Yesterday, I received this sad email that I copy in below. I append my response below it.
Kate -
I served as a Lance Corporal in the Marines for over three years. During that time, I was raped twice and sexually assaulted twice more. It happened so often that I assumed it must be normal.
After I left the Marines, I learned that some studies estimate that more than half of all women who serve in the US military are raped during their service. But according to current military law, military rapists are not required to list their crimes on their discharge papers or to register as sex offenders.
I don’t think it’s right that convicted sex offenders get to wipe their records clean when they leave the military. That’s why I started a petition on Change.org demanding that the Department of Defense require convicted sex offenders to register on a national database, as well as disclose this information on their discharge papers — will you sign it?
When I tried to find out why military sex offenders don’t have to disclose their crimes on their discharge papers, I was told it would take too long to create a national database, and even that the military is trying to “go green,” and it takes too much paper to add an extra checkbox to discharge papers.
The truth is that most military sex offenders never have to pay for their crimes. Studies say that only 14% of rapes in the military are reported, and only 8% result in a court martial. And those who do get convicted get to wipe their records clean as soon as they leave the military.
When I tried to report what happened to me, I was led through a maze of questions and excuses. It felt like no one wanted to hear what happened to me. Instead of getting justice, I was ostracized and humiliated. But I’m not going to stand by in silence anymore. I know that if enough people sign my petition, the Department of Defense will be forced to address this issue.
Click here to sign my petition demanding that the Department of Defense register soldiers convicted of sexual assault in military courts in a national database, as well as disclose this information on their discharge papers.
Thank you,
Lance Corporal Nicole McCoy
Dear Nichole McCoy,
I know this is not the response you want, but as appalling as I find your story, as pitiable and as moving as it truly is, what it inspires me to say is that women do not belong in the military alongside men. Too many men have too little self-control. To prosecute every charge of rape if half of all women serving in the military are raped means that we either must stop having military service or that those women do not belong where they are. What you propose will not prevent those rapes from occurring.
I am sorry for what happened to you. I don’t know how you endured it and did not report the men who raped and assaulted you. I fear that it is truly normal, that the men who rape their female comrades in arms do so again and again without punishment. That they get away with it encourages others to do the same. Proving the crimes, if so few women report and if consensual sex also occurs, must be very difficult. What you are demanding is far too little and far too late to do much good as far as crime prevention is concerned.
Your petition and letter suggest to me that women in the military has been a horrible mistake. If women would be like men, then their attitude towards sex acts must change accordingly. That would be a great pity, wouldn’t it?
I’ve had veterans in my classes, both female and male, who describe or acknowledge this as a problem, respectively. Therefore, I believe the premise of the petition, that rape is a problem in our military. What to do about the problem?
You can find and sign the petition of Lance Corporal Nicole McCoy at Change.org, if you wish. I read some of the responses, mostly by women who seem to think they are signing a petition against rape. We might as well petition against war; it would do as much good. One book I am reading this week is The Last Full Measure: how soldiers die on the battlefield, by Michael Stephenson. This is not just a history of death on the battlefield, but also sometimes about the life of a soldier in war. He does not get into the topic of rape, but I note the book in this context, because Stephenson’s point is that war and military life, especially death, is far uglier, messier, than as it has been popularized. While men can be at their best in the military, it is not what we should expect of them. Not if we take history seriously.
In addition, in response to Carl Scott’s post on movies about Communism, I’ve been watching some, including A Woman in Berlin, which is based on a journal that might be described as a catalog of the rape of women in Berlin by the Russian Army in WWII. Elsewhere, I have read of the rape of the women of Germany by the Red Army as symbolic of the rape of that country by the communists. I’ll bet no woman being raped had that thought cross her mind at the time. In the film, the heroine of the story appeals to the commander of local forces to stop the rape; his response is to say that the soldiers of his army are all healthy. There is nothing to be done.
Most women find the impetus in men to rape a complete mystery. Apparently, some men find the impulse to objectify and subjugate women a mystery, as well, so that we can say rape is not always natural to men. Thank God. We might think that women in the military, trained in the arts of self-defense, would be better able to defend themselves from such subjugation. Nichole McCoy’s petition tells us that this is not true. Why do we have women in this position if the cited statistics are true? I can understand that our military has no effective process for addressing the problem of rape within the military, especially if it is endemic as indicated. Apparently, America is willing to accept this to have the great good of women in military service. For me, the goodness of that is another mystery.
