January 2011 - Blackherbals.com

African Traditional Herbal Research ClinicVolume 6, Issue 1 NEWSLETTER January 2011FEATURED ARTICLESRape Rampant in U.S. MilitaryStatistics and soldiers' testimonies reveal a harrowing epidemic of sexual assault in the US militaryBy Dahr JamailAljazeera24 December 2010Sexual assault within the ranks of the military is not anew problem. It is a systemic problem that hasnecessitated that the military conduct its own annualreporting on the crisis.A 2003 Air Force Academy sexual assault scandalprompted the department of defense to include aprovision in the 2004 National Defense AuthorizationAct that required investigations and reports of sexualharassment and assaults within US military academies tobe filed. The personal toll is, nevertheless, devastating.Military sexual trauma (MST) survivor Susan Avila-Smith is director of the veteran’s advocacy group WomenOrganizing Women. She has been serving female andscores of male clients in various stages of recovery fromMST for 15 years and knows of its devastating effects upclose.“People cannot conceive how badly wounded thesepeople are,” she told Al Jazeera, “Of the 3,000 I’veworked with, only one is employed. Combat trauma isbad enough, but with MST it’s not the enemy, it’s ourguys who are doing it. You’re fighting your friends, yourpeers, people you’ve been told have your back. Thatbetrayal, then the betrayal from the command is, they say,worse than the sexual assault itself.”On December 13, the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU) and other groups filed a federal lawsuit seekingPentagon records in order to get the real facts about theincidence of sexual assault in the ranks. The Pentagon hasconsistently refused to release records that fullydocument the problem and how it is handled. Sexualassaults on women in the US military have claimed somedegree of visibility, but about male victims there isabsolute silence.Pack Parachute, a non-profit in Seattle, assists veteranswho are sexual assault survivors. Its founder KiraMountjoy-Pepka, was raped as a cadet at the Air ForceAcademy. In July 2003 she was member of a team offemale cadets handpicked by Donald Rumsfeld, at thetime the secretary of defense, to tell their stories ofhaving been sexually assaulted. The ensuing mediacoverage and a Pentagon investigation forced theacademy to make the aforementioned major policychanges.Report reveals alarming statisticsMountjoy-Pepka often works with male survivors ofMST. She stated in a telephone interview that four percent of men in the military experience MST. “Mostchoose not to talk about it until after their dischargefrom the military, largely because the post-traumaticstress disorder (PTSD) in over 60 percent of MST casesis too overwhelming,” she informed Al Jazeera.Last week the Pentagon released its “annual report onsexual harassment and violence at the military serviceacademies”. At its three academies, the number ofreports of sexual assault and harassment has risen astaggering 64 percent from last year.The report attributes the huge increase to betterreporting of incidents due to increased training andeducation about sexual assault and harassment.Veteran’s Administration (VA) statistics show thatmore than 50 percent of the veterans who screenpositive for MST are men.According to the US Census Bureau, there are roughly22 million male veterans compared to less than twomillion female vets.In Congressional testimony in the summer of 2008, Lt.Gen. Rochelle, the army chief of personnel, reportedContinued on page 29-28- Traditional African Clinic January 2011