What should be done to stop Sexual Assault and Harassment in the military?

2021-02-24T14:52:18-05:00

We've all seen it. It seems to me that Sexual Assault and Harassment in the military is only getting worse, not better. The recent viral video by a Marine Sergeant who was sexually assaulted and currently are allowing the perpetrator to remain in the Marines. I think if we want to get serious about this issue, all perpetrators who have been proven to have committed sexual assault or harassment regardless of what their rank or position is, should be demoted to E-1, receive a dishonorable discharge or be dismissed and thrown in jail. It should be the same punishment for all. I have seen officers and enlisted commit the same crime, but the enlisted is dishonorably discharged and put in jail while the officer got to retire or got a slap on the wrist. What are your thoughts? SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SFC James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" LTC Stephen F. CPL Dave Hoover SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth SSG Private RallyPoint Member Capt Dwayne Conyers CPT Jack Durish MSG Private RallyPoint Member

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 24 at 2021 3:14 PM

2021-02-24T15:14:19-05:00

I don't think it is necessarily getting worse but we are now identifying the issues that have been swept under the rug. It is absurd to me that a commander would let this happen. But be cautious of what you read and hear. Everyone is entitled to have a review of the case. The Marine was not referencing an assault.

Officials with II Marine Expeditionary Force provided few details about the case, saying only that the video "refers to an allegation of misconduct regarding the wrongful appropriation and distribution of personal information."

From what I understand the assailant received photos that were sexual in nature and shared them. I have read various reports on how he come into obtaining them. He is guilty of it and he admitted that. He should be punished for his actions.

We need a systematic approach on how we stop these incidents from happening. If he hacked her phone or if another Marine gave them to him then they should be held accountable. It is a cultural issue that we have to address. Just by punishing one person at a time we will not win this. It wasn't long ago when the Marines were caught with FB groups sharing pictures and information about females. The culture is still around and she was the latest victim. We need to teach the force what is acceptable to start correcting the problem.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 24 at 2021 3:36 PM

2021-02-24T15:36:12-05:00

I can't say that it's getting worse, just more notice. Imagine a the sexual assaults that went unreported 30 years ago. I don't think I could count that high. Victims are now starting to get empowered to report these heinous acts more frequently. As well they should.

Response by CW3 Kevin Storm made Feb 24 at 2021 5:14 PM

2021-02-24T17:14:04-05:00

Gender neutral drones and droids come to mind. After that it becomes a lot harder. People will for what ever reason act upon actions that they should know better to do. Yet they do it just the same.

Response by SFC Casey O'Mally made Feb 24 at 2021 6:13 PM

2021-02-24T18:13:48-05:00

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The second half of this post contains discussion of specific examples of sexual assault and harassment which some may find upsetting. If you may be triggered by such, please do not read past the second trigger warning "banner"
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This seems to be a topic of interest on RP lately. I have seen approximately 5 similar posts in the last week.

I will provide the same answer I have provided elsewhere. It starts with Respect. Soldiers (Zoomies, Squids, Guardians of the Galaxy, Marines) who respect others do NOT intentionally commit these acts. It is IMPOSSIBLE to respect another individual whilst passing around dirty pictures of them. It is IMPOSSIBLE to respect someone while continuing to do unwanted acts to them, whether those are sexual or not. Etc.

The problem that I saw before I retired, (and this is Army specific, because although I did interact with the other services, it was not on a frequent or intense enough level to feel justified in evaluating their aptitudes or attitudes) is that leadership does not do a good job of modeling the Army values. I honestly mean ALL of the Army values, but as it is the one most relevant here, I will discuss Respect, specifically.
Yes, a COL ABSOLUTELY outranks a SGT. But how often do you see COLs (or LTCs, LTs, SGMs, etc.) completely disrespect a SGT? For no real reason, either (not talking about a well-deserved ass-chewing). How often do you see a MAJ treat a PFC as if they were invisible? That PFC isn't worth the MAJ's time. Hell, how often do you see SFCs talking shit about other SFCs behind their back? (Or LTs, or - holy hell is it bad with Staff CPTs). We just don't do a good job of modeling respect down or across. We demand respect going up, but treat respect going DOWN as an afterthought, if we think about it at all. And respect for our peers is generally treated as a "when applicable" situation. Soldiers learn by example that as they get rank, they no longer have to respect others - to include their peers.