July 11th, 2012 | 11:27 am
1.) Kate, it is brave of you to say what you say.
2.) Her witness is her witness, both to her rapes, and the idiotic response of officials to her calls for a registration. I’m generally not a petition-signer, but that’s one I might sign.
3.) Her 50% figure, taken from “some studies” is certainly too high. Unfortunate that the past bad estimates of “feminist” scholars make this an axiomatic assumption. Links to solid debates about the true statistic would also be welcome. But like you, I’m ready to believe that it a real problem in the present military.
4.) Like you, I think it is a reason to be against women in combat. I would stress that it is one reason among many others.
5.) Everyone who reads real history knows that the typical human pattern after a victorious siege is pillage and rapine. However, certain civilizations, especially that of the West, made a great deal of progress towards limiting and or even nearly eliminating that pattern. General Patton, for example, immersed as he was in the pagan war-literature of Plutarch, Livy, etc., would never have said what that Russian officer said. Our soldiers were healthy, were no angels, and yet did not generally rape.
6.) The Russians had been subjected, by 1945, to unprecedented waves of apostasy/nihilism-grounded “re-barbarism,” at the hands of WWI disasters, the starving “war communism” of 1918-1920, the civil war, the gradual spread of the Cheka-Gulag system into all life, and then Hitler’s war of extermination that required truly desperate fighting to repel. The average soldier must have felt that morals were for suckers, although the basic moral of revenge remained understood, and every Russian had reason to feel a desire it against the Germans. The officers of the Red Army, no doubt with Stalin’s blessing, gave the green light to the rapes in Soviet-occupied Germany.
The result: an unprecedented level of hate-motivated rape in modern history, perhaps even in all of history. NOT typical, and indeed a moral nadir moment for humanity. What I’ve read suggests that essentially every Berlin woman from 14 to 40 not well-hidden away was raped, typically repeatedly, in many cases hundreds of times. Few Sabine women in this story, and not a few of the victims wondered aloud whether it would not have been better to have just been killed. I.e., being conquered by pagans, Mongols, or cannibals, would have been better. Hundreds of female suicides. And this was followed by several-years of near-starvation, rubble-carting, and for those in the East, communist rule. And the raping soldiers themselves trudged back to Stalin’s prison-regime. Vengeance is not sweet.
7. Seriously, I’d hesitate to recommend such a film, or such a diary, to anyone. You’re going to be peering into human hell, and the devil will try to demoralize you with it for his purposes. But whatever the Berlin rapes can teach us about the depths of human depravity and degradation, I don’t think they provide much of guide to the perennial issue of rapes committed by soldiers.
July 11th, 2012 | 4:03 pm
I signed the petition, if only to affirm that rape is or ought to be an aberration. That is my point about the movie I mention and why I make the connection; in it, rape becomes something assumed and normal in the circumstances.
The point is made by more than one character that the Nazis did the same where they conquered. The point is also made that it might be a reason, but is not an excuse for the barbarity. Yes, those were two horrible and dehumanizing political systems.
Yes, Americans were different. That is why this petition frightens me, even if the statistics McCoy uses may be exaggerated. Who knows? The reference is not to 50% of men committing some sexual assault, but of women’s experiences. A small percentage of men can be repeat offenders. As well, the definitions of sexual imposition can vary widely and are not made precise in the petition. Any young woman who has ridden on public transport can tell you that you will only encounter a man behaving badly occasionally, but it is the rare woman who uses a bus or subway who has not encountered a creep at least once.
How awful if, in taking up the banner of gender equality, our military will decide that there are no distinctions. The implications and consequences of no distinctions may be this and I hope it gives young women pause before signing up for military service.
July 11th, 2012 | 9:08 pm
Kate, let me reiterate what Carl says, this is a BRAVE post.
I too find the 50% rape statistic improbable, but your comments about war and what the soldiers endure and the kind of conduct that emerges in the context of war (both noble and base conduct) to be credible.
Your comments regarding the issue of whether women should be in the military in this capacity in the first place, and the relationship of this policy to a larger social agenda of gender equality are powerful.
