Female veterans report more sexual, mental trauma

[GAP]

Report: Sexual assualt of women soldiers on rise in US military
By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com
Article Link

Some women soldiers say they carry knives to protect themselves from other US soldiers.

In the online magazine Salon, Helen Benedict reports that every female veteran she interviewed for a book she is writing on women in the US military said that "the danger of rape by other soldiers is so widely recognized in Iraq that their officers routinely told them not to go to the latrines or showers without another woman for protection." Ms. Benedict also reports that some women soldiers started carrying knives to protect themselves, not from Iraqis, but from their male peers in the military.

Although no comprehensive statistics have been compiled on the number of women soldiers raped in Iraq, rumors of the problem were so prevalent that in 2004 then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld created a task force to look into the issue. Although the findings were never released publicly, the military created a website to deal with potential sexual assault in the military and also initiated classes on preventing sexual assault and harassment. The number of reported military assaults rose from 1700 in 2004 to more than 2300 in 2005.

But Benedict says, as with most sexual assaults, the actual number is vastly underreported. This situation in Iraq is compounded because often those committing sexual assaults are senior officers or members of a woman's unit. There is also the problem of widespread availability of hard-core pornography on US military bases in Iraq, which helps create an atmosphere of sexual tension. Women who have reported sexual assaults, Benedict alleges, have often been ignored or treated as pariahs by fellow soldiers. Also, as she points out in the Salon article, there's a long history of such allegations.
More on link

 

[geo]

The problem I can see with this article is that they are making all sorts of claims without providing any form of backup support or proof - this is all scuttlebut hearsay.

Do sexual assaults happen in the forces? It'd be presumptuous of me to say that it never happens.... probably less frequently than what you would find on civy street in the USA & Canada.

Sexual assaults of local women would probably be something to expect.  Women in uniform are trained in the use of guns, knives, grenades and other nasty things
Given that men & women in Iraq & Afghanistan are armed at all times, it's a safe bet that rapists would just as likely be dealt with & suffering wounds at a higher rate than what would be found in the USA & Canada.

But this is only my opinion....

 

[Yrys]

Female veterans report more sexual, mental trauma

  Story Highlights
- Dept. of Veterans Affairs diagnosed 60,000 veterans with PTSD
- Women have comprised 11 percent of military force in Iraq and Afghanistan
- VA: 22 percent of women, 1 percent of men suffered sexual trauma in military
- Expert says women afraid to report sexual harassment for fear of retribution

DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- On a good day, Keri Christensen spends the day watching her children. She prepares their meals, gets them ready for school and helps them
with their homework. Keri Christensen was nearly a victim of a roadside bombing in Iraq when the convoy in front of hers was hit. But this housewife and mother of two
is far different than most of the women living in her Denver, Colorado, suburb. She's an Iraqi war veteran, among the first women in the United States to be classified
as combat veterans. Even though she's been home from the war for more than 2½ years, she's now fighting another battle -- this one with depression, nightmares,
sleeplessness and anger. She says all of it is caused by her time in Iraq. "I start feeling those feelings of 'I'm not worthy. I can't raise my family,' " Christensen said.

Women have made up about 11 percent of the military force in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past six years, according to the Department of Defense; that's an estimated
180,000 women in the war zone. The figure dwarfs the 41,000 women deployed during the Persian Gulf War and the 7,500 who served during the Vietnam War, mostly
as nurses. Unlike past wars, women are assigned to combat support roles. Many are seeing violence firsthand in an unconventional war.

As a member of the National Guard, Christensen transported tanks in Iraq. She says she was shot at and was nearly a victim of a roadside bomb when a convoy in front
of hers was hit. "You have this fear, 'Oh, my God, I still have to go through there,' " she recalled. " 'Am I going to make it?' " Christensen says that she was sexually harassed
by a superior while serving in Iraq and that the harassment added to the pressure created by just being in a war zone. "I just know it took a big toll on me because I was
trying to deal with it myself. Just trying to be a soldier," Christensen said.

