Expert On Gender and Violence To The Rescue

Christopher Kilmartin, a professor from Virginia will spend the upcoming academic year teaching courses on gender at the (USAFA) Air Force Academy to combat sexual assaults.
He is a psychology instructor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., and will serve as a visiting professor at USAFA, teaching "Men and Masculinity" in the fall and "Interpersonal Violence" in the spring.
Neither course is required of students. But so many have registered for the lone section of "Men and Masculinity" that the academy is considering adding another, said Col. Gary Packard, head of the academy's Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership.
"When I looked at his background, he became my No. 1 candidate" for the department's visiting professor position, Packard said. "We need him here to deal with these issues, especially those related to masculinity."
Kilmartin will conduct research and consult with leaders during his time at the academy, Packard said.
Kilmartin has previously worked with the U.S. Naval Academy to revise its sexual assault and harassment prevention curriculum. He also wrote a script for an Army training film on the same topic.
His knowledge of military culture "gives him credibility right from the start," Packard said.
Another trait Packard says will serve Kilmartin well at the academy: his sense of humor.
Kilmartin is also a stand-up comedian.
"I think the cadets will gravitate toward him," Packard said. "More importantly, I think commanders and leadership will connect with him as well."
During Kilmartin's two-plus decades of teaching courses on masculinity, the majority of his students have been females.
That's less likely to be the case at the academy, where the majority of students are male.
"One of the biggest struggles in teaching that area is getting men into the room," said Kilmartin, the author of the textbook "The Masculine Self."
"The way gender roles are constructed, a lot of men don't feel comfortable expressing interest in it. It takes a pretty self-aware man to get interested in gender."
Kilmartin's fall class will examine how masculinity is constructed, how men are socialized and how individuals form gender ideology.
"There's a lot of theory in the first part" of the class, he said. "The second part includes discussion of men's issues: work, mental health, physical health, relationships, sexuality, violence, and contemporary topics like the prison problem, pornography and prostitution."
As part of their coursework, Kilmartin will assign his students to journal about gender stereotypes they observe in their everyday lives.
"It's a really powerful assignment, he said. "By mid-semester, they realize it's everywhere. Then they get mad at me because they think they can't watch TV anymore.
"Before, they tend to look at things uncritically. When they get a new pair of lenses to look at the world, it can be annoying. You can pay a price for it, but it can be of enormous benefit as well."
His spring class will offer an opportunity to examine violence committed by males, a topic that is often overlooked because "people in dominate groups have the luxury of having their identity remain invisible," Kilmartin said.
It will also examine the origins and consequences of, and remedies to, interpersonal violence, he added.
Kilmartin's short-term goal is to increase sexual assault reporting rates at the academy so that perpetrators, most of whom are serial offenders, are stopped, he said.
"I'm not going to come in there and do magic, but I'd like to do something," he said. "Sometimes we forget that these are young adults, that many of them don't have a lot of experience with relationships and sexuality. We forget that because we put them in uniform and they look like these machines and we think they have it all together. But they're kids in some ways. We need to talk with them like kids."
His ultimate goal is to "take a public health approach and reduce the incidence of sex assault at the academy and the military at large."
Arming cadets with knowledge on the topics of gender and violence isn't just the right thing to do, he said.
It's good for their careers.
"We wouldn't dream of sending leaders out into the world without computer skills, management skills, leadership abilities," he said. "There is no way any commander is going to get out in the world and not have to deal with people in his or her command who are women, who are gay men, lesbians, maybe even someone transgendered.
"If you don't understand these different forms of identity and how they play out in your organization, you're just not going to be a good commander."
During the 2011-2012 academic year, sex assault reports involving Air Force Academy cadets increased by about 50 percent over the previous academic year, accounting for the majority of reported assaults across the nation's three military academies, according to a Defense Department report released late last year. (NOTE: West Point, Annapolis, and AFA at Colorado Springs are not the only military academies in the U.S.. There is a Coast Guard Academy at New London, CT..)
Cadets have attended annual sexual assault prevention training since 2005. An increase in reporting rates is a sign that those training sessions are working, victim advocate at the academy told The Gazette in January. (By Erin Prater)

Sexual Assaults In Military Hearings Made Strange Bedfellows

(From left, Judge Advocate General of the Army Lt. Gen. Dana Chipman; Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno; Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey; and Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Brig. Gen. Richard Gross)

Along with Coast Guard Commandant, Admiral Robert Papp, these DOD generals arrived on Capitol Hill in Washington, on June 4, 2013, to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on pending legislation regarding sexual assaults in the military. 

They made their case to keep sexual-assault cases within the chain of command, bringing them into face-to-face confrontation with women in the Senate pushing for changes.

 As allegations of sexual assaults and harassment roiled the military, lawmakers have proposed measures to bolster victims’ rights and encourage them to come forward. Uniformed military officers testifying today before the Senate Armed Services Committee dug in against legislation that would turn over cases to independent military prosecutors.

“The commander’s ability to preserve good order and discipline remains essential to accomplishing any change within our profession,” Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in testimony submitted for the hearing. “Reducing command responsibility could adversely affect the ability of the commander to enforce professional standards.”

Lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives led by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who serves on the Armed Services panel, have introduced legislation that would remove sexual-assault cases from the military chain of command.

“After speaking to victims, they have told us that the reason they do not report these crimes is because they fear retaliation,” Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, told the military leaders at the hearing. “You have lost the trust of the men and women who rely on you that you would actually bring justice” in their cases.

Commanders can’t always be objective, nor can all of them distinguish between a “slap on the ass” and more serious cases such as rape, said Senator Gillibrand.

Victims’ advocacy groups say service members who are attacked often are reluctant to step forward in a system in which commanding officers decide whether to bring charges, choose the military jury and can reduce or overturn a sentence.

While maintaining that sex-assault allegations should remain within the chain of command, Dempsey said those commanders should be surrounded by a “constellation of checks and balances.”

 Leaders of the Armed Services panel backed the officers in resisting Gillibrand’s approach. Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat and the panel’s chairman, said the issue of sexual assaults can’t be resolved “without a culture change throughout the military.” Military commanders must be held accountable if they don’t make the necessary changes, he said.

“The key to cultural change in the military is the chain of command,” Levin said in his opening statement. “Only the chain of command can establish a zero-tolerance policy for sexual offenses.”
The panel’s top Republican, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, said that “rushing” to change the law could be “counter-productive.”

“No change is possible without commanders as agents of that change,” Inhofe said in his opening statement.
Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, said the military must create a climate in which victims are comfortable in coming forward to report crimes.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., grew heated in questioning military leaders during a Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing.

 The Pentagon doesn’t know how many members are raped or sexually assaulted because surveys don’t distinguish between “predatory” behavior and an “unhealthy” working environment, she said at the hearing.

The military has “sexual predators who are not committing crimes of lust,” she said. “This isn’t about sex.” Rather it’s about “domination” and violence, she said.

When asked by Levin, only the chiefs of the Coast Guard and Army said that leaders have been relieved of command as a result of a climate of sexual assault and harassment. (Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Papp relieved a Captain of command in 2010 because of inappropriate relationships.)

The heads of the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force initially said their services haven’t removed anyone. Later in the hearing the Marine Corps commander and the Air Force’s chief of staff amended their comments, saying that their services had taken such action.

All of the commanders testifying promised stronger efforts to combat sexual assaults.

 Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who has called sexual assaults and harassment a ‘‘huge problem,’’ has said ‘‘we’re not taking anything off the table’’ to resolve the problem. Hagel has endorsed legislation barring commanders from overturning court-martial convictions of sexual assaults and other major crimes, a proposal that has gained broad support in Congress.

