Getting raped is part of the job description when you're a woman in the military

[Kuya]

"The worst thing for me is that you don't have to worry about the enemy, you have to worry about your own soldiers," she says.

Sitting in a circle, a group of women nod in agreement. All are veterans, most have spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they're also survivors of another war. According to the Pentagon's own research, more than 1 in 4 women who join the military will be sexually assaulted during their careers.

"I was assaulted while I was in boot camp in the Army, and I was raped when I went to the Navy," says Sabina Rangel, who is hosting the group in her living room outside El Paso, Texas.

About 19,000 sex crimes take place in the military each year, according to the Pentagon's most recent estimate. Many of the victims are male, but men in the service face the same risk of sexual assault as civilian men do. It's a different story for women. Women who join the military face a much higher risk of sexual assault than civilian women.

Spoiler: show

That isolation, and the uphill fight to even get the crime of rape reported, is what drives a high number of women like Sabina Rangel away from a planned career in the military.

The Pentagon estimates that only 14 percent of sexual assaults get reported. Many victims say their rapists outranked them, and sometimes the perpetrator was the same official they'd have to report the crime to. This was the case for Rangel.

Red tape held up Rangel's paychecks, and when she got called in to her command sergeant major's office, she thought he was going to help her solve the problem.

"He let me know that if I would meet up with him in a hotel he would give me money. And I was like, 'No, I just need my paycheck,' " she says.

But the propositions didn't stop.

Dozens of women interviewed for this story spoke about a culture where men act entitled to sex with female troops. One joked that rape is part of the job description. Rangel says she tried to avoid ever being alone with the sergeant major, but he greatly outranked her.

"Then I had a mission that I had to go on, and this command sergeant major was there," Rangel says. "He and another sergeant major outright told me that we were going to have sex."

She reported the rape to her superiors, including a female officer, and was told to keep quiet. Other officers started hinting that they knew about the rape. Another sergeant major asked her for sex.

Rangel says she was trying to fight and stay in the military. "Finally one day I thought, what am I fighting for? For these people to abuse me, to sexually assault me?" She says she knew it was time for her to leave.

She loved the work, she says, but her chief, her direct supervisor, had a combination lock on the inside of his door. She didn't understand why but didn't dare question it.

"There was no reason to have a cipher lock on the inside of the door; obviously you'd have to have a combination to open it," she says. "So any time I'd go in there for my qualifications he would lock that. And every time I needed a qualification signed off he would ask for a sexual favor."

But her troubles didn't end. Livingston was gang-raped by a group of sailors in a dark storage berth. She then decided to join the military police, in part, she says, to help other victims.

"I went to become a military police and I was raped there, too," she says, struggling to control her emotions. "But I didn't report that one. I knew the command's attitude toward rape, so I didn't say anything, and this guy was my superior and I had to work with him every day."

The "command's attitude toward rape" is why most victims don't report. They see a chain of command and a military justice system that almost never gets justice for victims, while often allowing perpetrators to stay in the service.

http://www.npr.org/2013/03/20/174756...om-male-troops

I wonder if we could compare militaries in other countries and see how often rape occurs there and see what they do differently to help with this problem.

[Kuya]

Note to self: don't let future daughters join the military.

[Moss]

Watch "The Invisible War" if you haven't

[GoggleHead]

And this has been allowed to continue in any capacity whatsoever because...why exactly?

[Dimmauk]

I hope the gays in the military will help with women not getting raped. They need fag hags, and the women need someone to cockblock horny men.

[Nephlite]

Not gonna say it never happens but never seen it personally. There were a few women coming out of boot that did stuff for quick advancement but we all knew the old phrase "It's not who you know, it's who you blow" held true for a lot of women. A lot of (vets) looked down on them or dismissed them for career advancement just simply because they were women. I did see a lot of that. Friend of mine who went through OCS with me took a promotion that should have gone to a much more experienced and qualified member who was female. She let him know (simply) that she didn't get it because she was female and he felt guilty enough to reopen her file after he made some rank. She got turned down 4 times in that span and every time, it was some bullshit excuse like she didn't qualify by a certain date or something. Sucks man.

[Tajin]

Damn

[Correction]

And this has been allowed to continue in any capacity whatsoever because...why exactly?

Ask Archi

[Gokku]

That's pretty much what happened to my mom, it depends on the base and shit, @ Travis my mom was stuck as a staff for 4 years constantly being passed up for xyz reasons, first year in Japan she was step promoted and had at least one nco awake for every year for the next 7. It's amazing how much shit changes when some power hungry douche isn't trying to ruin someone's carreer. She ended up retired @ 23years after turning down chief.

[Churchill]

This seems made up

[Rhinox]

Doing it wrong church.

[Drex]

And this has been allowed to continue in any capacity whatsoever because...why exactly?

Criticizing war = we like you!
Criticizing army = outcast

[Lucavi]

And this has been allowed to continue in any capacity whatsoever because...why exactly?

Because men are still in every feasible position of power within the military and government?

Men allowing other men to rape women and get away with it so they don't have to actually do their jobs and lose public opinion and funding? Who woulda thought?

[Gokku]

There's also the fact that there are limited slots for a promotion and people can get cutthroat about it.

[Churchill]

I think a more accurate statement would be that men in the military are deathly afraid of getting involved with lower enlisted women (the majority of women who are in the military).

Blocking promotions happens to all people, to say it happens to females only is a little silly lol.

[Lucavi]

You're never going to hear about this in the media so long as the military not only has such a massive budget, but has every leader with some semblance of power or authority propping up the military as the ultimate example of "too big to fail". You cannot have public opinion swaying to the negative in terms of the military, because at that point, the cries of "why are we spending so much of our budget on military" will only grow louder and louder.

At this current juncture, the masses still have a "it was Bush and the warhawks' fault, not the military itself" attitude about the last 10 years of war. The military absolutely does not want anything out in the open that would jeopardize the way people feel about them.

[Treize Kordero]

Should check out the issue with Canadian forces. If they have the same issues. I wouldn't want any future children male or female in an environment like that. Especially if there's any chance that a male or female can be raped.

One thing I don't like about these cases is that rape gets tricky and especially with the expanding definition of it. One thing for sure victims of the crime need to be able to report it to reduce it.

[Churchill]

It's sort of asinine to believe that what republicans or the government wants somehow translates into what a company commander does with his unit.

[hey]

Blocking promotions happens to all people, to say it happens to females only is a little silly lol.

I don't think anyone ever said that.

[Uzor]

I can't remember which country exactly, but I think it's the Dutch military that send prostitutes with the army when they're deployed. Lowered the amount of deployed women raped by a great deal.

edit: actually, the Dutch army used to have brothels, but they don't atm. They've had discussions about it, though. Can't remember which country has it now then.