I do not have statistics, but I would be willing to bet dollars to donuts that less than 5% of these cases involve a perpetrator that is junior to the victim. Probably less than 2%, but I'll play it safe with 5. Because Soldiers learn that they don't have to respect other Soldiers who are equal to or "below" them. And if a Soldier doesn't have to respect someone, then it becomes infinitely easier to abuse them and/or abuse their trust.

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Specific types and acts of Sexual assault and harassment are discussed below.
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While I understand and appreciate your sentiment, SSG(P) Private RallyPoint Member, not all crimes are created equal.
Can a "good game" be sexual assault? Yes, yes it can! Is it worthy of reduction to E1 and dishonorable discharge? Probably not. Unless it is a serial thing and been asked to stop on multiple occasions. Probably then.
Can telling a sexual joke be sexual harassment? Yes, yes it can! Is THAT worthy of reduction to E1 and dishonorable discharge? Again, probably not. Probably not even for serial offenders. Field Grade Article 15, sure. And THEN move to court martial if it continues (or, more likely, a chapter packet).
Now on the flip side, you have things like rape or digital sodomy (in the assault category), and you have things like taking nude photos of folks without their permission (in the harassment category). Those are worthy (IMHO) of reduction and discharge. Probably even some time in Leavenworth for the assault cases.
Again, not all crimes are committed equal. I think we would all agree, if we allow ourselves to think rationally rather than reactively or emotionally, that most offenses have levels of severity - robbing a bank is worse than stealing a candy bar, even though both are theft. If we say that all sexual assaults and harassments are equal, this does two things.
First, it removes any human element from decision making in the punishment process. Some would argue that this is a good thing. I disagree. I believe that intent matters, and that patterns of misconduct matter, and that extenuating or mitigating circumstances matter.
Second, it creates a perverse incentive. The whole "in for a penny, in for a pound" idea. Suppose I commit a small, but very real error in judgment and sexually harass a coworker by posting a swimsuit calendar in my cubicle in public view. My coworker complains to the SHARP person, and I realize that I am dead-to-rights guilty. I KNOW I am heading out of the Army dishonorably as an E1. I also know that if I decide to corner that coworker and grope her relentlessly, I will receive the EXACT SAME punishment. If I were a person of low moral character, what prevents me from committing as many acts as I feel like prior to actually leaving the military? I am not saying that will become COMMONPLACE by any stretch. But the perverse incentive will EXIST, and I, for one, think that it should be avoided.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 24 at 2021 6:43 PM

2021-02-24T18:43:22-05:00

For Clarification charges in the case that were on tiktok were wrongful possession and distribution of personal information. The perpetrator was NJP'd and sent to an administrative separation board as required due to time in service. While it is important that sexual misconduct be dealt with justly for those involved it is also important to understand the circumstances of individual referenced instances. The offender in this case betrayed the trust of his Marine and his position as a uniform victims advocate and should have been discharged.

Response by SGM Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 24 at 2021 8:15 PM

2021-02-24T20:15:27-05:00

Assault or harassments of any kind is a mindset; the DOD spends millions of dollars on adds and thousands of hours training Soldiers what it looks like and what is not acceptable. However, we still in DOD have violation after violation. Values and morale's tend to fade in a society in which its own government makes excuses for its actions under the word politics. When accountability at the highest levels is like seeing through a fog this begins to trickle down and negatively affect generations after generations. What we have is a belief system that has been tainted by others getting away with doing wrong. Why do Soldiers do what they do; if you ask this question you will discover it is behind something they believe to be true, this may not be based on any real evidence to the contrary, but they believe it anyway. If a Soldier assaults' another Soldier what is it that they believe about that action make it right in their mind to do. We as leaders need to start looking at how our Soldiers in our ranks believe. We need to take time out to ask the hard questions during initial and progress counseling's. Over my career, when choosing leadership positions, I dove into that belief system with scenario questions that challenged what they believed; to my surprise many senior level NCOs had a negative belief system that had to change. Soldiers or people in general act on what they believe to be true, that does not mean that it is good for our organizations. Soldiers come from all walks of life and family experiences. Here is one example when I was a 1SG. I left a E-7 in charge while I deployed for a whole year. This E-7 was outstanding, forecasted missions, new exactly what to do and lead...when I was around. What I did not know about his belief system though came back to haunt me when I got back. He grew up in a tight net family where sharing women was normal, sex was loose and often had relationships on the side. He was married, but we never really ask if the spouse was aware what was found out in the investigation. For a whole year this PSG was intimidating through cell phone texts, email, and phone calls the female Soldiers in his platoon to go out in the evening and party leading to naked pictures of the girls and eventually assault. You see when the commander and I got back from deployment, two of the girls came to my office and cried their eyes out about what was going on....the investigation started with the SARC at that point. I talked to the PSG for a while about the alleged incidents and I could tell I was not getting through to this person, his belief system was getting in the way. By the time I realized I was getting no where and he was in denial of pictures taken, texts, emails etc. WOW, I had put someone in charge that betrayed me, the Soldiers, and The US Army, how could have this happened. We found out along the way that this PSG had been manipulating 2 female Soldiers to do his bidding for him gathering pictures or video. Lesson learned....do not assume based on rank, position, or age that you have the right person to lead Soldiers. Find out what they believe about harassment or assault and why. Most importantly know their definition of assault or harassments, not the military's. Remember to keep our troops safe we need to know what they believe, not what they have been shown or taught by our organization, after all DOD requires us all to participate in SHARP training every year and the infractions keep rising so it is not what we teach that is not working, it is what they believe that we teach that matters.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 24 at 2021 11:06 PM

