When I heard that Netroots for the Troop was hosting a panel discussion on Military Sexual Trauma (MST), I thought, "Sounds like a topic we need to learn more about" but realized how little I knew about it myself. That might surprise you, military wife that I am. I know women who have experienced MST but I didn't realize that it had a name... I just knew that they had been sexually harassed, at the very least, and sexually assaulted, at worst. I decided that I needed to do some homework. I wanted to be well prepared before I went to the panel discussion so that I could ask intelligent questions.
My first stop was the Department of Veteran Affairs. I wanted to know if the issue was even on their radar. Good news - it is. And they gave me some basics that are good for all of us to know.
MST is defined by U.S. Code (1720D of Title 38). The VA takes it a step further and takes that legal language and translates it so that there are no questions as to what constitutes MST:
In more concrete terms, MST includes any sexual activity where you are involved against your will. You may have been pressured into sexual activities. For example, you may have been threatened with negative consequences for refusing to go along. It may have been implied that you would get faster promotions or better treatment in exchange for sex. You may not have been able to consent to sexual activities, for example, if you were intoxicated. You may have been physically forced into sexual activities. Other MST experiences include:
- Unwanted sexual touching or grabbing
- Threatening, offensive remarks about your body or your sexual activities
- Threatening and unwelcome sexual advances
If these experiences occurred while you were on active duty or active duty for training, they are considered to be MST.
Do you notice something strange? The word rape never appears. The phrase sexual assault never appears. It's as if they don't want us to think of illegal acts. They don't want us to wonder about a perpetrator. They don't want us to ask the hard questions - WHO did this and WHY haven't they been held accountable?
This was enough info for me to realize I had lots of questions and I decided that this panel needs a wide audience so I decided to live-blog. Join me in the extended diary for the liveblog and feel free to jump into the comments. If you have a question for the panel, I will do my best to get it asked in real time!
12:02 PM PT: Getting ready to begin. Joan Brooker, Elizabeth Stinson, and Ann Wright are sitting on the panel. I'll grab their bios for you in a minute.
12:04 PM PT: Joan Booker: Jane Harman testified before committee - a woman who signs up to protect her country is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by the enemy.
12:08 PM PT: Introducing both Elizabeth Stinson and Ann Wright. Check out Joan's earlier diary http://www.dailykos.com/...
12:09 PM PT: Tia Christopher will be joining us via Skype. She is an MST survivor who has written a book, Stronger than You Think You Are. Recipient of 2010 Returning Veterans to Resiliency Award.
12:11 PM PT: Elizabeth Stinson -
MST is Sexual Assault and/or harrassment in a US military setting. Either the victim or the perpetrator can be a member of the military. Often both are members of the military.
Assumption in the military is to treat this like domestic violence. It is wrong, especially when dealing with deployment. It becomes more of a hostage situation.
12:15 PM PT: Elizabeth Stinson -
Working on this for 12 years, this issue is like pushing a giant ball of wet cement up a big hill.
Long hard struggle that isn't over by any means. 1 in 3 women is sexually harrassed or assaulted. Harrassment leads to assault. 1 in 5 men are victims of MST.
12:16 PM PT: Elizabeth Stinson - Two options to report - restricted and unrestricted. Restricted reports limit the amount of people you can tell and it includes the person you first report to. You therapist is not someone who you can talk to and build an alliance with because not everyone out there understands the depth of trauma to both men and women who are sexually assaulted in the military.
12:17 PM PT: Joined by Tia - and then lost the connection. We're redialing and carrying on as best we can.
12:19 PM PT: Question from audience about restricted and unrestricted.
The military didn't start tracking MST until 1989. Pressure during the 90s when they established SAPRO. (see Joan Brookers diary earlier today).
Unrestricted report, your command can investigate but often the investigation is of the victim.
12:20 PM PT: Tia is back - and lost. (internet has not been great here at NN12)
12:22 PM PT: Elizabeth -
If any alcohol is involved at all, the investigation is thrown out. There has been a climate of blaming the victim.
Case of a series of male on male sexual assaults (the last three years) and all these guys are telling the same story.
