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Service
 Women's
Action
Network
(SWAN)



P.O.
Box
1758
New
York,
NY
10156‐1758

www.servicewomen.org


212‐683‐0015
x324
(phone)

The Defense STRONG Act Remarks


Anuradha K. Bhagwati, Service Women’s Action Network Executive Director
April 13th 2011

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Anu Bhagwati. I am a former Marine
Captain, and the Executive Director of Service Women’s Action Network, a national
advocacy organization that is devoted to transforming military culture by securing equal
opportunity and the freedom to serve in uniform without threat of harassment, discrimination,
intimidation or assault. It is my privilege to be here to support the introduction of the Defense
STRONG Act.

On our helpline last year, we got a crisis call from a young Marine named Nicole, who had
recently been raped. Nicole’s perpetrator had drugged her, and she woke up in the middle of
her attack, horrified. She had only been a Marine for a few months. What she had to endure
after the rape was in many ways worse than the rape itself. Her perpetrator was a Marine
located on the same base as she was, and she was terrified to talk to anyone about the event
for fear of retaliation. Her roommates taunted her because of her mood swings, and her unit
punished her for her deteriorating performance. What she didn’t know at the time was that
she was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Eventually, Nicole decided to report
the rape. Things only got worse for Nicole after that, and in fact, today, she regrets having
come forward.

By DoD policy, Nicole was assigned a Victim Advocate after she filed her report.
Unfortunately, her advocate was insensitive to the rape, failed to support her, and
retraumatized her. After enormous pressure from her unit, including accusations from her
chain of command that she was causing trouble, Nicole attempted suicide. With the help of
experienced civilian attorneys, we were able to eventually get Nicole out of the military, to
the safety of her home and family. Even though she had rated a promotion to Lance Corporal,
Nicole was refused that promotion because she was punished for so persistently seeking
support and justice for her rape. She was discharged at age 20 at the rank of Private First
Class.

Nicole’s experience mirrors that of thousands of women and men who are physically tortured
and psychologically brutalized by their fellow servicemembers each year, and then punished
again by insensitive or negligent commanders and enlisted leadership, or by inappropriate

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and unqualified Victim Advocates, chaplains, criminal investigators, law enforcement and
other first responders. According to DoD, the vast majority of sexual assault victims are
junior enlisted, just like Nicole. An estimated 19,000 servicemembers were sexually
assaulted just last year. Most of them have barely a few months or years in service. With
such junior rank, they are given few privileges, and barely any freedom of movement to flee
their perpetrators, to seek help when they need it most, or to leave the units or bases where
they are being brutalized. In a system that is entirely built on rank and intimidation, it is no
wonder that survivors do not come forward more often about the most brutal, intimate and
horrifying experience of their lives. In fact, according to DoD, only 13.5% of survivors made
official reports last year.

Survivors experience multiple forms of institutional betrayal after their initial rape, assault, or
harassment. We betray them first by promising that in this brotherhood, all servicemembers
will treat them like family. We betray them again when we assign them victim advocates
who are uncommitted to helping them. We betray them again when we refuse them requests
for transfers out of the units where their perpetrators continue to threaten them. We betray
them again when we leave them alone to fend for themselves during mortifying
investigations and courts-martial, without an attorney of their own to assist and guide them.
And we betray them again when we kick them to the curb as veterans, without the proper
documentation or support to substantiate their VA disability claims for PTSD or depression.

The STRONG Act fixes many of these institutional failures. When so few have defended our
nation’s finest during their darkest hour, I applaud Representatives Tsongas and Turner for
demonstrating enormous leadership.

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