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In 2007, the Department of Veterans Affairs found that women are reporting signs of mental health issues when they return home at a higher rate than their male counterparts.
The VA diagnosed 60,000 veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Of those, 22 percent of women suffered from "military sexual trauma," which includes sexual harassment
or assault, compared with 1 percent of men.

Christensen, who has been diagnosed with PTSD, says she doesn't like leaving her comfort zone. She doesn't drive more than two miles from her home. "When I get outside
my familiar safe territory, I start to feel overwhelmed," Christensen said. "It gets foggy. Not sure where I'm really going. Something comes over me where I don't feel like I
have control over it."

"PTSD is actually something that shows up over time, and so the natural recovery process doesn't happen," said Dr. Darrah Westrup, who counsels female veterans at the
VA-run Women's Health Clinic in Menlo Park, California. "So three months out or so, you find yourself still not sleeping, still with nightmares, still having intrusive thoughts,"
Westrup said. Westrup says another factor contributing to poor mental health is the high amount of sexual trauma reported by women screened by the Veterans Administration.
She says many women have trouble reporting the trauma to their superiors out of fear of retribution. "When you are in a war zone, your survival depends on people watching
your back and on unit cohesion," Westrup said. "The same individuals who attacked you are those who will be protecting you, or you'll be fighting alongside the next day."

Christensen receives counseling and group therapy sponsored by the VA. However, the military has said there is no merit to her claims that she suffered military sexual
trauma. Like many who suffer from post-traumatic stress, Christensen still has her ups and downs. She says she's just working to get past the feelings of guilt, shame, loss
of control and low self-esteem. "I don't think we'll ever be the same. I think that you can learn to cope with it, and that's what I'm learning right now," she said.

Visit Milnet.ca

 

[daftandbarmy]

Female veterans report more sexual, mental trauma - CNN.com


DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- On a good day, Keri Christensen spends the day watching her children. She prepares their meals, gets them ready for school and helps them with their homework.

But this housewife and mother of two is far different than most of the women living in her Denver, Colorado, suburb.
She's an Iraqi war veteran, among the first women in the United States to be classified as combat veterans.

Even though she's been home from the war for more than 2½ years, she's now fighting another battle -- this one with depression, nightmares, sleeplessness and anger. She says all of it is caused by her time in Iraq.

"I start feeling those feelings of 'I'm not worthy. I can't raise my family,' " Christensen said.

Women have made up about 11 percent of the military force in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past six years, according to the Department of Defense; that's an estimated 180,000 women in the war zone. The figure dwarfs the 41,000 women deployed during the Persian Gulf War and the 7,500 who served during the Vietnam War, mostly as nurses.


http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/19/women.veterans/

 

[Greymatters]

The problem I can see with this article is that they are making all sorts of claims without providing any form of backup support or proof - this is all scuttlebut hearsay. 

And the way the system works, we will never get to hear the full and absolute truth.  All investigations are private, the information is sensitive and the final reports are not for our eyes... but it would be foolish to think it doesnt happen in the US or even our own Canadian services. 

If in doubt, ask your buddy of the opposite sex if they've ever been sexually harassed... personally, Ive heard too many stories from female acquaintances on stuff they put up with that would definately have qualified as sexual harassment but they failed to report it because it would have been too much of a hassle to see through until the end...on the other side, Ive also heard a few stories where the system did work and worked well, but likewise, we also do not hear of these actions...
 

 

[Kat Stevens]

"Female veterans report more sexual, mental trauma - CNN.com"



So do female civilians... I don't get it.

 

[armyvern]

"Female veterans report more sexual, mental trauma - CNN.com"

So do female civilians... I don't get it.

I think they're saying that the incidents being reported are higher proportionately in the females than the males.

