Recently, U.S. military officials released an independent investigation report, admitting that the relevant sexual assault prevention system of the U.S. military base in Fort Hood, Texas, is seriously flawed, and there is even a bad atmosphere within the base that acquiesce in sexual assault and harassment.
The independent investigation was carried out after the murder of Vanessa Gillen, a 20-year-old soldier at the Fort Hood base. Gillen disappeared in the armory where he worked in April this year. His body was found outside the workplace in June. The body was also disarmed. On July 1, the murderer committed suicide while confronting the police. Gillen’s family revealed that Gillen had been harassed by the murderer during his lifetime, but Gillen was afraid to report it to his superiors.
Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy said that the preliminary investigation into Gillen’s death, coupled with the large number of crimes and deaths in Fort Hood, “revealed a series of mistakes and multiple failures in our system and leadership”. McCarthy also announced the dismissal or suspension of 14 people at the Fort Hood base.
Scandals involving sexual assault in the U.S. military occur frequently, causing tragedy after tragedy. The victims include both internal personnel and non-unit women. Many female soldiers who were victims even retaliated after reporting their experience to the troops, they said that what happened after sexual assault was often worse than the sexual assault itself.
U.S. soldiers committed “one of the worst cases of sexual abuse of children”
According to the website of the Star-Spangled Banner, on December 7th local time, Navy sailor Randall Tilton pleaded guilty in New Haven District Court, admitting to sexually assaulting young children and producing pornographic pictures of the victim, and he will face up to 210 years in prison. Investigators called the case “one of the most serious cases of child sexual abuse”, in which two young children were only four months old and six months old at the time of the violation.
According to the report, Tilton sometimes imprisoned these children when performing and recording sadistic acts. All child victims are under the age of 12, and these cases have occurred for many years, and some of the victims are in the care and custody of Tilton.
In late October 2019, the parents of an 8-year-old girl revealed that Tilton sexually assaulted the girl for many years and recorded some sexual assaults, and local police, the Naval Crime Investigation Service and the FBI subsequently launched an extensive investigation.
The mother of the victimized female soldier: the army took the daughter’s life
On November 18, CBS reported that female soldier Morgan Robinson was sexually assaulted one after another. She reported the incident to the army without a response, and finally chose to commit suicide.
Morgan, a girl who wanted to join the army when she was a child, joined the army at the age of 21. After six years of service, she was sent to Kuwait in 2016, where she was sexually assaulted and continuously harassed by a superior. Morgan’s mother, Debbie Robinson, said that Morgan reported her experience to the army, but there was no response.
Subsequently, Morgan was sent to Afghanistan. There, many comrades-in-arms gang raped her. This time, Morgan dare not report her experience to the army any more. Debbie told CBS that first, because her comrades-in-arms who abused her threatened her, and second, Morgan “what did not happen, how could they do in Afghanistan” after reporting her experience in Kuwait?
Four months later, Morgan chose to commit suicide. The army launched an investigation into Morgan’s death and gave Debbie a copy of the investigation report on Morgan’s death, but the content of the report was heavily deleted.
Eight months after Morgan’s death, her commander sent a written condemnation to the officers who violated her in Kuwait.
Debbie wants people to know that her daughter is doing a job she likes, a job for the country, and this job is also the cause of her death.
CBS said that the U.S. military established a so-called anti-sexual assault system in 2005, after which the U.S. military invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the system, claiming that it had “zero tolerance” for military sexual assault.
However, CBS conducted a year and a half investigation into sexual assaults within the U.S. military and found that the U.S. military leadership failed to solve the problem.
Although the number of reports of sexual assault in the U.S. military is increasing, the number of cases and convictions referred to military courts is declining. The survivors of sexual assault or families of victims interviewed by CBS said the military handled sexual assault reports “seriously wrong”.