Hagel told graduates at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point last month that solving the military’s crisis of sexual assaults and harassment will require ‘‘your complete commitment to building a culture of respect and dignity.’’

 Among those in the audience for Hagel’s speech were 15 graduating members of the West Point men’s rugby team. Yesterday, it was disclosed that the team was temporarily disbanded and its players disciplined after they took part in what Francis DeMaro, an academy spokesman, called an ‘‘inappropriate e-mail chain” demeaning to women.

Three football players at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, are under investigation for the alleged sexual assault of a female midshipman.

 An Army sergeant who served as a sexual-assault prevention coordinator at Fort Hood, Texas, is being investigated for allegations including “abusive sexual contact” and “pandering,” according to the Pentagon. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, pandering refers to compelling, inducing, enticing or procuring acts of prostitution.

The head of the Air Force’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response branch was arrested in Arlington, Virginia, on a sexual assault charge. Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Krusinski “approached a female victim in a parking lot and grabbed her breasts and buttocks” on May 5, according to an Arlington County police report. Krusinski, 41, didn’t enter a plea at his May 9 arraignment, when his trial was set for July 18.

In another case that has fueled debate over the military’s culture, the Army is investigating allegations by soldiers that sexual affairs were condoned at Fort Greely in Alaska, creating what they called a “toxic environment” on the remote base.

 According to a unit phone list gotten by Bloomberg News Service, the battalion at Fort Greely has approximately 16 women among its 195 members.  And, the Defense Department reported a survey estimating 26,000 cases of forced sexual activities. This figure is a 35 per cent increase since the last conducted survey in 2011.

 General Ray Odierno, the Army Chief of Staff, called on his men to condone such sexual proposals inside the Army. "The Army is failing in its effort to combat sexual assault and sexual harassment. It is time we take on the fight against sexual assault and sexual harassment."

 The military is investigating at least three cases where army officials are allegedly guilty of assault, mistreatment of subordinates and inducing prostitution.

 The most controversial case was the case of Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Miley, the commander of the Alaska Army National Guard's 49^th Missile Defense Battalion. Confirmation about the case was already released by spokesman for the Space and Missile Defense Command, Marco Morales, but he was mum about the specific details.

 Lt. Col. Miley is the commander of battalion at Fort Greely. The commander, with his battalion, was tasked to defend the U.S. from missile attack.

 In the course of his duty, Lt. Col Miley was reported to create a World War II themed pin up calendar designed with photos of his wife and photos of almost naked female soldiers.

 The pin-up calendar was reportedly sold to acquire funds for the American Cancer Society's "Relay for Life" as reported by the Army Times newspaper in March. According to the report, other military units in the U.S. created and sold such themed pin-ups with photos of military wives and women soldiers to acquire funds for veterans.

 In an internal meeting in January 4 which details were revealed through e-mail by the three anonymous witnesses, Lt. Col. Miley defended himself saying that adultery is not punishable under military law.

 The e-mail alleged that Lt. Col. Miley said that "The modern military is an environment where sexual misconduct is commonplace. A soldier can be charged with adultery only if he or she violates a no-contact order" Lt. Col. Miley refused to comment when contacted about the issue."

 The said e-mail was addressed to Lieutenant General Richard Formica, head of the Space and Missile Defense Command. The e-mail also put emphasis on the fact that Lt. Col. Miley's disturbing sexual activities made them fear for their wives and even their children in this toxic environment.

 The e-mail also revealed that sexual complaints involved non-commissioned officer and enlisted soldiers.

 Mr. Morales said that an informal investigation under Army regulations was already set but that the investigation has no deadline. Only when the investigation was completed that Formica and Brigadier General Leon Bridges, commander of the Alaska Army national Guard, will decide if Lt. Col. Miley will be sanctioned for his alleged sexual conducts.

In a rare joint appearance on Capitol Hill today, June 4, the nation’s military chiefs lamented an epidemic of sex crimes in the ranks but vigorously resisted proposals that would take sexual-assault prosecutions out of the hands of commanders, saying such measures could worsen the problem.

The uniformed leaders of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, in a Senate hearing room with dozens of other military officers, admitted to lawmakers that the Defense Department had failed to effectively prevent or respond to sexual assaults despite years of trying.

Hard Cases Make Bad Law; And, Hard-assed Senators Cannot Change Settled Law.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Claire McCaskill is holding up the nomination of Air Force Lt. Gen. Susan Helms, tapped to serve as vice commander of the U.S. Space Command, until the Missouri Democrat gets more information about Helms' decision to overturn a jury conviction in a sexual assault case.

"As the senator works to change the military justice system to better protect survivors of sexual assault and hold perpetrators accountable, she wants to ensure that cases in which commanders overturned jury verdicts against the advice of legal counsel are given the appropriate scrutiny," Drew Pusateri, a spokesman for the senator, said Thursday 25 April.

In February 2012, Helms rejected the recommendation of legal counsel and overturned the conviction of an Air Force captain who had been found guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a female lieutenant.
McCaskill's hold prevents the Senate from approving Helms' nomination.
The Helms' situation echoes another Air Force case that has outraged members of Congress.

Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin, commander of the 3rd Air Force at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, overturned the conviction against Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, a former inspector general at Aviano Air Base in Italy. Wilkerson had been found guilty last Nov. 2 of charges of abusive sexual contact, aggravated sexual assault and three instances of conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman. The incident had involved a civilian employee.

Wilkerson was sentenced to a year in prison and dismissal from the service, but after a review of the case Franklin overturned the conviction.
Lawmakers demanded a fresh look at the military justice system. Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel recommended that military commanders be largely stripped of their ability to reverse criminal convictions of service members.
McCaskill, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has introduced legislation that would limit the authority of military commanders to overturn convictions.

One bill in Congress would remove control of military sexual assault cases from the pertinent chain of command. U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, a New Haven Democrat, is one of 83 co-sponsors. DeLauro said it would establish “reforms I fear the military cannot make on its own.” It should have been done “years ago,” she said.

The bill would establish an office of civilian and military legal experts to investigate cases, create a reporting method, provide safety to victims, and keep a database from which convictions would be sent to the National Sex Offender Registry.

Another proposal would take the decision away from commanders on whether to prosecute any crimes punishable by sentences of one year or more, not just sexual assault cases. A military prosecutor would make these decisions under the bill spearheaded by U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, (D-NY) and co-sponsored by a dozen other members of the Senate and House, including Democrat U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal. Supporters expressed hope that it would encourage reporting of sexual assaults because without the chain of command involved in prosecutorial decisions, fear of retribution may be diminished.

The bipartisan bill would also remove the authority from commanders of overturning or reducing convictions. In February, an Air Force commander overturned the conviction, prison sentence and military dismissal of an officer found guilty of sexually assaulting a civilian contractor.

In a Federal Court case in New Haven, plaintiffs are seeking data from the military and the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs relating to sexual assaults. The hope is that information obtained can help determine what new laws and policies are needed, said Michael Wishnie, a law professor who supervises the Yale Law School Veterans Clinic. The clinic is representing plaintiffs who include the Service Women’s Action Network, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Connecticut ACLU.

The Military Rape Crisis Center, an advocacy organization, is urging state legislatures to ensure that their National Guard conduct codes allow for adequate prosecution of sexual assault and proper treatment of victims, said Jennifer Norris, a center victim advocate. So far, bills have been proposed in two states, Maine and Louisiana. Maine’s bill, a study, would assess such issues as mandatory separation from the Guard of convicted sex offenders, mandatory insurance coverage for abortion in cases of rape, and required sexual assault prevention courses for officers. In Louisiana, a definition of sexual harassment and assault would be put into its Military Justice Code for the first time.

