Rank Trumped Rape For Female Sailor To Get Justice

Mother of former Navy sailor opens up about her suicide 
ABC 10 News
Michael Chen
Jun 8, 2015

On a June night in 2011, Cesena shot and killed herself in her Spring Valley home.

SAN DIEGO - For the first time, a mother of a former Navy sailor is opening up and pointing the finger at the Navy's actions in the death of her daughter.

More than a year after Katie Cesena enlisted in the Navy in 2007, her mother says her daughter, serving on the USS Sterett, told her she had been raped by a shipmate in San Diego - the incident involving a knife and a hotel room. “She said she wasn't meant to survive the incident and if it happened again, she would not,” said Cesena’s mother Laurie Reaves.

Reaves says her daughter reported it to her superiors.

“They told her he had been questioned, and she was told, ‘it’s not that we don't believe you, but he outranks you,’” said Reaves. read more here

Young Female Veterans Suicides Nearly 12 Times Non-Veterans Rate

Suicide rate of female military veterans is called 'staggering' 
Los Angeles Times
by Alan Zarembo
Jun 08, 2015

Sara Leatherman in Iraq in 2006. A back injury forced her to leave the military in 2009. She also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Leatherman was 24 when she hanged herself in her grandmother’s shower in 2010.

New government research shows that female military veterans commit suicide at nearly six times the rate of other women, a startling finding that experts say poses disturbing questions about the backgrounds and experiences of women who serve in the armed forces.

Their suicide rate is so high that it approaches that of male veterans, a finding that surprised researchers because men generally are far more likely than women to commit suicide.

"It's staggering," said Dr. Matthew Miller, an epidemiologist and suicide expert at Northeastern University who was not involved in the research. "We have to come to grips with why the rates are so obscenely high."

Though suicide has become a major issue for the military over the last decade, most research by the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department has focused on men, who account for more than 90 percent of the nation's 22 million former troops. Little has been known about female veteran suicide.

The rates are highest among young veterans, the VA found in new research compiling 11 years of data.

For women ages 18 to 29, veterans kill themselves at nearly 12 times the rate of nonveterans.

In every other age group, including women who served as far back as the 1950s, the veteran rates are between four and eight times higher, indicating that the causes extend far beyond the psychological effects of the recent wars.

The data include all 173,969 adult suicides -- men and women, veterans and nonveterans -- in 23 states between 2000 and 2010.
read more here
Linked from Military.com

Salem Virginia PTSD Veterans Sent to North Carolina?

The good thing is that this article points out they are separating types of PTSD finally. Treating them all the same, no matter what the trauma was, didn't make sense for decades. The best-real-experts, have been saying that for as long as they have been researching PTSD and that goes back to about 40 years ago.

The bad thing is, this means that the veterans will be away from their family support.

Salem VA to shift some PTSD patients to North Carolina
Roanoke.com
Luanne Rife

May 28, 2015

The Salem VA Medical Center in July will begin to send veterans with combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder to North Carolina for residential treatment.

The change announced Thursday affects only veterans whose PTSD is considered combat-induced. No changes are expected to outpatient PTSD treatment programs and support groups. Veterans whose PTSD is attributed to other causes, including military sexual assault, can continue to access a residential program in Salem.

Until now, the Salem VA did not differentiate between combat and noncombat PTSD.

“Right now we have an inpatient program that we bring in a big group for a six-week period of time for combat and noncombat PTSD,” said Ann Benois, a spokeswoman for the medical center. The shift requires sorting between the types and sending vets with combat-related cases to a pilot project established at the Salisbury VA Medical Center in North Carolina.
read more here

Air Force Sexual Assault Teams Did Not Follow Rules

Audit: Air Force sexual assault teams skipped training, missed background checks 
The News Tribune
BY ADAM ASHTON
Staff writer
May 9, 2015

Military service members at Joint Base Lewis-McChord frequently participate in sexual harassment and assault training. In January, I Corps Command Sgt. Maj. James Norman participated in a conference for noncomissioned officers. U.S. ARMY — Courtesy

A large majority of Air Force personnel chosen to work with victims of sex assault were not properly trained or did not go through background checks before beginning their assignments, according to an April 2014 audit obtained by The News Tribune.

