'Blind loyalty'

The culture within the military often allows sexual harassment and assault to continue. While soldiers do not have to report incidents of unwanted sexual contact through the chain of command, they often feel pressure to. 

Military commanders, who currently decide what happens with reports, have historically failed to follow through with investigations, making it difficult for survivors to speak out or get justice, said Col. Don Christensen, a retired chief Air Force prosecutor who is president of Protect Our Defenders, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing rape and sexual assault in the military. 

Christensen said there is generally a culture of disbelief when it comes to allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault.  

“The military very much values being a team and loyalty, and they misplace loyalty,” Christensen said. “When it comes to loyalty, they have a blind loyalty that makes them incapable of judging their fellow teammates when they fail to meet standards. They value loyalty over the truth.” 

In fiscal year 2021, about 1 in 5 service members reported sexual assault to a department authority. This estimate is down from the 1-in-3 reporting rate in fiscal years 2016 and 2018, according to the latest Department of Defense report on sexual assault in the military.  

Reasons for not reporting sexual assault were similar for men and women. The top two reasons: Thinking it was not serious enough to report and thinking no action would be taken. And 47% of women said they did not report because they were worried about potential negative consequences from coworkers or peers. 

Currently, commanders decide how cases of sexual assault are handled. But this is set to change. For offenses that occur after Dec. 27, 2023, survivors of sexual assault will be assigned an independent military prosecutor outside of their chain of command and the alleged assailant’s chain of command.

These prosecutors, known as special trial counsels, will decide whether to prosecute such cases. 

Sexual harassment recently became an offense that will also be taken out of the chain of command, but this will not go into effect until Jan. 1 of 2025.

“The chain of command – which favors discipline, favors unit cohesion – doesn't have the same vested interest in bringing to trial one of their own for a crime of sexual assault in the manner that a trained professional lawyer would have,” said Joshua Kastenberg, a professor of law at the University of New Mexico and historian of military justice. 

Efforts to reform the military justice system have been happening for over a century. At the end of World War l, there was a debate in Congress and in the military over the nature of military justice, specifically concerning how to regulate command authority. 

But significant changes did not take place until the last decade when former U.S. Representative Jackie Speier and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand started working toward such reforms. 

“People are our greatest strength and our most valuable asset. The Department’s leadership is committed to staying laser-focused on this issue…” Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman, Defense Department spokesperson, said in an email.

The bipartisan legislation passed in December 2021 said special trial counsels would also handle accusations of domestic violence, stalking, murder, manslaughter, kidnapping and other special victim offenses.

Careers cut short

The inability to report what happened forces survivors of military sexual trauma to harbor their feelings. Their emotions come out in other ways: fights, aggressive behavior, isolation, excessive drinking. Oftentimes, these actions can lead to a less than honorable discharge for survivors of military sexual trauma. 

“All of a sudden you have somebody who is constantly on the defense,” Gattas said. 

A 124-page report by Human Rights Watch found many survivors of military sexual assault were given “other than honorable” discharges for misconduct related to the assault. 

This type of discharge means survivors can’t get help from the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system and are shut out from a broad range of educational and financial assistance. 

While many survivors struggle to continue performing at the same level before experiencing military sexual trauma, “lack of understanding from leadership” makes the issue worse, said Christensen.

Many survivors cut their careers short by choice. In a Rand Corp. study on the effects of sexual assault and sexual harassment on separation from the U.S. military, researchers found exposure to sexual assault doubled the odds that a member would separate from the military within the following 28 months. 

“When you think about how long this has been happening, and to whom, and the people in the position to do something about it don't do anything about it, the perpetrators then think it's OK,” Gattas said. “This creates this vicious cycle of people that believe, ‘We can do this, and we'll get away with it because we're only getting a slap on the hand.’ But our lives are forever changed.”