Nancy Parrish, president of Protect Our Defenders, cited “a pervasive boys’ club mentality” in the military. She said studies show that “in units where sexual harassment is condoned, women are 40 percent more likely to be sexually assaulted or raped.”
 A report in April based on a 2011 Pentagon health survey found that more than one out of five female respondents said they experienced unwanted sexual contact by another service member; and nearly a third of military women with gender-related stress were sexually assaulted while in the military.

 There are roughly 4,500 cadets at West Point. Women have been accepted to the prestigious military academy since 1976 and make up about 15 percent of the cadet corps, while at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT women make up over 30 percent of the corps of cadets.

At the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, many cadets are afraid they will be retaliated against if they report sexual offenses, said Panayiota Bertzikis, executive director of the Military Rape Crisis Center. The center runs confidential support groups for cadets who have been sexually assaulted. Bertzikis said about 40 women and 10 men attend the groups. The women were assaulted by cadets while most of the men experienced sexual trauma before enrolling at the academy.

Coast Guard Rear Admiral Frederick J. Kenney, testifying recently before a Senate subcommittee, said that the academy has “quite a robust training plan in place for the cadets” on the issue, including a Sexual Assault Response Coordinator and a student group trained to confidentially “accompany a victim to a Victim Advocate.” Academy Superintendent, Rear Admiral Sandra L. Stosz, declined an interview.

A Pentagon report released in early May found that the number of sexual assaults reported at military academies soared in recent years, from 25 in the 2008-09 academic year to 65 in 2010-11 and 80 in 2011-12. Reports of unwanted sexual advances also have risen throughout the military, from about 19,000 in 2011 to an estimated 26,000 in 2012, an increase of 37 percent, Reuters reports.
 Advocates note that men are also victims of sexual assaults.

A May Pentagon report shows more men assaulted than women, but a much smaller percentage based on their populations. Some 12,100 women were assaulted out of a total female military population of 200,000, while 13,900 males were assaulted out of 1.2 million military men.

President Barack Obama called a meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and other military leaders to discuss sexual assaults after the scandals discrediting the military's efforts to stamp it out.

Hagel reacted with "frustration, anger, and disappointment over these troubling allegations and the breakdown in discipline and standards they imply," said a Pentagon statement.
President Obama has ordered Hagel to make sure anyone involved in the sexual assaults is held accountable.
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has said the military has had enough time. She plans to introduce a bill this week taking the handling of sexual assaults out of the chain of command and making military prosecutors responsible from the moment an allegation is lodged.
The problem has been around for decades but gained national attention after the Tailhook scandal in 1991, and again in 2003 when Air Force Academy cadets were accused of raping female cadets.

The Few, The Proud, The Brave, Have A Dark Side.