Perhaps, it's that "men just suck it up and soldier on", but females "talk emotions" factor at play?? I don't know what the US system is like compared to our Canadian system for dealing with CIS, or PTSD ... but perhaps it's a simple matter of "reporting it and dealing with it" now being an acceptable option here in our own military (thus the "proportions more evenly distributed" in it's reporting vice it actually occuring more often to females) and that "acceptability" is not the norm within the US military?

 

[retiredgrunt45]

Like I always tell my two daughters, when in doubt aim for "Tom & Harry" if you happen to hit "dick" in the process, thats a plus, he aint getting up in no hurry.  He won't be doing much of anything for a while, but wincing and crying for him Mamma.

 

[Greymatters]

I think they're saying that the incidents being reported are higher proportionately in the females than the males.

Perhaps, it's that "men just suck it up and soldier on", but females "talk emotions" factor at play?? I don't know what the US system is like compared to our Canadian system for dealing with CIS, or PTSD ... but perhaps it's a simple matter of "reporting it and dealing with it" now being an acceptable option here in our own military (thus the "proportions more evenly distributed" in it's reporting vice it actually occuring more often to females) and that "acceptability" is not the norm within the US military?

The key issue I have had revealed to me from the claimant side (outside the military) is that there is often no benefit to the claimant in following up on a complaint, especially where they are younger, in lower-income jobs, and have limited time employed.  Its often easier for them to just look for another employer/worksite with better working conditions.  In turn, there are some good recent cases where this mentality is being changed, but unless the cases are publicized better, it will be a while for the majority of organizations to change their workplace culture.  A lot of this stuff should be taught at the senior high school level as part of young employee awareness/safety/security, and is at some schools, but not very well in my opinion...

 

[Colin Parkinson]

The article blurs the line between sexual assault and sexual harassment, to very different beasts. Sexual assault id a fairly clear term, but harassment may be a bad joke, a calendar on the wall of an office, or a case of a supervisor directly harassing someone because of their sex either to elicit sexual favours or to drive that person out of the job that the other feels is not right for them. If the people who handle this stuff were less “politically motivated” they would classify harassment into a easier set of criteria that would make these statistic more useful and more truthful. Bundling together a calendar on the wall with the determined harassment by co-worker to inflict harm does no favours for woman involved and prevents people from dealing with the real issues and allows some people to exploit a system where people are afraid to discipline someone for a justifiable reason for fear of a complaint. 

 

[Yrys]

Female paramedic accuses soldier, co-worker in testimony to Congress

WASHINGTON - An Illinois woman who says she was raped while working for a contractor in Iraq recounted the experience in a congressional hearing Wednesday.

A woman who made similar allegations before Congress last year listened and fought back tears.

Dawn Leamon, a resident of Lena, said at a Senate subcommittee hearing she was sodomized and forced to have oral sex by a soldier and a co-worker after she drank a cocktail that made her feel strange.She worked as a paramedic for Service Employees International Inc., a foreign subsidiary of KBR Inc., at Camp Harper near Basra, Iraq.

The alleged attack occurred just two months after Jamie Leigh Jones, formerly of Conroe, Texas, told a House committee she was raped by KBR/Halliburton co-workers and held a day in a shipping container after reporting the 2005 assault.

The Associated Press does not usually identify people who say they were sexually assaulted, but the women have made their identities public.

Jones wiped away tears as Leamon and a third woman, Mary Beth Keniston, spoke. Keniston, of Olmsted Falls, Ohio, said she was assaulted in 2004 while working as a truck driver with her husband for KBR in Iraq. "It bothers me that it happened again after I stood up and brought awareness to it and brought KBR to such scrutiny," Jones said during a break.

Jones sued Halliburton, whose former subsidiary is KBR, and is waiting for a judge to rule if it can go to trial or be settled in arbitration. KBR and Halliburton split last year. Leamon, whose sons served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said employers discouraged her from reporting the rape and pressured her to sign a statement with inaccurate details.

