New York Daily News - Congress Ready for Reform: Female Service Members Victimized by Sexual Assault Need Help

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By Alison Gendar and Heidi Evans

For nearly three decades, the U.S military has paid little more than lip service to the problem of sexual assault within its ranks.

There have been congressional hearings and table-thumping "zero tolerance" pronouncements, yet tens of thousands of service members are still victimized every year, by the Pentagon's own admission.

But finally, a reform effort is gaining traction -- the result, lawmakers and advocates say, of women speaking out in lawsuits against the government and two powerful film documentaries that have caught the attention of Capitol Hill.
A widening sex-abuse scandal at Lackland Airforce Base in Texas -- where 15 male instructors have been charged or are under investigation for sexually preying on 38 young female trainees -- has also put the issue back on the front burner.

In an interview this month, incoming Air Force Chief Mark Welsh III conceded sexual assault "has the potential to rip the fabric of your force apart. I think it is doing that to a certain extent now....I'm not an expert in this. I don't know how to fix it, but I won't quit working on it."

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who has introduced several of more than two dozen reform bills now pending in Congress said the time for change is now.

"Our brave service members answer a call higher than any other to defend our nation," said Gillibrand. "We have a moral obligation to act this year on these bills because not only does sexual assault do unconscionable harm to the victim, it also destabilizes our military and threatens our national security."

Under pressure from Congress and veterans advocates during his 14 month tenure, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has said "even one assault is too many" and has announced several new policies to combat sexual assault in the ranks. They include expanding legal assistance and quicker transfers for victims from their perpetrators, and keeping forensic evidence and investigation reports on file for 50 years. Sexual assault records used to be kept for no longer than two years.

A host of broader reforms awaiting Congress' attention when members return September 10 would:
* Create a special victims unit in the military's legal division, with trained investigators and prosecutors.
* Make colonels and those with higher ranks responsible for handling sex abuses cases, now overseen by lower-ranking commanders.
* Create a separate panel outside the chain of command, made up of civilian and military professionals, that would decide if an alleged sexual crime goes to trial.

* Strengthen military penalties for rape, sexual assault, harassment and domestic violence and end the practice of giving convicted attackers nonjudicial or administrative punishment.
* Allow service members to seek redress in federal court for the military's failure to investigate or prosecute a sexu al crime.

In Fiscal Year 2011, there were 3,191 reports of sexual assault made to the Department of Defense. However, because these crimes are so underreported, the Department of Defense estimated the number of sexual assault victims was more than 19,000 last year. And as many as 34,000 assaults when the department conducted its previous anonymous survey in 2006. The numbers include attacks on both men and women.

"The legislators understand these crimes affect the core mission of the military, to work as a team to accomplish a mission," said Greg Jacob, policy director for the advocacy group SWAN -- Service Women's Action Network. "If you have members and leadership assaulting other members it breaks down the adhesion and esprit de corp."

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) has made 22 speeches on the floor of the House in the last year, each time reading a heartbreaking letter from a female soldier with a sex abuse story.

Speier now has 125 co-sponsors to her bill to create a the special panel to prosecute sex crimes, but expects strong resistance from military higher-ups.
Helen Benedict, who first called attention to the issue of sexual assault in the military in her 2009 book "The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving In Iraq," said the most important reforms must come from within the military.

"The culture has to be changed not only from the top down but from the bottom up. There has to be accountability and consequences from the squad leader all the way to the general," said Benedict, who is also a professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. "Most important are the NCOs -- the sergeants and platoon leaders who live with the troops day in and day out and who must build respect and trust in their ranks.

"When troops don't respect each other and don't believe there will be consequences for predatory and bullying behavior, that's when things break down," she added.

New York City filmmakers Marcia Rock and Patricia Lee Stotter, who made "Service: When Women Come Marching Home," said they hope their documentary and Kirby Dick's 2012 Sundance winner "The Invisible War" will spark civilian interest in these horrific crimes.

"Until the voices of these female veterans are heard, neither the U.S.
government nor the military will do what it takes to change a military culture that enables rape, sending women home to fight physical and psychological battles for the rest of their lives," Stotter said.

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