Military Service and
Sexual Trauma
By Les Winick
The Veterans
Administration, in a recent study of women veteran patients, reported that 55%
reported some form of sexual harassment while in the service on active duty.
These are women who have gone to their local V.A. facility, after discharge,
and reported this information. The number of women who have proudly served our
country and have not reported any sexual harassment is not known. Therefore,
this 55% figure is probably much higher. There are currently 1.7 million women
veterans.
The Great Lakes VA Healthviews,
Vol. 3, Issue 2 for the Summer of 2005 headlined this story. The area covered
by this government department includes northern Illinois and Indiana, the
eastern half of Wisconsin and parts of Upper Michigan. The authors are Jill
Feldman, PhD of the Jesse Brown VAMC (Veterans Administration Medical Center);
Diane Shearod, LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) of the Hines VA Hospital,
Julie Wright, MSW (Master of Social Welfare) of the Mountain VAMC.
The sad truth is that
women who are in the military are at a very high risk of sexual assault or
harassment. Military service, whether in Iraq or at a base in the United
States, can be a dangerous workplace. And this act of violence can affect male
as well as female soldiers.
There are some members of
the military who seek medical and psychiatric help when they are the victims.
Others simply report the act to their superior officers. However, many assaults
are unreported. And the unreported ones are the sad cases since they go without
the treatment required for their recovery.
Most people, when
discharged from the armed forces, simply want to get on with their lives and do
not look for any help for a sexual trauma that happened while they were in the
service. But they have to live with the symptoms that interfere with their
health and quality of life. These symptoms may decrease and even disappear over
time, or they may get worse.
However, history has shown
that someone, who has been a victim of sexual trauma tends to develop Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a prolonged reaction to trauma. PTSD can
appear within 3 months of the event or several years later. Each case is
different.
Treatment may involve
individual counseling, group support or medicine depending on the veteranÕs
problem. The goals of the treatment are to help the veteran better understand
their reaction to the trauma, share experiences with others that have similar
problems, how to cope with painful memories, emotions and problems, how to
fight trauma-related problems such as an eating disorder, substance abuse or
depression, reduce social isolation and improve family relationships.
The seven Veterans
Administration facilities in the Great Lakes area has assigned 12 coordinators
whose sole job is to help veterans get care for sexual trauma experienced
during their military service. It is that big a problem.
Another study published in
Military Medicine, May 2004, by M. Murdoch, M.A. Polusny, J. Hodges and N.
OÕBrien reported that among women who served in the military, 69% of combat
veterans and 86.6% of noncombat veterans reported in-service or post-service
sexual assault.
The conclusion of the
authors was that these figures are considerably higher then historically
reported rates for men and women in the general population. They recommend that
clinicians should screen veterans for sexual traumas.
It is interesting that a
report issued during the Vietnam war by AG Sadler, BM Booth, BL Cook and BN
Doebbeling of the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center in July 2003, reported
that rape was reported by 30% of participants. The data also stated that
Òmilitary environmental factors were associated with increased likelihood of
rape, including sexual harassment allowed by officers, unwanted sexual advances
on duty and in sleeping quarters.
The authors wrote that
Òviolence towards military women has identifiable risk factors. Officer
leadership played an important role in the military environment and safety of
women. Assailant alcohol and/or drug abuse at time of rape was notable.Ó
An interesting survey of
women veterans taken by seven VA institutions was reported in Nov. 2004 by AG
Sadler, BM Booth, MA Mengeling and BN Doebbeling. They reported that Òrepeated
violence is a relatively common experience among women in the military, and
this has substantial implications for their healthÓ.
The 1991 Gulf War was the
first major military operation where female troops were part of almost every
military unit, except for combat ground units. H. Kang, N. Dalager and E. Ishil
in a report for the VA dated March 2005, also reported very high incidences of
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in a health survey of 30,000 Gulf War
era veterans. Their conclusion was that Òsexual trauma as well as combat
exposure appear to be strong risk factors for PTSD.Ó
Sexual assault is
considered as criminal conduct and will not be tolerated in the Department of
Defense. There is a military sexual trauma counseling service available to all
veterans. It does not matter when and where you served, or even if the assault
took place in the United States while the service person was training, there is
help available. Service members who are victims of sexual assault can get
information by calling a toll-free number, (800) 497-6261. This phone number is
staffed 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. EST, Monday thru Friday.
Public Law 102-585
authorized the VA to provide outreach and establish Military Sexual training
counseling and treatment programs for women veterans who have experienced
incidents of sexual trauma while on active duty. The situation has reached the
stage where women veterans Òneed to be informed of the availability of a Women
Veterans Outreach Coordinator at each VA regional office who can assist them
with their compensation claims.Ó
Veterans will not be billed
for inpatient, outpatient or pharmaceutical co-payments, but co-payments may be
charged for service that are non service connected conditions. It is
interesting to note that if the VA facilities are not capable of furnishing
such counseling to the veteran, then counseling will be provided with a
qualified health professional.
The Womens Program
includes the WomenÕs Primary Care Clinic, Gynecology Clinic, Reproductive
Clinic, Breast Clinic and Mental Health Services. There is also a Sexual Trauma
Treatment Center which will provide treatment for the psychological effects of
sexual trauma.