According to Marine Corps lore, semper fidelis, a Latin phrase for “always faithful,” commands Marines to remain a “brotherhood, faithful to the mission at hand, to each other, to the Corps and to country, no matter what. Becoming a Marine is a transformation that cannot be undone and once made, a Marine will forever live by the ethics and values of the Corps.” The Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C., is the official residence of the commandant of the Marine Corps. It is the home of the Marines who are the ceremonial guard for the president during official U.S. government functions and the security force for the White House and Camp David. The Marine Band, also located at the Barracks, is known as “The President’s Own.” The Barracks is the showplace of the Marine Corps with its Silent Drill Platoon giving weekly military precision performances for the public during the busy summer tourist season. But the Marine Barracks has its dark and ugly side. It is also the home of officers and enlisted men of the Marine Corps who have been accused of sexually harassing, assaulting and raping female Marine officers and enlisted and civilian women who work there. According to information provided by the Marine Barracks Washington legal adviser at the request of the Senate Armed Services Committee minority counsel, from 2009 to 2010 three female Marines and two civilian women reported to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) that they had been raped by male Marines. Two of the female Marines held high-visibility jobs at the Barracks and said they were raped by senior officers. During the same period, two other female Marines and two other civilian women reported that they had been sexually harassed by Marines at the Barracks. Advertisement <a href='http://ads.truthdig.com/banners/www/delivery/ck.php?n=abee66dc&amp;cb=2088132457' target='_blank'><img src='http://ads.truthdig.com/banners/www/delivery/avw.php?zoneid=8&amp;cb=2088132457&amp;n=abee66dc' border='0' alt='' /></a> Second Rape Lawsuit Filed Against Marines, Navy and DOD On March 6, 2012, attorney Susan Burke filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of eight military women—four Marines and four Navy members—who said they were raped while in the service. Two of the four female Marine officers served at the Barracks and alleged that they had been raped by Marines assigned there. The two, Lt. Ariana Klay and Lt. Elle Helmer, spoke at a news conference announcing the lawsuit and on national TV shows afterward. This is the second lawsuit filed in a little over a year against the Department of Defense on the issue of rape in the military. The first lawsuit was filed on Feb. 15, 2011, and was brought by 15 female and two male active-duty military personnel and veterans. They accused the DOD of permitting a military culture that fails to prevent rape and sexual assault and alleged that it mishandled cases that were brought to its attention, thus violating the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights. On Dec. 9, 2011, U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady dismissed the suit, saying the sexual assault allegations were “troubling” but that Supreme Court and other court decisions had advised against judicial involvement in cases of military discipline. O’Grady cited Gilligan v. Morgan, decided in 1973 by the U.S. Supreme Court, which determined that “matters of military discipline should be left to the ‘political branches directly responsible—as the judicial branch is not—to the electoral process.’ ” O’Grady said, “Not even the egregious allegations within the plaintiffs’ complaint will prevent dismissal.” The March 2012 lawsuit names current and former secretaries of defense and military chiefs of the Navy and Marine Corps as defendants. It alleges that “Although defendants testified before Congress and elsewhere that they have ‘zero tolerance’ for rape and sexual assault, their conduct and the facts demonstrate the opposite: They have a high tolerance for sexual predators in their ranks, and ‘zero tolerance’ for those who report rape, sexual assault and harassment.” The lawsuit alleges that “Defendants have a long-standing pattern of ignoring congressional mandates designed to ameliorate the armed services’ dismal record of rape and sexual assault. As but one example, defendant [Leon] Panetta [secretary of defense] continues to violate the law requiring the Department of Defense to establish an incident-specific Sexual Assault Database no later than January 2010.” More than two years later, the database still does not exist. “Rather than being respected and appreciated for reporting crimes and unprofessional conduct,” the lawsuit alleges, “plaintiffs and others who report are branded ‘troublemakers,’ endure egregious and blatant retaliation, and are often forced out of military service.” Lt. Ariana Klay According to the lawsuit, Klay, a Naval Academy graduate, served as a protocol officer for the Marine Barracks. She alleges that while there, she was sexually harassed by a lieutenant colonel, a major and a captain. She said she was gang-raped by a Marine officer and his civilian friend, a former Marine. Klay alleges that the Marine officer threatened to kill her and told his friend he would show him “what a slut she was” and “humiliate” her. After she reported the alleged rapes and subsequent harassment, the Marine Corps investigation ruled that she welcomed the harassment because “she wore makeup, regulation-length skirts as a part of her uniform and exercised in running shorts and tank tops.” The Marine Corps did not punish any of those who were accused of sexually harassing Klay. One of her alleged harassers was granted a waiver by the Corps that permitted him to get a security clearance despite accusations of hazing and sexual misconduct against not only Klay but many others. He was selected to be in a nationally televised recruitment commercial while he was still under investigation. According to the lawsuit, the Marine Corps featured Klay’s alleged rapist and a harasser in the Marine calendar. (Page 2) The Marine Corps finally court-martialed one of Klay’s alleged attackers but didn’t convict him of rape, instead finding him guilty of adultery and indecent language (a common escape by military courts from the rape charge). The military court ruled that Klay “consented” to having sex with the men despite the evidence that the accused threatened to kill her. Klay has attempted suicide since the alleged rapes and harassment and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Lt. Elle Helmer In 2005, Helmer was appointed the public affairs officer for the Barracks, the federal lawsuit says. In 2006, she was selected to also serve as the first female “ceremonial parade staff flanking officer.” Helmer alleged that the “selecting” officer, a Marine captain, made continuing sexual advances to her that she reported to the Marine Barracks equal opportunity officer. Nothing was done to stop the advances, Helmer said. Advertisement <a href='http://ads.truthdig.com/banners/www/delivery/ck.php?n=abee66dc&amp;cb=2091544499' target='_blank'><img src='http://ads.truthdig.com/banners/www/delivery/avw.php?zoneid=8&amp;cb=2091544499&amp;n=abee66dc' border='0' alt='' /></a> Another superior officer, a major, required Helmer to attend a “pub crawl” for St. Patrick’s Day that had been endorsed by the unit’s colonel, the lawsuit alleges. When Helmer objected to going, she says the major told her that it was a mandatory work event. The pub crawl involved Marine officers identified by the T-shirts they were wearing going from bar to bar on Capitol Hill drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, paid for by the Marine Corps, the lawsuit says. Helmer says she was required to drink shots of liquor at the same pace as the bigger male officers and when she drank water to try to keep herself from becoming intoxicated, she was required by the major to drink an extra shot as a punishment. Helmer became intoxicated and left the group to find a cab home. She said the major followed her and told her that she must come with him to his office to discuss a business matter. When they reached his office, Helmer alleges, the major tried to kiss her and when she resisted he grabbed her and knocked her over. She says she lost consciousness at that point. Upon regaining consciousness, she said, she found herself lying on the floor in the major’s office, wearing his shorts. He was allegedly passed out on the floor nearby, naked. Helmer left the office and reported to the Marine Command that she had been raped. She alleges the colonel there discouraged her from asking for a rape kit examination, saying it would “be out of his hands.” Nonetheless, Helmer got a medical examination that employed a rape kit. NCIS initially refused to investigate Helmer’s allegations, despite the medical and circumstantial evidence, saying that her inability to recall the incident precluded any investigation. After a delay in which the alleged crime scene was destroyed, NCIS eventually conducted a brief investigation and because of Helmer’s lack of consciousness during the incident concluded that nothing could be done. Additionally, the Marine Corps reported it had lost the Helmer rape kit, the medical evidence allegedly indicating rape. Helmer took the case to the major’s superior officer, who acknowledged that the NCIS investigation was “woefully inadequate” and removed the major from his command. No further steps were taken, the lawsuit alleges. Helmer says the superior officer told her, “You’re from Colorado—you’re tough. You need to pick yourself up and dust yourself off. I can’t baby-sit you all of the time.” Helmer says she was eventually forced to leave the Marine Corps. The alleged rapist remains a Marine officer in good standing. Rape Reporting in the Military The Department of Defense estimates that only 20 percent of military personnel who experience “unwanted sexual contact” report it to military authorities because the accusations can be met with suspicion and the victims can experience retaliation. In 2009, 3,230 service members reported being raped or sexually assaulted, but the Department of Defense estimated that 16,150 actually were raped or sexually assaulted during that year. In 2010, 3,158 military personnel reported sexual assault or rape. The DOD estimated 15,790 were actually raped or assaulted. In addition, in 2010, 68,379 veterans had at least one VA outpatient visit related to military sexual trauma. About 40 percent of those outpatients—nearly 27,000 —requesting treatment for military sexual trauma were male veterans. Retaliatory Culture for Those Reporting Rape The Department of Defense has finally quantified the retaliatory culture of the military. The DOD 2010 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military found that 44 percent of active-duty women and 20 percent of active-duty men who had been victims of sexual assaults or rapes did not report them because “they thought their performance evaluation or chance for promotion would suffer.” Even more decided not to report because they “thought they would be labeled a troublemaker.” Most rapists evade any form of punishment, much less incarceration. The DOD sexual assaults report said that fewer than 8 percent of suspected perpetrators were court-martialed and convicted, while in civilian life 40 percent of the accused were prosecuted. Most military personnel who have committed rape or sexual assault are allowed to be honorably discharged; if they’re forced to retire, they still receive their full benefits. (Page 3) The DOD does not maintain a military sex offender registry that can alert service members, unit commanders, communities and civilian law enforcement to the presence and movement of sexual predators. Military sex offenders are not placed in the national sex offenders’ database created by the Department of Justice. The Navy and Marine Corps give a substantial number of waivers to potential recruits who have criminal records, including felony convictions. A 2007 study found that in 2006 the Marines gave 20,750 recruits (54.3 percent of all those recruited that year) waivers for criminal convictions. In 2005, 20,426 recruits (53.5 percent) were given them. In 2006, the Navy gave 3,502 recruits, or 9.7 percent of those recruited, waivers for criminal conduct. In 2005, it gave them to 3,467 recruits, or 9.2 percent. According to a 2009 study, 13 percent of men enlisting in the Navy admitted that they had raped someone. Of those men, 71 percent admitted to serial rapes. The perpetrators said that they targeted people they knew rather than strangers and generally used drugs or alcohol rather than brute force to incapacitate their victims. Advertisement <a href='http://ads.truthdig.com/banners/www/delivery/ck.php?n=abee66dc&amp;cb=473596470' target='_blank'><img src='http://ads.truthdig.com/banners/www/delivery/avw.php?zoneid=8&amp;cb=473596470&amp;n=abee66dc' border='0' alt='' /></a> What Can Be Done to Stop Rape and Boost Prosecutions? Anu Bhagwati, a former Marine Corps captain and company commander and now executive director of the Service Women’s Action Network, says that the Pentagon’s primary solution for ending rape is through its Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), which has no law enforcement authority to prosecute or punish. She says SAPRO’s messaging to military troops is questionable, including its infamous poster that says “Ask Her When She’s Sober.” Bhagwati strongly believes that the military should have all sexual assault cases handled at the General Court Martial Convening Authority level, where a general officer—with more experience, maturity and impartiality than a junior commander in whose unit the alleged crime occurred—would decide whether they should be prosecuted. Another option is offered in the Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention Act (the STOP Act), introduced by Congresswoman Jackie Speier on Nov. 16, 2011. H.R. 3435 would take the reporting, oversight, investigation and victim care of sexual assaults out of the hands of the military’s normal chain of command and place jurisdiction for them in the newly created, autonomous Sexual Assault Oversight and Response Office, composed of civilian and military experts. Speier has been talking about the issue of rape in the military each week for four months on the floor of the House of Representatives. Because of the reluctance of the military to prosecute sexual predators, Bhagwati also calls for reform to allow service members access to the federal courts for civil redress of these crimes. Currently, service members cannot bring a tort claim in federal court for rape, sexual assault and harassment cases and other crimes and acts of negligence by the military, including medical malpractice and workplace discrimination. There is a pattern of the military using psychiatric diagnoses to get women who report sexual assaults out of the military. According to a Freedom of Information Act request, from 2001 to 2010 the military discharged more than 31,000 service members, citing a personality disorder—“a long-standing, inflexible pattern of maladaptive behavior and coping, beginning in adolescence or early adulthood.” The military considers a personality disorder diagnosis as a non-service-related, pre-existing condition. Veterans Affairs will not provide treatment for a pre-existing condition, and the service members are left without treatment for their sexual assault trauma. Additionally, service members who are diagnosed with a personality disorder and are discharged lose GI Bill educational benefits and have to repay re-enlistment bonuses. Military records obtained by Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic through a separate Freedom of Information Act request show that the personality diagnosis is used disproportionately on women. In the Army, 16 percent of all soldiers are women, but they constitute 24 percent of all personality disorder discharges. Women make up 21 percent of the Air Force but account for 35 percent of personality discharges. In the Navy, women account for 17 percent of the total members but 26 percent of personality discharges, while the 7 percent of the Marine Corps who are female account for 14 percent of the personality discharges. The records do not state how many women were ordered discharged from the military with a personality disorder diagnosis. On April 16, 2012, after pressure during meetings with congressional leaders, Secretary of Defense Panetta said he would ensure that officers of at least the rank of colonel with special court-martial authority would oversee sexual assault cases rather than junior officer commanders. Although reported sexual assaults continue to rise, junior commander-initiated actions to prosecute offenders were down 23 percent, courts-martial were down 8 percent and convictions decreased 22 percent from 2010 to 2011. Panetta also will recommend to the military that special victims units be established to handle the offenses and that National Guard and Reserve members be allowed to remain on duty after they are sexually assaulted so they can obtain treatment and support, which they currently lose when they are removed from active duty. By Col. Ann Wright To learn more about rape in the military, see the film “The Invisible War.” It won the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Ann Wright served 29 years in the U.S. Army/Army Reserves and retired as a colonel. She has written extensively on the issues of sexual assault and rape in the military. She is the co-author of the book “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.”