The results were so striking that the military began making corrections before the Air Force Audit Agency even completed its report, according to the document.

Since then, Air Force officials told the newspaper, they have adopted more thorough training standards for airmen selected to work as sex assault response coordinators and victim advocates.

“That cannot happen anymore,” said Kimberly Dickman, chief of training and development for the Air Force Sex Assault Prevention and Response program.

The audit, conducted in 2013 and early 2014, looked at the qualifications of almost 2,500 Air Force personnel who were chosen to work with victims as sex assault response coordinators or victim advocates.

It found that:
• 117 of them did not participate in initial training before beginning their work.
• 852 of them did not participate in required refresher training.
• 826 of them did not receive the background checks the Air Force is required to conduct.
• 167 of them did not have security clearances.
• Altogether, 1,435 sex assault response coordinators and victim advocates had flaws in their records either from deficient background checks or from missed training.
read more here

Air Force Song Book Includes Raping Women As Fun?

Air Force Songbook Again Cited, This Time in Sex Assault Lawsuit
Stars and Stripes
by Travis J. Tritten
Apr 01, 2015

WASHINGTON -- Sex assault victim advocates on Tuesday again pointed to an unofficial Air Force songbook with derogatory lyrics about women and gay airmen as a reason for filing a new lawsuit against the Defense Department.

The 130-page book was originally made public by an assault victim in 2012 and is stamped with the playing-cards logo of the 77th Fighter Squadron, which is known as the Gamblers and based at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. Despite an Air Force crackdown, advocates claimed too little was done and such songbooks are still being used by officers and commanders.

The lawsuit by sexual assault victims was filed in a Virginia federal court and calls for the DoD to stop using convening authorities to judge whether such cases go to court-martial. As the military struggles with an epidemic of sex assaults, the use of such authorities has brought widespread scrutiny from the public and some on Capitol Hill who say the practice is biased toward perpetrators.

The songbook is part of a continuing culture in the Air Force and military that glorifies sexual violence, said retired Air Force Col. Don Christensen, president of Protect Our Defenders, an advocacy group for military sex assault victims.

"This is something that is used by Air Force officers today," Christensen said. "These are the commanders who sing songs about raping women as fun."
read more here

Military Sexual Assaults Not Forgotten By Vicims

We have unlimited access to knowledge today but if we settle for what some folks want us to know, we won't know much at all. That is the basis behind one issue veterans face after another. Some want to believe PTSD only hits the OEF and OIF veterans. That way they won't have to take a look at how many years this has all been going on while members of congress make a bunch of bullshit speeches that allow bad to turn into worse.

We also see it going on even know with speeches about military sexual assaults, as if anything has changed.

Never settle for what we're being told today without wondering how it got this bad. Reporters have a nasty habit of forgetting who did what and when they did it. Nothing will get fixed unless we really hold folks accountable. Never stop asking questions and when you get the answer, ask for more.

In 2012 there was a case where a female veteran had been waiting years for justice. How long? 50 years!

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A former Marine is coming forward with a painful secret.
An 80-year-old Portland woman says she was raped during her military service — and has been fighting ever since for the veterans benefits she says she deserves.

If you want to know why female veterans are fed up with what has been coming out of congress, begin with understanding this betrayal is far from new. All of these stories are on Wounded Times and when possible the link to the source is provided, still active and you can read the entire story.

2008

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said in a Monday letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates that harassment and assault of military women, especially in combat zones, is a “scourge” that needs to be eliminated.

Casey is particularly interested in how the military handles complaints from women in the National Guard and reserve, whose cases may be harder to investigate than those of women on full-time active duty and in the federal civilian workforce.

In the letter, Casey said he knows the military is trying to do more, but added: “I am still very troubled by a process that may dissuade many victims from ever coming forward with claims.”

From Reuters

Nearly 15 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking medical care from the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department have suffered sexual trauma, from harassment to rape, researchers reported on Tuesday.

