Rape in the Military - A Women's Issue or A Man's Issue?

By: Jack Dalton

Like most people in this country, men especially, I viewed rape, sexual assaults and acts against women as primarily a "women's" issue; at least until last August. But then I had as much knowledge about this as most others, especially men, and that was nothing past headlines and the occasional broadcast T.V. stories. All of that changed starting last August; and since then I have been on one of the biggest learning experiences of my entire life.

That learning experience started last August when I meet Jennifer Dyer, who at the time was a 1st LT in the New Jersey National Guard. On the 8th of that month, while undergoing pre-Iraq deployment training at Camp Shelby, MS, she was raped by another "officer" who now faces a General Courts Martial on multiple charges. The full story about this is archived here, http://oldamericancentury.org/jennifer.htm.

It was not until getting so heavily involved with Jennifer and her husband Edward, who is a 20 year veteran of the police in New Jersey where they live, did I even begin to understand how devastating rape is to the women who are victims of this crime of violence by men. Like a lot of other men - most actually - when I heard of another women being raped I pretty much said, "that's not right, poor woman" and then went about my daily life with no more thought about what was just read than "what will I have for supper tonight."

"What's the big deal?" would run through my mind; "women get "screwed" every day and no one has died yet" would also bounce around in my head. But, the more I got to know Jennifer, the more I started seriously looking into the entire issue of rape in the military; the more I learned the more I wrote and the more I wrote the more letters I received from other women who had been raped while on active duty in the military. They all had the very same thing in common other than they had been raped - each and every one of them after reporting they had been raped - were further victimized, as the military started criminalizing them, the victim.

Every woman that has written me since the first article on Jennifer was published have all told me the very same thing: the rape was not the worst of what they had to go through; the worst treatment they all had to endure was what the military did to each and every one of them after reporting the rape. From the over three hundred, 300, women that have written me behind the articles I wrote on Jennifer, what she was facing and being put through at the hands of the U.S. Army, I learned, and what I learned was not nice to say the very least.

I learned of women whose careers were completely destroyed by a military that could care less about what happens to its women in uniform. I learned of a military that rarely ever prosecutes those guilty of rape as the military is more interested in "protecting" its name than protecting the women in uniform. I learned that as a matter of policy, the military views rape as "an incident of military service." I learned that the vast majority of those standing accused of rape are transferred to another base or are promoted and then transferred. I learned that these women are victimized by military men and then further victimized by the very military they serve and not enough seem to care. If they did this could be brought to an end.

As it is, in the past 16 years there have been 18 "major investigations" about the very real systemic problem of rape in the military by men in uniform. There has been a lot of talk, a lot of "feigned" outrage, a lot of political speeches, a lot of "new" rules & regulations put into place; but behind it all one thing remains a constant - nothing has changed - and that is the biggest outrage of all!

I could very easily throw out a massive amount of statistics about this, but it’s all in the public domain and very easily accessed by any and all who wish to see for themselves how rampant is the problem of rape by men in uniform. One of the big problems as I see it, is simply this, most people do not want to know and if they do, don't want to openly address this very real problem so they just grumble about it in the comfort of their homes.

Growing incidents of rape were part of what got the U.S. bases closed in the Philippines - people got fed up with seeing their young daughters turned into prostitutes by our men in uniform; they got tired of seeing their young daughters being raped by men in uniform; they got tired of seeing their daughters beaten and murdered by men in uniform.

The same thing has been taking place in South Korea where rape has been rampant and Okinawa, where not only has rape been rampant but also murder of women after being raped. The command and control of the U.S. military has not done anything to address that, just as it has done nothing to stop this country's women in uniform from likewise being abused, beaten and raped by men wearing the very same uniform of the very same nation.

Just today, on the "news" is the report of a woman that was in U.S. custody in Iraq who was raped (there are many reported cases of this in Iraq of women "detainees"). In fact, according to a recent AP release, over 300 women in the U.S. military serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Bahrain have reported being raped by men in the same military. Good grief, the poor women are in a war zone and now they must also have to view everyone as a potential enemy, especially men wearing the same uniform. What is wrong with that picture?

If you want to see some facts and statistics that are indicative of how bad this problem of rape in our military is, how extensive it is, how completely outrageous it is, and how little is being done by the military to stop it, take a look at the information provided by The Miles Foundation http://hometown.aol.com/milesfdn/myhomepage. If you can read this and not be willing to join in demanding that this be addressed, and in real terms, something is very, very wrong.

Last October, after contacting a lot of media behind the second article on the plight of Jennifer, Janice Tomlin of 60 Minutes got in touch with me asking if I could get her in contact with Jennifer and her attorney, Fred Klepp (it was a friend in Italy, Ani, owner, editor and publisher of Online Writers Against War http://www.writers-against-war.org/public/contents.html who helped me find an attorney for Jennifer and that was Fred Klepp). As I was saying, Janice was put in contact with Jennifer and her husband who some days later informed me that Janice was coming to see them and to start filming for a 60 Minutes broadcast.

We were all hoping it would be broadcast around last December but it did not work out that way. But then that was me and my impatience, which I never failed to inform Janice about. That said, when it finally did air this past Sunday, February 19th, it was actually better than what I thought it was going to be. Hey Janice, you did good!

I bring this up for multiple reasons not the least of which is that a lot more of this need to be done and a lot more often. There are almost no broadcasters that are taking on the systemic problem of rape by men in uniform on women in uniform other than what CBS and Janice at 60 Minutes has done. One of the striking things that was brought out, was the fact that when Janice and the 60 Minutes crew called the Department of Defense and Pentagon for their comments about this, none of them were willing to be interviewed - why does that not surprise me?

What happened to Jennifer Dyer was as wrong as wrong can be, as it is for all the women who have gone thru the same thing. What she had to endure after reporting the rape was in some ways, even worse than the rape. Jennifer, like so many other women, was the victim of a violent crime. She should have been treated as the victim she was by the Army. Instead, like the other women victims of rape, was treated as if she were the criminal.

That made it necessary for her, the victim of a violent crime, to hire an attorney in her attempt to get any semblance of justice or fair treatment from the Army whose uniform she wore. Jennifer, the victim of a violent crime, had to put all of this before the public and embarrass the Army in order to get justice; more embarrassment for her - I mean look at it from Jennifer’s side, would you want to splash something like this all over the world for everyone to know? I know I wouldn't.

She, the victim of a violet crime, due to the Army's unwillingness to do what was right, is now faced with a very large bill for legal services; which by the way are still on going and will be until the accused rapist, 1st LT Michael Hall has his day in court, which is coming up real soon. When I last spoke with Jennifer's husband Ed, he told me that Mike Hall's attorneys told him that Hall was willing to leave the Army with an other than honorable discharge if Jennifer would request the charges against him be dropped - you figure it out from there. Jennifer's reply, "Forget it, put him on trial."

The way I see it now, as opposed to prior to last August, rape, whether in the military or civilian, is not a "women's issue" as it is commonly referred to; it is a "man's issue" as the rapes are committed by men upon women - that makes it by definition a man's problem and issue. And make no mistake about it; rape is an act of violence, period, end of story!

As a side note; anyone that would like to help her with the mounting legal fees may do so at a fund POAC set up for her sometime back by going here: http://oldamericancentury.org/jennifer.htm, or by writing her attorney Fred Klepp direct at [email protected]

For more information and what you may do to help end this see:
The Miles Foundation

The Feminists Peace Network

Jack Dalton is a disabled Vietnam veteran and co-editor of the Project for the Old American Century and can be reached thru there.