The Military's Dirty Secret

Here's a rather shocking statistic from the Veterans Affairs Department. About 15% of all the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who seek medical care from the VA have experienced some kind of sexual trauma while serving in the military -- ranging from serious sexual harassment to outright rape.

While this is experienced by soldiers of both sexes, it affects about 1% of male veterans. But at least one out of every seven female veterans has suffered sexual trauma. This trauma makes them 1.5 times more likely to need mental health services from the VA.

The survey done by the VA doesn't cover active-duty soldiers, because they don't receive services from the VA. But just think about this. In 2004, there were 212,000 women serving in the military -- about 35,000 were officers and 177,000 were enlisted personnel. I suspect the numbers are even higher today.

Let's take the officers out of the equation (although many of them may suffer the same kind of trauma). One-seventh of the remaining 177,000 is about 25,300. That's a big number to likely be victims of military sexual trauma.

Making matters even worse, the VA says about 40% of the veterans seek help from the VA. They suspect the number that really needs help is probably higher, but many of them are unaware they can be helped.

Frankly, this whole situation is outrageous. I don't think for a minute that the military can't do anything to eliminate this sexual trauma, whether it is harassment or rape or anything else. They simply haven't gotten serious about eliminating the problem.

It is time that we, the American public, let our politicians and military leaders know that we won't put up with this kind of behavior in our military anymore. And being at war is no excuse. Our military women deserve better.