Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, there are a percentage of vile and depraved individuals in the armed forces that prey upon the weak, especially on newly reporting young recruits. Sexual Assault & Rape in the United States military are dirty little secrets that no one mentions or wants to admit is even occurring.
A code of silence translates into tacit approval. Military commanders don’t want to talk about it, Congressmen don’t want to talk about it, most of the victims and their parents don’t want to talk about it, the mainstream media doesn’t want to report on it – it’s a big problem that no one wants to address. But, looking the other way and sticking your head in the sand won’t make the problem of sexual assault and rape in the military go away. Even though it’s effectively being concealed by a curtain of silence, it remains none-the-less.
THE CODE OF SILENCE DISCOVERED BY THE BOSTON GLOBE
You may have seen a biographical drama 2015 film called “Spotlight.” The film is the true story of The Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team and its investigation into numerous cases of widespread and systemic child sex abuse in the Boston, Massachusetts area by numerous Roman Catholic priests.
It was a child sex ring enabled by a code of silence adopted by members and leaders of the Roman Catholic church. The Roman Catholic church had a big problem with predator priests who were being protected by church leaders through their calculated silence and inaction. Everyone, looked the other way as children were being raped left and right. Silence by the so-called “good people” provided approval for the reprehensible. Silence became an imprimatur for evil.
THE CODE OF SILENCE AT PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
And, how about the code of silence that protected Penn State’s Gerald Sandusky. On June 22, 2012, Sandusky was found guilty of 45 counts of criminal charges mostly involving the rape of children. They believe that he raped or sexually assaulted hundreds of children, many right on the campus of Pennsylvania State University. Once again, Sandusky’s fetish for children was known for many years, but no one wanted to talk about it. Nobody wanted to address the problem, and it just got worse with each passing year.
After someone finally came forward and the smoke cleared from the onslaught of law suits, resignations and criminal charges, Sandusky was carted off to jail. Authorities discovered that a boy told the famous and revered football coach Joe Paterno in 1976, that he was raped by Sandusky.
Numerous assistant coaches reported the Penn State pedophile’s antics to their supervisors including Joe Paterno. But Paterno, who espoused strong personal integrity for his football players, did not have enough of his own personal integrity to confront the problem of child rape on the campus of Pennsylvania State University. Joe Vincent Paterno shamefully looked the other way which provided cover for the perverted Gerald Sandusky. Coach Paterno died on January 22, 2012. He was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions from 1966 to 2011. He was fired as head coach after his 409th football victory as a result of the sex abuse scandal.
It seemed that most everyone knew of Sandusky’s penchant for raping children, but everyone remained silent. Sandusky’s unmentionable acts were considered unmentionable. When assistant coach Mike McQueary actually witnessed Sandusky anally raping a ten-year-old boy in the showers, and reported it – McQueary ended up becoming a target of incredible vitriol. This is why people look the other way. It’s politically wise to do so, at least until the crimes finally come to light, then all hell breaks loose.
THE CODE OF SILENCE IN AMERICAN MILITARY
The military has a closed system. They have their own judicial system, their jails which enable military commanders with extra ordinary powers to deal with anyone reporting conduct that is so embarrassing it could derail promotions. With all their assassins and trained killers, becoming a military whistle-blower is a dangerous course of action. That’s why few people even attempt it.
Imagine you are 17 years old and thrown into general population of a prison. You are just fresh meat for the scum of the earth and there is nowhere to run to get away from the animal predators. A navy ship can become a prison for a rape victim. Just like San Quentin, there is no where to run or hide. You just become a boy-toy for every depraved, sick individual on the ship.
There are literally hundreds of of cases involving sexual assault and rape in the military; here are five cases courtesy of HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH – https://www.hrw.org/
CASE #1 – Heath Phillips
A gang of six sailors saw Heath Phillips report aboard at age 17, and they had all sorts of plans for him. They raped, (sodomized) and beat him repeatedly. Heath reported the attacks to his superior officers and senior enlisted personnel, but they all looked the other way and sent him back to his work and berthing areas to be repeatedly assaulted some more.
He couldn’t take it and decided to go AWOL (absent without leave), but he was caught and returned to the pack of dogs he was trying to get away from. After going AWOL multiple times, the Navy decided they were going to kick him out of the service with an “other than honorable” discharge.
