Suzanne Swift went AWOL in January to avoid deployment with a battalion in which she underwent repeated incidents of sexual harassment and abuse. Now she is being thrown in the brig while only one of her three alleged transgressors has received so much as a letter of reprimand.
Swift’s former lawyer said that when Swift was targeted for sexual harassment by her platoon sergeant in Kuwait in February 2005 and was then manipulated into having sex with another superior in Iraq later that year, she did not file a formal complaint out of fear.
Her alleged assailant in Iraq "made it very clear to her that there would be real repercussions if she reported it, and she believed him," the lawyer said.
A study headed by Anne Sadler, coordinator of the post-traumatic stress clinical team at the Veterans Administration hospital in Iowa City, found that Swift’s experience was not uncommon.
That nationwide survey, which included women whose terms of service fell between 1961 and 2003, found that more than three-quarters of the respondents reported experiencing sexual harassment during their military service; a third suffered one or more completed or attempted rapes.
However, only 26 percent of the rape survivors reported it through official channels while in active duty. The most common reasons given were fear that the report would negatively impact the survivor’s career or make things worse. A belief that nothing would be done and fear that they would be blamed by their co-workers were also prominent concerns. A shocking 19 percent thought that "rape [is] an expected part of military service."
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