Jason Frank, and Other Sexual Predators.

File photo of Ensign Jason Frank in rabbit fur cap.

Jason Frank is the Coast Guard's Midnight Creeper. He's a Midnight Creeper and an all day sleeper; a midnight mover and an all night groover.
The 36-year-old Coast Guard officer is assigned to the Command Center Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington DC. He was arrested Aug. 10 after being caught "in flagrante delicto" in the Stafford, Va., in the bedroom of a 14-year-old girl by her mother.

Lt. Jason Frank, of Gaithersburg, Md., allegedly visited the girl’s home on three different occasions and had sex with her at least twice, according to an Aug. 15 Stafford County Sheriff’s Office announcement.

The girl’s mother allegedly found Frank in her daughter’s bedroom in the early hours of Aug. 1. The mother told deputies that after she told the Coast Guard officer her daughter was only 14, he jumped out the window and fled.Informed sources said that Lieutenant Frank met the 14 year old girl in an Internet chat room. He was posing as a 28-year-old.

Frank has been charged with two counts of carnal knowledge of a child (statutory rape), taking indecent liberties with a child, soliciting a juvenile with an electronic device, breaking and entering, vandalism, and misdemeanor assault and battery.

Lieutenant Frank is assigned to the Command Center Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he works in the Command Center, Coast Guard spokeswoman Natalie Granger said Aug. 20.

He previously served on the Coast Guard buoy tender Sundew, homeported in Duluth, Minn.

He is being held without bond at the Rappahannock Regional Jail in Stafford,Va according to Patricia Kime, of Navy Times.

He is a midnight creeper
And an all day sleeper.
He's a midnight rover.
He wanted to look the girl over.
Well he came through her window
And saw her mother there.
He told her he was the midnight creeper.
And she too had better beware.
The 14 year old child could go back to sleeping.
She would have only sweet dreams in her head.
The mother was not half bad either.
Before he left he'd make sure she too was well fed.

Lt Jason Frank's duties at Coast Guard Headquarters Command Center included, among other things: Serving as the primary notification management body for Coast Guard Headquarters, the Command Center is the functional heart of information flow. Operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, there is round-the-clock activity. Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
-Monitor Coast Guard Operations World-Wide
-Brief Commandant and Senior Flags
-Notify HQ Programs of significant events
-Act as intermediary to other federal and state agencies
-Conduct Sensitive Operations
-Prepare all Flag briefing material
-Case File Management
-Review HQ Record Message Traffic
-Record news on CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS
-Recording of all incoming and outgoing calls through the Command Center VOIP Phone System
-Maintain Teleconference System
-Maintain Secure and Non-Secure Video Teleconference (VTC) Systems
-Work with the Department of Homeland Security, State Department and other National Security Council (NSC) members The HQ Command Center Watch is comprised of a Command Duty Officer (CDO), Duty Officers (DO), Chief Petty Officer of the Watch (CPOW), and additional Intel and Common Operating Picture (COP) watchstanders.
(I wonder if he briefed his Superior Officers on the news reports concerning his episodes of "midnight creeping" and all night rambling?)

This year as students return to school in Virginia, there's something new in their curriculum. Virginia is the first state to require public schools to teach Internet safety.
The mandate is in response to concerns about sex offenders and other adults preying on young people they've met through social-networking Web sites such as MySpace. It's one of several steps states are taking to try to protect children and teenagers online.
George Washington High School in Danville, Va., is one of the largest schools in southern Virginia. But there's one thing almost all of its 1,800 students have in common — MySpace pages.
Gene Fishel, an assistant Virginia attorney general, gave a lesson about Internet safety — especially on social-networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Xanga that teenagers often use to communicate, and criminals sometimes use to prowl for victims.
Fishel tells teenagers to follow the same rules online they would in any public place: Don't talk to strangers, don't share personal information, and don't agree to meet people who approach you on the Web. It's a message all Virginia students will hear this year, now that the state has become the first to require Internet safety lessons in school.
Attorney General Bob McDonnell is sending his staff to classrooms across Virginia to warn about online dangers.
"Young kids don't see how they could possibly get hurt at a computer in their own home," McDonnell says. "Parents don't know enough about the Internet to have the conversations they need to have with their kids. And so that's why we're doing this. The key now is education."

At MySpace, the most popular of the sites, chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam says online consent forms would do little to deter predators and could easily be faked.
"The requirement to check against some database that a parent is in fact a parent, that is not something that can be technically implemented because you can never tell who's a parent just by being online," Nigam says.
MySpace says it is pursuing security measures it considers more effective. It's removed thousands of sex offenders from the site, strengthened privacy options and is working on software that allows parents to monitor some of the things their children do online. Nigam says education — not new laws — is the best way to protect young users.
"When you're sitting at a computer, you are not going to see a hand crashing through your monitor that grabs your child and takes him into this nether land of danger," Nigam says. "The real issue is has your teen been educated to make the right decisions online."

Navy Command Master Chief Edward Scott, the former command master chief of Naval Base Kitsap, Washington, was not given an honorable discharge after being convicted of Internet-predator charges in July, as a local newspaper reported, according to Navy sources. Instead, he was given an other-than-honorable discharge.
The Kitsap Sun reported Feb. 16 that former Command Master Chief Edward E. Scott, who was convicted of attempted rape of a child and having immoral communications with a minor and sentenced to nine months in jail, was given an honorable discharge and permitted to retire as an E-8. But Navy sources, speaking anonymously because of privacy laws, report that Scott's discharge as a senior chief information systems technician was not only "other-than-honorable," but he also received an RE-4 re-enlistment code, barring him from ever returning to duty.