For nearly three decades his discharge has been negatively affecting his life. He tried time and again to get his discharge upgraded over a twenty-nine year period. He even testified before Congress to get his discharge reversed and pressed for reforms in the military. He appealed three times to the naval corrections board and was rejected each time.
On his fourth try, in late May 2018, the Naval Board of Corrections upgraded his discharge to “honorable.” Phillips is now 47 years of age. He went through a living hell on a navy ship, then struggled to find gainful employment for the next 29 years.
No one we spoke with could remember the military reversing anyone’s discharge for any reason, even when they supplied ample proof of innocence. Despite a decade of so-called effort by the Pentagon to eliminate or even reduce military sexual assaults, the problem of rape and sexual assault in the military remains.
The latest statistics provided by Human Rights Watch reveal that 14,900 members of the military were sexually assaulted in 2016 – 8,600 women and the balance of 6,300 were male. Since women account for only 15.3% of active-duty personnel in the U.S. military, we can see the women are receiving the brunt of the sexual assault and rape brutalities.
CASE #2 – Eva Washington
Eva Washington after finishing Army boot camp in 2000. She was raped repeatedly while in training for Army Intelligence and given a Personality Disorder discharge without having a medical diagnosis.
Eva Washington, said, “It is bad enough to go through military sexual trauma, but to be discredited and labeled is difficult to overcome and causes so much damage.
A personality disorder (PD) discharge is another level of betrayal because it is so stigmatizing.… People think there is something wrong with me and don’t realize it was a label just stuck on people.”
She has found that even within the military sexual trauma community, there is shame attached to the PD diagnosis.
CASE #3 – Ruth Moore
Ruth Moore was raped in the Navy twice in 1987. Unable to get help, her life spiraled downward after contracting an STD due to the assaults. She attempted suicide and was discharged from service with a personality disorder. “Outprocessing” advised her to waive all claims to the VA as she would get health care through her active duty spouse.
Over the next six years she struggled with relationships and had a hard time holding jobs because she did not trust male supervisors. Increasingly she showed symptoms of PTSD, but she was repeatedly denied help from the VA where administrators told her they could not help her because personality disorder is a pre-existing condition.
Eventually, Moore met a Military Sexual Trauma Coordinator who listened to her at another VA hospital. Her psychiatrist and counselor determined Moore did not have a personality disorder. With their help, and that of a senator, she was ultimately able to get adequate benefits—23 years after leaving service.
She says, “If I had been treated promptly and received benefits in a timely manner, back at the time of my discharge, my life would have been much different. I would not have had to endure homelessness and increased symptomology to the point where I was suicidal … and I firmly believe that I would have been able to develop better coping and social skills.
CASE #4 – Carri Goodwin
Carri Goodwin joined the Marines in 2007 when she was 18 years old. In the short time she was in service, her recruiter assaulted her and a higher-ranking service member beat and sodomized her after ordering her to report to him after work. After reporting her assaults, she still had to work with her assailant.
Her journal indicated her peers “all took the assailant’s side” and said, “Don’t talk to her. She will say you raped her.” Her assailant taunted her with emails saying he gave her AIDS. She was not allowed to go on leave because they feared she would go AWOL.
After reporting, her superiors kept finding things she did wrong and she was regularly put on restriction. She coped with her isolation by drinking alcohol. She was also on prescription medication for her PTSD. She was suicidal at times and had difficulties when she was sent to alcohol rehabilitation programs.
Her superiors disciplined her for drinking while underage, missing formation, leaving her appointed place of duty, reporting while under the influence of alcohol, breaking restriction, and failure to obey an order. As a result, she was discharged Under Other Than Honorable Conditions for misconduct.
Five days after getting home in 2009, at age 20, she was found dead in a car after mixing alcohol and Zoloft, a drug for treatment of depression, PTSD, and other mental health conditions. Because of her misconduct discharge, her father cannot bury her remains in a military cemetery and is unable to honor her by framing her discharge papers.
His seven-year effort to upgrade her discharge because of the rapes and PTSD has failed. Only if her papers are fixed and she gets a proper burial does her father believe he can bring closure to her ordeal.
CASE #5 – LaVena Lynn Johnson
We’ve seen some blatant examples before of how the military covers-up murder by calling it “suicide”, but this case – the brutal death of PFC LaVena Johnson at Balud, Iraq in 2005 – is the most disturbing of all.
