'I truly believe that he would have killed me.' Why three women did not report their military...

Not only is there a statue of limitations, commanders can essentially pardon a soldier during trial if they deem them "critical to the mission" (IE well connected).

I guess the way I look at this is very pragmatically. While it is an unfortunate tragedy that a victim never got to have justice against their accuser, no statute of limitations leaves room for abuse and false accusations. Let's say you are married at the time you enter the service. You do 20 to 25 years and retire. Shortly after you and your wife decide its over. She now wants to take you to the bank in a nasty divorce proceeding. She learns from her attorney that if you committed anything that could be sexual assault or rape that they can make the accusation. You can get pulled onto active duty and tried by court martial. Its your word against hers. That is the only evidence. If she wins you get dismissed if you're an officer or a DD if you are enlisted. You will spend 5 to 10 years behind bars. Guess what she gets? She will get your entire retirement check for the rest of her natural life. What do you get? You get put on the streets, hopefully you can land a job making minimum wage while you have no VA benefits no support structure and you are tossed like a pile of garbage, just biding your time until your death. Lets say you get off the sex assault or rape charges. They have missile lock and they will not back down. They will find something you may have done in your past of a lesser charge to still nail you with. I know one person this happened to. Its a real possibility.

My thought is that there should be a reasonable statute of limitations that can ensure the rights of both parties are upheld. Will it be perfect? No there never will be. It would at least secure rights of the accuser while being reasonable for the accused.

I think UCMJ is a joke. Not because of the rules themselves, but because of how they are enforced. The military doesnt want to waste time, space , and money on an inmate so sentences are a farce. This is why Congress was thinking about taking punishment authority away from commanders for sexual harrassment/ assault.