Military Sexual Assault: Ignored and Unpunished. Part 1
Many people join the military out of a sense of duty or to serve their country and make a difference in the world, or because the military provides many career advancement opportunities for those who choose to enlist, such as specialized training, education benefits, and job security. Joining the military can provide financial stability and other benefits such as housing allowances and health care coverage.
Military service carries a significant risk of injury or death due to combat, training accidents, and other hazardous duties. Military personnel often work long hours for extended periods of time away from home, sometimes for months at a time, as part of deployments overseas. When not deployed often, service members participate in field exercises that can also take them away from home, albeit for shorter time frames. Joining the military can mean being separated from family and friends for long periods while on duty or stationed far away from home. Many service members are required to live in austere conditions in remote locations with limited access to amenities found at home, such as restaurants and entertainment venues which can be difficult to adjust to. The military lifestyle can be isolating and often requires service members to remain on base for long periods, limiting their access to social life outside the military.
Essentially, people sign up for the military and lose many of the things they were used to. This is a double-edged sword since, for some joining the military is an escape from abusive childhoods or other negative life experiences. For some, this can be a huge change from the life they knew as you lose some of your independence even if you enjoy being in the military. With things like 24 duty and mass punishment because someone else fucked up and got a DUI, it can be a challenge regardless of your background because of the stressors duty can entail, even when not in combat.
Despite most of the troops now being home from long and repeated deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, there is a war here at home being fought and ignored by many leaders in the military. The military has made many attempts to conceal this war, but Pandora’s box is opening little by little.
According to the Department of Defense, in 2018, there were 6,053 reports of sexual assault involving service members as either victims or subjects. 4,794 (79.7%) of those reports involved women, and 1,259 (20.3%) involved men. In addition, 10% of all active-duty women reported experiencing a sexual assault within the past year compared to 1% of men. In a 2019 Department of Defense report, the estimated rate of sexual assault in the U.S. military was 6.2 per 1,000 service members or 0.62 percent of all service members. The estimated prevalence of sexual assault for women was 2.2 percent and 0.7 percent for men.
As of February 2020, over 200,000 women serve in the U.S. Armed Forces, comprising 16% active-duty personnel and 19% reserve forces. A study by The Palm Center found that women of color are more likely than white women to report experiencing sexual assault or harassment in the U.S. military. Additionally, according to a 2020 Department of Defense survey, African American service members reported higher rates of unwanted sexual contact than other racial/ethnic groups surveyed — 8.3% compared with 4–6%.
The number of men serving in the military is unavailable, as it changes regularly due to enlistment and discharge rates. As of April 2021, the United States military had approximately 1.35 million active-duty personnel. If in 2020, about 200,000 women served, it is likely safe to say that the military is still a male-dominated institution.
Men and women can be subject to sexual harassment or sexual abuse; however, it is also likely that these statistics are only ballpark figures. Sexual harassment and assault often go unreported, especially when the victim is a male.
The only reason we, the public, are starting to see the light shined on this epidemic in the military is because of recent cases where families have had to fight for their deceased children. The most recent case is one that has barely gotten any attention, Denisha Montgomery.
On August 9th of this year, Army Specialist Denisha Montgomery was found unresponsive in the barracks at Wiesbaden, Germany. She was pronounced dead at the scene, and her family was advised that it was likely a suicide.
The problem with this is Specialist Montgomery (also a Military Police officer) had informed her family only two weeks earlier that four soldiers had sexually assaulted her in her squad. She also communicated to her family that she wanted to file a report and was discouraged by her First Sergeant from doing so.
Yeah, nothing suspicious about that at all. No autopsy was completed on Specialist Montgomery which may have brought attention to bruises she had shown her family in a recent Facetime call.
I will delve into her story more in a future post but let’s move on to Specialist Vanessa Guillen. Specialist Guillen was an Army Specialist stationed in Fort Hood, Texas, who was reported missing after failing to report for duty on April 22, 2020. On June 30th of, 2020, her remains were discovered, and an investigation determined that she had been murdered and dismembered by another soldier from her base.
She, too, had revealed to her family that she had been dealing with sexual harassment and was hesitant to report it. Her story brought light to sexual harassment and assault in the military and how it is often addressed inadequately, if addressed at all. Furthermore, it brought to light that when the military completes an internal investigation, there is the possibility that biases prevent appropriate actions from being taken. The Army should investigate sexual assaults because it is important to hold perpetrators accountable and provide justice for victims. However, the Army should also ensure that any investigations are conducted fairly and transparently with appropriate due process protections for both the accuser and accused. Honestly, in my opinion, the Army should consider including an independent third party to oversee or review any investigation into allegations of sexual assault to ensure impartiality and fairness. This allegedly is something that would change, but when you examine Specialist Montgomery’s case, you have to wonder if her case is even being taken seriously or if the hope is that her family will give up and go away. Military investigators can forget about it completely. The individuals who allegedly assaulted her still perform their duties as if nothing happened, which further makes this case questionable.
Moving on to Private First Class LaVena Johnson, who was sexually assaulted by two of her superiors while deployed to Iraq. She died in Balad, Iraq, on July 19, 2005. The Department of Defense ruled her death as a suicide. An autopsy report found evidence that she had been beaten and had chemical burns on her genitals, leading her family to believe that she had also been sexually assaulted and that the burns were an attempt to destroy DNA evidence.
Thirteen years after her death, in October 2018, the Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) announced that it had re-opened its investigation into her death in 2006 at Balad Air Base in Iraq. At this time, no suspects have been identified in Lavena Johnson’s death. The Army is still investigating her death and has yet to name any suspects.
The reality of military sexual assault is that justice for survivors is often elusive. Despite the progress made in recent years, the system remains broken and ill-equipped to protect victims from further trauma and ensure accountability for perpetrators. Women who have suffered such a violation deserve better than what they are currently receiving; it’s time for real reform in how these cases are handled so that women can receive justice and begin to heal from their experiences. This is a systemic issue; these families also deserve answers.
Jamie is a former addiction counselor who now writes fiction about substance abuse and mental health issues. She has authored two short novels in her Memoirs of a Black Sheep series and a series she co-authors, The Borderline Chronicles, on Amazon Kindle Vella. Jamie has also formed her own small publishing company, Flawed By Design Publishing LLC, where she produces her published works and offers other writing and media services.
Flawed by Design is a woman-owned, veteran-owned business for those who seek a writing coach, editor, or proofreader.