2021-02-24T23:06:57-05:00

Working with JAG, EO, and SHARP staff there may be a change in perception that appears to be more assaults. It's quite possible that what we're seeing is an uptick in reporting due to trust in the program.

Essentially what I'm saying is that the numbers never really changed, the assaults were always happening, we just have a better eye on it now due to a change in trust.

I have seen these kinds of cases have Soldiers administratively separated and processed for courts-martial. People are getting punished and removed from the armed forces over these events, but there is a question of transparency. Are units posting justice reports from JAG in visible areas? Are Soldiers aware of these justice reports? There is a perception that the higher the rank the more it's likely to get swept under the rug, so it's important for younger Soldiers to see these reports so they know there are consequences.

When I worked with a unit out of the 101st the command team posted justice reports to their social media page for full transparency in addition to sending them to down trace units. Initially these reports were only article 15's but then they began posting reprimands and court-martial cases once completed. These reports would announce the rank of the Soldier involved but not their name, what they were in violation of, and what action was taken against them. I noticed that especially the lower enlisted and junior officers would read them regularly in areas where they were posted, especially when you start seeing E7 - E9 and O3 - O6 start getting punished.

That said the increased visibility and increased trust in reporting shouldn't meant we're done exploring solutions. I can tell you though that more PowerPoint slides isn't going to help any. They're boring and people don't retain a lot of information in them. Presentation is important, if the speaker is just regurgitating the information on the slides then it's going to be ignored or forgotten quickly.

Response by SFC Randy Hellenbrand made Feb 25 at 2021 4:17 PM

2021-02-25T16:17:40-05:00

Never stand for it if you know about it. Your honor is on the line as well as your loyalty (keeping the faith) to the person being wronged. You have no loyalty to those who break the rules. If your chain of command doesn't do something immediately, (or fails in it's obligation) go to the chaplin. AND, there is always SMA Grinston. Remember, we keep the faith with our fellow soldiers who don't break the rules. I also saw the marine vid. Sickening.

Response by SGT Chris Stephens made Feb 25 at 2021 8:38 PM

2021-02-25T20:38:53-05:00

Hold senior enlisted and officers to the same standards that we hold junior officers and enlisted. How many people in senior positions are allowed to just retire or have it swept under the rug compared to how many junior enlisted are kicked out for the same thing?

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Feb 26 at 2021 5:05 PM

2021-02-26T17:05:10-05:00

Not all crimes can be prevented. There are some people willing to take a chance they will not be caught.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 19 at 2021 10:21 PM

2021-03-19T22:21:51-04:00

Regulations and words are wonderful but the inside is rotten.
There's a lot of corruption among the officers and NCOS.
If you look carefully, you can see at a glance how sloppy it is.

Response by SFC Kurt Brunken made Apr 14 at 2021 2:44 PM

2021-04-14T14:44:13-04:00

There is a huge difference between assault and harassment, with different burdens of proof. The military is a highly sexual, active, young environment and a balance of healthy sexuality and esprit-de-corps needs to exist. I Would stay away from briefings and explain that A) crime=time and B) false accusations are a crime as well. For enlisted and officer ranks, in fact I would hold leadership more accountable.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 14 at 2023 10:25 PM

2023-04-14T22:25:05-04:00

Very easy. Take the Soldiers CoC out, put them against a wall and shoot them. Should solve the problem quickly.