And these veterans were 1.5 times as likely as other veterans to need mental health services, the report from the VA found.

2009 New York Times James Dao, veterans had to pay after being assaulted.

The department is required to provide free care, including counseling and prescription drugs, to veterans who were sexually harassed or assaulted while in military service. Sexual assault includes rape and attempted rape.

But the Office of Inspector General at the department found this year that an outpatient clinic in Austin, Tex., had repeatedly charged veterans, mostly women, for those services. Based on concerns that the practice may be more widespread, the office decided to expand its review to a sampling of veterans health care centers and clinics nationwide.

An official in the office declined to comment, saying it does not discuss pending reviews. The official said the review would be made public when it was completed, possibly by October.

In a statement, the Department of Veterans Affairs said the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, which oversees the Austin clinic, was reimbursing patients who had been improperly billed. “Patients seen for military sexual trauma should not be billed for payment,” the statement said. “We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.”

From RawStory report of 2011 based on what happened in 2009 when a female soldier was told by a military Chaplain the rape was God's will.

In February 2009, she reported for active duty training and, upon seeing her rapist, went into shock.

"She immediately sought the assistance of the military chaplain," the lawsuit reads. "When SGT Havrilla met with the military chaplain, he told her that 'it must have been God's will for her to be raped' and recommended that she attend church more frequently."

2011
From Army Times

The House Armed Services Committee adopted a series of new protections when it passed the 2012 defense authorization bill last week, and similar legislation was introduced Wednesday in the Senate by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., one of the cosponsors of the House sexual assault provisions, said introduction of a Senate bill “will help move this legislation closer to becoming law.”

The House and Senate initiatives are similar, drawn from recommendations of the 2009 final report of the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services to fix flaws in the rights and legal protections for assault victims.

Supporters said one in three women leaving the military report experiencing sexual trauma while in the service, but less than 14 percent of sexual assaults in the military are reported to authorities, and only about 8 percent of reported sexual assaults in the military are prosecuted.

2012 From Huffington Post

A U.S soldier committed a violent sex crime every six hours and 40 minutes in 2011, a rate far above that of the general population, the report found.

"This is unacceptable. We have zero tolerance for this," Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, said at a press conference Thursday. "Army leaders take sexual assault seriously."

Chiarelli said the Army was confronting the problem by stepping up surveillance of barracks and cracking down on drug and alcohol abuse, a key factor in sexual assault.

CNN reported that women were being discharged under "personality disorders"

Stephanie Schroeder joined the U.S. Marine Corps not long after 9/11. She was a 21-year-old with an associate's degree when she reported for boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina.

"I felt like it was the right thing to do," Schroeder recalls.

A year and a half later, the Marines diagnosed her with a personality disorder and deemed her psychologically unfit for the Corps.

Anna Moore enlisted in the Army after 9/11 and planned to make a career of it. Moore was a Patriot missile battery operator in Germany when she was diagnosed with a personality disorder and dismissed from the Army.

Jenny McClendon was serving as a sonar operator on a Navy destroyer when she received her personality disorder diagnosis.

These women joined different branches of the military but they share a common experience: Each received the psychiatric diagnosis and military discharge after reporting a sexual assault.

2013

Earlier in the month, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., was one of the first to call for action in light of the Pentagon’s Fiscal Year 2012 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military.

“I am deeply outraged that today’s report released by the Pentagon indicates that sexual assault continues to be so prevalent today in our military,” Casey said in a May 7 statement.

And here we are after all these years.

2014 December report from the Washington Post

A recent VA survey found that 1 in 4 women said they experienced sexual harassment or assault. WASHINGTON — Thousands of female veterans are struggling to get health care and compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs on the grounds that they suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by sexual trauma in the military.

The veterans and their advocates call it the second battle — with a bureaucracy they say is stuck in the past.

Judy Atwood-Bell was just a 19-year-old Army private when she was locked inside a barracks room at Fort Devens in Massachusetts, forced to the cold floor, and raped by a fellow soldier, she said.