Federal privacy regulations protect the details of every service member's discharge. In its story reporting that Scott received an honorable discharge, the Kitsap Sun cited "a report confirming Scott's status that has circulated through the criminal justice system."
Still, that other-than-honorable discharge does give Scott, who served 25 years on active duty, his military retirement pay as well other retiree benefits. The nature of that discharge also qualifies him for benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
VA officials confirmed that for Scott to be stripped of those benefits, his discharge would have had to be "dishonorable or for bad conduct."
Because he is a registered "Level II" sex offender in the state of Washington, Scott does not have unrestricted base access. Per an order from Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter, he is allowed to visit only certain locations on base such as a medical clinic or the commissary, but only if he gives the base advance notice of his visit.
A Kitsap Sun editor, David Nelson, said the newspaper had been in touch with the Navy about Scott's case and that it planned a story explaining the discrepancy between the earlier documents it had reported on and the new information about Scott's discharge.
Scott's story has been widely circulated on military-themed online bulletin boards, where posters have complained that, given his offense, he shouldn't have been given an honorable discharge from the Navy.
"He should lose all pay and benefits and be booted out of the Navy at the lowest possible paygrade," wrote retired Master Chief Aircraft Maintenanceman Emmitt E. Hampton in a letter to Navy Times. "He has disgraced every chief petty officer, past and present."
Scott was found guilty of rendezvousing with detectives in a hotel room for what he thought would be sex with a Navy mother and her two children. He arranged the encounter on an Internet chat-room with investigators posing as the mother.

AND THE BEAT GOES ON..

Petty Officer 1st Class Wilson Medina has been charged with sexual assault of a recruit at the Coast Guard Training Center, Cape May, New Jersey. Coast Guard public information sources did not reveal whether the victimized recruit was male or female.

Following the massive amount of personal information revealed by the Coast Guard Academy in the buildup to the Cadet Webster Smith court-martial, other Coast Guard units have become more discrete in the type and amount of information that is being released to the public in sexual assault cases.

Petty Officer Medina is a company commander at the Coast Guard Training Center at Cape May, New Jersey.

Petty Officer Medina has been reassigned to new duties at the Coast Guard’s only boot camp. The 36-year-old is charged with forcible sodomy and abusive sexual contact.

Officials say the allegation stems from an incident in Medina’s Coast Guard housing unit in November 2007.

Medina and the recruit were off duty.

Authorities said they launched an investigation after the recruit reported the incident in December. That would appear to have been within 30 days of the alleged sexual assault.

The recruit’s gender and name have not been released.

AND THE BEAT GOES on..AND THE BEAT GOES on..

A Navy sailor was sentenced Wednesday to a lengthy prison term for a case involving the possession of child pornography.

Joseph D. Castellano, 25, originally from Georgia, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court to downloading child pornography to his laptop at Oceana Naval Air Station.

The FBI discovered Castellano had downloaded child pornography images using the online peer-to-peer file-sharing program Limewire in early 2007, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

When federal agents searched his computer, they discovered 900 still images and 11 videos of child pornography, the statement said.

Castellano was a petty officer third class in the Navy when he left the service last year after serving six years. His attorney said he earned a good conduct medal while stationed at sea during the war in Iraq .

Also on 13 March 2008, Elmer E. Eychaner III, 36, of Virginia Beach, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after he was caught paying a $79.99 subscription fee to view child porn online, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Eychaner, a convicted sex offender, was arrested last year and pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his home computer.

He last was employed at a Beach self-storage facility.


DRUMS KEEP POUNDING RYTHUM TO THE BRAIN, AND THE BEAT GOES ON..

The United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland announced Friday, 7 March 2008, that two upper-class midshipmen have been referred to an Article 32 Investigation on charges including child pornography and rape:

* Midshipman 1st Class Michael Pollard, a senior, faces charges of attempting to distribute child pornography, obstruction of justice, possessing pornography in Bancroft Hall, making a false official statement and obstructing justice, and receiving and possessing child pornography, said Naval Academy spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson. The alleged incidents occurred between July 2003 and August 2007, according to an Annapolis statement.

* Midshipman 2nd Class Mark Calvanico, a junior, faces charges of rape, unauthorized absence, unlawful breaking and entering into a dwelling with intent to commit rape, and conduct unbecoming an officer. The alleged incidents happened Oct. 14, 2007 according to an Annapolis Academy statement.

Midshipman Pollard’s hearing is scheduled for March 24, and Midshipman Calvanico’s is March 28. Both Article 32 Investigations will be conducted at the Washington Navy Yard, in Southeast Washington,DC, near Fort McNair. This was the same location where
First Class Midshipman Lamar Owens, the former star quarterback at Annapolis,was charged last year with - and later acquitted of - raping a fellow midshipman in her barracks room. While not convicted of the rape, Owens was convicted of two lesser counts: conduct unbecoming an officer (for having sex in the dorm) and disobeying a lawful order (for having contact with the accuser). However, the jury recommended that Owens receive no punishment.

BOYS KEEP CHASING GILRS TO GET A KISS, and the beat goes on.....
NAVY DOCTORS VIDEOTAPE THEIR BLISS, and the beat goes on..

In November 2007, a jury of six Navy captains sentenced CDR Kevin Ronan a 46-month term in the Navy brig and ordered his dismissal from the military. He had been convicted of conduct unbecoming an officer, illegal wiretapping and obstruction of justice. He began serving his sentence shortly afterward.

Navy prosecutors had asked for the 46-month sentence because it was equal to the time a midshipman spends at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
But Vice Adm. Adam M. Robinson, the Navy’s surgeon general, has decided to reduce the sentence.

“The surgeon general said that he believed 24 months was adequate, so he directed that the remainder of that 46 months be suspended,” said a spokesman. “What that means is if Commander Ronan is a model prisoner, then once he reaches that two-year mark, the suspension [of the sentence] will go into effect.”

Vice Admiral Robinson weighed the benefit of keeping CDR Ronan confined for the full sentence, the expense of confinement and a belief that Ronan had been sent a significant message about his actions.

CDR Ronan denied making the recordings during testimony at his trial, but acknowledged he bought an air purifier with a hidden camera. Ronan’s defense was that the tapes were made by midshipmen in an effort to extort money from him.

Before he was sentenced, Ronan expressed regret but did not take responsibility for the tapes. “A crime occurred in my house with equipment I knowingly provided and I take responsibility for that,” he said.

Navy prosecutors alleged Ronan used the camera to tape the male midshipmen having sex with girlfriends or masturbating while they stayed in guest bedrooms at his Annapolis home. The midshipmen were there as part of an academy program that places students in private homes during their free time.

Ronan testified that he bought the device to make sure the students didn’t throw parties while he wasn’t home. He said he tested it once, but later used it only to clean the air in the spare bedrooms, not for taping.

Ronan allegedly began using the camera for taping as early as May 2006. Two men, one a midshipman, the other a former student, found the recordings and turned them over to authorities.
Before he was assigned to the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, CDR Ronan ran the Naval Academy’s student health clinic for four years until 2006. He was also a doctor for several Navy sports teams.

He hosted about a dozen students at his house, mostly as part of the Naval Academy’s sponsorship program.

MUSIC IS A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, ALLOWING ALL TO SING AND CLAP THEIR HANDS,
SEX IS ALSO UNIVERSAL, NEW YORK GOVERNORS CAN JOIN THE BAND...
and the Beat goes on..


Eliot Spitzer was once known as "Mr Clean," anointed by Time magazine as "Crusader of the Year," and talked of as potential presidential material.



Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as New York governor 14 March, is perhaps more likely to be remembered as "Client 9," his pseudonym in a federal criminal complaint detailing the take-down of a high-end prostitution ring.

Born in the Bronx, one of New York's toughest neighborhoods, in 1959, Spitzer first attended Princeton, one of the most prestigious US universities, before studying law at another Ivy League institution — Harvard.

Shortly after graduating, he went on to work at the Manhattan district attorney's office, where he cut his teeth tackling the Gambino Mafia family's hold on the city, before going into private practice.


