Female Vets Not Surprised by Specialist Vanessa Guillén’s Murder

Female Veterans not surprised by Specialist Vanessa Guillén’s brutal murder. Lack of accountability within ranks are the root of military sexual assault epidemic.

The details emerging about U.S. Army Specialist Vanessa Guillén's sexual harassment and brutal murder at the hands of a fellow Solider hit the Female Veteran community hard. Many women are reporting feeling “triggered” when reading the details.

“Triggered” is a commonly used term to describe the onset of symptoms of PTSD. Some examples include re-living the incident, becoming hyper-aware of your surroundings, violent nausea, heart-attack-like symptoms or the inability to form a thought or even speak. 

Of all the emotions and feelings Female Veterans are expressing over this tragedy, the one emotion that is conspicuous by its absence, is surprise. Not one Female Veteran I have spoken to is surprised by Specialist Vanessa Guillén’s sexual assault, her reluctance to report it or is surprised that her attacker felt so confident he would not be held accountable, that he brutally murdered her and brazenly removed her body from base. 

VA statistics show that one out of every four Female Veterans report having experienced MST. However, the actual number of female Veteran’s with MST is thought to be higher because most

Female Veterans do not report their sexual trauma while on active duty.

MST is the term used by the VA to refer to experiences of sexual assault or repeated, threatening sexual harassment that a Veteran experienced during military service. MST encompasses any sexual harassment or sexual activity a service member endures without providing consent.

Some examples include rape, threats of negative consequences for refusing to be sexually cooperative or implied better treatment in exchange for sex, the inability to provide consent because of intoxication or unconsciousness, threatening or offensive remarks about a person's body or sexual activities and threatening unwelcome sexual advances.  

Female Veterans are not surprised because the overwhelming majority of sexual assaults in the military go unreported. Because who will you report your sexual assault to, when the man who raped you, is your superior and he will be investigated by his friends and military equals?

To illustrate, I will tell you the story of a fictional person, “Sailor Jenny."

“Sailor Jenny’s” story is made up of the most common experiences the women coming to Veteran Sisters for help, have shared.  

Sailor Jenny grew up in a small town and her parents could not afford to send her to college. Instead she enlists the day after her high school graduation and ships out to bootcamp at the end of the summer.  

She is excited to be away from her small town. She looks forward to supporting herself while serving our great Nation. She arrives at bootcamp able to use the phonetic alphabet and memorizes the Chain-of-Command all the way to the President. She feels prepared for the military.

Sailor Jenny spends bootcamp with the largest group of women she will ever serve with.  When she attends technical school, there are less women, but there are still plenty of women around. But, because women only make up ten percent of the military, 19-year-old Sailor Jenny, like most young enlisted women, finds herself the only woman working in her shop when she arrives at her first command.

Her experience with men at this point in her life was limited to family, parents of her school friends and her teachers. Sailor Jenny finds that although she enjoys her job, she is lonely.  In fact, the only person who has been nice to her, is her immediate supervisor.  He texts her funny memes and checks in to make sure she is settling in OK.

She tells her best friend and her mom all about how great he is and how he looks out for her. She talks about how considerate he is, bringing her snacks when she can’t leave for lunch or letting her leave early for an anticipated outing. She talks about him all the time, until one day, when she stops.  

Sailor Jenny withdraws into herself.  She is moody and unable to concentrate and makes mistakes with her job, where before she performed the same tasks with ease. Because no one prepared her how to work under the man who raped her. No one prepared her how to live in the same barracks with her rapist and eat in the same dinning facility three times a day. No one prepares her for the power her rapist would continue to have over her everyday life.

Sailor Jenny finally confides in her best friend back home who convinces her to report it. Sailor Jenny makes a report. She is told that they “will look into it.” She waits. And waits.  

Months go by and finally a decision is made. There was not enough evidence. Sailor Jenny must serve under her rapist and report to him daily for another two years until he is promoted and moves on to another command.