For more than two decades, Atwood-Bell fought for an apology and financial compensation for PTSD, with panic attacks, insomnia, and depression that she recalls starting soon after that winter day in 1981.

She filled out stacks of forms in triplicate and then filled them out again, pressing over and over for recognition of the harm that was done.

And the Pentagon released data on Dec. 4 that showed that 62 percent of those who reported being sexually assaulted had experienced retaliation or ostracism afterward.

They have been waiting for someone to change things so that more victims won't have to remember what we've been allowed to forget.

Reservist's Suicide Hits Tampa Hard

Tampa reservist’s suicide brings home tragedy
Tampa Bay Online
By Howard Altman
Published: February 22, 2015

TAMPA — Why?

The story of Brunette’s life speaks volumes about the difficulty of dealing with veteran suicides, say her family and friends.

That’s the question the family and friends of Air Force Reserve Capt. Jamie Brunette are struggling to answer.

At 30, Brunette seemingly had it all. A vivacious and attractive athlete and scholar, she had been lauded by the Air Force for her work in Afghanistan, was a partner in a fitness center about to open in Largo and was known by her family and friends as being the strong one always ready to help others.

But for some reason, Brunette, who left active duty after 11 years last June and joined the Air Force Reserve, couldn’t help herself.

On Feb. 9, Tampa police found her slumped over in the back of her locked Chrysler 200 sedan outside a Harbour Island cafe near her apartment. Police say it appears she killed herself with her Smith and Wesson .380 handgun, which she purchased about six months earlier.

Now family and friends are trying to come to grips with the pain behind Brunette’s effervescent smile that caused her to become one of the 22 veterans a day who take their own lives, according to a 2012 Department of Veterans Affairs study. It’s a problem that’s vexing both the military and the VA, which are struggling to find ways to prevent suicides.

According to a study published this month in the medical journal Annals of Epidemiology, the nearly 1.3 million veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001 and 2007 had a 41 percent to 61 percent higher risk of suicide than the general population, with 1,868 committing suicide during that time period. And while female veterans were far less likely than men to commit suicide, when compared to those who never served, female veterans were more likely to commit suicide than male veterans.
read more here

Air Force Reserve Captain Found Dead in Tampa

Air Force Reserve captain whose family believe she was sexually assaulted in Afghanistan 'killed herself with her handgun' 
Air Force Reserve Capt. Jamie Brunette was found dead on February 9 by Tampa police in the back of her locked car near her apartment in Florida
Police say it appears she killed herself with her handgun
Sister believes something traumatic happened to her in Afghanistan
Her family do not have any evidence of a sexual assault
Daily Mail
By JILL REILLY FOR MAILONLINE
22 February 2015

Air Force Reserve Capt. Jamie Brunette was found dead on February 9 by Tampa police in the back of her locked Chrysler 200 sedan near her apartment

An Air Force Reserve captain whose family believe she was sexually assaulted in Afghanistan killed herself using her handgun. Jamie Brunette, from Tampa, Florida, was found dead on February 9 by Tampa police in the back of her locked sedan near her apartment. It appears the 30-year-old killed herself with her Smith and Wesson .380 handgun, which she purchased about six months earlier according to police, reports the Tampa Tribune. read more here

Air Force Captain "groping her while she was coming out of anesthesia"

Air Force captain says airman assaulted her after surgery 
By Sig Christenson
San Antonio Express-News (Tribune News Service)
Published: January 6, 2015

Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, is seen on July 1, 2009. An Air Force captain testified in a court hearing Monday Jan. 5, 2015, that an airman at the hospital serving as a medical technician sexually assaulted her after she came out of surgery. The airman is accused of improperly touching three patients in June 2013. JOSIE KEMP/U.S. AIR FORCE

An Air Force captain Monday accused an enlistee of groping her while she was coming out of anesthesia at a San Antonio military hospital — a claim that two other women have made as well. 

The woman said a medical technician at Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center grabbed her breasts after an outpatient procedure.

