Each year the Pentagon receives an increase in its annual budget. Facts prove that approximately 50 percent goes to waste. If you doubt this, do a little research. There are warehouses filled with Bradley Tanks gathering dust, and they continue to be manufactured. Across the nation there are hundreds of millions of rounds of obsolete ammunition also stored in warehouses. Most of the new weapons under contract fail final testing and are never mass-produced at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on research and development. There are many more examples of how the Military Brass fails America, but this is not the only ‘dirty little secret’ they hide from the American people.

All too often acts of sexual assault in the military go unreported by the victims. Female soldiers fear being passed-over for promotion or retaliation from their fellow soldiers if they accuse another member of the military for rape or sexual abuse. This is exacerbated by the fact that it is usually a male commanding officer who controls the final outcome of a biased process.

These situations are not exclusive to members of the military currently serving around the world. They also apply to our military academies.

In the last two years reports of sexual assault in all academies have increased by 50 percent. In 2016 the number was listed as 507. In 2018 it rose to 747.

The estimates emerged from data gleaned from an anonymous survey of cadets and midshipmen at the U.S. Military Academy, Naval Academy, and Air Force Academy. The surveys revealed that 15.8 percent of all female cadets and midshipmen experienced “unwanted sexual contact” in 2018 (up from 12.2 percent in 2016), as did 2.4 percent of men (up from 1.7 percent in 2016).

Is it possible that part of this sad fact is that the Commander-in-Chief of the military is a self-admitted sexual predator?

A situation shared by all higher learning institutions is the fact that for every filed complaint an estimated two additional cases go unreported. Women are all too often considered accomplices in cases of sexual assault.

Isn’t it reasonable to expect the military use some of the nearly 700 billion-dollars they are receiving in 2019 to hold training classes informing all members of the military about the severity and long-lasting effects of sexual assault, and spend more time and money investigating such accusations, while establishing more severe punishment for these crimes?

A final fact. What happens in the military is closely aligned with what occurs across the United States. Crimes involving sexual contact including domestic violence often go unreported; the estimated number is shocking. Law enforcement estimates that at least 63 percent of all sexual assaults never the desk of a member of law enforcement.

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The Truth Lives Here

Op-ed by this “Wise Old Fart,” James Turnage

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Photo courtesy of Public Affairs Office Fort Wainwright

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