The salacious details of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's hypocritical, extramarital love life have captivated the media all week of 9-14 March. Had New York's chief executive picked a different day to get caught with his pants down and quit his job, some other prominent resignations might have received more coverage. Apparently, there just aren't enough journalists to stake out the Spitzer's Manhattan apartment, track down his $1 Thousand an hour hooker and cover some other premature exits.




Ashley Alexandra Dupré, the $1000-an-hour prostitute also known as 'Kristen', is the woman at the heart of the Eliot Spitzer scandal. Here’s the fantasy that the prostitution ring, the Emperor’s Club V.I.P., was selling Governor Spitzer about a young woman it called Kristen, who calls herself Ashley Alexandra Dupré: that she was a successful swimsuit model who’d traveled the world (as opposed to a singer getting nowhere with a boyfriend who’d paid her rent); that she enjoyed civilized pursuits like dining at exclusive restaurants (actually, she’s been hoping for work at a friend’s restaurant); and that she liked sampling fine wines (no mention of the drug abuse she’d reported on her MySpace page). The site also described her as 24 (in fact, she’s 22, an age that might have sounded dangerously collegiate to an affluent clientele).
Manhattan federal prosecutors have given Ashley Alexandra Dupré immunity to testify in the investigation of a worldwide prostitution ring.

Tales of the tainted governor took up so much ink and airtime that the potentates of the press didn't even notice the sex scandal that claimed the career of another powerful hypocrite: Tehran's brutal police chief, General Reza Zarei. The general, a favorite of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been responsible for "moral enforcement" of Sharia law, including "dress codes" that require women to be covered from head to toe. The chief "stepped down" after he was caught nude in a Tehran brothel with six naked prostitutes.

High sounding rhetoric appears to go hand in hand with low morals.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE SAILORS GONE?

Sexual favors can move mountains. Women today are using what they have to get what they want. They are being aided and abetted by politically correct and chivalrous news articles portraying them simultaneously as liberated women and defenseless little creatures. Helen Gurley Brown claimed that women could have it all, ‘love, sex, and money’. Due to her advocacy, the liberated single woman was often referred to generically as the ‘Cosmo Girl’. Her work played a part in what is often called the sexual revolution. Brown said that good girls go to Heaven, but bad girls go everywhere. Brown exhorted ambition and assertiveness over men, on dates or on the job. She repeatedly linked careers to single-woman prowess, and both monetary and emotional stability: A single woman is known by what she does rather than whom she belongs to, she writes in Sex and the Single Girl. Strategies to get ahead include flirting with the management and tips on how to ‘mouseburger’ your way to the top. Tactics range from impressing the boss to marrying him. So who's in power -- the exec who seduces, or the men who deliver? Why do women work -- to meet men or outfox them? A man likes to sleep with a brainy girl, she said.



Sadly, today women are finding that they cannot have it all, nor can they have it both ways. They have to be equal and pull their own weight or they have to be ladies in the traditional sense and conform to the Emily Post’s rules of etiquette. They cannot be ladies by day and sluts by night. For many years girls have measured themselves by the standards of debutants. But as the sexual revolution begot working rights for women, the measurements changed. Sexual rites of passage changed, too. Today there are a sizeable percentage of teenage mothers at the high school proms. It is not uncommon today to meet 30 year old grandmothers. That is not a laughing matter, as we've learned to our sorrow and to society's financial pain. Teenage pregnancy is a financial drain on society. Poor women, particularly single mothers, suffer most when such society’s mores change.

Once it was said that the stock market rises and falls with a woman’s hem line. Today women proudly exhibit their navels and lower backs. Fashion reflects the times, and modesty and femininity are anachronisms in a world in which slut is no longer a slur. The New York Times reports that it has become a term of endearment between women friends, a fun word for ladies who lunch. These are the young women who read The Vagina Monologues to each other, reveling in the celebration of their body parts. Helen Gurley Brown calls them flirts. The flirt reacts. She laughs at the jokes, clucks at the sad parts, applauds bravery. I really think it gets easier to flirt as you get older because you learn to listen to any man, employing the same charm and rapt attention you once reserved for seven-year-olds.

Teenage flirts lie a lot about sex. Their bodies, subject to swift hormonal changes, are further manipulated by pop cultural expectations not always of their own making. As society pushes young women to grow up faster, teenagers become more and more sexually active.

Sex has become a useful weapon of choice. Flirts use sex as a weapon. Teenagers trying to enlist in the military use sex as a weapon. Wives use sex as a weapon. Girlfriends, dates, college students, aspiring actresses use sex as a weapon. Radical feminists use sex as a weapon. Waitresses use sex as a weapon. Gays and homosexuals use sex as a weapon. Sorority pledges use sex as a weapon. College co-eds use sex as a weapon. Female graduate school students use sex as a weapon. Cub-reporters looking for a scoop use sex as a weapon. Female private detectives use sex as a weapon. High school girls trying to enlist in the military use sex as a weapon. Underclass cadets use sex as a weapon. Female recruits in boot camp use sex as a weapon.



Military recruiters have increasingly resorted to overly aggressive tactics and even criminal activity to attract young men and women to the battlefield. Grueling combat conditions in Iraq, a decent commercial job market and tough monthly recruiting goals have made recruiters' jobs more difficult. This has probably prompted more recruiters to resort to questionable tactics. There are some 22,000 personnel working for the military's recruiting program, which cost more than $1.5 billion this year. A staff of some 14,000 frontline recruiters must enlist two applicants per month. Given the large numbers of service members Department Of Defense must recruit every year, there is ample opportunity for recruiter irregularities to occur.




