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), found that 71% said they were sexually

As sexual violence has been and probably still is present in the US, there are a high number of rape cases going unreported, as indicated in the “The Invisible War” documentary. It is surprising to view that men were also victims of rape in the military. There is a great percentage of women victims of rape in the military, and they are unable to obtain justice for enduring such an act of violence. Men, victims of rape just like women are somewhat in the same predicament of not wanting to make a report as a risk of being judged of being homosexual.

During the year 2012, military estimates suggest that over 26,000 members of the armed services experienced unwanted sexual contact. This figure encompasses 6.1% of active duty women, and 1.2% of active duty men. Those contacts resulted in 3,604 formal reports of sexual assault being lodged with a military representative. From those reports, nearly 3/4 of victims chose to pursue criminal charges against their alleged assailants, triggering a formal investigative process. Approximately 15% of those who initially chose not to pursue charges later opted to do so.

A high proportion of military women, 31%, reported some form of unwanted sexual attention in the past year, or being touched in a way that made the service member feel uncomfortable. Over half of military women, 52%, reported experiencing other offensive sexual behaviors such as repeatedly being told offensive sexual stories or jokes. Even, with these numbers there has been no large-scale investigations of the prevalence of these experiences

Many women serving in the military come under direct fire and experience combat related injuries and trauma, especially Military Sexual Trauma (MST) (Mattocks, Haskell, Krebs, Justice, Yano, & Brandt, 2012). With the expanded occupational roles women have been exposed to more combat violence and “gender-based violence”. According to Linos (2009), “Gender-based violence” is any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life”. “Military sexual trauma” or MST is the term used by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to refer to sexual assault or repeated, threatening sexual harassment that occurred while the veteran was in the military. According to the Department of Defense, “3,230 military sexual assaults were reported in 2009, which represents an increase of 11% from fiscal year 2008. One hundred sixty three sexual assaults were reported in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008”