V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls, a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. One of the purposes of V-Day is to generate broader attention for the fight to stop worldwide violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sexual slavery.

Here in Austin, we are honoring the courageous women in our US Military who are abused, raped, and otherwise sexually harmed by their male counterparts during their service to our country. There is a high incidence of this kind of abuse, and unfortunately, a low incidence of accountability. The men who commit these crimes are often not held responsible, and many women are repeatedly brutalized and traumatized, living in fear with no way to get the help they need. The Austin Community V-Day Campaign is raising money and awareness to benefit an organization that supports these women and their families, SWAN (Service Women's Action network), as well as the The Settlement Home for Children, an Austin-based center providing live-in full-time therapeutic care for female victims of abuse aged 7-17, and the Katrina Warriors, a group of diverse organizations that support the well-being of women and girls in New Orleans and the Gulf South.

Sexual Assault and Rape in the Military (Military Sexual Trauma)

One in three women in the military will be raped during their military service careers according to a Department of Defense 2003 report on a nationwide sample of female veterans seeking health care through the Veterans Administration. 37 percent of those in the survey stated they were raped multiple times and 14 percent said they were gang-raped.(1) According to Dr. Patricia Resick, a psychologist at the Veterans administration in Boston, A study of women in Gulf War I found that 15%, or 1 in 7, had been sexually assaulted during that very short 100 hour war (2) They were four times were more likely to develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) than those who were exposed to combat. (PBS NOW) Military women from the Vietnam war era are finally acknowledging the sexual assaults from their military service.

Many military women in Iraq carry knives and go with buddies to the latrines because of the threat of rape from their fellow service members. (3) Rape frequently involves men in the women’s chain of command, causing the crimes to be called “command rape.” Many women from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will have to deal with PTSD from both combat and sexual assault.

According to an ABC NEWS report, since 2002, the Veterans Administration has screened all discharged military personnel for Military Sexual Trauma (MST) and asked them if they have been they were recipients of uninvited sexual attention, or the victims of assault. More men than women (63,567 versus 62,448 women ) reported sexual trauma representing 1 percent of all men survey, compared to 29 percent of women. By those figures, nearly one in three women in the military is at risk for sexual assault, twice as many as in the general population, according to Pentagon statistics. (4)

A Department of Defense spokesperson, Cynthia Smith said that “sexual assault is the nation’s most underreported violent crime.” Some national studies indicate that one in six women and one in 22 men will experience a rape or attempted rape in their lifetime. According to the Defense Department’s 2006 sexual assault report, the number of reported assaults skyrocketed 73 percent from 2004 when 1,700 incidents were filed to 2006, when 2,947 incidents were reported. (5)

Most tend to think that only women experience sexual trauma. However, in 1995 the Department of Defense conducted a large study of sexual victimization among active duty populations and found rates of sexual harassment to be 78% among women and 28% among men over a one-yar period. Rates of attempted or completed sexual assault were 6% for women and 1% for men. Rates of military sexual trauma among veteran users of VA healthcare appear to be even higher than in general military populations. In one study, 23% of female users of VA healthcare reported experiencing at least one sexual assault while in the military. (6) Despite the underreporting of sexual assault, it is the crime for which the most male service members are imprisoned. According to USA Today, 29% of military prisoners are incarcerated for sexual assault while 22% are imprisoned for drug offenses. (7)

It is estimated that only 16% of the rapes that occur in the United States are every reported, 84% are unreported. (8) Like their sisters in civilian communities, most military women do not report sexual assaults. They fear not being believed and of being blamed. There is a pervasive fear that nothing will be done about the criminal acts they have endured. Statistics show their fear is warranted. According to a lengthy 2007 New York Times article, of 3,038 investigations of military sexual assault charges completed in 2004 and 2005, only 329, about one-tenth, resulted in court-martial (trial in a military court) of the perpetrator. More than half were dismissed for lack of evidence of because an offender could not be identified, and another 617 were resolved though milder administrative punishments, like demotions, transfers and letters of admonishment. Those convicted in military courts are seldom placed on the national sex offender registry so neither the military community nor the civilian community in which the sexual offender lives knows of his criminal sex conviction. (9)

Rape can be the predecessor of other violent acts. In 2007, a woman marine was raped by a fellow marine and later was apparently murdered by the rapist. Two years ago, two Army women raped in Iraq were found dead days later. The Army said both were suicides, but the parents of each woman believe their daughter was murdered as a part of the cover-up of the rapes.

Rape and sexual assault of women begins when they are recruited into the military. Since 1996, the Army has had 722 recruiters accused of rape and sexual misconduct. In 2006, one of out of 200 frontline recruiters of all services was disciplined for sexual misconduct. In Indiana, where a National Guard recruiter was charged with 31 counts of rape, sexual battery, official misconduct and corrupt business influence, military officials have instituted a “No One Alone” policy where male Army National Guard recruiters in Indiana cannot be alone in offices, cars or anywhere else with a female enlistee. (10)

In June, 2007, the Marine Corps paid $200,000 to two 17 year old women who said they were raped by Marine recruiters during a “slumber party” at a Ukiah, CA recruiting office. The two recruiters were court-martialed and acquitted of the most serious charges, but they were demoted and the Marine Corps paid $200,000 to the victims. The settlement requires that notices be posted at Marine recruiting stations in Northern California that advise potential recruits how to contact a confidential advocate if they feel a recruiter has behaved inappropriately, and explain that young women have the right to work with a female recruiter. The settlement also requires female supervision at Marine “slumber parties” with female recruits. (11)

The Air Force and Naval Academies have had sexual assault and rape scandals. 17 US Army basic trainees were raped by members of their chain of command at Aberdeen Army Base. Over eighteen task forces, commissions, panels and reports have been conducted on sexual violence connected with the US Armed Forces. The latest Task Force was commissioned by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in 2004 after a dramatic increase in the number of reported rapes. However, no members were appointed to the Task Force until three years later, at the end of 2007.