Not long after that, she said, Airman 1st Class Michael Lightsey assaulted her sexually with his fingers, prompting her to twist away from him on the gurney. At one point, she wanted to scream. “I was very upset and shocked and angered,” said the captain, a 14-year veteran who was a day patient at Wilford Hall. “I was thinking I didn’t know what to do, but I didn’t want him to do it again.” 

Lightsey is accused of improperly touching three patients in June 2013 while with the 59th Medical Wing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. A medical technician, he faces four specifications of causing bodily harm for what the Air Force called “self-sexual gratification stemming from incidents that occurred in the summer of 2013.”
read more here

1 in 4 women veterans experienced sexual harassment or assault

It is a good time to look back at Victim advocates want radical overhaul in handling of military sex assaults on Stars and Stripes By Leo Shane III Published: December 29, 2011 after reading this to see that not much has changed since then.

Vets fight for care following sex traumas
WASHINGTON POST
By Emily Wax-Thibodeaux
DECEMBER 28, 2014

A recent VA survey found that 1 in 4 women said they experienced sexual harassment or assault.

WASHINGTON — Thousands of female veterans are struggling to get health care and compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs on the grounds that they suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by sexual trauma in the military.

The veterans and their advocates call it the second battle — with a bureaucracy they say is stuck in the past.

Judy Atwood-Bell was just a 19-year-old Army private when she was locked inside a barracks room at Fort Devens in Massachusetts, forced to the cold floor, and raped by a fellow soldier, she said.

For more than two decades, Atwood-Bell fought for an apology and financial compensation for PTSD, with panic attacks, insomnia, and depression that she recalls starting soon after that winter day in 1981. She filled out stacks of forms in triplicate and then filled them out again, pressing over and over for recognition of the harm that was done.

And the Pentagon released data on Dec. 4 that showed that 62 percent of those who reported being sexually assaulted had experienced retaliation or ostracism afterward. read more here

Shocked and offended by explicit questions on military sexual assault survey

Military sex-assault survey asking explicit questions draws complaints
The Associated Press
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Published: October 31, 2014

WASHINGTON — Shocked and offended by explicit questions, some U.S. servicemen and women are complaining about a new sexual-assault survey that hundreds of thousands have been asked to complete.

The survey is conducted every two years. But this year's version, developed by the Rand Corp., is unusually detailed, including graphically personal questions on sexual acts.

Some military members told The Associated Press that they were surprised and upset by the questions, and some even said they felt re-victimized by the blunt language. None of them would speak publicly by name, but Pentagon officials confirmed they had received complaints that the questions were "intrusive" and "invasive."

The Defense Department said it made the survey much more explicit and detailed this year in order to get more accurate results as the military struggles to reduce its sexual assaults while also encouraging victims to come forward to get help.

The survey questions, which were obtained by The Associated Press, ask about any unwanted sexual experiences or contact, and include very specific wording about men's and women's body parts or other objects, and kinds of contact or penetration.
read more here

CeeLo Green dropped from Navy concert over rape remarks

CeeLo Green dropped from Navy concert over rape remarks
Stars and Stripes
By Erik Slavin
Published: September 8, 2014

Performer CeeLo Green has been dropped from a Navy-sponsored concert after posting comments about sexual assault on Twitter, according to a Navy Morale, Welfare and Recreation statement.

Green was scheduled to sing at Naval District Washington’s Freedom Live concert Sept. 20, but the Navy reconsidered after a series of tweets on what constitutes rape.

“People who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!” Green wrote Sept. 2, according to tweets that were captured by several websites.

Green also reportedly wrote that “if someone is passed out they’re not even WITH you consciously! so WITH implies consent.”

Green, who has been a contestant coach on the television show “The Voice,” made the comments after pleading no contest Aug. 29 to a charge of supplying a woman with the drug Ecstasy in 2012, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

The victim stated that she shared a drink with Green in a restaurant and woke up the next morning with no memory of the previous night, according to the Times.
read more here

Alaska National Guard Chief Forced Out

Alaska National Guard chief ousted in wake of scathing report
Los Angeles Times
By Maria L. La Ganga
Published: September 5, 2014

Investigators reviewed 37 reports of sexual assault. Of those, 20 were investigated by local law enforcement officials, who decided not to prosecute in 16 cases. In only one instance did the National Guard leadership decide to “pursue administrative action” against a suspect if local authorities refused.