12:23 PM PT: Tia is back -
How did I get into this work? I guess I started in 2006 working with veterans. I noticed that there wasn't a lot of people talking about MST who are survivors. There are a lot of gaps in services for folks coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.
12:24 PM PT: I got out of the military 4 days before 9/11. It was also interesting as an MST survivor because there wasn't a SAPRO program yet. I was in the Navy, BTW.
I was receiving therapy. I was in a really different place than I am now as far as my healing.
12:24 PM PT: If you're going to be a survivor that talks you have to know where you're coming from. An angry place.... and is it good for you.
12:25 PM PT: When I was doing MST stuff full time, my drinking got really bad. I selectively do stuff now a days but I have to check myself and be sensitive to that.
12:26 PM PT: Elizabeth - tell us the response of the Navy when you reported.
Tia - The Invisible War interview was at a conference in San Diego. She likes me to talk about masking and how I'm a good example of that (her hair has changed since the movie).
12:27 PM PT: I'm 30 know. I got out of the military in 2001. I was only in a year because of my MST. I was very gung ho. I loved boot camp. I got in shape. I thought it was cool that guys and girls had the same uniform. I cut of all my hair....
I was very naive.... I also thought that no meant no.
12:28 PM PT: I joined to be an Arabic Linguist. I chose Arabic, pre 9/11; I didn't think I'd need job secruity.
It was during training for Arabic that I was raped in my barracks rooms. I heard stories of guys and girls that report. It was a career ender. I also didn't want to tell my parents I wasn't a virgin anymore.
12:29 PM PT: I confided in a friend and she told me not to tell anybody.
I bleached my sheets (lost connection)
12:30 PM PT: Question from Audience. Can someone explain SAPRO.
Joan - it was the military's way of addressing a need. The unrestricted is really, really bad. You can report your rape but nothing happens to your perpetrator.
The miltiary talks as if SAPRO is the answer to the problem and it's not.
12:32 PM PT: It's one of the reason that SWAN filed a lawsuit against Rumsfeld.
Subsequently the lawsuit has been denied but they are putting a new suit forward.
Civilian oversight committee to look at some of these cases. Someone to see their own bad deeds.
12:34 PM PT: Elizabeth -
Panetta saw himself in the movie and kept talking about 0 tolerance but nothing was changing. When he saw himself he made the ruling that it was going to be handled by a higher command and established a victims unit to handle hate crimes. We're pretty sure that some of the deaths have been cases where rape was involved and may have been hate crimes.
12:35 PM PT: 2010 - more than 50 are raped on a daily basis (did I mishear that)
We're dealing with a closed system and if we can shine a light on this we can push this open.
...
We really need to pay attention to what it means to be a family member of these victims as well.
12:37 PM PT: Joan reporting numbers
2010 - annual report - 3100 cases of sexual assault reported
Out of those rapes only 529 were convicted; 41% had the charges dismissed;
8% of sexual assaults are prosectued. Compared to civilians at 41%
12:39 PM PT: Ann -
Having been in the miltiary for 29 years, I think it is outrageous that they're not prosecuting criminal acts.
It harms not only the victims but the institution itself.
We're trying to put pressure on our own military to fix this. Military is supposed to violence on command, state sponsored violence when civilian command tells us to do so. It's not to be violent to each other.
12:40 PM PT: The secretary of defense says there is 0 tolerance we know that there is 99% tolerance.
People laugh at it.
12:43 PM PT: Joan - Hannah Gunther McKinney at Camp Taji. She was at a guard station. We don't know if she went with her sergeant voluntarily or was coerced. Nonetheless, there was alcohol involved, she left her post, they were in the humvee, there was sex involved but we don't know if it was consensual because she is dead. It was assault because he was a commanding officer.
12:44 PM PT: He heard a bump or a thump and she disappeared out of the humvee and he didn't notice. A group of cars came upon her in the road. She was still alive, spleen broken, brutalized. She subsequentially died.
He was charged with some vehicular
30 days in the brig
He is alive today and posts regularly on Facebook (question as to who he is and we won't share that in this forum)
12:46 PM PT: Elizabeth - we're working on cases where the evidence has disappeared.