Regardless, if what your email interlocutor says is true about her own case, then it is a travesty of justice. But what will it matter if these offenders are registered as sex offenders when they return to civilian life? If the context of war matters, we need to keep that in mind as soldiers return to civilian life, even as there ought to be a way to hold what I would argue is a much smaller percentage of soldier/offenders accountable for their crimes. What such accountability (and punishment) is, I don’t know other than the brig. The return of soldiers (the overwhelming majority of whom I assume not to have committed heinous crimes) from war to civilian life is a big issue. On WWII soldiers returning to civilian life in ordinary America, see William Wyler’s movie The Best Years of Our Lives–which you’ve probably already seen.
The 50% number of female soldiers claiming to have been raped seems excessive and makes me wonder of the motives of this petition. Still, I’m glad you brought this issue to our attention, and if true it needs to be investigated.
Brian De Palma directed two movies about similar issues (see Casualties of War and Redacted) but these movies involved rapes of Vietnamese and Iraqi women in those respective wars. The movies were not about the rape of American women soldiers, but De Palma was lambasted as being anti-American for raising an issue in making such movies. Perhaps the critics were right in that these movies depicted the act of rape as metaphor. But in both movies the soldier’s return to civilian life and the lingering effects of the experience of war are key.
You sound like you are on more firm ground in your post than De Palma’s movies which were vaguely based on journalistic accounts. Nonetheless, this is obviously a touchy subject and you were brave to write about it.
July 11th, 2012 | 9:17 pm
Is this the sophisticated version of suck it up and move on?
Fosters, Australian for Beer…
Russian Army Rape in WWII… The real deal.
American Marine Rape, non-erotic, drunk, quasi-consensual mess that ends in a value question… since the most likely situation that led to the possibility of the rape, involved some derilliction of duty and almost certainly violations of General Order 1-Alpha… You are placed in a situation where you must decide. Do I care about the “emotional” premium, stigma that the legal structure and society (American exceptionalism) has traditionally placed upon rape, or is this just a blowhard public relations “good”, that could potentially have pragmatic effects above and beyond, any of the harm that has already befallen me by virtue of the rape?
In any case the DOD and the military do care about rape.
The military has more process for addressing the problem of rape, than any college campus does, I guarantee it.
Basically if you follow the process, you will never rape anyone, or be raped. Obviously Rape isn’t included in proffessional conduct, and proffesional conduct includes all the process for rape prevention.
In part because the military has so much process/technical activity, the problem of course is somewhat “blame the victim”, and in any case there is always the question of “shit rolling down hill”. So not only blame the victim, but blame his battle budy. It is just not the case that at least 4 or 5 people don’t know where you are at all times. So it is a definite NCO failure.
Plus “consensual” or even “quasi-consensual” sex occurs in seclusion, this usually involves lies to NCO and battle buddies (or collusion with) and sneaking around into restricted areas(curfew/time restricted not necessarily pure restricted), this in turn often will trigger responsibility for the folks on guard duty (why did they not witness this? why were they not being allert?)
Plus because “consensual sex” is far more common than “rape”, reporting a rape, risks ruinning “it” for everyone.
Of course remmember there are always political philosophy avenues that lie outside of the military legal system. If for example, women could be in combat, this would trigger the Hobbesian rule: “Everyone is equal, because you must sleep eventually”. Some marines might rape women because, they do not fear that these women will shoot them. (leaving the gate with live ammo.)
But it is important here to remmember medieval times, that is before firearms it was said that men could be killed with knives. No matter what base you are on, you can go to the PX and purchase a pretty mean Bowie knive.
Personally, I doubt any U.S. military rape is so onesided(without colorable consent, micromanagement/NCO level and GO1A violations) , that the Bowie knife to the groin combo isn’t an overeaction. And of course the U.S. army is not about to sanction such self-help. It is just not willing to invest that much blood violence in proping up the moral branding of “rape”. Indeed a good deal of rape prevention policy is to prevent Hobesian action/equality, to replace it with process and maintain in the state of war, a state of civil society and social contract.
July 12th, 2012 | 10:27 am
“The average soldier must have felt that morals were for suckers, although the basic moral of revenge remained understood, and every Russian had reason to feel a desire it against the Germans. ”
I am sure the women the Red Army found in POLAND found that comforting.
July 12th, 2012 | 10:32 am
“Most women find the impetus in men to rape a complete mystery”
The impetus to rape rather then woo is the same as the impetus to steal rather then purchase. Sloth and the desire to get ones desire without cost. All it takes is lack of empathy, principal, and consequences.
