Stars and Stripes: After 2 decades of sexual assault in military, no real change in message
Stars and Stripes reports:
Critics say that after each sexual abuse scandal, military officials have resisted reforms, insisted they knew best how to fix things, then done little, proclaimed victory and waited for public attention to move elsewhere.
“This epidemic has persisted for at least 20 years and probably four decades,” said Nancy Parrish, president of Protect Our Defenders, an advocacy group for military sexual assault victims. “Nothing has changed.”
Until the 1991 Tailhook Convention, there was little public awareness that military women could be at risk from their brothers in arms.
At a reunion of retired and active-duty Navy aviators at a Las Vegas hotel, scores of women were assaulted. Some victims were passed through a hallway gantlet of men who ripped off their clothes and groped them, with the Navy’s top brass doing nothing to stop them.
The initial Navy investigation blamed a few lower-ranking men, and the rear admiral in charge of the investigation said he believed that many female Navy pilots were “go-go dancers, topless dancers or hookers,” according to a Pentagon report.