Advising that we get civilian assessment, civilian evidence.
I have been asked by JAG officers to testify on a case because they think that their client committed the crime in a disassociated state.
I'm giving testimony at court martials via SKYPE in places like Kuwait.
12:47 PM PT: (a lot of missed text... sorry but fingers needed a break)
Elizabeth - If the person is unable to imagine their emotions (victim), then she gets the call.
12:49 PM PT: Question from audience: I just don't understand how Adm. Mullen... he was challenged by people talking about sexual trauma at USC and he appeared concerned... if nothing else the PR aspect of this. My father was a COL in the AF. When you get a command you follow the command. Why isn't it enforced. The PR given Tailhook... why would women want to join?
12:50 PM PT: Joan - the information isn't out there. Every step forward we get a couple backward.
commenter - What has happened to the institution?
Anne - integrity, honesty gets thrown out the window if you're a woman who is sexually assaulted.
12:52 PM PT: Ann - strange bedfellows - comics by Gary Trudeaux. He started writing about this after a case he heard about Susan while she was deployed overseas.
With the Invisible War, he is starting a second series on MST.
Rape in the military is not stopping because the climate encourages it, almost rewards it.
Case thrown out.
12:53 PM PT: The prestige barracks in Washington DC there are rapes of Marine women and civlians at that base.
12:54 PM PT: Comment from Audience - the decision is made by the company commander. I was a company commander at 24. It was my decision.
The perpetrator may be the company commander.
There are predators in the military. His buddy may not recognize that his buddy is a predator and he may be his commander.
It's not horrible people allowing this. The system is tailor made for predators.
12:59 PM PT: Question - What happens to the honor and ethics code? When is it ignored and what has been done to fix it at those times.
Ann - refusal to hold accountable people who commit atrocities overseas. When we do have massacres we generally don't hold anyone accountable.
12:59 PM PT: Elizabeth - I've worked on over 7000 mil. discharges. About 3000 were MST cases. I would say in many instances there were people within the command structure and they would be checking on her person to see if she was safe and had breakfast. I've met some of the most amazing people helping. Some of the best people I've worked with in the military system.
1:00 PM PT: Comment from audience about an article on women and urinary tract infections while deployed. They refused to use the bathrooms at night for fear of being assaulted.
There has to be greater awareness about this.
1:02 PM PT: Joan - this is really important because these people are coming home, it isn't a war issue, they are going to be coming home and it will be a public health concern.
1:03 PM PT: Elizabeth - there are these different levels of abuse that they have to recover from, both sexes.
ITAP - internation because we get calls from all over the world where they are stationed. We interview people via SKYPE. Many of these people already have a plan to end their agony and we have to work quickly to find them support where they are. We want to make sure that they aren't at a high level of risk.
1:05 PM PT: Elizabeth - what we need to do as a culture as look at this with compassion. I was director of peace and justice center in CA, my board of directors said we will never again will hire someone who thinks peace work is getting people out of the military.
1:06 PM PT: (My battery is about to die so if this ends suddenly, I apologize)
We have to educate ourselves and our communities about the culture.
1:07 PM PT: Question about differences between services:
Air Force 1 in 5. They were in denial for a long time.
Across the board it's pretty much the same. All services have an issue.
1:09 PM PT: Ann - 3000 in 2010 and 40 commands chose to do nothing.
1:11 PM PT: Question - How can we tie this into legislation currently in Congress, especially
Ann -
Congressman Jackie Spear - 20 weeks in a row she has made statements about this on the floor.
1:11 PM PT: Changes are coming out of the Congress rather than the military. Congress is forcing the military to do things they wouldn't do before. Asking your congressman to join the military women's caucus. There is a sexual assault caucus that has been formed.
1:12 PM PT: Quick word from staff of The Invisible War - please check out the website (I will be blogging about it in the next few days)
1:13 PM PT: Thanks for hanging in there with me. this shouldn't be considered a transcript as I'm typing on the fly but this work is as true to the words spoken as a typist can manage. Please keep your eyes open for more about this topic and please call your congressman and ask what he or she is doing to help.