US military’s new trauma

The US Army at Fort Hood in Texas has finally tracked down the whereabouts of Sgt Elder Fernandez, but with his soul missing from his body. The African-American – who was a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialist – had disappeared on August 17 once he transferred units after reporting sexual abuse.

While remains of military-woman Vanessa Guillén, sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death at the army post by the fellow soldier, were discovered only after an extensive nationwide online and social media outcry — the vices of harassment and violence are strengthening roots in the US Army.

A DOD report for 2019 said the number of sexual assault victims in the military had increased by 3% to 7,825 — claiming it could not be characterised as a jump in cases. But with no survey conducted or required in the year, the statistics are inordinately shifty and an attempt to whitewash hard truths.

Shattering the findings, the officials of the advocacy organisation said that it “raises more questions about (military sexual trauma) than it answers” and described it as “a version of the military’s #MeToo”. The confutation came in the wake of Pentagon's 2018 survey that shocked and appalled everybody, revealing the attacks on women in uniform had soared by 50% and learning at least 20,500 instances of “unwanted sexual contact” in the year against active-duty men and women.

The issue earlier drew political significance after Republican Senator Martha McSally publicly said she was raped by a senior officer. Her valiant move to expose the abuse of power in American military ranks united the US society except for Congress that remained divided on making changes in the military prosecution.

In its factsheet, another nonpartisan group noted 76.1% victims did not report the crime and of those who did, 59% and 24% were assaulted by a high-ranking official or someone in their chain of command. Reporting a case has a cost so a third of them are discharged after reporting, typically within seven months of making a report.

A drastic fall of 60% in convictions despite a 22% increase in unrestricted sexual assaults since 2015 is clearly an indication of the plummeting trust of victims in their military system and prosecution that fosters the culture of sexual offenses and protects harassers and suppresses sufferers over fears of security, future career and retaliation.

An investigation by Army Forces Command in late June documented that one-third of the women were being sexually harassed on Fort Hood. The survey results elevated concerns among US army veterans who grilled the flawed military justice system and observed: “little has changed in the military in the last 30 years”.

Fernandez and Guillén are not the only service members to disappear and be killed in Fort Hood — 23 deaths have occurred this year — which is telling of how much one of the world’s biggest armies was gripped with a wider range of crimes other than sexual molestation.

A series of tragic episodes pressed Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy to admit Guillén’s slaying was a “tipping point” and Ford Hood had one of the highest rates of murder, sexual assault and harassment in the US military. The manifestations of violence and non-consensual sexual activity additionally forced DOD to hold the transfer of Commander Scott Efflandt and determine his failures.

With this grim situation of a rape epidemic, it is hard for Americans to believe their armed forces, by any means, had developed a better military environment. As two presidential rivals, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, are politicking on a critical national issue, the sexual assaults on low-rank servicemen and women are turning out to be a common practice and blunting the image of the US military at home considerably.