Have you attended the DOD sexual harassment class?

Back when men were men and the sheep were scared, I was a short-timer Sergeant in Japan. At four days and a wake-up--one day before I was scheduled to begin checking out--I was told to teach the sexual harassment class.

I started with "Sexual harassment will not be tolerated in this command. It will, however, be graded."

And it went downhill from there.

Ma'am, NCIS is a great show, and I enjoyed the video. DOD sexual harassment classes were after my time. Before I retired from my civilian career, we had annual classes that were always presented by someone from HR. They were as interesting as watching syrup pour from a bottle. Attendance was mandatory.

I was the EO Sexual Harassment NCO for HHC 3rd Brigade 4th ID from January 93- August 94. We only had 2 females in our entire Brigade. They both worked in the Brigade Headquarters in S-2. I tried to make the classes as exciting as I could. I would let the 2 Lieutenants do the harassing of the guys. They were willing volunteers. Best classes ever done. The Brigade Commander was laughing his butt off.

CPT (Join to see) Having spent most of time in the Special Forces community, that seems a very accurate portrayal of exactly how those briefings went.

I taught the class to a Seabee detachment. All males with the exception of two female E-3s. Within a very short period both females were being counseled for sexual comments they had made. Their defense: Sexual harassment only applies to males. Needless to say, the counseling session became somewhat intense. Master Chief got involved and they soon found that a PO'd MCPO isn't interested in your opinion of sexual harassment male vs female.

I have attended SHARP classes where the information was the same from two classes before that. That is a waste of time to show the same thing over and over. It has become check the block.

The only bad thing about the sexual harassment briefings is that it happens so often. In anyone's honest opinion, do you think it is such a big issue due to the growing number of offensive things in the united states that people are hurt by?

The DoD contracted SHARP training was pretty staid but they were all worried about their gravy train. The products were open for briefers to make it more interactive to drive the points home. Without that freedom and the modern (although the acting was still amateurish) videos, it would be a miserable 2-3 hours. I was the Brigade SHARP and the D-SARC on my last deployment. It's flabbergasting to conduct this training only to have some O-6 say it was a great presentation but that he doesn't see why it's required.

Each class we attended left my Airmen more confused than before. They would come up to me with more and more questions that I could not answer with 100% accuracy. So, I always gave them what has kept me out of trouble.

I did 3 in one month because the female E-4 that the married PTL SGT was banging kept telling him people were hitting on her. We weren't. It finally took somebody going to the guy and telling him the next EOC brief would lead to a IG complaint. They stopped and he transferred soon after that.