SEATTLE (MCT) — The Alaska National Guard’s commander was forced to resign after a six-month federal investigation found that some members of the Guard had been ostracized and abused after reporting sexual assaults and that Guard members lacked trust and confidence in their leaders.

Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell asked the National Guard Bureau Office of Complex Investigations to conduct the review.

After receiving the report, he requested the resignation of Maj. Gen. Thomas H. Katkus, who also served as commissioner of the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

The scathing 229-page report, released late Thursday, found that complaints by some sexual assault victims before 2012 were not properly documented, that the victims were not referred to victim advocates, that their confidentiality was breached and that “in some cases, the victims were ostracized by their leaders, peers and units.”

Noting that the report found more than 200 reports of discrimination and sexual harassment over the last year, U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, called it “shocking in its documentation of widespread sexual assault, discrimination, retaliation and tolerance of wrongdoing, especially at the highest levels in the Guard.”
read more here

Ex-Air Force instructor found dead in Fort Leavenworth cell

Ex-Lackland instructor dead in apparent suicide
My San Antonio
BY SIG CHRISTENSON
SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-News
Air Force Staff Sgt. Luis Walker arrives for the fourth day of his trial at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland on Friday, July 20, 2012.

SAN ANTONIO — A former Air Force basic training instructor who was found guilty of rape and other sexual misconduct charges two years ago at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland died Sunday after hanging himself in his prison cell, Air Force officials said.

Airman Basic Luis Walker, 28, was found in his cell Friday at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks on Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He was taken to a Kansas City, Missouri, hospital, where he died Sunday night..

The Disciplinary Barracks did not respond to emails or phone calls, but the Air Education and Training Command said Tuesday it had been notified of his death.
read more here

Two Star General Retires Less of a Star

Army Knocks 2-Star Down to 1-Star Rank
Associated Press
by Robert Burns
Aug 27, 2014

WASHINGTON — A two-star Army general faulted for failing to properly investigate sexual assault and other accusations against a colonel on his staff will be retired at one-star rank, the Army announced Wednesday.

The decision by Army Secretary John M. McHugh comes more than a year after Maj. Gen. Michael T. Harrison was suspended from his duties as commander of U.S. Army forces in Japan.

His case has been cited as evidence of why sex-crime victims say they don't trust the military to protect them, despite efforts by senior Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, to make commanders accountable.

In March the Pentagon turned back an effort in Congress to strip commanders of the authority to prosecute cases, especially those related to sexual assault, and hand the job to seasoned military lawyers.

An Army inspector general's investigation report released in April said that in March 2013, when a Japanese woman accused the unidentified colonel on Harrison's staff of sexually assaulting her, Harrison waited months to report it to criminal investigators. That was a violation of Army rules.
read more here

Evicted PTSD Veteran With Service Dog Win In Court

Condo Must Pay For Causing Dog's Eviction
Courthouse News
By JACK BOUBOUSHIAN
August 29, 2014

(CN) - A condo association must pay $5,000 in damages, plus $127,000 in attorneys' fees, for insisting that a veteran with PTSD get rid of his emotional support dog, the 11th Circuit ruled.

Ajit Bhogaita is a U.S. Air Force veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after he was sexually assaulted during his military service.

In 2001, he bought a condo unit in Altamonte Springs, Florida.

The condo association prohibits keeping dogs weighing more than 25 pounds, but Bhogaita bought a dog, Kane, in 2008 that was over the weight limit.

"Bhogaita's psychiatric symptoms improved with Kane's presence, so much so that Bhogaita began to rely on the dog to help him manage his condition," according to the judgment.