'I could disappear in a heartbeat'

Several days after the assault she had to provide medical care to one of her attackers. She officially reported the rape after she was transferred to another camp on Feb. 27 because she feared for her safety. "It is very easy for a person in that part of Iraq to disappear," Leamon said. "I could disappear in a heartbeat. I could fall. I could have a head injury and it could be explained (away)."

Since Jones' December testimony, some lawmakers have pressured the Bush administration to investigate sexual assault cases like hers and hold contractors more accountable.

Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, the subcommittee's chairman, said at least three laws give the Justice Department authority to prosecute such cases.
"We have an unprecedented number of contractors posted in war zones and if they are victimized by their colleagues or by soldiers, the concern of this committee is they end up in legal limbo," Nelson said.

Investigations continue
Sigal Mandelker, a Justice Department deputy assistant attorney, told Nelson the agency takes sexual assault crimes very seriously and has a team of investigators and prosecutors in Iraq to handle them and other crimes. The agency has between four and six active investigations including one into Leamon's, Mandelker said. But she said she didn't know of any convictions for sexual assault of a contract employee.

"It can be extremely difficult to investigate these cases. As you heard today it is an unfortunate fact that the crimes occur in a war zone and there are numerous difficulties of investigating a case when the conduct occurred in a war zone," Mandelker said.

KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne declined comment Wednesday. In a statement Tuesday, she said reports of sexual assault and harassment are taken seriously and thoroughly investigated.

 

[geo]

well... without wanting to minimize the trauma these female contractors have experienced - female soldiers have been "exposed" to the same thing... it is up to the leadership - both Civ & military - to enforce the policies that our military & civilian rules, regulations and laws already have in place.

For an emergency room technician to come face to face with her agressor when the tables have been turned blows my mind.  Get the MPs & then make sure the man lives long enough to go to trial...

 

[Jacqueline]

What the 'harrassers' don't understand, is that they are jeopardizing their own safety. What if the woman is in the position to save the team and is distracted (or isnt thinking clearly)? There goes everyone, blown up for some pleasure.

 

[wildman0101]

dear miss jslim,,,
                  dont talk the talk till you walked the walk...copy
i dont see anything on your profile anything to indicate you can..
nuff said,,,ill leave it to the mods...
                regards the  original post ive known some members
that have been harrassed,,, i as a friend have have helped them
obtain items of defense and i was convinced that they were
threatened...having know them for years...  im not going to men-
tion which armed forces or components they served in...ill
leave the rest to the mods...
mods edit for content and spelling ect... thank-you..
                                    best regards all
                                      scoty b

 

[Jacqueline]

OK fine, I don't want to start anything. But do you agree or not?

 

[Greymatters]

What the 'harrassers' don't understand, is that they are jeopardizing their own safety. What if the woman is in the position to save the team and is distracted (or isnt thinking clearly)? There goes everyone, blown up for some pleasure. 

Can you clarify that? Do you mean that while she is supposed to be supporting the team (I presume in some form of a crisis situation or on a patrol, not an office environment) that someone is harassing her, and/or that her mind is distracted froim what she is supposed to be doing?

 

[TylerSnap!]

What the 'harrassers' don't understand, is that they are jeopardizing their own safety. What if the woman is in the position to save the team and is distracted (or isnt thinking clearly)? There goes everyone, blown up for some pleasure. 


I think this is a good point.  After suffering the indignaty and humiliation of rape, a female soldier may not want to help her attackers, either by backing them up or assisting them when injured.  This wouldn't be right or excusable but she may want revenge and would certainly be in the position to exact it in a combat zone.

 

[Yrys]

I think this is a good point.  After suffering the indignaty and humiliation of rape, a female soldier may not want be able to help her attackers

 

[TylerSnap!]

also a good point

 

[Greymatters]

After suffering the indignaty and humiliation of rape, a female soldier may not want to help her attackers, either by backing them up or assisting them when injured.  This wouldn't be right or excusable but she may want revenge and would certainly be in the position to exact it in a combat zone.

It is such a rare circumstance that it only detracts from the argument...