July 12th, 2012 | 10:37 am
“What such accountability (and punishment) is, I don’t know other than the brig. ”
Which would of course punish offenders by getting them away from the front.
Perhaps our ancestors with their ostentatious hangings had the right idea.
July 12th, 2012 | 8:51 pm
I am not a scholar or an intelligent person in the least bit. With that said I would like to point out that if you are going to criticize someone’s cause, or their reasoning, you should at least have the courtesy to get their name right. It’s clearly printed in her email as Nicole McCoy. All the brilliant comments on here are very well written and thought out, however, the college degrees needed to have this level of intelligence are just an expensive piece of paper if you can’t read, remember, then retype a name as simple as Nicole McCoy.
July 13th, 2012 | 5:23 am
A typo at the end of my piece, my last paragraph, is repeated once, by me. It is only my error, not made by anyone else who commented. I’ll fix it. Clearly, Ms. McCoy is not the real topic. The rape or sexual assault of women who are serving as an indication that women ought not to be in the military is.
July 13th, 2012 | 6:42 am
I’d like to think I have courage, but this is not an expression of that.
I agree with John Lewis that there are all sorts of rules and regulations meant to prevent rape and sexual assault in the military. I know, I’ve heard, and yet…. As noted in the McCoy petition, assaults are not usually reported. Isn’t it better for your career if you keep quiet? The Armed Services of the USA doesn’t have time for personal problems. It really doesn’t.
I began thinking about consequences. What about pregnancy? Do we assume that all women in service take birth control pills all the time? Googling around, it’s a big deal. Here’s one study of many on unintended pregnancy among women in the military. Why this one? It has numbers in the abstract and the numbers are conservative compared to some other studies I’m looking at.
I love the distinction of intended/unintended pregnancies, as it is a distinction without a difference to the unborn child, but is a matter of its life or death for it as far as a woman is concerned in relation to the abortion question. However, forget morality or any human factor like emotions. What’s the economic cost of over 10% of women in military service being pregnant in a given year? Medical costs? Time lost from service? Are all the men perfectly healthy? Even the abortions cost something and since 2008, those are given at public expense.
The more I look at this the more upsetting I find it. Why are we doing this?
July 13th, 2012 | 8:54 am
I am a female veteran that served two tours as a Army combat engineer in Iraq. I worked with Iraqi citizens outside the base on a regular basis, but I never felt so threatened as the night I was attacked in my own LSA by a male Soldier. I got away, but so did he. I could not identify him (he was from another unit) and I can only pray that he didn’t go on to rape someone who was weaker than myself.
The idea that I served honorably and never harmed one of my fellow Soldiers, yet got the same Honorable Discharge as a rapist, traitor and criminal, is appalling. He attacked one of OUR SOLDIERS. How can you say he should not be punished, just because his victim was female?
Soldiers commit crimes against other Soldiers and those individuals should be held accountable for their actions. My brother, a Marine, was robbed by a supposed brother-in-arms. Though not a violent crime, this underscores the fact that crime between Soldiers will always exist, regardless of the gender of the criminal and victim, and should be not only discouraged but prosecuted.
Also, DADT did NOT prevent gays from being in the military (at 17, some join without even realizing they are gay) and I’m sure you’d have a different opinion if a MALE was raped. It is not the Soldier’s fault she’s female. Blaming the victim for something she was born with, or not allowing her to serve her country, is just not a solution. In addition, Soldiers are required to interact professionally with DOD civilians, local national civilians, third-country nationals and expats working on the bases, and many other females throughout the course of their careers. To justify them acting like animals is to say that they are incapable of completing their missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I refuse to believe that our men & women in uniform are incapable of accomplishing ANYTHING.
Female Soldiers are important because of the skills they bring to an all-volunteer Army (I tutored my male peers in engineer school) and for special tasks such as searching and communicating with female local nationals. It is the duty of their male counterparts to treat female Soldiers with respect. That is one of the Army values.
If knowing that he will be held accountable for what he does prevents even ONE Soldier from committing rape, it is worth an extra check box on some paperwork.
As a conservative, and (I assume) a supporter of your nation’s military, I hope that you realize how critical resolving this problem is to the efficient and effective functioning of our armed forces.
Thank you for using your site to raise this important issue. I respectfully request that you email me to let me know if my comment has passed moderation standards.
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