When the association ordered him to get rid of Kane two years later, Bhogaita argued that the dog was an emotional support animal, and filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

After a civil trial, a jury awarded Bhogaita $5,000 in compensatory damages for the Association's refusal to accommodate his disability. The court also awarded him $127,000 in attorneys' fees.
read more here

Army sexual assault prosecutor accused of doing it

Army reprimands former sexual assault prosecutor
Stars and Stripes
By Chris Carroll
Published: July 18, 2014

WASHINGTON — The Army’s former lead special victims prosecutor was relieved of his duties last month after an investigation into a claim by a fellow Army sexual assault prosecutor that he had groped her during Washington-area legal conference on sexual crimes.

Lt. Col. Jay Morse has received a general letter of reprimand in connection with the case, normally a career-ending administrative action, but is not being criminally charged, an Army official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said.

Morse, the former head of the Army’s Trial Counsel Assistance Program who supervised nearly two dozen other prosecutors who focused on sexual crimes, has maintained he is innocent of the allegations but has told the Army he will soon retire.

The Washington Post was first to report the Morse reprimand. Stars and Stripes reported the allegations in March after Morse was suspended after a fellow prosecutor said he’d tried to kiss her and grab her buttocks against her will.

The sexual assault was alleged to have taken place on March 3, 2011, in a hotel room.
read more here

VA Priority Access Vortex

Recent headline

On May 15, 2014, VHA had over 6 million appointments scheduled across the system. Nationwide, there are roughly 57,436 Veterans who are waiting to be scheduled for care and another 63,869 who over the past ten years have enrolled in our healthcare system and have not been seen for an appointment. VA is moving aggressively to contact these Veterans through the Accelerating Access to Care Initiative.

Why?

The number of veterans using VA’s health care system has risen dramatically in recent years, increasing from 2.9 million in 1995 to 5 million in 2003. Unable to completely absorb this increase, VA began 2003 with more than 280,000 veterans on waiting lists to receive medical care. In addition, a new regulation giving priority access for severely disabled veterans was implemented for those veterans with service-connected disabilities rated 50 percent or greater. This new priority includes hospitalization and outpatient care for both service-connected and nonservice-connected treatment. In 2004, VA will provide priority access to other veterans for their service-connected conditions.

Recent headline

According to 2012 VA statistics, one in five female veterans and one in 100 male veterans reported some type of sexual abuse while in the military. From fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2013, veterans filed more than 29,000 claims for disabilities related to military sexual trauma, with most attributing post-traumatic stress disorder to the abuse.

Under VA rules, military sexual trauma by itself is not grounds for a disability claim. But veterans can receive compensation for “physical or mental health disabilities caused or aggravated” by sex assaults.

Why?
Reported by Reuters in 2008

Nearly 15 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking medical care from the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department have suffered sexual trauma, from harassment to rape, researchers reported on Tuesday.

And these veterans were 1.5 times as likely as other veterans to need mental health services, the report from the VA found.

"We are, in fact, detecting men and women who seem to have a significant need for mental health services," said Rachel Kimerling of the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System in California.

The study, presented at a meeting of the American Public Health Association in San Diego, raises many questions.

Kimerling said in a telephone interview the term "military sexual trauma" covers a range of events from coerced sex to outright rape or threatening and unwelcome sexual advances.

A spokeswoman for the VA said about 40 percent of all discharged veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have sought medical care of some sort from the VA, which has a universal screening program for military sexual trauma.

They knew but didn't care enough to fix it.

UPDATE
How many more years of their ranting are we willing to take? They didn't fix it before and have not taken responsibility for their failures. Nothing will change unless they actually start to value the veterans they want votes from in an election year.

Congress moving to ensure speedier care for veterans
The Associated Press
By MATTHEW DALY and ALAN FRAM
Published: June 10, 2014

WASHINGTON — United in response to a national uproar, Congress is suddenly moving quickly to address military veterans' long waits for care at VA hospitals.

The House unanimously approved legislation Tuesday to make it easier for patients enduring lengthy delays for initial visits to get VA-paid treatment from local doctors instead. The Senate was poised to vote on a similar bill within 48 hours, said Democratic leader Harry Reid.

The legislation comes close on the heels of a Veterans Affairs Department audit showing that more than 57,000 new applicants for care have had to wait at least three months for initial appointments and an additional 64,000 newly enrolled vets who requested appointments never got them.

