By: Azhar Azam
The US Army at Fort Hood in Texas has finally tracked down the whereabouts of its Sgt. Elder Fernandez but with his soul missing from his body. An African American and a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialist had disappeared on August 17 once he transferred units after reporting sexual abuse.
While remains of another military-women Vanessa Guillén, sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death with a hammer at the army post by the fellow soldier, were discovered only after an extensive nationwide online and social media outcry – the vices of harassment and violence are strengthening roots in the US army.
A DOD report for 2019 said the number of victims or subjects in the military had increased by 3% to 7,825 – claiming it could not be characterized as a jump in the cases. But with no such survey conducted or required in the year, the statistics are inordinately shifty and practically a maneuver to whitewash the hard truths.
Shattering the findings, the officials of advocacy organization said that it “raises more questions about (military sexual trauma) than it answers” and described “This is a version of the military’s #MeToo.” The confutation came in the wake of Pentagon's 2018 survey that shocked and appalled everybody, revealing the attacks on women in uniform had soared by 50% and learning at least 20,500 instances of “unwanted sexual contact” in the year against active-duty men and women.
Issue earlier drew political significance after Republican Senator Martha McSally publicly said she was raped by a senior officer. Her valiant move to expose the abuse of power in the ranks of American military united the US society except Congress that remained divided on making changes in the military prosecution.
In its factsheet, another nonpartisan group noted 76.1% victims did not report the crime and of those who did, 59% and 24% were assaulted by a high ranking official or someone in their chain of command. Reporting a case has a cost so a third of them are discharged after reporting, typically within 7 months of making a report.
Drastic fall of 60% in convictions despite a 22% increase in unrestricted sexual assaults since 2015 is clearly an indication of plummeting trust of victims on their military system and prosecution that fosters the culture of sexual offenses and protects the harassers and suppresses the sufferers over fears of security, future and retaliation.
An investigation by Army Forces Command in late June documented one-third of the women were being sexually harassed on Fort Hood. The survey results elevated concerns among US army veterans who grilled flawed military justice system and observed “little has changed in the military in the last 30 years.”
Fernandez and Guillén are not the only Service members disappeared and killed in Fort Hood, there has been a total of 23 deaths this year including at least seven died or found dead at the base since March – telling how much one of world’s biggest armies was gripped with a wider range of crimes other than sexual molestation.
A series of tragic episodes pressed Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy to admit Guillén’s slaying was a “tipping point” and Ford Hood had one of the highest rates of murder, sexual assault and harassment in the US military. The manifestations of violence and nonconsensual kinky activity additionally forced DOD to put a hold on transfer of Commander Scott Efflandt and determine his failures.
With this grim situation of rape epidemic, it is hard for Americans to believe their armed forces, by any means, had developed a better military environment. As two presidential rivals, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, are politicking on a critical national issue, the sexual assaults on low rank service men and women are turning out to be a common practice and blunting the image of the US military considerably in the American nation.
*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared in "The Express Tribune":
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2262164/us-militarys-new-trauma
While remains of another military-women Vanessa Guillén, sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death with a hammer at the army post by the fellow soldier, were discovered only after an extensive nationwide online and social media outcry – the vices of harassment and violence are strengthening roots in the US army.
A DOD report for 2019 said the number of victims or subjects in the military had increased by 3% to 7,825 – claiming it could not be characterized as a jump in the cases. But with no such survey conducted or required in the year, the statistics are inordinately shifty and practically a maneuver to whitewash the hard truths.
Shattering the findings, the officials of advocacy organization said that it “raises more questions about (military sexual trauma) than it answers” and described “This is a version of the military’s #MeToo.” The confutation came in the wake of Pentagon's 2018 survey that shocked and appalled everybody, revealing the attacks on women in uniform had soared by 50% and learning at least 20,500 instances of “unwanted sexual contact” in the year against active-duty men and women.
Issue earlier drew political significance after Republican Senator Martha McSally publicly said she was raped by a senior officer. Her valiant move to expose the abuse of power in the ranks of American military united the US society except Congress that remained divided on making changes in the military prosecution.
In its factsheet, another nonpartisan group noted 76.1% victims did not report the crime and of those who did, 59% and 24% were assaulted by a high ranking official or someone in their chain of command. Reporting a case has a cost so a third of them are discharged after reporting, typically within 7 months of making a report.
Drastic fall of 60% in convictions despite a 22% increase in unrestricted sexual assaults since 2015 is clearly an indication of plummeting trust of victims on their military system and prosecution that fosters the culture of sexual offenses and protects the harassers and suppresses the sufferers over fears of security, future and retaliation.
An investigation by Army Forces Command in late June documented one-third of the women were being sexually harassed on Fort Hood. The survey results elevated concerns among US army veterans who grilled flawed military justice system and observed “little has changed in the military in the last 30 years.”
Fernandez and Guillén are not the only Service members disappeared and killed in Fort Hood, there has been a total of 23 deaths this year including at least seven died or found dead at the base since March – telling how much one of world’s biggest armies was gripped with a wider range of crimes other than sexual molestation.
A series of tragic episodes pressed Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy to admit Guillén’s slaying was a “tipping point” and Ford Hood had one of the highest rates of murder, sexual assault and harassment in the US military. The manifestations of violence and nonconsensual kinky activity additionally forced DOD to put a hold on transfer of Commander Scott Efflandt and determine his failures.
With this grim situation of rape epidemic, it is hard for Americans to believe their armed forces, by any means, had developed a better military environment. As two presidential rivals, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, are politicking on a critical national issue, the sexual assaults on low rank service men and women are turning out to be a common practice and blunting the image of the US military considerably in the American nation.
*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared in "The Express Tribune":
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2262164/us-militarys-new-trauma