Only a complete idiot or sycophantic career-centered officer would believe, or at least pretend to, that the 20 year-old enlisted woman from the suburbs of St. Louis, Mo. took her own life. All of the physical and photographic evidence indicate she was the victim of a vicious sexual attack. There is no way at all she could have inflicted on herself the horrendous injuries we are about to relate to you now.
The petite soldier’s body was found battered and burning on a cot in the tent of a civilian contractor assigned to the Iraqi installation. Both LaVena’s eyes were blackened, her nose broken, and her teeth smashed inwards. There were numerous scratches and bruises all over her nude body, and someone had poured lye on her genital area (perhaps in an effort to destroy any DNA evidence of rape or sexual assault).
The five foot tall GI had a bullet wound on the left side of her head (she is right-handed) and it appeared a flammable substance had been poured on her body and set afire. Despite the obvious injuries that could not have been done by the victim, the Army has attempted to cover-up the cause of death with a specious “suicide” ruling.
The lawyer for the Johnson family was quoted to have pointed the finger at Army 4-star General Kevin P. Byrnes. The truth will never be known because the Pentagon doesn’t want the truth revealed of what really happened to LaVena Johnson. Someone out there knows what really happened to LaVena Johnson and is remaining silent.
We know from experience that generals and admirals are always being watched for their own safety, especially in a forward area like Iraq. Someone knows what happened to LaVena Johnson. Until that someone finds the courage to come forward, LaVena Johnson was just another rape, murder and cover-up in the American military. And the evil individual(s) who did raped and killed LaVena are allowed to steal away in the night.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Does anyone really know how bad the rape problem in the military really is? Not really. If the Department of Defense is actually tabulating such data, you would immediately question its validity because no ship’s captain is going to report to his bosses in the Pentagon just how bad things are in the “rape” department aboard his ship.
Then there is the flip side, accusations of rape and sexual assault that are baseless and destroy the good name and reputation of the accused. This also occurs and its why sex crimes are difficult to investigate and prove. Unfortunately, the military prefers ignoring the problem than expending time and energy to properly investigate allegations of sexual assault and rape.
The military finds it more expedient for everyone to just ignore the matter and let the victim remain the victim to be assaulted over and over again, or in the case a someone falsely accused, deny them a fair and unbiased investigation that would clear their name and reputation. It’s ugly and evil on both ends of the scale.
The worst thing of all is tossing a young recruit in among the wolves to be assaulted and raped over and over again. If the young recruit files a complaint they’re called a liar and ordered back to work, back into the cesspool of vile and despicable individuals that can be found on many, some, a few ships of the line.
Just like the homeless problem in America, no one wants to know how bad the problem is, because such knowledge might force us to address the problem. Yes, it’s either a dirty little secret, or a dirty big secret. Either way, it’s a secret.
MilitaryCorruption.com has been observing military behavior for two decades and we can tell you that rape in the military goes on unabated. From calls, letters and emails, we can tell you that without a doubt, the worst problem of rape for both male and female is in the United States Navy. The sad thing is, there is no need for reform if military commanders simply enforce the law.
It might mean taking a string of senior-ranking degenerates out in handcuffs. It might mean a delay in ships deployment until replacements are found. It might mean some embarrassment for everyone involved. But, if the military wants to uphold its integrity, they might be called upon to endure some embarrassment. Does the military have the type of leaders who will uphold the law even if it means a career ending ding on an officer’s fitness report. The scarcity of such people is pretty close to zero.
If you report things that embarrass your commanding officer, we can guarantee your career will be adversely affected. If they let you stay in, you might retire as a lieutenant. Each individual has to assess just how much does their personal integrity means to them. How much do they believe in the rule of law. Right now, there are many in our society who frankly don’t give a damn about the law. They would prefer to retire as admiral of the fleet, than to report the criminal misconduct of others.
Wherein lies the crux of the problem.
UPDATE:
One retired military officer wrote in the following…
“I am a retired female O-4. I know from personal experience that rapes happen in the Navy. When I left in 1985 rape of men was more common. Now, it seems that rape is an equal opportunity crime. It makes me sad that the most vulnerable service members are being punished for being victims. Please keep the spotlight on this problem. We need to get rid of criminals in the service and stop punishing victims.”
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