More than 100 young women who expressed interest in joining the military in the past year were preyed upon sexually by their recruiters. Women were raped on recruiting office couches, assaulted in government cars and groped en route to entrance exams.
A six-month Associated Press investigation found that more than 80 military recruiters were disciplined last year for sexual misconduct with potential enlistees. The cases occurred across all branches of the military and in all regions of the country.
At least 35 Army recruiters, 18 Marine Corps recruiters, 18 Navy recruiters and 12 Air Force recruiters were disciplined for sexual misconduct or other inappropriate behavior with potential enlistees in 2005, according to records obtained by the AP under dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests.
The AP also found:
-The Army, which accounts for almost half of the military, has had 722 recruiters accused of rape and sexual misconduct since 1996.
-Across all services, one out of 200 frontline recruiters - the ones who deal directly with young people - was disciplined for sexual misconduct last year.
-Some cases of improper behavior involved romantic relationships, and sometimes those relationships were initiated by the women.
-Most recruiters found guilty of sexual misconduct are disciplined administratively, facing a reduction in rank or forfeiture of pay; military and civilian prosecutions are rare.
The Pentagon has committed more than $1.5 billion to recruiting efforts this year. Defense Department spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke insisted that each of the services takes the issue of sexual misconduct by recruiters "very seriously and has processes in place to identify and deal with those members who act inappropriately."
The Associated Press generally does not name victims in sexual assault cases. For this story, the AP interviewed victims in their homes and perpetrators in jail, read police and court accounts of assaults and in one case portions of a victim's journal.
A pattern emerged. The sexual misconduct almost always takes place in recruiting stations, recruiter’s apartments or government vehicles. The victims are typically between 16 and 18 years old, and they usually are thinking about enlisting. They usually meet the recruiters at their high schools, but sometimes at malls or recruiting offices.
"We had been drinking, yes. And we went to the recruiting station at about midnight," begins one girl's story.
Tall and slim, her long hair sweeping down her back, this 18-year-old from Ukiah, Calif., hides her face in her hands as she describes the night when Marine Corps recruiter Sgt. Brian Fukushima climbed into her sleeping bag on the floor of the station and took off her pants. Two other recruiters were having sex with two of her friends in the same room.
"I don't like to talk about it. I don't like to think about it," she says, her voice muffled and breaking. "He got into my sleeping bag, unbuttoned my pants, and he started, well ..."
Her voice trails off, and she is quiet for a moment. "I had a freak-out session and just passed out. When I woke up I was sick and ashamed. My clothes were all over the floor."
Fukushima was convicted of misconduct in a military court after other young women reported similar assaults. He left the service with a less than honorable discharge last fall.
His military attorney, Capt. James Weirick, said Fukushima is "sorry that he let his family down and the Marine Corps down. It was a lapse in judgment."
Shedrick Hamilton uses the same phrase to describe his own actions that landed him in Oneida Correctional Facility in upstate New York for 15 months for having sex with a 16-year-old high school student he met while working as a Marine Corps recruiter.
Hamilton said the victim had dropped her pants in his office as a prank a few weeks earlier, and that on this day she reached over and caressed his groin while he was driving her to a recruiting event.
"I pulled over and asked her to climb into the back seat," he said. "I should have pushed her away. I was the adult in the situation. I should have put my foot down, called her parents."
As a result, he was convicted of third-degree rape, and left the service with an other-than-honorable discharge. He wipes the collar of his prison jumpsuit across his cheek, smearing tears that won't stop.
"I literally kick myself ... every day. It hurts. It hurts a lot. As much as I pray, as much as I work on it in counseling, I still can't repair the pain that I caused a girl, her family, my family, my kids. It's very hard to deal with," he says, dropping his head. "It's very, very hard to deal with."
In Gainesville, Fla., a 20-year-old woman told this story: Walking into an Army recruiting station last summer, she was greeted by Sgt. George Kirkman, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound Soldier. Kirkman is 41.
He was friendly and encouraging, but told her she might be a bit too heavy. He asked if she wanted to go to the gym with him. She agreed, and he drove her to his apartment complex.
There, he walked her to his apartment, pulled out a laptop, and suggested she take a basic recruiting aptitude test. Afterward, Kirkman said he needed to measure her. Twice. He said she had to take her pants off. And he attacked her.
Kirkman, who did not respond to repeated requests for an interview, pleaded no contest to sexual battery in January and is on probation and a registered sexual offender. He's still in the military, working now as a clerk in the Jacksonville, Fla., Army recruiting office.



Not all of the victims are young women. Former Navy recruiter Joseph Sampy, 27, of Jeanerette, La., is serving a 12-year sentence for molesting three male recruits.
"He did something wrong, something terrible to people who were the most vulnerable," State District Judge Lori Landry said before handing down the sentence in July, 2005. "He took advantage of his authority."
One of Sampy's victims is suing him and the Navy for $1.25 million. The trial is scheduled for next spring.
---
Sometimes these incidents are indisputable, forcible rapes.
"He did whatever he pleased," said one victim who was 17 at the time. "... People in uniform used to make me feel safe. Now they make me feel nervous."
Other sexual misconduct is more nuanced. Recruiters insist the victims were interested in them, and sometimes the victims agree. Sometimes they even dated.
"I was persuaded into doing something that I didn't necessarily want to do, but I did it willingly," said Kelly Chase, now a Marine Corps combat photographer, whose testimony helped convict a recruiter of sexual misconduct last year.
Former Navy recruiter Paul Sistrunk, a plant supervisor in Conehatta, Miss., who had an affair with a potential recruit in 1995, says their relationship was entirely consensual.
She was 18, an adult; he was 26 and married.
"Things happen, you know?" says Sistrunk, who opted for an other-than-honorable discharge rather than face court-martial. "Morally, what I did was wrong, but legally, I don't think so."
A nine-year veteran of the Navy, Sistrunk lost his pension and health benefits. His victim, who discovered during a medical exam at boot camp that she had contracted herpes, unsuccessfully tried to sue the federal government.
"In my case," said Sistrunk, "I was flirted with, and flirting, well, that's something I hadn't seen a lot of until I became a recruiter. I had no power over her. I really didn't."
Kimberly Lonsway, an expert in sexual assault and workplace discrimination in San Luis Obispo, Calif., said "even if there isn't overt violence, the reality is that these recruiters really do hold the keys to the future for these women, and a 17-year-old girl often has a very different understanding of the situation than a 23-year-old recruiter."
"There's a power dynamic here that's obviously very sensitive," agreed Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, a group that studies military policy.
"Let's face it, these guys are handsome in their uniform, they're mature, they give a lot of attention to these girls, and as recruiters they do a lot of the same things that guys do when they want to appeal to girls. There's a very fine line there, and it can be very hard to maintain a professional approach."
Weirick, the Marine Corps defense attorney who has represented several recruiters on rape and sexual misconduct charges, said it's a problem that will probably never entirely go away.
"It's difficult because of the nature of nature," he said. "It's hard to put it in another way, you know? It's usually a consensual relationship or dating type of thing."
When asked if victims feel this way, he said, "It's really a victimless crime other than the institution of the Marine Corps. Its institutional integrity we're protecting, by not allowing this to happen."
Anita Sanchez, director of communications at the Miles Foundation, a national advocacy group for victims of violence in the military, bristles at the idea that the enlistees, even if they flirt or ask to date recruiters, are willingly having sex with them.
"You have a recruiter who can enable you to join the service or not join the service. That has life-changing implications for you as a high school student or college student," she said. "If she does not do this her life will be seriously impacted. Instead of getting training and an education, she might end up a dishwasher."
Ethan Walker, who spent eight years in the Marine Corps including a stint as a recruiter from 1998 to 2000, said he was warned.
"They told us at recruiter school that girls, 15, 16, are going to come up to you, they're going to flirt with you, they're going to do everything in their power to get you in bed. But if you do it you're breaking the law," he said.
Even so, he said he was initially taken aback when he set up a table at a high school and had girls telling him he looked sexy and handing him their telephone numbers.
"All that is, you have to remind yourself, is that there's jail bait, a quick way to get in trouble, a quick way to dishonor the service," he said.
All of the recruiters the AP spoke with, including Walker, said they were routinely alone in their offices and cars with girls. Walker said he heard about sleepovers at other recruiting stations, and there was no rule against it. There didn't need to be a rule, he said. The lines were clear: Recruiters do not sleep with enlistees.
"Any recruiter that would try to claim that, 'Oh, it's consensual,' they are lying, they are lying through their teeth," he said. "The recruiter has all the power in these situations."
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Although the Uniform Code of Military Justice bars recruiters from having sex with potential recruits, it also states that age 16 is the legal age of consent. This means that if a recruiter is caught having sex with a 16-year-old, and he can prove it was consensual, he will likely only face an administrative reprimand.
But not under new rules set by the Indiana Army National Guard.
There, a much stricter policy, apparently the first of its kind in the country, was instituted last year after seven victims came forward to charge National Guard recruiter Sgt. Eric Vetesy with rape and assault.
"We didn't just sit on our hands and say, 'Well, these things happen, they're wrong, and we'll try to prevent it.' That's a bunch of bull," said Lt. Col. Ivan Denton, commander of the Indiana Guard's recruiting battalion.
Now, the 164 Army National Guard recruiters in Indiana follow a "No One Alone" policy. Male recruiters cannot be alone in offices, cars, or anywhere else with a female enlistee. If they are, they risk immediate disciplinary action. Recruiters also face discipline if they hear of another recruiter's misconduct and don't report it.
At their first meeting, National Guard applicants, their parents and school officials are given wallet-sized "Guard Cards" advising them of the rules. It includes a telephone number to call if they experience anything unsafe or improper.
Denton said the policy does more than protect enlistees.
"It's protecting our recruiters as well," he said.