1. Sadler, A.G., Booth, B.M, Cook, B.L. and Doebbeling, B.N. “Factors associated with women’s risk of rape in the military environment,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 43 (3), 262-273, March, 2003
2. Brancaccio, David, “Military Sexual Trauma” October 7, 2007. www.pbs.org/now/transcript/336.html
3. Regan, Tom “Report: Sexual Assault of women Soldiers on Rise in US military” Christian Science Monitor, March 19, 2007 www.csmonitor.com/2007/0319/p99s01-duts.htm
4. Goldman, Russell, “Female Veterans seek Treatment for Sexual Assaults,” ABC News, October 31, 2007 www.abcnews.go.com
5. Goldman, Russell. “Female Veterans Seek Treatment for Sexual Assaults: Pentagon Reports Increase in Sex assaults as VA opens New facility for Women” ABC News, October 31, 2007 www.abcnews.go.com
6. VA National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Military Sexual Trauma
7. USA Today Snapshots (page 1), “Crime in the military,” August 28, 2007 (from Department of Justice statistics)
8. VA Military Sexual Trauma Introduction Department of Veteran Affairs
9. Corbett, Sara, “The Women’s War,” New York Times, March 18, 2007
10. Bender, Bryan, “Pentagon acts to crack down on recruiter misconduct,” Boston Globe, March 19, 2007.
11. Medindia.com “Girls Sexually Abused by US military recruiters,” www.medindia.net/news/Girls-Sexually-Abused-by-US-Army-Recruiters-24147-1.htm
12. Allison, Aimee, “Recriter Sexual abuse: Friendly Fire at home?” AlterNet, July 24, 2007, www.alternet.org/story/57378

Speaking on behalf of victims of sexual assault and rape in the military:

Captain Dorothy Mackey, US Air Force

Reverend (Captain) Mackey served in the US Air Force for nine years. In the first 5 years she was in the military, she was raped four times, gang raped by 7 men, raped twice by military doctors during appointments and raped by a trusted senior enlisted airman. In 1991-1992 she was tag team assaulted for a year by two senior Air Force officers who were the military complaint system and one was an Air Force Academy graduate. Refused help by the military, she filed a lawsuit that went to the United States Supreme Court. There she learned of five U.S. Congressionally passed laws that give immunity to U.S. military members who rape, maim, murder their own or civilians. The court gave her assailants immunity citing national security. In 1997, she founded Survivors Take Action Against Abuse by Military Personnel (STAAAMP) to give voice to those assaulted and raped. She has counseled numerous victims of military sexual assault and rape. In 1999, invited to speak at The Hague for Peace with international victims of US military abuses, but her partner was murdered and her life was threatened, if she dared to speak. Her response to the person who threatened her was “Take your best shot, I will die with a microphone in my hand!” Within the week she was flying to the Netherlands where she spoke along side the East Asian Pacific Network, an agency of citizens devoted to stopping the rape, abuse and murder of their people by U.S. forces. To date‚ approximately 60,000 sexual crimes have been documented as perpetrated by U.S. forces since 1945.

April Fitzsimmons, US Air Force

Former US Air Force intelligence analyst April Fitzsimmons has created a one woman play called “The Need to Know” which is the journey of a young girl who believed serving her country would make a difference, only to discover lies and deception not only in her government but in herself. In her play Fitzsimmons goes from a Montana jail to the US Air Force, through the halls of the national Security Agency and down into the ditches of Crawford, Texas. (www.aprilfitzsimmons.com). Her article “I Know Why Maricela Guzman Doesn’t Sing” about a woman who was raped in the military during the Iraq war. (www.madashellclub.net)

Suzanne Swift, US Army

In late 2006, US Army Specialist Suzanne Swift was court-martialed and sentenced to one month in jail and reduction in rank after she went absent without leave from the Army when notified that she must return to Iraq in the same unit where she was sexually harassed by her platoon leader in Iraq and coerced into a sexual relationship by her squad leader during her first deployment. While Swift was court-martialed, the perpetrator of the crimes against her was "admonished" and transferred to a different unit. Swift is still on active duty with the US Army.

Sara Rich, mother of Suzanne Swift

Sara Rich’s daughter, US Army Specialists Suzanne Swift faced a redeployment to Iraq while serving under the command of the same individuals who allowed her to be raped and sexually harassed. Swift suffered a breakdown due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and went absent without leave rather than subject herself to the horrors she experienced during her first tour in Iraq. Six months later she was returned to military custody and sentenced to 30 days in jail and reduction in rank. She is still in the Army. Suzanne’s mother, Sara Rich, speaks about the “command rape” her daughter endured for over a year in Iraq. (www.suzanneswift.org)

Ann Wright, US Army

Ann Wright retired after 29 years in the Army/Army Reserves as a Colonel. She also was a US diplomat for 16 years. She helped reopen the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2001 and was one of three US diplomats who resigned in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war. She has spoken on the issue of sexual assault of women in the military to US Congresspersons and Congressional staffers for more effective oversight of Department of Defense programs for the prevention of sexual assault. Col Wright is the co-author of the book "Dissent:Voices of Conscience," and speaks on foreign policy around the country.

Also at the bottom of the page you can download the pdf of our letter for tax-deductible sponsorship.

If you have any questions, contact:

Sascha Tunney, Organizer, Austin V-Day 2008
vday(dot)sascha(at)gmail(dot)com

Koop Radio interview Part 1 - Listen for more information (large file 10 meg)
Koop Radio interview Part 2 - Listen for more information (large file 10 meg)