V.A. medical services for
women include hormone replacement therapy, breast and gynecological care,
maternity and limited infertility (in-vitro fertilization is excluded), acute
medical/surgical, emergency and substance abuse treatment, mental health,
rehabilitation and long term care.
Prenancy has been a Òhot
potatoÓ in the U.S. military since WW 11, and there was no clear method of how
to deal with it. For example, WomenÕs Army Corps regulations simply stated that
ÒAn enrolled woman ...will be discharged if she becomes pregnant.Ó They added
the clause that ÒPregnancy will be included on the daily sick report as
sickness Ônot in the line of duty.ÕÓ
Executive Order (EO 10240)
signed by President Harry S. Truman, gave the military services permission to
discharge a woman if she became pregnant, gave birth to a child, or became a
parent or stepparent by adoption. This was accepted as an ironclad mandate.
Military women who became pregnant were immediately discharged.
As a veteran of WW 11, I
distinctly recall being told that if a superior officer tells you to jump
through a hoop, you jump through a hoop. I served at a base hospital in Panama.
While we delivered babies for the wives of military personnel stationed in
Panama, to the best of my memory, we never had a pregnant military person in
the delivery room. In thinking back, I do not recall seeing any female military
personnel except for Army nurses. There were 82 Army nurses serving at three
Army Medical Facilities during the attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941.
The 2d District Court
ruled in 1976 that a Marine Corps regulation requiring the discharge of a
pregnant woman Marine violated the Fifth Amendment due process clause because
it established an irrefutable presumption that any pregnant woman in uniform
was permanently unfit for duty.
Faced with this decision,
women who became pregnant were permitted to remain in the military, with
maternity unforms developed by each service. Today, pregnancy in the military
is accepted and pregnant women are given the best medical care in the country.
An organization has formed
to help the women who were automatically banished from serving in the military
and were summarily discharged. The ÒFifth Amendment SistersÓ are working to
right the wrongs by trying to bring legislation to help these women. H.R. 5447
was introduced on September 24, 2002 in the Congress by Congresswoman Cynthia
McKinney of Georgia. The resolution failed to get out of the Education and
Workforce Committee and McKinney did not get reelected.
CW2 Mary V. Bender is an
interesting story. A CW2 Warrant Officer is a specialist and expert in certain
military techniques. The president commissions them to Chief Warrant Officer 2.
These commisioned warrant officers are direct representatives of the president
of the United States. They are specialists in whatever they are assigned, in
contrast to commissioned officers, who are generalists.
Bender died from Agent
Orange on Jan. 10, 2002. She served almost ten years in the Army, serving three
tours of duty in Vietnam and was injured whille interrogating a prisoner when
an explosive he had in his uniform went off. She remained on duty as an
intelligence officer until her discharge for pregnancy in 1972.
In 1968, BenderÕs actions
during the TET Offensive, kept the intelligence office in Saigon from being
overtaken by the enemy. She received a letter which reads in part, ÒYour
actions are worthy of the Silver Star but because you are woman it cannot be
given to you.Ó Her son tried to get her buried in Arlington National Cemetery,
but she was refused a plot there.
After much discussion, on
May 14, 1942, the bill to ÒEstablish a WomenÕs Army Auxiliary CorpsÓ (WAC) became
law. The Navy authorized a Womens Naval Reserve, named the WAVES, Women
Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, and the Marine Corps Womens Reserve,
known as Marines. The Coast Guard followed with SPARS, which came from the
Coast Guard motto Semper Paratus - always ready.
On Sept. 10, 1942, the
WAFS, WomenÕs Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron delivered planes from the factory to
military bases. They became known as WASPS, Womens Airforce Service Pilots on
August 5, 1943. WASPS were not eligible for military health care or life
insurance and they were uninsurable as civilians due to the dangerous nature of
their work. Male civilian pilots, doing the same work as women pilots, received
a temporary commission as Service Pilots.
By January of 1944, there
were over one hundred thousand women serving in uniform. Many Army female
personnel served throughout the world, but Navy regulations did not permit
women to serve overseas until the war was almost over. Navy nurses did serve on
board hospital ships, and in almost every overseas facility.
On Jan. 13, 1944, the
Comptroller General of the Army Air Forces ruled that, ÒThe authority in the
act of September 22, 1941, to make temporary appointments as officers in the
Army of the United States Òfrom among qualified persons refers to and
contemplates men exclusively and
may not be regarded as authority for commissioning women as officers in the
Army of the United States.Ó
NORM: men exclusively is
in italics in the original. I canÕt get it in this program.
During the WW 11 period,
over 400,000 women served their country.
In 1992 the Defense
Authorization Act repealed the long-standing exclusion law for women pilots. In
1993, President Clinton signed the military bill ending combat exclusion for
women on combatant ships. In 1994, Defense Secretary Aspin approved a new
general policy to allow Army women to serve with some ground combat units
during combat. On Dec. 5, 1998, Congress initiated an investigation in the
large number of complaints of military sexual misconduct and assaults. Former
women military personnel formed STAMP, for the Survivors Take Action against
abuse by Military personnel. They can be reached at 500 Greene Tree Place,
Fairborn, OH 45324.
8/4/05