Sexual Assaults in Army Essay Sample

📌Category: Government, Military, Social Issues, Violence
📌Words: 609
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 03 June 2022

Sexual Assault is by far one the Army’s greatest infamies. This is a problem that we, as service members, have tried desperately to resolve. An article written in 2019 by the DOD titled “Department of Defense Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military,” states that in FY18, 24.2 percent of female service members experienced sexual harassment; 6.3% of male service members experienced sexual harassment. In the latest report from FY20 the number of reports is up 4 percent. The purpose of this essay is to address why cases of sexual assault continue to happen in the Army, despite all the training and education that take place.

To discuss the increase in Sexual assault cases, we must examine why it occurs to begin with. In our Army there are multiple types of events and actions that fall under the category of Sexual Assault. Some soldiers would say it is the “cult-like” leadership that seem to devote their entire career into bully lower enlisted. While some of the senior leaders would blame the soldiers due to them not have as much time in service. I personally think the Army’s biggest issue is reprisal. One of the reasons that sexual assault is not a rare occurrence is that these wrong doing men and women know which service members others are afraid to speak out. The reasoning for feeling this way is that we see speaking out as the wrong answer, and more often than not we see careers affected. Some even feel that once you speak out, you become the “problem child” of the unit.

In my short time in the Army, I have probably had hundreds of classes and briefs about the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Program. Most of which have been extremely informative and helpful to not only myself but also to the rest of my formation. Nevertheless, these classes can also be awfully boring and done by the wrong people. For example, if there is an issue within the ranks that the Chain of Command is aware of, then the service member causing these issues should not give classes. By doing this, the soldiers in our ranks tend to feel as if they report something then there will be revenge. There have also been times where the perpetrator ended up getting away with this crime. This turns our soldiers away from speaking out; they feel that without justice there’s no point.

There is a plethora of avenues to eliminate these types of issues all together. Start by making these classes more informative and fresh. Typically it is the duplicate information that keeps service members from learning and this seems to have the instructors just “going through the motions.” As non-commissioned officers in the United States Army, we must live up to our Army Values and creed. If the SHARP Representatives did not receive any kind of reward or compensation for their job, then you could truly see who is doing it. By doing this we could tell the difference between the NCOs that want to and the ones that do it for evaluations. The key to everything in the military is accountability, especially when it comes to Sexual Assault. The creed of the non-commissioned officer clearly states “I will not forget, nor will I allow my comrades to forget that we are professionals, noncommissioned officers, leaders!” To me that means that no matter my, nor your, rank that we will keep each other and ever service member in our formations across the entire Army accountable and safe.

Today, and every day after whether wearing the uniform or not, I will keep myself and other accountable. Moreover, no one in our ranks should ever feel as if they cannot speak out without reprisal. The increase in sexual assault cases is a massive issue and we should be striving every single day to form our Army into a greater and safer place no matter the rank, grade or position.

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