āThe moment a man enlists in the United States armed forces, his chances of being sexually assaulted increase by a factor of ten. Women, of course, are much more likely to be victims of military sexual trauma (MST), but far fewer of them enlist. In fact, more military men are assaulted than womenā nearly 14,000 in 2012 alone.ā
āMilitary culture is built upon a tenuous balance of aggression and obedience. The potential for sexual violence exists whenever there is too much of either.ā
āTrent Smith, Air Force, enlisted 2011: āHe was a senior aideā he had a direct line to the top. Being invited voer to his house, I just took it as I should go. Looking back, I as myself, Why didnāt you do anything? It wasnāt like he held me down or tied me up. I didnāt want to cross him. I really didnāt feel like I had any choice. I had just turned 19. It could be my career. I froze and went along with it.āā
āRsearch suggests that the military brass may have conspired to illegally discharge MST victims by falsely diagnosing them with personality disorders. āThe military has a systemic personality disorder discharge problem,ā write the authors of a 2012 Yale Law School white paper. Between 2001 and 2010, some 31,000 servicepersons were involuntarily discharged for personality disorders. It is likely that in many cases these were sham diagnoses meant to rid the ranks of MST victims.ā
āJeremy Robinson [name changed], Army, 1970-1972: āI have very little memory of my time in the psychiatric ward, because I was so heavily drugged. I stopped eating. I became suicidal, and I made three attempts. They gave me shock treatments against my will. The diagnosis was paranoid schizophrenia. I bore that label for forty years before the VA finally admitted they had misdiagnosed me.āā
āAbove all, MST victins keep quiet because they do not believe their attackers will be punished. And theyāre almost certainly right. The conviction rate in MST cases that go to trial is just 7 percent. An estimated 81% of male MST victims never report being attacked. Perhaps it should astonish us that any of them do.ā
āMike Thomson, Marines, 1997-1999: āI wasnāt āafraidā to report itā I was ashamed and disgusted. Guys arenāt supposed to be raped. I didnāt want to tell anybody about it. I didnāt want to say anything.āā
āMen develop PTSD from sexual assault at nearly twice the rate they do from combat. Yet as multiple research papers have noted, the condition in men is egregiously understudied. This is because so few men tell anyone. Those who do often wait years; many male participants in therapy groups are veterans of Korea and Vietnam. At Bay Pinesā C. W. Bill Young VA Medical Center in Florida, the countryās first residential facility for men suffering from MST, the average patient is over 50 years old at admission.ā
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