San Antonio Express-News: Military sex offenders rarely punished, while victims are discharged

Karisa King and the San Antonio Express News spent seven months examining how the military treats sexual assault reports, interviewing dozens of victims, advocates and experts and reviewing thousands of pages of military documents. Protect Our Defenders Advocacy Committee members Elle Helmer, Brian Lewis, and Jenny McClendon shared their stories for the series.

On the night she reported that she’d been raped, the colonel at Marine Barracks Washington refused to grant her medical help until she argued that her head injury demanded immediate attention. He agreed to let her go, but only after arranging for her to see a doctor he knew at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

“Don’t say anything else and come straight back,” he told her.

His instructions made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She was put into a car with a captain who was supposed to drive her there. But she insisted he take her to a different hospital at Andrews AFB, where no one connected to the colonel would be awaiting her arrival.

She had a growing suspicion that the Marines she’d been trained to trust with her life did not have her back, and the Marine code of loyalty that drew her into service — Semper Fi, always faithful — did not apply to her, at least not if she spoke out as a victim of rape.

The attack in the major’s office was a betrayal by a superior she had trusted. But she eventually would regard the response from her chain of command and the military justice system as the biggest betrayal of all.

Read the full editorial.