Statement on Air Force Email
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 16, 2012
Contact: Brian Purchia, brian@protectourdefenders.com
***STATEMENT***
STATEMENT FROM PROTECT OUR DEFENDERS PRESIDENT NANCY PARRISH ON AIR FORCE EMAIL ON LACKLAND SEXUAL ABUSE SCANDAL
Washington DC – Today, the Air Force sent an email to current and former members of the Air Force who attended basic training or technical school at Lackland Air Force during the past 10 years, as part of its internal investigation into the sexual abuse scandal. The email asks servicemembers to report any incidents of “sexual assaults, sexual misconduct or unprofessional relationships” that occurred at the base in San Antonio. The Air Education and Training command announced it has set-up a 24-hour hotline for anonymous tips. Protect Our Defenders President Nancy Parrish released the following statement in response.
“This is a good step, but Air Force leadership must do more if they are serious about tackling the epidemic of unpunished sexual assault in our armed forces. Hotlines are good but they have limited effect. The Air Force needs to do a thorough review of military sexual assault and harassment case files and then go to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and ask the VA to contact all Air Force MST (Military Sexual Trauma) survivors who have come to the VA for care.
The Air Force should work with the VA to encourage victims, most of whom did not report their assaults and who do not have formal cases to come forward and help the investigation. In 2010, the VA reported that there were 696,250 MST-related encounters with veterans. Of those veterans who came to the VA for Mental Health care, 54% of women and 38% of men had at least one encounter related to MST.
The scandal at Lackland was not the result of just a few bad apples — it is about the command climate and the culture. Until commanders, who fail to take strong effective action have their careers ended and the DOD installs effective investigation, prosecution and victims protection there will be little, if any, real improvement.
As long as the current culture exists and superiors and peers don’t react with swift and effective action to appropriately punish perpetrators, then the effect of superficial changes will be minimal and constitute nothing more than kicking the can down the road.
Almost all of the perpetrators throughout all of the services remain unidentified and of the small percentage, which has been reported, almost none have been effectively prosecuted and appropriately punished.”
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About Protect Our Defenders: Protect Our Defenders is a human rights organization. We seek to honor, support and give voice to the brave women and men in uniform who have been sexually assaulted while serving their country, and re-victimized by the military adjudication system – a system that often blames the victim and fails to prosecute the perpetrator. Learn more about Protect Our Defenders at www.protectourdefenders.com or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/ProtectOurDefenders or follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ProtectRDfnders.
Protect Our Defenders collaborates with Attorney Susan Burke, Burke PLLC to advance lawsuits filed against the DoD and service academies for repeatedly ignoring rape, sexual assault and harassment, failing to prosecute perpetrators and retaliating against the victim.
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