During this time, Sailor Jenny is ostracized. Although she has never said a word to anyone, everyone in her command seems to know she accused her supervisor of raping her. Whenever she walks into a room, everyone stops talking, but no one will make eye contact with her. She is pulled aside by others in her unit and given unsolicited advice like: “You put yourself in that situation. Why are you trying to ruin his life?” or “You need to just get over it."

She feels like she has gone from being a part of the team to a hated enemy. Sailor Jenny has no one to talk with about what is happening because she fears that speaking up again will make her appear whiny and weak.

She begins engaging in self-destructive behavior and leaves the service at the end of her first enlistment.

There is little dispute that there is a sexual assault problem in the military. The dispute arises when people begin to discuss the why and how. Why is it happening and how do we stop it?

I believe the reason sexual assault continues to plague our military is a lack of accountability. When unacceptable behavior is condoned and encouraged, wrongful behavior becomes an acceptable culture. 

Not every man in the military is a rapist or engages in sexual assault or harassment. However, our military has a “close your eyes” problem. Men who don’t speak out when faced with wrong-doing and women who normalize their own MST in order to survive each day. Forced to live this way because the perpetrators of these crimes are rarely investigated, let alone prosecuted.

When our military leaders face no accountability, it costs America. It costs the military its credibility and the trust the American people have in its ability to defend our Nation against all enemies- foreign and domestic.  It also costs our all-volunteer force future recruits. 

Although overall enlistments have declined in recent years, the percentage of women serving on active duty continues to grow. But America will stop sending its daughters to enlist when they learn the military’s dirty little secret.  

Most military sexual assault investigations are conducted at the command level.  Meaning, law enforcement is rarely involved whether the assault happened on base or off.  Basically, the perpetrators of sexual assault in the military are often investigated by friends or mentors -hardly an unbiased investigation likely to bring justice to the victim.

Reports of sexual assault should be investigated by civilian authorities and once wrongdoing is discovered; consistent, action-deterring military punishments should be imposed.  Only by holding perpetrators of rape and sexual assault accountable will it stop.

I urge the men and women currently serving on active duty to open your eyes and speak up.  Hold your leadership accountable. Speak up when you have knowledge of wrongdoing. Stop condoning the harassment and assault of your sisters-in-arms with your silence.

To my brothers and sisters currently suffering in silence, speak up. You are not alone. My attackers no longer have power over me.  I will stand beside you while you face yours. 

I am not the only Female Veteran willing to stand beside you. There is a legion of us who have walked in your boots and are willing to stand beside you and support you while you speak up to ensure future generations may serve our country without fear of being raped, assaulted or harassed by fellow service-members.

It is time to hold our military leadership accountable for creating a culture where a sense of entitlement normalizes sexual harassment, assault and rape as the cost of belonging.   

IT'S TIME FOR US TO TAKE ACTION:

It is naïve of military leadership and lawmakers to believe wrong doers will be held accountable when they are permitted to investigate themselves. Leadership claims it wants to end sexual assault in the military. 

The only way to do that is to take the investigative power of sexual assault away from them military and placed into the hands of the specialized police officers and investigators who focus on sex crimes and once wrongdoing is discovered, consistent, action-deterring military punishments should be imposed. Only by holding perpetrators of rape and sexual assault accountable will it stop.

About the author: Sandy Duchac is a Navy Veteran and sexual assault survivor. As Vice President of Veteran Sisters, Sandy advocates for the unique needs of Female Veterans and is a spokesperson for the non-profit organization. Prior to Veteran Sisters, Sandy was the official spokesperson for Naval Base Coronado, the largest Navy base on the west coast where she served as the Public Affairs Officer.  She enlisted in the Navy after working for years as a television producer in Hollywood.  Sandy earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Media Arts at the University of Arizona and earned her Master of Science in Global Leadership from the University of San Diego.