"I cannot state it strongly enough - this is a national disgrace," said Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chief author of the House legislation.
read more here

DOD discharging victims of sexual assaults under personality disorders

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 27, 2014

Members of Congress pretended military sexual assaults were taken seriously for too many years for it to still be this bad.

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said in a Monday letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates that harassment and assault of military women, especially in combat zones, is a “scourge” that needs to be eliminated.

Casey is particularly interested in how the military handles complaints from women in the National Guard and reserve, whose cases may be harder to investigate than those of women on full-time active duty and in the federal civilian workforce.

In the letter, Casey said he knows the military is trying to do more, but added: “I am still very troubled by a process that may dissuade many victims from ever coming forward with claims.”
(Senator: DoD must eliminate sexual assaults, By Rick Maze - Staff writer, Jul 14, 2008)

That was 2008, followed by this in 2009 when a female soldier went to a Chaplain after being raped and was told it must have been God's will for it to happen to her.

In February 2009, she reported for active duty training and, upon seeing her rapist, went into shock.

"She immediately sought the assistance of the military chaplain," the lawsuit reads. "When SGT Havrilla met with the military chaplain, he told her that 'it must have been God's will for her to be raped' and recommended that she attend church more frequently."

The complains adds that "SGT Havrilla suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic depression."

Followed by this in 2011

The House Armed Services Committee adopted a series of new protections when it passed the 2012 defense authorization bill last week, and similar legislation was introduced Wednesday in the Senate by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., one of the cosponsors of the House sexual assault provisions, said introduction of a Senate bill “will help move this legislation closer to becoming law.”

The House and Senate initiatives are similar, drawn from recommendations of the 2009 final report of the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services to fix flaws in the rights and legal protections for assault victims.

Just a refresher for you to consider when you read the latest news out of Congress and the DOD,

Lawmaker claims Pentagon using new diagnosis to drive out sex assault accusers
FoxNews.com
Published May 27, 2014

Supporters said one in three women leaving the military report experiencing sexual trauma while in the service, but less than 14 percent of sexual assaults in the military are reported to authorities, and only about 8 percent of reported sexual assaults in the military are prosecuted.

Lawmakers have expressed fears that the Defense Department is using a new disorder diagnosis to remove accusers in sexual assault cases from the military.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., has accused the Pentagon of diagnosing troops who report that they were sexually assaulted with adjustment disorder and having them discharged. Speier told the Times that the practice is a new tactic for the military, which previously diagnosed service members tied to sexual assault cases with personality disorder.

"It’s like a 'Whac-A-Mole,'" Speier told the paper. "Every time we shut them down on something, they'll find a way around it."

The Times report cites a study from Yale University Law School that reports that the number of discharges due to personality disorder dropped from more than 1,200 in fiscal year 2007 to just over 100 in fiscal year 2009. Over the same period, the paper says, adjustment disorder discharges increased sevenfold.
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Veterans Groups "1 in 3 women are raped during military service"

Vets Claim Nearly 1 in 3 Women Are Raped During Military Service
Courthouse News
By RYAN ABBOTT
May 5, 2014

WASHINGTON (CN) - The Department of Veterans Affairs refuses to respond to a rulemaking petition addressing the alarming numbers of rape and sexual assaults in the U.S. military, two veterans' groups claim in court.

The Service Women's Action Network and Vietnam Veterans of America filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, claiming that Veterans Affairs (VA) constructively denied their petition seeking to ease the administrative burdens of rape victims looking for benefits.

"Widespread rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment plague the military, threatening the strength of the armed forces, undermining national security, and destroying the lives of survivors and their families," the petition states.

"Nearly one in every three women is raped during her service and more than half experience unwanted sexual contact."

The petition continues: "Moreover, of the 26,000 service members who reported unwanted sexual contact in 2011-12, fifty-two percent were men. These assaults often result in devastating, long-term psychological injuries, most notably Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ('PTSD'). Sexual violence correlates with PTSD more highly than any other trauma, including combat."
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