In April 1988, I lived in the dorms at Jacksonville AFB in Arkansas. A male civilian on base raped me. While in the base hospital, he was found on base and told to get off the facility. OSI would not do anything about my rape, therefore I went off base to the civilian authorities and filed charges. Once OSI found out I went off base, my commanding officer filed AWOL charges on me and put me in Community Correctional Facility (CCF).

During this time, OSI would pick me up and keep me in their interrogation rooms for hours. Initially, they wanted to know what happened and then spent their time trying to convince me that I was lying and that multiple individuals had filed reports, stating they saw me having consensual sex with this man.

This went on for weeks, during which the civilian detective had been looking for me, but command would not allow civilian authorities on base to even speak with me. At this time, civilian authorities had found the suspect and extradited him back to Arkansas. I missed the line up, so they had to release him. Eventually, I was released from CCF and moved off base where I continued working with civilian authorities.

The trial date was set in a civilian court, and all of the individuals had retracted the statements they made to OSI. However, all military personnel who were subpoenaed to appear failed to do so. This meant that my medical records with the rape kit results were also not at the trial. The rapist was found not guilty.

My life was never the same in USAF, therefore I put in for an early release and was separated. 24 years later, I am still affected by the rape trauma and the trauma from what happened at the hands of commanders and OSI.